Greetings again, another day another build. I'm planning on possibly starting two build threads, but in the meantime I've started work on this diddy little Camel or two.

Bigglesworth and Co, What's In The Kit?

This kit will be from Eduard's dual combo, 'Camel & Co', I've heard that originally it was intended to be called 'Bigglesworth & Co' but for some licensing reason they couldn't get the name on the box, whether that's true or just a rumour is another matter.

This is Eduard's newly tooled 1/48 rendition of the Camel, searching around topics and articles here came up with nothing regarding this kit which is a shame, but plenty about the old 2003 rendition. Eduard has come a long way since then and comparing it to my recently completed Fokker Triplane from 2008 shows this well.

Like any good WWI kit this box comes with a plethora of interesting schemes, ranging from the simple to downright peacocky. The twist with this kit is that it contains two fictional schemes belonging to the intrepid war hero and adventurer, James Bigglesworth, whom has starred in books going back as far as 1938. As a kid I knew who he was due to my aviation interest, but the book I had was boring and uninteresting for 10 year old me who'd rather 'read'/look at all the photos in a big non-fiction book about aircraft.

Regardless, whilst the first scheme seems unique and interesting, they say art imitates life and if I'm going to do a colourful Camel I'd rather do a real life example. The second scheme is again quite realistic and interesting, but I'd rather do a real example. If by some miracle I fall head over heels in love with this kit and pick up another, then maybe Biggles will take the 3rd place.

What we do have aside from the interesting fiction is a range of schemes, starting with 'B1' B3889 which is a plain scheme that I've seen quite a lot in my limited experience of WWI models, all the way to a white Camel in use by the Yanks, and a red Camel that would very much make Baron Manfred Von Richthofen very excited.

What schemes will I do? Well firstly I'm going to start this build by doing the internal and fiddly bits of both kits, but I'm only planning on completing one. If I enjoy the build, I'll finish the other, if rigging makes me run for the hills then I can finish the second another day. Whilst I'm not sure what the second scheme will be as I want a more 'plain'/has some green on it scheme, I'm dead set on this beautiful blue bird.

One aircraft I have a weird fascination for is the Sopwith Dove, a 2 seat civilian 'version' of the Pup, and this blue reminds me of that little plane a lot so I'm looking forward to it.

What about the kit itself? In typical Eduard fashion we have about 4,003 different pieces. Okay, not that much, but we do have 3 sprues that provide every piece required to build every camel in the world. We have a 3 wings, 3 fuselage halves, a plethora of engines, various different internal pieces, you name it and this kit has it.

What I can tell is... This is an Eduard kit from 2020, crisp mould lines and details, enough bumps and lumps to make a Mark V tank blush, no flash in sight. Their older Fokker Triplane and D.VII did have a little bit of flash.

I can't comment on the fit obviously, but I can say that cockpit construction seems simpler than the other two. Perhaps this is due to the Camel being that much more basic, or more likely due to the Camel having a usable instrument panel instead of Germany's approach of adding instruments wherever they could fit except the panel, who knows.

One thing I do like as someone not well versed in rigging is that this kit has indents where the wire should go, this may aid rigging later.

Being a limited edition Dual Combo, its no surprise we also get mask sets and photoetch. The instrument panel is quite nice.

The First Steps

As you may have noticed in the last P-47 thread, there was an out of place wicker chair. Needing something to fill out the minimum order cost I got 2 tiny Brassin chairs, they look very nice.

