1/32 Wingnut Wings Sopwith Triplane

Gallery Article by Mike Muth on Jan 9 2018

 

      

Naval 10's Black Flight

It mocked me. For over 2 years it sat on a table in my modeling room and mocked me. I had finished the WNW Sopwith Triplane about 2 years ago. I took pictures of the build as it progressed. I had placed it on a stereo speaker intending to take photos of the finished product. Then, disaster struck. Or perhaps I should say too much bass struck. I was listening to something way too loud, the speaker vibrated and the Triplane crashed to the floor. After much cursing, I set it aside, thinking I would use it for parts. Then, when I went to order another one, I found out they were sold out. So, it sat nearby, reminding me of my stupidity. I finally had enough silent mocking from an inanimate object and decided to see if I could fix it. Most of the parts had stuck together. I had to re-do all of the rigging. To remove the old rigging I used a slightly larger drill bit than when I first rigged the Tripe. It worked out ok, but the holes are probably a little bigger than desired. I originally did Collishaw's single gun "Black Maria", but while "fixing" things I rubbed off the decals. So, I went back to the Pheon decal sheet and decided I would do another Black Flight Triplane, "Black Roger" flown by FSL E.V. Reid, RNAS. Reid scored 17 of his 19 victories in Black Roger before being shot down and killed by flak on July 28, 1917.

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A few parts were lost in the crash, which is why part A10, the machinegun mount, appears in some of the earlier cockpit photos but not in the rebuild. I think some of the control horns may have been substituted. PC 10 was the primary dark color used on RFC/RAF aircraft from WW I. It was a mix of lamp black, yellow ochre and iron oxide. The result was not consistent with the final color ranging from olive drab to a chocolate brown. I have mostly tended toward the chocolate brown color when doing PC 10, using WW II Dark Earth from the Model Master line. For the clear doped linen that appears on the under surfaces of the wings and fuselage, I either go with Radome Tan from MM or Modern Desert Sand from the MM spray can, decanted and applied with an airbrush. Tires on WW I airplanes were not black but ran the range from gray to pink. (I think the "pink" is probably a light tan). The rigging is silver thread applied with ca fitted into small holes that were drilled out with a pin vise. I found the landing gear to be a little wobbly, and after the initial disaster with the stereo speaker, decided to use a thick wire for the cross rigging on it; a little out of scale, but very sturdy.

R.N.A.S. No. 10 Squadron's B flight was led by FSL Raymond Collishaw in May-July 1917. The composition of the Flight was somewhat fluid and according to Mike Westrop in his book "A History of No. 10 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service in World War I", the structure of the flight as of May 26, 1917 was composed of Collishaw (Black Maria), FSL Sharman (Black Death), FSL Alexander (Black Prince), FSL Nash (Black Sheep) and FSL Reid (Black Prince). It was called the Black Flight because the wheel cover, all of the aluminum cowling and side panels were painted black. Additionally the planes had names painted in white below the cockpit, all employing some use of the word "Black". Black Flight as constituted by the 5 pilots mentioned only flew together for 5 flights over 8 days. Sharman was moved to C flight as its commander and was replaced by FSL Fitzgibbon. From May 27 through July 28, 1917, Black Flight racked up an impressive list of claims against the Germans, even taking into account the over-claiming that was common. Collishaw scored 34 of his 60 claims in Triplanes, Sharman 7 of his 8, Alexander 10 of his 22, Nash all of his 6, Reid all of his 19, and Fitzgibbon 5 of his 8.

Mike Muth

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Photos and text © by Mike Muth