My last purchase; Cox Sopwith Camel

Nice job, effective use of a rubber band. What did you use for cement?

Good repair. I don't know if there is much more you can do.

They made the elevator horn longer to gauge back elevator action since the whole elevator is the moving surface. That horn is a very weak design. It looks like to reduce manufacturing costs in both parts count and assembly, that they did this, yet the real Sopwith Camel had separate elevator and stabilizer.

I guess they really expected these planes to have only one shot flights. (One flight, and it is all over.)



It amazes me, the changes in quality over time from the first Cox and Wen-Mac products to the last. The earlier ones were well done, well detailed, the construction reflected quality.

Then AMF / Testor took over Wen-Mac and Leisure Dynamics with Cox. I haven't fully researched their history, so I am more or less shooting from the hip. I see changes in quality in how constructed, how engineered. The later products were not near as good as the earlier products of the 1950's and 1960's. It seems the influence of Leroy Cox had faded away.

rsv1cox wrote:Nice job, effective use of a rubber band.  What did you use for cement?

I use Testors Cement for plastic.

I is not strong enough, plastic surface is too small. It break after I play with bellcranck.
I glue a second time and put some small piece fo Tuck tape.

I did not connect bellcranck rod and I will not

latole wrote:

rsv1cox wrote:Nice job, effective use of a rubber band.  What did you use for cement?

I use Testors Cement for plastic.

I is not strong enough, plastic surface is too small. It break after I play with bellcranck.
I glue a second time and put some small piece fo Tuck tape.

I did not connect bellcranck rod and I will not

Yes, a lot of stress placed on it when the control rod is inserted. Testor's red tube cement needs 24 hours to completely cure.

rsv1cox wrote:

latole wrote:

rsv1cox wrote:Nice job, effective use of a rubber band.  What did you use for cement?

I use Testors Cement for plastic.

I is not strong enough, plastic surface is too small. It break after I play with bellcranck.
I glue a second time and put some small piece fo Tuck tape.

I did not connect bellcranck rod and I will not

Yes, a lot of stress placed on it when the control rod is inserted.  Testor's red tube cement needs 24 hours to completely cure.  

You are right and I wait more than 24 hours.

GallopingGhostler wrote:Good repair. I don't know if there is much more you can do.

They made the elevator horn longer to gauge back elevator action since the whole elevator is the moving surface. That horn is a very weak design. It looks like to reduce manufacturing costs in both parts count and assembly, that they did this, yet the real Sopwith Camel had separate elevator and stabilizer.

I guess they really expected these planes to have only one shot flights. (One flight, and it is all over.)
.

I agree, good for one flight

Wanting to fly the plane, I could replace the control horn by a more solid one ( picture) but it would probably look like that from the outside ( bolts or rivets....) but I prefer, for now, to keep the original plane.

About the only negative I see, if you were to successfully say, mount the control horn to the outside then make a slot to pass the push rod to the location outside, besides deviating from factory, would be the short throw of the elevator horn. It would have to be longer, at least the same in length as the factory horn. I recall that some time back, Hobby King had some of these longer horns.

However, since it is your model, there's freedom in our choices and solutions. We can only please ourselves, and the desires of all the rest really do not matter.

To repair the broken control horn, this most likely would require plastic welding. But I gather it would be difficult to do, because it is easy to distort the elevator while applying heat, even if the welding pencil applies heat locally. Plus, unless one has experience, can easily destroy the part practicing. One would have to figure out how to reinforce the location, so it can stand the stresses. There isn't much room to do.

However, if the model is for display purposes only, then there is no problem.

Some additional info may be found in this CEF thread: CEF Nov. 2015: Sopwith Camel .049

@latole, you may already have these instructions, so if you do, please disregard my chattering here.

Thanks to @crankbndr, here's his instructions with exploded view of the parts:

crankbndr on Nov. 29, 2015 wrote:

Interesting comments by users 20 years ago: The Aerodrome Forum: Control Line Models

It is an interesting thread (now closed, read only), mentions some about the Cox Sopwith Camel along with other WW1 half-A C/L aircraft. It includes comments from Dave (dpcmodels) at Aerowerkes in Farmington, NM, who I believe is still making half-A retro-kits.

Here's a comment from someone who was a kid at the time, purchasing these planes using his lawn mower job money.


Dave gives insight into why he decided to produce half-A retro-kits, much of it from personal experiences while growing up. There is the child in all of us.
Those curious, the thread makes for an interesting read.

In the same Aerodrome Forums thread, found this interesting comment about flying the Cox Sopwith Camel. I don't know how true it is, but makes for humorous reading.

Thank's GallopingGhostler,

Very useful informations I don't have,
I will look at them