1:48 SOPWITH CAMEL - SEATBELTS

Seat belts for the Sopwith Camel in 1:48 scale

An aircraft with an open cockpit has nowhere to hide its seat. A viewer looks down into it and the first thing they look for there are the belts. In a kit they tend to be suggested only by a shallow relief, so no amount of good painting will turn that into a belt falling loosely over the edge of the seat. This set is a standalone answer to that one very visible thing.

The real subject

The Sopwith Camel was a British single-seat fighter biplane of the First World War and one of the most successful machines of its day. It was powered by a rotary engine, in which the whole cylinder block turned together with the propeller, which gave the aircraft its legendary agility and at the same time handling that did not spare inexperienced pilots. It got its nickname from the hump that covered the breeches of the pair of machine guns ahead of the cockpit. The pilot sat right behind them, so the cockpit is truly in view on a model.

Building tips

• finish the belts before you join the fuselage halves, as after that the cockpit is out of reach
• work with tweezers and over a light surface, as the parts are tiny and easily lost
• compare the look against a photograph of the real subject, as on the actual aircraft the belts fell loosely over the edge of the seat
• the way of applying them and the exact extent of the set are given by the manufacturer's instructions
• let the finished cockpit dry thoroughly before you move on to the rest of the model

Terms of supply

The set of belts is supplied on its own. The kit, the seat, paints and glue are not part of the delivery, unless stated otherwise.