John,
Fine work as always. Nice subject, too. It's been a long time, but there was a very similar plane up in the Owl's Head Air Museum in Maine many years ago. I'd never seen anything like it up 'till that time. Joe The Sopwith Gunbus, in its original configuration, was a floatplane. Ordered by the Greek government in 1914, the six planes on order never made it to Greece--they were commandeered by the British Admiralty when war was declared five months later. This model is of the later landplane version. Originally designed with a 100hp Gnome rotary engine, it was later reconfigured with a 150hp water cooled eight cylinder Sunbeam engine, and lengthened a little bit. This model is the later version. Even with this more powerful engine it took 15 minutes to climb to 3,500 feet. Even though it was not a very successful flying machine, it was Sopwith's first "fighter." 29 were built, but only 12 of them by Sopwith. The other 17 were built by Robey and Co. It is the delivery of one of these that is depicted in this model. The planes were delivered with the wings detached and crated separately, then assembled at the airfield. This model is by Jim Fainges, a very talented Australian designer who, unfortunately, has not published many of his large collection of models. His model of the Bristol Bulldog was made available through this list several years ago. You can also get a CD of his models of Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines20from Fiddlers Green http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/ Fiddlers Green is struggling to get back online, so try them later. The main problem building this model was the boredom of installing the eight or ten thousand bits of rigging. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration--it just seemed like eight or ten thousand. I am attaching in the next letter some pictures of the real thing, as well as the old newspaper photos that inspired Jim to design this model. -- John Freeman Check us out at-- http://2oldkiters.smugmug.com/ 5 Attached Images 1_sm.jpg View full size | Save to my AOL Pictures | Download 4_sm.jpg View full size | Save to my AOL Pictures | Download 5_sm.jpg View full size | Save to my AOL Pictures 0| Download 8_sm.jpg View full size | Save to my AOL Pictures | Download 11_sm.jpg View full size | Save to my AOL Pictures | Download -----Original Message----- From: John Freeman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: papermodels <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 4:28 pm Subject: [Papermodels II 31856] John Freeman's photos--Sopwith Gunbus The Sopwith Gunbus, in its original configuration, was a floatplane. Ordered by the Greek government in 1914, the six planes on order never made it to Greece--they were commandeered by the British Admiralty when war was declared five months later. This model is of the later landplane version. Originally designed with a 100hp Gnome rotary engine, it was later reconfigured with a 150hp water cooled eight cylinder Sunbeam engine, and lengthened a little bit. This model is the later version. Even with this more powerful engine it took 15 minutes to climb to 3,500 feet. Even though it was not a very successful flying machine, it was Sopwith's first "fighter." 29 were built, but only 12 of them by Sopwith. The other 17 were built by Robey and Co. It is the delivery of one of these that is depicted in this model. The planes were delivered with the wings detached and crated separately, then assembled at the airfield. This model is by Jim Fainges, a very talented Australian desi gner who, unfortunately, has not published many of his large collection of models. His model of the Bristol Bulldog was made available through this list several years ago. You can also get a CD of his models of Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines from Fiddlers Green http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/ Fiddlers Green is struggling to get back online, so try them later. The main problem building this model was the boredom of installing the eight or ten thousand bits of rigging. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration--it just seemed like eight or ten thousand. I am attaching in the next letter some pictures of the real thing, as well as the old newspaper photos that inspired Jim to design this model. -- John Freeman Check us out at-- http://2oldkiters.smugmug.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Papermodels II" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Papermodels?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- [Image Removed] [Image Removed] [Image Removed] [Image Removed] [Image Removed] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Papermodels II" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Papermodels?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
