Camels

[JMSmith]

much much better,

you can have a rest now in a dark corner

[inkworm]

You're going to hate me now (but when I post up my next profile you can rip that apart ) but if it has the mud and weathering on the tail, would the underside have that much of a gloss finish still intact? Apart from that it looks good.

[Jesters-Ink]

yup I get where you are coming from, but I've kinda based the weathering on the amount of mud kicked back by the prop, so there is a fair splash inwards, but not much outwards. It dont really show up on the thumb, but I dont really want to add too much character to the underside of the wings, I would rather the attention be drawn to other parts of the profile, its just a personal thing.

As for ripping other peoples work apart, I tend to just give a hint here and there, knowing full well a lot of the results we show are to our own personal taste and I'd hate to attempt to push people away from the style of work they prefer to do.

I notice you like to draw "cleaner" profiles, a bit like myself, that said, you should see my 109 at full count, it looks quite clean on the thumb, but the full count one is so busy you wouldn't know where to look first.

[Martin]

Talked about transparency, this Camel, let all the light shine through. Nice work all thise Camels. A tip, try to bring some more life into the colors . Where light falls on an object, colors are clearer, more color, not only lighter. Shadow cooler, not only darker, add a complentaire color to it.

[santynus]

great set of Camels color profile Jesters
I like so much the light effect and the wood parts

[AndyK]

Hi Jesters

Overall - excellent work! Good looking Camels - always nice to see :-)

A few comments, if I may be so bold:

B7270 - Brown's Camel was Bentley powered, and had the flared cowling and differently constructed upper front metal panels typical for that engine - yours seems to reflect a Clerget powerplant. I'd suggest having a look at Mick Davis' detail drawings in his book Sopwith Aircraft, by Crowood Press.

N8897 - I'm in France, away from my reference books, but isn't that a 2F1 serial??
All your u/c legs appear to be the early thin type. After late 1917 these were faired in wood, and so looked considerably thicker.

Windscreen styles varied widely. You show one style - but many Naval units had more extensive screens, wrapping down the side of the fuselage. Some dispensed with them altogether - and the Belgians seem to have designed their own!

Barker's B6313 should have the little red devil gun sight by this stage of its development

Some of your props are tipped in "grey". This is right for some, not all. Some had the last 18 inches shwathed in doped fabric - sometimes doped grey as per F6314 in the RAF Museum (similar to your work). Others had metal sheathed tips, but they were in brass (per the IWM's 2F1). Often Camel props were covered in PC10 doped fabric, from root to tip (per the Brussels example, B5747).

The cowl profile doesn't look quite right to me - you might care to check the radius against Mick's drawings.

The actual shade of PC10 has been a hugely contentious subject down the years! During the Camel's production life there was three main doping schemes. In addition a multitude of experimental schemes were tried on aircraft while in manufacture, in conjunction with the pigmented dope manufacturers. Aircraft were also re-painted at repair depots, and sometimes on squadron. Add to that the effects of care, wear and tear - plus different lighting conditions, and we can start to understand the many and various colours and tones we get reported by "first hand" witnesses. It's all highly subjective. That said, I reckon the average colour of PC10 on a Camel was probably more green than you are representing :-)

While we're looking at colours, I should comment on the ply areas on the fuselage. When not PC10 or "battleship grey" these were copal varnished. This produced a shiny finish which showed up as a more reddish brown than the shade you're using.
I hope you don't think I'm being overly nit-picky - overall I reckon your profiles are some of the best I've seen!

Cheers,

Andy

[Supah]

Camel is the new Zero!

[Jesters-Ink]

Thanks Andy, I will go through your points one by one, I have tried to stick to relevant details as per photographs of each machine, but as you know, good pics of these AC are few and far between and the ones that are available are less then useful in some respects.

Expect updates by the end of the week

[BLOWHARD]

Oh my Andy, where have you been and what took you so long?
We have a counterpart for RAF WW1 stuff now

That's all good stuff Andy except maybe the PC10 being green, it's should only be green if you believe that's correct I doubt the PC10 question will ever be settled. But maybe some variation in PC10 on your Camels Jester?

[Jesters-Ink]

N8897 is a movie camel and looking at some of the film footage, this aircraft does appear to have more of a green tint to it. As for the SN, who knows what the film makers were thinking, it was supposed to represent Browns mount shown below it.

I don't think any harm will be done by adding a little bit more of a green tint to the odd one or two profiles.

Like I said in my above post, I will go through each point Andy has made and hit the books for backing up what he says.

It's the research that takes the time, not the drawing