This sopwith by Airfix was brought for the wopping great price of £2.50 and on inspection of the model pieces you can clearly see why this was only £2.50.
So first thing first, this will be a quick step by step diorama built on the cheap.

There isn't an awful lot of parts to this model.

Not a very good fit, but the pilot doesn't look to bad.
I normally give everything a base coat of paint, any old colour that I have to hand, the pilot is more or less finished.

This kit represents the RNAS contract Sopwith 2F.1 (Ship's Camel).

Seing this old venerable kit reminds me of my first dabble at WW1 aviation, the Airfix dogfight doubles sets. It also reminds me why we shouldnt whine and complain about our current kit producers so much.

Maybe a group Airfix, Aurora or Glencoe build would bring us all back to earth with a bump?

Keith

Not a bad idea Keith , still got the Hannover on hand

Yes the very same aircraft that shot down a German Zep I believe, however for the sake of £2.50 and a somewhat splash of disappointment with the poor ill fitting pieces, I simply intend to have some fun, and build this as a small dio.

The first paint going on, once everything has been filed/sand down I'll normally spray over with a colour, this helps to hold the main paint to the somewhat slippy plastic skin.
With the body engine and wing assembled, a quick paint job.

Quickly moving to a final stage by using a gloss varnish, this will later on go to hold the decals/transfers as they use to be called.

I dare say there are many ways of applying decals, I try and try again until I am happy with something that works for me. Using the gloss does 2 things, it will give the original coat of paint a dull more fuller coat, also it allow the decal to settle down onto the surface much better, this os course is allowed to dry, I am working night shift, so a little bit more later.

Gloss varnish has now been applied and allowed to completely dry, I can now begin decal work.

And finally to complete the build, the top wing.

Yes I could wire these struts out, but in this case, I'm not going to, as everything is left to dry, decal/glue and a touch of paint, I will be turning my attention towards the diorama base. This will be a simple MDF board with some HO (could be wrong) scale grass that I brought way back when, also basic bits and pieces I have found in the odd box or laying around, this is after all building a diorama on the cheap, and so far £2.50 is very cheap.

Without to much doubt, there are people on this site that can give much better advice and tips then I ever could, I don't generally build aircraft, next month I'll be off to Telford the U.K big model show, the above pix and following story is everything in my view, its not how and why just the way I build and how I have built this diorama and obviously for those much better at this then me, can give a much better diorama effort. The point of this, if someone like me can build a reasonably good diorama for as little as £5.00, then anyone can.
Okay - above is setting out the ground work for the base, MDF, grass effect and a black pen marking out the low point for reduced hight of grass, the idea is simple, an open board and positioning until something falls into place and looks good.
Tips - and we're not talking the 3.30 at Catford LOL - if Preiser did WW1 pilots then they would be fantastic, they don't, or at lease I can't find any. So, DDS as above ''Pilots of the First World War'' are very well detailed, also when sticking down any grass effect, I'll use something called acrylic gell, this is a white based medium that will dry completely clear, great for mixing paint and also for holding thing down (once dry).
A bit later on I'll try and take a few more pix and post.

I will be using most of these DDS figures, made from a soft plastic, they tend to flake if handled to much.

Mapping out the base is always good fun, tall damp grass, deep mud, an odd gate standing all by itself seemingly doing nothing, a few cork rocks all go to make this diorama, the white stuff you can see is the gell I mentioned above somewhere, the dry mud is pigment by MIG.

These are the DDS figures.

I'm just a tad to fast to remove the mould lines as you can see, also I am not 100% happy with the faces, still not a bad effort.

And finally the completed diorama -



Well that was fun, a 1-72 Sopwith originally brought for £2.50 and diorama base made for ------------- ? just some spare time, I already have/had the small boards of MDF, the grass and everything else I found in my junk boxes, so you could say everything £2.50 which can't be bad for a hobby, marks out of 10 ? To be honest, and without blowing my own trumpet, I'd say 4 out of 10.
Today I got myself an Eduard 1-48 Bristol F.2B fighter, and what a beauty it is, I have this by Airfix in 1-72 with approx 20/25 pieces, the new 1-48 there's 2 large full bags of pieces, I'm going to have to sit down and really study this one, in the mean time. Any comments on my buuilding a diorama on the cheap then please feel free to do so, and this means both GOOD and BAD comments.
Thank you for your time.