Begining Wings Fuselage Radio Gear Installing_Engine Covering/Painting/Detail Flying
This
page is under construction so if your building a Sopwith Pup keep tabs and it
will update as I progress on constructing my Balsa USA third scale Sopwith Pup
which should be flying summer 2005.. This isnt meant to replace the instructions
but a pictorial reference how 'we' did it, so you use it at your own risk. Hopefully
it will prove useful to anyone else building the 1/3 scale Pup.
Sopwith Pup History:
The Sopwith Pup was produced by Thomas Sopwith and his Sopwith Aviation Company
in 1916. The design was based on the personal plane of the company's test pilot,
Harry Hawker. The Pup was fast and easy to handle and the Admiralty ordered
it for the Royal Navy Air Service.
The Sopwith Pup arrived on the Western Front in September 1916 and performed well against the leading German fighter at the time, the Albatros D-III. The Sopwith Pup remained in service until late 1917.
I really like World War 1 models and seeing my friends Ian's 1/3 scale (108" wingspan) Balsa USA Sopwith Pup (pic above ) I liked it at once. Ian mentioned that his dad was building the same kit . The thought of two 108" pups flying in formation sounded great. In conversation it came up that three pups flying together would be even better.
Somehow my credit card jumped out of my wallet. Sprouted little arms and legs
and ran to the phone. Before I could stop it the little Visa had dialed and
ordered the kit for the Balsa USA pup. I didnt think my wife would believe this
story, but it was worth a try.
A minor glitch was that I have never built any thing other than ARTF kits and
Balsa USA state quite clearly 'This kit is not for a beginner!'
Also I didnt have any where to build it either. Fortunately Ian said I could use his workshop and 'We' would build it in sessions of one evening a week. The 'We' bit being I would essentially drink beer and hopefully learn whilst Ian built it. It was a tough job but someone had to do it!.
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Two boxes marked 'Sopwith Pup'  |
Two boxs marked 'Sopwith Pup' arrived, a long white one and a squat brown one.. We opened the long white box, which was a box of wood! I tried to look knowledgeably at the instructions - almost no pics and none in colour. Yeps this kit was well beyond me ! Fortunately Ian wasnt bothered and began getting the bits he wanted. I helped by drinking a can of beer. We were to begin by laminating several parts, essentially making a sandwich of wood - a part in lite ply sandwiched with glue between 2 identical parts in balsa. Ian located the appropriate sheets of die cut wood to remove the parts required for laminating |
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We laid out the plan of the fusalage (Marked Sheet 1 of 7) on the work bench. Ian then laid clear plastic sheeting over the top. I opened another beer which frothed over but fortunately just fell on the plastic. I asked Ian what the plastic was for ? He said it stopped things like glue and beer sticking
to the plan.! |
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We then hammered dress making pins to secure Balsa parts in position
on the plan for rudder and fin,
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Ian now glued each joint of the blasa parts pinned to plan with thin C.A. (superglue). We made sure we DID NOT glue the 'apparent' join of the fin to rudder. Then carefully removed each pin with pliers, holding down part with thumb or finger whilst doing so. We then offered the lite ply equivalents to the balsa parts we had just glued to check match, cut and trimmed if necessary. We pre-glued the lite play with medium C.A. and sprayed the balsa part with C.A. activator then pressed parts together on board to keep flat..
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Glue joins with thin CA
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Pre-glue lite ply with medium CA
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Spray balsa part with activator
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Press and hold together for a few secs We followed same with final balsa parts glueing to lite ply to make our lamination of lite ply sandwiched between balsa to complete our fin and rudder parts. |
In the rudder parts newly laminated we drilled a hole at 45 degrees thru each join. Then inserted a cocktail stick and glued with thin CA before cutting and sanding cocktail stick flush with part. This reinforces join.
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We then moved on to the Stabilizer tips and wing tip corners for laminating. We removed the parts from the die cut sheets. (triangular bits are the wing tip corners) and laminated as with the fin and rudder parts. Medium CA on lite ply applying activator to balsa and pressing together.
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Books on Model Flying
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Parts
for laminating - Stabilizer tips (elevator bits), wing corners, rudder
and fin outline. (The fin is the upright bit that the rudder attaches
too).
On
removing the individual parts from the sheets (trimming/sanding as necessary)
we identified them by laying on the plan. As per rudder and fin shown
on right.
