Mick Reeves 1/3rd Scale Pup

[Jez Harris 1]

Hi all,

I havent done a build log on this site so bear with me..

This model will be completed by July with it going on display at a local grammer school's WW1 museum display, before returning to me after 18 months to be flown with the rest of the Dawn Patrol team.

I started this in late December so the start of the thread will be a catch up of progress so far.

Jez

First off - what do you get for your £625?

Initially I though this was a bit steep for a traditional kit, but on opening the boxes you get..

5 lovely sheets of plans

Loads of scale stuff included on the plans

Cowling

Pair of wheels.

Coils of flat scale rigging wire

Dummy engine kit and a Vickers gun kit

[Jez Harris 1]

All required brackets are supplied in pre-cut stainless steel

Bags and bags of nuts, screws, bolts and all other fixings required - no having to make repeated visits to the model shop!!

Even silver solder and flux powder is supplied for the copious amount of metalwork required with this build.

Some of the screws supplied for the detailling later are seriously small..

Even the various bits of brass tubing are suppied ready cut to length

[Jez Harris 1]

The undercarriage is a serious bit of metalwork. No bent wire clad in wood here..

Just several lengths of stainless steel and some other lengths of steel - I'm not the greatest metal basher so a bit of skill development will be going on I fear..

Finally - Some wood!!

Here are just some of the supplied ribs - scale section and wonderfully detailled. The laser cutting is absolutely brilliant - no chopping through big voids here.

More ribbage

A couple of formers to give a taste. Supplied as 1/8th ply they need laminating in pairs.

More formers - again ply

Even the spar webbing is supplied pre cut - different depths and even different lengths to fit the various rib spacings - all in 1/64th ply

Plenty of gussets to re-inforce and strengthen the structure.

Finally - a bit of balsa - not much of it in this kit though..

[Tony Bennett]

looks to be an interesting project sir.

i will be watching with great interest.

[Jez Harris 1]

Lithoplate, tin sheet and plastic sheet are supplied  for the various hatches, covers etc. You also get clear acrylic for inspection windows over the various pulleys

Waterslide decals for the fin

Pre-cut cockpit surrround

I bought the additional deluxe cockpit kit - a pre stained panel, instrument bezels and some great brass details.

Hopefully his will get it to this level which can then be tweaked further.

Edited By Jez Harris 1 on 07/02/2014 19:58:15

[Jez Harris 1]

The final bits in box number 1 are the spars

I was amazed to see that the spars are supplied pre-cut ready for splicing.

Just had to see how accurate these cuts are...pretty spot on!!! I'm pretty cr&p at getting splints spot on so this is a bonus!

The instruction booklet - the only bit I'm disappointed with - many of the oics are for the 1/4 scale which has a differnent structure and build and lots of the pics are too dark. A CD would have been better.

To be fair though - the info on the plans should cover most of the build.

[Tony F]

Wow stunning Jez , my ford focus didn't cost that much !!! Watching with huge interest. Subscribed.

Tony

[Jez Harris 1]

Box number 2 ..

Lots of stock 36" timber and a few extra bits..

The trailing and leading edges are not made of wood.

The leading edges are fibreglass rod, whilst the trailing edges of the wings are all piano wire.

The rudder, elevators and fin are almost entirely built from metal too,

I'm really impressed with the kit contents - nothing damaged and all aprts really well packed. As mentioned before the laser cutting is brilliant.

I had one tiny issue where the dash kit I ordered was supplied with the wrong panel - a simple phone call and a new one was recieved the next day.

Glueing starts tomorrow!

Jez

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Looking forward to following this Jez.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

that's some box of stuff Jez

I reckon you'll have a big audience for this one

it looks a quality kit

[cymaz]

What's the cowl diameter? Would a radial fit?

[Danny Fenton]

Looking forward to seeing this one come together, short timescale there Jez, this doesn't look like it will be a quick build?

Cheers

Danny

[Colin Leighfield]

I've never seen the detail of one of these kits before, that's seriously good stuff. For the small production runs that these must represent, there's no way of doing that on the cheap.

[Jez Harris 1]

Thanks for the comments guys..

I will measure the cowl later - the model will have a geared 38 zenoah in it - one they sound amazing and 2 they allow you to use a scale prop at 38 x 12.

Bench tidied and out with the sticky stuff..

First build 2 side frames so out with the epoxy and clamps

I use 1/4 square aluminium to clamp the longerons together whilst they dry. At the same time I have laminated the firewall and some formers. They are weighted down under car and alarm batteries to keep them flat.

Whilst they dry for a few hours, here is one of the best Pup reference books around - Air Britains Sopwith Pup - not just chock full of reference materal but it gives the story of te pup from conception to de-commision.

Lots of colour schemes - not sure how this will be done - the museum are still to decide - its part of a school so we are currently looking at some old boys who flew for the RFC, so possibly one of those.

OK - I got bored of waiting for glue to dry so I went hunting for "shiny things" to do whilst waiting..

Jez

[cymaz]

Great introduction to the build Jez

[cymaz]

I have a Zenoah G38, nice motors (except mine has an air leak on the carb ATM because of old gaskets)- you'll need the lump of an engine for COG. Will the G38 have magneto or electronic ignition?

