Greyhead

I had the comment made to me that it was a pity to “spoil” the covering by having to use patches. Well just have a look at this photo of the Shuttleworth SE5a.



This is an aircraft that doesn’t fly that often, is lovingly maintained and certainly doesn’t have to take the sort of punishment handed out on a WW1 airfield.

Bunkerbarge

It continues to be a breathtaking model Grahame, I am completely with you on the weathering. I try to make a model look like a reduced version of the real thing so I strive to make it look as realistic as possible by careful weathering, which, like you, I really enjoy doing.

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“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"

wonwinglo

The inspection patches were instigated by the CAA several years ago,like the De Havilland Tiger Moth's in service today the CAA stipulated that over 100 doped inspection patches needed to applied at strategic points along the wings,these serve to keep a constant check on internal structure integrity,inspection of the control runs and general condition,this scenerio was started when a former crop spraying Tiger Moth broke up in flight during aerobatics in Australia,that particular aircraft had been subjected to agricultural chemicals that affected the integrity of the airframe,and so as always happens everyone owning old biplanes has suffered since.
Standard S.E.5A aircraft in service during WW.1 were considered expendable,and as such had very little airframe inspections,most did not last that long anyway ? as such their wings were just patched us as required,but they did not have set inspection patches like the Shuttleworth example which has to meet modern airworthiness requirements.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Greyhead

Thanks for that info Barry, another insight into the history of the SE5a. I’d assumed that the patches must be for some sort of inspection because of their regularity; of course the Shuttleworth example is subject to modern day peacetime airworthiness regulations, a lot more rigorous than WW1 requirements!

The point I was trying to make was that patches on fabric-covered airframes are / were very common and don’t in fact “spoil” the covering. Of course I don’t know how many or where any patches may have been at any given time on SE5a E5808, but then again nor does anyone else so they can’t say it’s wrong.

wonwinglo

A bit more information on fabric aircraft patches,they are called 'Woods frames' these consist of a celluloid disc or square disc,to use you merely dope the frame straight onto the fabric,allow to dry then with a knife cut into the frame leaving the inspection hole,then a doped piece of fabric is placed over the hole with suitable overlap,on inspection the fabric is ripped off,the inspector then uses a small mirror and torch to look internally and sign the work off,then new patches are applied,and hopefully the paintwork touched up,usually it looks a bit untidy as you never get a perfect match,but anyway for anyone wondering what they are all about that is the way it works

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Greyhead

The painting of the fuselage is now finished; the individual pieces were painted separately then fitted in place ready for weathering, this will ensure that the weathering “flows” from panel to panel in a natural way.



I need to leave it for a while to let the paint really harden off before I start wearing it away with a pan scourerer, that’ll really show up the rivets and panel edges etc. Only when I’m happy with that stage will I start to “dirty” it up a bit.

Here’s a better shot of the control rod for the radiator slats.



There’s lots of “damage” to the lower part of the front panel, which will eventually be very heavily weathered with chipped and worn paint.

Greyhead

“Dirtying up” the fuselage has been a bit of a hit and miss affair; with the PC10 being very dark it’s hard to tell where the very thin black paint has been applied and how much it may have built up in places, until it’s actually dry that is and by then of course it’s too late to do any corrective work if there’s too much build up of paint.



The finished effect needs to be quite subtle and I’m not happy with the front section, that is in front of the oil cover, so this area will be repainted with PC10 and the process repeated. The other side has worked out OK.



As far as the wings and tail plane are concerned the parts to concentrate on are the areas behind the hinges and the leading edges, but once again the effect is quite subtle. The colour of the paint in the photos varies depending on how the light falls on it, but this is not as noticeable in “real life”.



The roundels on the top wings also need careful attention; the stitching really picks up the “dirt” and the area behind the hinge, which is hidden by the aileron gap cover, shows up a lot more than on the PC10.



I can assure you that the roundels are round; it’s just the way it looks in the photo!

Another photo showing how the dirt picks out the stitching.

Bunkerbarge

A really nice sympathetic weathering job Grahame. Beautifully done and combined with your attention to detail and the use of appropriate materials is going to make for a model that is going to be as near to a perfrect miniature replica as you are ever likely to see.

Seeing the landing struts in your latest shots reminds me of the first few shots you took when you first started this model and how it has now all started to really come together.

__________________

“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"

tag

Grahame can I ask another silly question about the colour of your plane as it looks very dark I thought WW1 aircraft where brightly coloured or did that change as the war progressed or where the bright schemes propaganda

AMAZING work mate

Greyhead

Richard, it seems a long time ago that I was working on producing a nicely stained undercarriage and to some it may seem like sacrilege, but this is what it looks like now!



As for the colours, it was really the Germans who went for the “flashy” paint schemes and very nice models they make too, perhaps the British were / are too reserved. In the photo of the Shuttleworth SE5a you can see how dark the PC10 is, this is a latter variation, some of the earlier ones were a lot lighter, but whatever base colour was used the red wheel covers are about as far as they usually went, although there are one or two examples of fairly bright “nose art”.

Of course as I’ve said on several occasions, PC10 was not a colour as such; it was the 10th variation of Protective Coating and consisted of several layers of clear dope, undercoats, etc., etc.