12 June 2026.
Why did I decide to enter this contest? I have no idea. At my age, I should be sitting on my veranda sipping coffee, reading the newspaper, and enjoying my retirement.
Maybe it is because I am a modeller. I love building kits; it is therapeutic and keeps my 70-year-old mind and fingers nimble.
Maybe it is because I want to inspire the younger generation—a generation too tied to their mobile devices and social media.
Maybe it is because I want to show older modellers that age is not a hindrance to the hobby.
Maybe it is because this incredible hobby deserves to live on, and not be driven into oblivion by computer games and other screen delights.
Maybe it is because I like a challenge—especially if it involves my favourite hobby.
I have entered the Military category, and I will be building the fabulous Sopwith Camel F1 fighter from the First World War. In particular, the aircraft I will be building is the red Camel of Captain D’Urban Victor Armstrong. More about him later.
The kit I will be building is the Academy 1/32 scale Sopwith Camel F.1. I am posting two initial photos to prove the model is currently unbuilt. In the background, you can see a local newspaper displaying today's date: 12 June 2026.
16 June 2026.
First step - clean the model. Although plastic kits are cleaned after the injection process, sometimes the release agent used in the process lingers on. I always wash the plastics in a dishwasher solution, brushing the parts with a soft nylon-haired artist's brush. Release agent on the plastic can sometime cause problems, like paint not coming on properly, or glue not sticking as it should.
19 June 2026
I have in the past had a terrible Academy kit, but I must say this Sopwith Camel kit is not bad at all. All the parts are crisp and there’s hardly any flash. However, the die tool ejection marks are prominent and in areas that are highly visible. Some can be fixed, some, like on the inside of the wheels, are a problem. There are also some errors on the kit itself. The main fuel tank filler cap is on the wrong side of the fuselage. On the inside of the cockpit area the throttle quadrant is on the wrong side. The two carburettor intakes on either side of the cockpit are way out of scale. The cockpit floor is not realistic and will have to be altered quite a lot. I have finally got to a stage where I have given the whole model a good coat of primer. I have used Tamiya’s ‘Fine Surface Primer’. I used white as it is a better base for the overall red that I am going to spray later.
4 July 2026
What a week I have had. My wife is in hospital with a knee replacement, so everything that happens in the household is being done by ‘yours truly’. So I have not had much time to work on the Camel. However, I have finished off the cockpit area and the next step is the assembly of the fuselage halves. I did come across a huge, glaring fault in the model. The instrument panel, if mounted in it’s locating sockets, is set too far towards the pilot by a good 4.5mm! To place it at it’s correct position necessitates some cutting off of the panel’s top edges. This will be done when I assemble the fuselage.
26 June 2026
The cockpit is the first area I need to address. The models’ interior is not great so I needed to do a lot of scratch building. I visited all my reference photos and discovered that there is no definitive Camel cockpit - so I will use modeller’s license to build it. The chair that the model comes with is horrible, so I made my own. The cockpit floor had to be remodelled. I added control cables and other detail. The dashboard just had to be changed. I spent close on three days just on the dials and other detail on the dashboard. The cockpit is not quite finished yet, but it is close. Then I can carry on with other things on the plane.
11 July 2026
Once again, with my wife not home I am kept fairly busy at home. However, I did manage to get paint onto the model. I discovered, quite by accident, that the decal sheet is not all that good and the decals are fragmenting! Besides that, to apply decals to a wing surface like the Camel’s is a mission in itself. I have seen many videos, and it seems no one can really get that decal down on those wing ribs absolutely successfully. So I decided I will paint them on. The masking itself took me the best part of a day. I am fortunate in having the best airbrush I have ever owned – the GAAHLERI GHAD-39 – and it’s not just because GAAHLERI are doing the competition – it truly is a fine tool. The colours for the roundals are self explanatory, but I mixed the blue using ATOM Prussian Blue and Matt Black. Being an artist I managed to get the recipe right by checking it against the decal roundals. Next step – assembling the fuselage/cockpit assemblies and the necessary ‘bracing wires’.
18 July 2026.
At last the fuselage halves are together – but not without problems! Firstly; the bottom of the fuselage should be flat – it isn’t – it is bowed inward to such an extent that I had to fit a complete new flat bottom made out of plasticard. Secondly; the seam at the top of the fuselage is problematic and it took much time to get it as I wanted it, and it is still not perfect. Thirdly; the bunch of bracing wires are constantly in the way.
I have started with the engine. Here again I hit numerous problems. The cylinders did not match up on the two halves – close but not to my liking. The exhaust manifold did not line up with the exhaust ports at the cylinder heads, so I had to do some surgery to the locating slots. I have added plug leads as well, as they are rather prominent on the real engine. The front part of the engine assembly holds the push-rod sleeves – these are grossly out of scale and I will have to replace them with much thinner rods. I have added the normal weathering to the engine, but still much time has to be spent on this radial motor.
24 July 2026
The front part of the engine that holds the push-rods had to be modified, so I amputated all the push-rods leaving only the central hub. I then drilled 18 holes into this hub, staggered as they were on the real engine. I then got hold of a length of old sprue and stretched it over a candle (old school, but it works). I managed to get some sprue down to 0.4mm diameter; this equates to about 13mm diameter on the real engine. I then started fitting and gluing down the 18 push-rods – no one told me it would be this difficult! But I am now qualified to do micro-surgery!
26 July 2026.
Whenever I work on models my mug of coffee is not far away – things do go better with coffee. Oh, and by the way, in the background you can see my other major project; a 1:32 scale Hawker Hunter of the Rhodesian Air Force. That needs to be completed by the end of October. In the meantime, it’s time to get the propeller done. Fortunately, because I am actually a professional artist, I have all the right colour acrylics. Beginning with the lightest colour I did a wood finish on the prop, ending off with a darker Burnt Umber. I finished it off with a clear gloss coat. This particular aircraft was unusual in that it actually had a spinner on the propeller hub. I found a dowel of the right diameter, fitted it to my Black & Decker drill and turned a pretty reasonable spinner, which I sprayed silver.
