Sopwith Camel - built by John Brockelsby

John Brockelsby sent us pictures of his WORKING Sopwith Camel by Model Airways. To make the Sopwith Camel propeller work, John drilled out the crankshaft

to take the motor spindle, this is then super glued into the shaft with a piece of 9-32 brass tube slipped over the motor and onto the tube that runs through the engine. The new piece of tube is made long enough to take the exhaust pipes, (which were glued to a hexagonal nut). These pipes help support the total assembly because of having eliminated the bottom part of Fig. 18. but still used brass rods to replace CAF43. Masking tape was wound onto the connections to give a firm "push fit". Finally, "fuse-wire" was used for a ALL the cross bracing as it can be well tensioned and gives the turn-buckles a realistic look at the connections by being able to tightly twisting it. 

John's comments: I recently procured the Sopwith Camel model and initially thought it to not be too hard, but soon realized what a challenge it became, but the finished model looks great. I stained the entire woodwork in Mahogany and clear gloss enamelled it. While this is a static model I decided to make the propeller work by installing a helicopter rear rotor brushless motor (1/4”dia. X1/2” long) inside a brass tube that then fitted over the tubing that ran from the propeller containing the crankshaft, then fitting the exhaust (sorry about the triple exhaust, seemed more realistic to me, if not authentic.) The motor runs on a AAA battery under the fuel tank. 

I look forward to getting more models from you. 

Regards, John Brockelsby