Thoughts on a scale Sopwith Camel

Klipkopwildlife wrote: Thanks FTB, I wish all the best to everyone here, I'm looking at might be a possible Christmas present to myself, this is one and this is the other
Although I suspect I won't be able to afford either!

Go on treat yourself, it's only money ! You could always do the same as me, eat & drink less. :whistle: Thank you all for all the help & advice this year.
I wish you all a Happy & healthy Christmas, & an even better new year.

Nice but they both have long noses!
Almost a deformity in the case of the Camel. Just a little bit with the Super Stearman.

Happy Christmas and a prosperous (as can be) New Year to all.

Gosh Simon, thank you for raining on my parade![badass] Anyway I decided on the Camel, since a:- I have an engine to go in it and b:- the Stearman would take me into a whole new level of expense with 6s Lipos and the like. I've found locally a Camel plastic kit which I'll use as a master, I'd like to try a number of methods to enable shortening of the nose to something more acceptable to Simon.[badass]
Something that immediately springs to mind is using pull/pull control for the tail feathers, (thanks Simon). Another one would be siting the RX batteries around the cowl, and yet another would be manufacturing my own bespoke fuel tank or maybe 2, one inside the cowl and one just behind the firewall. I'm sure there are other ways to get the GoG further forward, Helium in the tail springs to mind![badass]

Klippy
Sorry if I spoiled anything but the short nose is particularly obvious on the Pup simply because the rest of it was so lightly built which was to a large degree why it had such a performance with such a low power but heavy engine!

Pull/pull controls do not seem very popular probably because peps insist on using wire cables, like the full size, but are then quite happy to use balsa, an unknown building material at the time, elsewhere in the structure.

First thing I would do is throw away the kit tail, there's a awfull lot of wood back there. Build the tail like the full size, not sure if I ever mentioned it but I used to volunteer at Brooklands museum and one of the things I was involved with was there camel ( replica airframe, genuine engine).
I agree with Simon that front end is totally wrong, sorry Klippy! Think DB sport and scale do a fairly accurate kit? Good idea to make your own tank though.

I've spent the money now, besides HobbyKing offered me a good deal. First I have to wait for my new work area to be finished, then I have to wait for my Shingles to go away! One of the things I want to do is made half a dozen small frames in Balsa, match them for weight, and then 'cover' them with a variety of generally accepted coverings and finishes to get an accurate idea of what's best for lightness, strength, or both

When I was building my Pup I was impressed by this picture of a true scale replica.

I really shows just how 'spindly' it was. With an empty weight of 787 lbs and the Le Rhone at 268 lb meant the airframe was just 519 lbs. Fuel, oil. pilot and gun added another 438 lbs giving a total of 1225 lbs.
The bare airframe was thus carrying 2.3 times its own weight.

Not many electric RC planes have a battery and motor that is even equal to the airframe weight.
A true scale Pup (officially the Scout) is a hard thing to model.
I did get fairly close.

One day I might try again but a bit bigger.

Am I correct in thinking that the ailerons are continuously connected? ie, from the bottom of the stick, out almost to the lower wing tip around a pulley to the horn, up to the upper aileron, from the horn forward to a pulley, all the way across to a pulley on the other wing, back to a horn, down to the lower elevator, from a horn on the underside forward to a pulley and across to the bottom of the stick. It would be hard to replicate in a model but probably the right way to do it, and, you could do it with one servo sitting just behind the leading edge of the upper wing. Would the Camel have been the same? I'm guessing the Camel used the Raf28. From the pictures I've downloaded the model appears to use a thin Clark Y. I may need to source a slimline servo.

Klippy
You are correct the ailerons are all on a single wire circuit.
You don't need to put the aileron servo in the wing, It can go in the fuselage picking up the line in the lower wing which is exactly where the joy stick was connected in the full size.

I mounted both the aileron and elevator servos on top of each other in the fuselage just behind the firewall but left just enough room to get the battery in there as well.

The single arm on the aileron servo just picked up the lower line of the aileron circuit so outside the fuselage all the control runs were 'true' scale.


According to the Incomplete Guide the Camel used the RAF 16 section. As far as I can tell the Pup did as well, however the actual coordinates appear to be lost but those for RAF 15 are available.

It is only 6.5% thick so functional rigging is likely required.

This thread started elsewhere but it started getting a lot of interest so I moved it here.

I'm looking at might be a possible Christmas present to myself, this is one and this is the other
Although I suspect I won't be able to afford either!

I hear what you say Simon, but since the upper wing leading edge is forward of the CoG I thought I might gain a small amount by placing the servo there.

If it helps I've still got a few contacts at brooklands, I would happily go take some pictures, Simon is right, the airframe is very light, you can pick the tail up with one hand!

Hi Paul, from what I can see on the news you won't be going there any time soon, BUT, I'm going to hold you to those words.[badass]

I've squandered some of my data cap to get a few tasters.

That's an oiler in there. But doesn't that cowl look naff? I don't like the Red Baron colour scheme either.