World's First Multi-gun Fighter

Possibly it was, I admit I'm not sure. But there is something novel about this Sopwith Dolphin's armament, hence why I was interested in making it. You should be seeing straightaway that I've added two forward firing Lewis guns to the wings, additional to the twin Vickers set up in front of the cockpit. I've only given it a generic/simple finish, hence the lack of decals or rigging - although I did make a point of including the trigger wire from the guns to the cockpit: I wanted to add it to a group of types demonstrating solutions to the problem of how to fire straight ahead without synchronization gear.

However, this plane obviously does employ interrupter gear, for those Vickers guns. This is the KP (Czech manufacturer) 1:72 scale kit of the Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin, a British type from late in WWI. It was designed from the start as a multi-gun fighter (in other words, more than the usual two), benefiting from its strong construction and the power of its Hispano Suiza engine. But the standard fit of the extra Lewis guns had them placed on that bar just above the pilot's sight line, firing upwards at an angle. This was more useful than it sounds, reflecting a common scenario in WWI dogfighting. The big drawback was that it significantly obscured what was otherwise a superb field of view for the pilot, and most took off one or both guns.

You will also have noticed that the design of the Dolphin features rearwards wing stagger. The intention here was to put the pilot's head roughly where the upper wing blocked the least amount of his field of view, and pilots loved that. It was one particular squadron, No. 79, which decided not to waste the plane's multigun potential, and fitted Lewises to the lower wings experimentally. I haven't yet found any accounts of the success or otherwise of the arrangement, and to be honest if my scratch modeling looks a bit dodgy, it's because I only found two photos which showed the gun set up, and not very clearly. If you're wondering why guns weren't normally fitted to lower wings in WWI - as was normal in WWII - it's because they're out of reach there, at a time when guns frequently jammed in combat, and pilots wanted to be able to reach them to unjam them, and also of course to change the magazine.

Overall, the Sopwith Dolphin was a very good type, and one wonders why more of them weren't put into service. It can't have been on account of the engine's unreliability - which couldn't have been that bad, it was in such demand for all sorts of types, British and French - ah, that's the reason, isn't it? Along with the end of the conflict, which saw all Dolphin contracts canceled.

So, today it's little known and this KP kit is the first in 1:72 scale for some time. As far as I can tell it's accurate and pretty easy to build, maybe suffering a little from its 'short run' nature. Take the struts: having so many of them is somewhat intimidating but in the event I had no problem with them, in fitting and lining up and fixing the top wing. But it was a pain to clean up the parts, the struts especially, because of the way they're attached to the sprues. You don't tend to find fine attachments here, because in short run kits the sprue connections have to be thicker as a result of the plastic being extruded at lower pressure. And you may just be able to see a black blob on one of the struts; that's supposed to be the pitot tube, in reality just a crude spigot. As it happens, I didn't use the kit's Lewis guns on the lower wings, but some rather better moulded ones scavenged from a Roden kit.

For what it's worth you may still be able to find the now out of production Wingnuts Wings kit of the Sopwith Dolphin, which is 1:32 scale and probably far and away the very best kit of the type which anyone is ever likely to produce. Says he mournfully. Never mind, I'm glad I made this KP kit. It may not be conventionally attractive as planes go, but it is quite cute. If you ever go to the RAF Museum at Hendon, you should make a point of seeing the beautiful replica they have there.