[Jez Harris 1]

And the first thing that stopped me was the dash kit..

Now I get a bit haphazard with my builds sometimes - I'm easily distracted so often I end up making lots of little sub-assemblies that later get joined up, rather than a strictly sequential build..I'm over it though..

The first thing o do is paint the inside of the holes black where the dials fit or they wont look right.

Sorted...turned out easier to use a black permanent marker pen.

The dials are printed out on paper which are cut out oversize and dont need any careful cutting out.

The 'glass' is acetate sheet - you can get loads of this from the sort of packaging that christmas presents come in

So - picture behind, acetate in front, and then some of the brass trim supplied in the kit - no need to glue anything - the tiny screws shown earlier hold it together - I know they are phillips and they werent invented til 1935 but maybe a dab of solder later and a cut with a saw will put that right.

A tiny dab of white wood glue then holds an inner bezel in place.

[cymaz]

Have you got a pilot yet?? Don't worry about being haphazard with the build - it's all got to be glued sooner or later

[Jez Harris 1]

Next up - the compass.

The body is a piece of vac moulding - all the other bitsa re wood and plastic.

A lot of the compass build involves those tiny weenie screws - to stop them pinging across the workshop I stuck a magnet on the shaft of the screwdriver.

Back plate and support bracket..

2 ply brackets run through the body - the scrap of balsa just helped line it all up and stops them moving as the glue dried.

One part that I didnt like was the oil pulsator - it looked to much like a torch bulb in a bracket..

So out with the christmas decorations - pinch a clear bulb, round the top down and add a bit of brass paint and metal bracketry.

I'm happy with the finished panel - the piping is just copper wire stripped from the really thick wire used for house wiring.

Jez

[Jez Harris 1]

The panel took about 4 hours to do by which time the longerons were handleable..The kit instructions tell you to strengthen the joints with cotton bandages soaked in cyano. Worried this would be too lumpy, I went with glasscloth on jut 3 sides - this will stop unsightly buldges in the wrong places.

The top and bottom longerons are only 1/4 sq so to strengthen key areas around the front, an additional piece of spruce is added from the firewall to the back of the cockpit. The top is easy as its a straight run

The bottom was more awkward due to the curve - the trick is the put the first piece in place and allow it to dry before adding the second.

One side completed - the first few uprights are spruce, the rest balsa. I used titebond glue throughout as I find that rying to glue spruce with cyano results in a joint that works really well or just falls apart.

I let that lot dry then built the other side directly on top of the first with a piece of clingfilm between them to stop them sticking together.

[Jez Harris 1]

Next I spent several hours creating a pile of these..

I then threw most of them in the bin, holding some back for glue spreading and other jobs.. Still, it left me with these though..Superbly cut, super quality and dead flat..No "Puppeteer" ribs here!

I had all these ready for the next bit too..

And the second frame fully finished..

Next job is to ft a stub wing onto the side of the fus - the wings will eventually fir to these via dowels. The plans seemingly show bigger ones than I had - approx 1/8th inch bigger in fact. The arrows show how my bits fit inside the drawings.

A bit of head scratching and a sticky bun soon had me realise that this rib is the same size as every other rib. They all eventually get a cap strip added so I just went ahead and fitted capping to these too. to bring the size back up.

[Jez Harris 1]

I had been toying with the idea of completely bracing the fus with wires, but as I'm up aginst it time wise, and most of them would never be seen, I decided o fit wires where they are visible, and use balsa everywhere else.

To stop the covering sticking to the balsa bracing, I fitted the balsa braces below the level of the main side frames.

Remember those little scraps I saved from the ribs?.....

I really enjoy the challenge of getting all cuts as accurate as possible. I generally cut everything a smidge long and sand it back to the right size/angle using a sanding block set at 90 degrees to the board. It works for me and looks really tidy, but more importantly - its STRONG.

For the bracing wires, whilst I would love to have the ability to use a lathe like some of the magicians on here and the scale forums...I dont! I have to rely on smoke and mirrors - illusions of scale if you like.

To this end I raided my spares boxes and came up with some old 2mm closed loop adaptors - a quick drill and tap and I achieved this- a bit of black paint will see it right!

Where the other end of the wire wont be seen, I simply drill the longeron, pull the bracing tightly through and peg in place with a cocktail stick

So with a bit of solartex stitched in place as an anti chaffing pad, I think it looks "right"

A bit more work resulted in finished side frames ready for joining together.

Jez

[Jez Harris 1]

Its the little buts that show the thought that Mick and Co have put into the kit.

You get loads of these 1/32 ply pieces

They are used to strengthen the fus joints

A variety of joints get different treatment - corners get nice gussets

Internal joints get tightly fitting doublers

And more simple joints get scale braces that look like the joining plates on a full size.

So in a reasonable amount of time you end up with a really strong fus.

Dead straight too!!

[Tony Bennett]

thats a nice looking kit and build.

but way out of my price range though.

looking forward to seeing your progress

[Masher]

Fantastic build, watching with great interest as I have an un-started DB 1/4 Pup to do as my first go at scale.

Tony - this kit is actually dirt cheap because I bet there are going to be more than 600 followers on here each getting more than a quid's worth of pleasure!