Academy 1/72 Sopwith Camel F.1

ACADEMY 1:72 SOPWITH CAMEL F.1

Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 28 November 2003

Kit Details:

1/72 Sopwith Camel F1 by Academy

Aircraft History:

The handling characteristics of the Sopwith Camel made it lethal to both the enemy and to novice allied pilots. Its prowess as a killing machine can be judged by the fact that it is credited with shooting down more enemy aircraft than any other fighter in the Great War (over 3,000), even though it only appeared in 1917. It was produced in two versions: the F1, which was armed with two synchronised Vickers machine guns covered by a humped fairing (hence the name "Camel", which was never an official name), and the 2F1 version (mainly used by the RNAS), which had a single Vickers machine gun and a Lewis machine gun mounted on the top of the wings.

The Kit:

There are only 20 parts to this kit, which are contained within a small postcard-size box. The parts are cast in a greenish-grey plastic, and on inspection, are revealed to be of very high quality. There is no flash, and surface detail is very good indeed. A small decal sheet is also provided.

Instructions:

The instructions are printed on a small, single postcard sheet, with a photograph of the completed model and a narrative on the aircraft making up the first side. The second side contains exploded views of the five construction steps.

Construction:

This was very straightforward. The engine and cowling is a single unit. The propeller shaft passes through this unit, and is locked in place using a plastic collar. The next stage of construction was to make up the undercarriage, which was composed of the standard vee-struts and a connecting axle for the two wheels.

The fuselage was jointed together next, and the engine unit cemented into place at the front. The cockpit is already moulded into the fuselage halves, and this forms a sealed unit on joining them together. The two Vickers guns are moulded into a shaped piece that forms the top of the front fuselage, and this cements into a recess on the top front fuselage. Some modellers will want to add further details to the cockpit area. The single piece lower wing cements into a shaped recess in the lower fuselage, and the single-piece tailplane and rudder butt join onto the back of the fuselage. I found the fit of all these parts very good. I needed to clean up the join line in the cockpit, and applied a little Humbrol filler around all the joints, especially the wing joints.

The wing and cabane struts are located in the upper wing using the bar and slot mechanism. These cleaned up well. The ends of the cabane struts locate into holes on the side of the fuselage, while the wing struts locate into slots located in the top lower wing. This whole process was very painless.

The model was finished off by cementing the undercarriage into place. I added my own control horns and rigged with the wonderful Aeroclub stretch thread.

Versions/Decals:

Only one is provided, for a somewhat colourful late war Camel of B Flight, No. 10 Squadron RAF, which was formed from an RNAS squadron in mid 1918. (Note, the academy instructions incorrectly say that No 10 Squadron was a "Royal Navy" squadron, but I think that's just lack of expertise in English). The painting guide disappointingly only refers the model maker to the box art. There is a problem with this, as it is different to the instruction's B&W photo of the constructed model, which again, is different to the rudimentary decal placement guide indicated in Step 5 of the construction sequence. The model is indicated to be overall dark brown topside with cream undersides, and a white front and wheel covers. The decals include the normal British roundels (with the blue and red too dark and light, respectively, for me), and the red cowling stripes and fancy wheel decals denote the "B Flight". I tried to use the red cowling stripes and wheel covers, as I painted the rudder stripes and used Pegasus roundels for the wings and fuselage. I did not find that the Academy decals I used adhered very well, and ended up using some red decal stripes from an Xtradecal sheet. I just about got the wheel cover decals to stick using lots of Humbrol Decalfix.

Accuracy:

Chaz Bowyer quotes the dimensions of the Sopwith Camel to be span = 28 ft and length = 18 ft 9 ins. In 1/72 metric units these would scale as 11.9 and 7.9 cm, respectively. My kit measures 11.8 and 7.6 cm for these dimensions.

Final Comments:

This nice little kit goes together well. The connecting bar struts make it an easier built for a less experienced biplane modeller than the venerable 2F1 Camel from Airfix. The decals are temperamental though, and for the super detailer, the cockpit is bare.

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