SPA Modeler

Looks so much more betterer!

I love it Bruce! Great positioning of the figure. You could do one arm with the hand holding the stick and the other with the elbow resting on the cockpit side. A nice relaxed pose that also reflects his confidence going into battle in the skies.

Just a wild thought....

Thank you, Lyle and Mark!

I truly truly TRULY appreciate that you are following along and offering encouragement. Your support means the world to me.







As a photographer I deal with the conceit of sequencing a great deal. It’s often rare to find the photographs that were taken by the photographer as a warm up or lead in to making a portrait but here we have three from a larger sequence shot of Canadian pilot Collinshaw in his cockpit. I’m not able to see where either arm or hand is due to the high side wall so I’m not sure if it’s possible in fact I think it’s unlikely to make a pose with a visible arm. Also my skill level is basic beginner for sculpting a figure so I’m going to try the first part you suggested and use the joystick as a rest. I’m not entirely sure where the starter controls are so I’m going to have to do some research to find out. Currently I’m thinking one hand on the joystick and the other on the starter.

Those engines didn't self commence, Bruce. The starter was a guy pulling the prop through. There would be an ignition switch somewhere, and a blip switch I think on the throttle which cut the ignition to reduce RPM's.

Thanks, John!

I sincerely appreciate your knowledge.

What I pulled off the internet—

To start the Sopwith Camel's 130 hp Clerget 9B rotary engine, typically the pilot or ground crew would first turn the prop by hand to prime the engine. Then the following steps are performed -

Mixture set to full rich.
Throttle set to about 1/2 open.
Magnetos switched on.
Prop rapidly pulled to start.

The last two steps are bound to a single "Engine Start-Stop" key so these happen in rapid succession when the key is pressed. If everything is set correctly, the engine should start right up.



The “Engine Start-Stop” key definitely confused me! Thank you for explaining.

That's the engine that the cylinders spun around. Crazy. This animation is pretty cool

Nice video, John!

That was fun to watch as well as educational. The Revell kit does have a rotating engine as a feature. I have been waiting for a moment to finish touching up the aluminum paint on the plastic—Tamiya aircraft aluminum plus graphite.

These are some of the cockpit features I will be addressing. Whenever possible I’m referencing actual objects.

An actual seatbelt from 1918.

speedgraflex wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 3:23 pm

These are some of the cockpit features I will be addressing. Whenever possible I’m referencing actual objects.

Wow...great reference photos!