The first step is naturally on the cockpit, starting with some framework where the chair and precariously placed fuel tank (I suppose since incendiary rounds weren't a thing outside of specialised Balloon hunting loadouts, at least if it got shot it would hopefully just leak instead of igniting) will be placed. This is then placed onto an aluminium floor, joins to the firewall which the rotary engine will happily work to spin this plane into the ground.
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Of course, wood is a strong feature. My actual first step was to spray every bit of wood in XF-59 Desert Yellow. As an inexperienced Great War modeller, the Wingnut Wings (R.I.P) Website is a beautiful place for tips and tricks and so I've copied the wood grain painting guide directly from there. On one aircraft I streaked on Windsor and Newton Burnt Umber oil paint with a sponge, with the other I used a MIG Dark Brown oilbrusher. I find that the oilbrusher has always dried quicker on my experience, and whilst I prefer the Burnt Umber colour I'm sure MIG has a lighter brown shade I just don't own.

And with that we are all caught up. Time to paint some little internal details by hand, but I am surprised how simple the cockpit is even by Eduard's standards of overengineering. Perhaps it will even fit together nicely? Only time will tell.

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Looks great, Harvey. I’ve been thinking of getting an Eduard Camel.

FWIW - forward of the cockpit, the area of the gun cutouts is part of the metal cowling. You'll want that metal inside, not that you'll see it. In fact, you'll see diddly in the Camel's cockpit unless you use the upper wing with the large cutout, since the upper wing is over the cockpit, thus blocking your view.

Glad to see some familiar faces around, looks like this it going to be an interesting build!

Good point with regards to the metal Tom. I first went round and marked anything that the instructions put as 'Wood Brown' and got to work without engaging the brain and seeing the obvious metal humps of the camel. As you said though, it could be rainbow coloured and you definitely wouldn't see it so I won't bother fixing it this time.

Hopefully this build might sway you to getting (or avoiding) this kit John, of course my experience with rigging is nil so take my experience with a grain of salt. So far so good though.

And thanks you John and Spiros, good to see you again!

Interor Details

Just a quick bit of work and we have two fuselage halves together. Firstly though I painted the interiors is a plain colour for the canvas, I used XF-57 Buff. I don't doubt there's a better colour but I doubt this area will actually be ever seen again anyways.

Next I took the rudder pedals, some floorwork and the control column and added it onto the metal floor.

After that the instrument panel was next. The photoetch glues onto a plastic piece (in typical Eduard fashion you get 3 different versions of the same IP depending on if you're going to use PE, paint it or use decals which I do appreciate), which is then added onto the ammunition boxes and the rear of the twin machine guns.

For the final internal detail I added the PE seatbelts, why not? Everything was then glued in place on the right side of the fuselage and left a good amount of time to fully dry.

Interestingly, Eduard make it very clear to not glue the left side of the internals to the fuselage. In test fitting this seemed fine actually, but I figured a touch of polycement wouldn't hurt.

I also had to add the skid at this stage, I'm not a fan of this and I worry that the skid will snap at some point but there's not a whole lot I can do about that until it happens.

Next up was to add the firewall and metal floor, now the instructions show this nicely sliding up and into the fuselage but this is not possible due to the shape, what really needs to be done is to slide the piece in from the front but the control column gets in the way. So I took the stick out, put the floor in, and added the stick later.

Finally I'd add that upper section around the guns and over the fuel tank, but there's one piece that managed to escape my oil paints that further hides more details by covering the fuel tank, once that's painted up I'll add the top piece. Regardless, this is how it would look.

Next up, either I do the same with the other fuselage which I might as well do since it's a simple enough cockpit construction, or I go straight ahead and work on the engines. Mind you, of the 4 engines included each are very complicated with 2 parts each so it won't take long to do that.

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Thank you!

One thing I should add is generally, whilst using around about the same amount of parts as their older Fokker Triplane and D.VII, it certainly fits better. No issues so far which was nice, small gap down the fuselage seam but nothing a bit of putty won't sort out.

Indeed an amazing looking interior, Harvey @scalerambush

Decisions, decisions, my friend @scalerambush!
Looking forward to your choice!

IMHO it always pays to be careful with the interior - leave just one small corner out and it will be visible to someone one day - plus it is all part of the fun - right?
The work on the interior is really cool @scalerambush - love every bit of it!