Scale aviation modeller international

agent and leaving the parts in

a warm drying cupboard.

After a day or two, I sprayed

a light acrylic varnish to seal

the oil-painted finish. Next

comes an Alclad airbrush session

for the metal-finished parts.

This is at the opposite end of

the drying spectrum, as it’s

totally dry on contact with the

plastic (if sprayed finely).

Wingnut provides five lovely

colour schemes to choose from,

and after much deliberation, I

decided to go for the 87 Squadron

version. It just looked a bit different,

and I liked the wing-mounted

Lewis guns (which replaced the

standard Dolphin Armament of

two cockpit-mounted upward-

facing Lewis guns, in addition to

the forward-firing Vickers). The

other main difference was the

Protective Covering 10 (PC10) – the

standard RFC/RAF upper-surface

green – on the cowling and struts.

SURGERY

The thing that struck me about the

kit was the excellent detailing in

the interior and engine bay – most

of which, unfortunately, would

disappear once it was closed up.

Wanting to display a little bit

more, I decided to do some plastic

surgery on the front end, stripping

it back somewhat to show off

the interior detail. However, this

requires an act of faith, and it

was with a little trepidation that

I started carving up a perfectly

good (and not inexpensive) kit.

But I bit the bullet and opened

up the port side panel first; I scribed

along the edges with a new scalpel

blade and just kept repeating until it

finally came loose. Quite a bit of care

was required here as it leaves a very

thin strip connecting the bottom

front cowl to the main fuselage

(although it would be strengthened

slightly once the interior side

panel was attached in place).

Liking the look, I thought I may

as well do a similar operation on

the starboard side inspection panel,

which is a smaller access door. As it

had curved corners I drilled these,

then scribed the straight edges.

This required a little refinement

to look sharp, so I chamfered the

edges to give the impression of a

thinner and more scale-looking

lip. There’s also a small access

panel behind the cockpit, but I left

that one alone (although it would

have created more interest).

With the modifications safely

negotiated, I set the fuselage

aside and moved on to the 200

hp Hispano-Suiza V8 Engine.

THE POWER PLANT

As the plan was to have the engine

exposed, I went a little bit further

on the detailing than I otherwise

would. This is somewhat generic,

however, as I just wanted the

engine to look “busy”. There’s an

excellent picture on Page 5 of the

instructions that show the side and

top cowlings removed, and it’s a

mass of wiring and piping. I left this

detail for later on, as it fits into the

framework, and for the time being

I just added 0.5 mm brass tubing as

spark plugs and some 0.2 mm brass

wire as ignition leads, which run

back into a brass pipe at the rear

(the moulded plastic needs to be

removed and replaced at this point).

The plan was to feed the wire

into the 0.5 mm “plugs” but this

went awry; when I glued the plugs

in, I hadn’t accounted for the

cyanoacrylate to wick into the

tubes and block them. So, I ended

up drilling another hole alongside

and poked the wires in...it’s OK

if you don’t look too closely!

Finally, a few bits out of the

spares box were added for some

generic “bling”. I did try to keep

it largely accurate, but I’m quite

happy if I’m satisfied that the end

result looks about right. I’ve never

been one to go too crazy adhering

to accuracy – just my lazy trait.

It looked a bit clean, but it would

get an overall light, grimy wash

before it was finished. I generally

use AK’s Oil and Grease here. I apply

this quite liberally, then rub the

excess off with a cotton bud, which

gives a nice oily sheen without

it looking overdone. Overall, I

was pleased with the result.

THE OFFICE

My usual method of using oils

for the wood effect (as already

described above) was employed

in the cockpit, and once dry

the moulded detail was picked

out. I applied a coat of varnish

and finished with a pin wash to

accentuate the depth, while lighter

areas were picked out with acrylics

to create some highlights. For the

internal rigging I tried using 0.1

mm brass wire. This looks very

nice but has the drawback that it

can’t be tightened up with heat like

monofilament, and it did infact

slacken off a little once the main

components were fixed together.

The bracing wires were also

68 • OCTOBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

066-71-WITW-Dolphin-1018.indd 68 14/09/2018 15:22