The Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter was one of the first mass produced aircraft from the famous Sopwith Aviation Company headed by Sir Thomas Sopwith in WWI. First appearing in combat in late 1915, it was the first British fighter with a synchronized forward firing Vickers machine gun. The Strutter was flown by many air forces during the war and was also produced in large quantities in France. The Stutter was frequently one of the first aircraft flown by many aces during the war, and Canadian ace Raymond Collishaw scored his first victories in the Strutter.

The aircraft modeled is a Sopwith 1 ½ Stutter flown by FSL Raymond Collishaw and gunner R.S. Portsmouth while with 3 Wing RNAS in late 1916.

Generally, I am less than enthusiastic about limited run kits since they usually require the modeler to provide many components such as decals, detail parts, etc. However, this kit from Copper State Models (CSM) (http://www.amug.org/~copperst/main.html) contains most everything you need to build a great model straight from the box. This is a true multi-media kit consisting of resin parts (8 items), white metal castings (33 items), a photo-etch (P/E) fret (38 items), a set of British instruments consisting of P/E bezels and acetate faces, a Clerget motor set consisting of a white metal engine and P/E details, and complete decals for two aircraft options. The resin casting is nicely done, highly accurate and detailed, although a few pieces were plagued by tiny pinholes that needed filling. CSM is to be commended for being one of the few vendors to accurately portray ribs on the top and bottom wing surfaces and getting the unique "Sopwith tail section" correct. The detail engraved into the surfaces is perfectly done.

The white metal castings are the only disappointment in the kit. Many of the surfaces were pitted and rough and required filling and sanding, and the casting of some items (such as the Vickers) was poor. To be fair, the P/E provides replacements for many of these casting shortcomings and I would have used the P/E pieces any way. The P/E is very nicely done, but is a bit stiff to bend and greatly benefits from annealing. The decals are beautiful, printed by Micro Scale, however the blue on the roundels probably is a bit too light. Since I was finishing this model as Collishaw’s aircraft, I substituted various decals from my stash and did not use the kit supplied ones. There are really no instructions provided with the kit, but an experienced modeler with a few kits under the belt would not find this as a difficulty. Complete three-view drawings along with building notes, part lists, color painting schemes, and a short history are provided to assist the modeler.

I then sealed everything with a light coat of PS Flat Finish to provide a surface for pastel application. I then used a pastel pencil to lightly highlight the rib detail on the wings/tail surfaces using a light brown pastel pencil on the undersides and an off-white pastel pencil on the upper surfaces. I use Derwent pastel pencils and they are quite easy to use, just lightly draw on the surface to be highlighted and blend with artists blending stump. A very nice, subtle effect can be achieved with these pencils that is much easier for me than dry brushing. Lastly, I applied a heavy burnt umber oil wash to the wheels and control surface joins.

Now that the painting and weathering is complete, it’s time to finish off the construction. The lower wings were installed in place with brass pins and then superglued for strength and the cabane struts were glued in place with 5-minute epoxy. A simple jig constructed from Lego blocks was built to hold the upper wing in place with the correct alignment and the white metal interplane struts were superglued in place to the lower wing and then the upper wings were attached with superglue. Usually, alignment of the upper and lower wings on a biplane is a bother, however on this kit everything just snapped into its correct place. Lastly, the outside "W" struts were cut from Contrail strut stock and superglued in place.

The Vickers machine gun provided in white metal is poorly cast, however the P/E parts provided in the kit correct this problem. I separated the breech and threw the rest away! Using hypo tubing plus the P/E jackets and detail pieces I was able to rebuild the gun to a beautiful state.

Assembly of the landing gear was easy and it was time to put on the tail fin. I installed .020-styrene rod into the base of the tail fin and drilled corresponding holes into the stabilizer. After carefully aligning the tail fin to provide a gap at the aft end I then superglued the rods into place, using the longer rear rod to double as the kingpost. Assembly of the Scarff Ring and Lewis gun was challenging. Fortunately I had a detailed drawing of the arrangement from my personal library; otherwise I would have never been able to figure it out, as the instructions are somewhat vague and confusing! Lastly, I installed the propeller (Martin Digmayer carved wood available through CSM) and tailskid and I was almost done with only the rigging to be completed.

I use .006-fishing line painted silver and use a "through-hole" rigging method. I basically drill a hole with an #80 bit (the smallest, about .0135) all the way through the wing at each of my rigging exit points. I try to minimize the number of exit points and run as many lines through them when possible. After securing one end to a partially drilled hole (not all the way through) with superglue, I then run the line out through the exit hole. I weight the end of the line with a pair of hemostats to pull tight by letting it hang down and apply a small drop of superglue to secure it. Let cure for about 30 seconds and then unhook the hemostats and proceed to the next wire. Repeat until done! After letting the entire rigging cure for at least an hour, I then take a brand new Exacto blade and trim flush with the wing surface. I then sand the exit holes flush and apply a spot of touch-up paint to cover. That's it, simple, cheap, and fast. In addition, it also provides a small amount of structural integrity. I can rig a whole airplane in under an hour! Can't do that with wire!

Finally, the model is almost done. The last step is to airbrush the final clear coat. I used Polly S Satin Finish as it provides an appropriate not too glossy, not too dull surface that photographs well.

While a bit expensive (~$75), this is an incredibly detailed and accurate model that can be built pretty much straight out of the box. While several aspects of the build were quite challenging due to the limited run nature of the kit, the end results are very beautiful. I would recommend this kit to advanced modelers and to intermediate modelers looking for a new challenge.

Albatros Productions LTD, Windsock Datafile #34, Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter

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