abufletcher

On my Sopwith Snipe, due to the exceptionally short nose, I had to fit a ton of stuff into a very small space. No only was there almost no depth available for a dummy, but I also had to pack an obscene amount of weight into the farthest forward position, to get it to balance correctly.

So the only possibility was to use a "photo dummy." I started by contacted the British Imperial War Museum where I was able to get a high-res image of the actual Bentley BRII rotary used in the Snipe. The problem was that the photo was of a display engine where one of the cylinders had been cut open. (I hate it when they do that.) So I had to photoshop out that problem. Then I decided I wanted to add some depth to the photo illusion, so I made a metal crankcase out of the bottom of a spray paint can and added the rocker rods. The photo (which was clear coated) was mounted on a sheet of 1/16" ply and this was in turn mounted on a 1/4" thick lead plate that I created by melting fishing weights in a pan. As you can see the total dummy weighed in at a hefty...and necessary...half kilo!

I also created a image that represents what the rotary would look like in flight, but decided to go with the still image.