| This aircraft was painted to celebrate the completion of 1000 Sopwith Camels at the Ruston Proctor factory in Lincoln. The scheme was suggested by Colonel Ruston, an amateur Egyptologist and
represents the winged sun - god 'Behudet.' The aircraft was used in the drive to sell War Bonds. The colour scheme has in the past been available as a decal set, but a chance discovery of a coloured photograph on the rear cover of a publication called 'Wings over Lincolnshire' prompted further research. In particular, assistance from Dennis Ugulano and P.G.Cooksley's article 'Those Colourful Camels' in Scale Aviation Modeller International, October 1996, proved invaluable in determining an accurate scheme. |  |
 | The model was based on the old Airfix 1:72 kit, which needed a bit of tidying
up first. The fuselage was given a cockpit constructed of plastic card and stretched sprue, assembled and then it, together with the wings and tail were sprayed white all over. (Yes, I got the airbrush out for once.) I then marked in the locations of the coloured bands (same pattern above and below each wing.) in pencil and painted them in by hand. I didn't attempt to portray the scalloped edges on the wing and tail as these would be dealt with later. I then used a fineliner pen and plastic ruler to draw in the black lines. I spent 4 or 5 hours doing this. At this stage, it looked superb - the pen width was just enough to draw the scalloped boundaries in where the colours met. My wife commented on how beautiful the wings were. I left the ink to dry overnight. |
| The following day, I started to add the roundels to the wings. As usual, I sprayed Klear floor polish onto the surfaces to give a glossy
base for the decals. Then disaster struck - the 'permanent' ink was soluble in Klear. The ink bled all
over my lovely white wings. I had no recourse but to scrub the wings and tail clean and start all over again. |  |
| Enough of the black ink remained to show
faintly through the new coat of white I sprayed on, so this time at least I didn't have to mark out the lines again. I repainted the coloured bands and this time applied black lines from strips of black decal applied with Klear to ensure they bedded down
well. The scalloped lines were intended to be curved pieces of black decal applied individually. In an idle moment, I tried to count up the number of separate pieces of decal on this model. I lost count at 350 ! |  |
 | 18 September - I managed to find a 0.5mm 'permanent' pen thanks to a fellow WW1 mailing list
member. Thank the gods I didn't have to cut all those little curved bits
of decal. The pen was used to mark off the scalloped lines between the coloured areas on the wings and tail. Struts were painted pale green, U/C legs are pale yellow leading and roundel blue trailing. Next task is the small roundels on the struts - I'll have to paint those... Wheel covers will be similarly painted after I've scribed guiding lines with a pair of (sharp) dividers. Then the lettering on the cowling. All that remains then is to build the damn thing. |
| I forgot about the propellor, the Airfix item was awful, but a bit of cutting and shaping followed by some hand - painting and it was still awful. I had nothing else I could use, so it had to do. Dulux brushwood was used to replicate the woodgrain, red-brown tips and hub. (The central portion was outlined in white.) Black dots represent the Ruston trademark - the Lincoln Imp on a biplane background - one for bigger scales only methinks. |
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 | And behold - October 7, 1999, it's finished. I added a wind-driven pressure pump made from pieces of stretched sprue and thin styrene to the starboard rear cabane strut, rigged the model with lycra thread and filled the holes I'd drilled for the rigging with small drops of superglue. The paintwork by this time was quite scuffed and scratched due to the necessary handling of the model, so some touching-up of the finish was needed. |
