Bughunter

Of course Eduard provides an undercarriage with the kit, but here plastic reaches its limits. The legs are partly only 0.7mm thin and too flexible for my taste. I need robust models for a safe transport to exhibitions. So I will replace the kit parts by a new fully scratched undercarriage made from metal and wood, as the original one. All metal parts are soldered.

Pic 1 The teaser photo shows the result of this update, with 26 individual metal parts. Only plugged together, so glue yet.

Pic 2 At first two stripes of veneer are glued together and cuts are made in the thickness of the axle (1.0mm nickel silver tube). Then the third layer is glued on.

Pic 3 The veneer block is sanded into a shape of a little wing.

Pic 4 The Sopwith designs use two half-axles that can pivot around the inner mounting point. I drilled from the front to insert 0.33mm nickel silver wire for mounting and act as pivot point. This image shows the axles in their flattest position.

Pic 5 And here, the axles are fully deflected.

Pic 6 Some brass parts are prepared for the legs: 0.8mm with drilled holes, 0.7mm, 0.6mm tubes and 0.5mm rods.

Pic 7 The legs are soldered together. The inner guides for the axle are prepared.

Pic 8 The new legs are already sturdier than the parts from the kit.

Pic 9 The aerodynamic fairings are made from squeezed 1.9mm brass tube.

Pic 10 To hold the wood brass stripes are soldered to the lower tube. And holders for the suspension are soldered on too.