Summary of pictures

On the full size Sopwith Pup, one side of the fabric covering was fitted with a laced join that could be opened, to allow access to the internals of the rear of the fuselage for inspection and repair.

The many internal bracing and control cables required adjustment from time to time, as well as the repair of the odd bullet hole.

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Lacing on full sized aircraft.

Lacing on full sized aircraft

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Lacing strip prep 1.

To create the lacing strip, I used strips of covering,  I started with a strip 21mm wide and folded a 7mm edge back onto the strip from one side and then the other, resulting in a 7mm wide strip 3 layers thick leaving both edges rounded and all glue faces internal.

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Lacing strip prep 2.

Taking two strips made as per the step above, I then ironed them onto a 14mm wide strip of covering leaving a 0.5 mm gap between them.

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Hole punch setup.

To ensure a nice even row of eyelets I set up a punch in my drill stand.

This is done by simply drilling a hole in a piece of steel and then inverting the drill bit and using the shank as a punch.

Grinding the end of the drill bit flat with a sharp edge improves the finish of the hole.

In the picture you can see another hole 8mm to the left, I place another drill bit in that hole to control the pitch of the holes.

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Hole punching.

Punching the holes in an even pattern.

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Cutting eyelets.

The only eyelets I could find with my desired head diameter were too long.
I wanted to keep the bulge on the back of my lacing strip as small as possible so I decided to cut all of the 250 eyelets shorter.
I took a square section piece of steel and drilled a hole through it the same diameter as the tube of eyelet.
I then opened the hole up on one side to allow the head of the eyelet to enter the block, leaving the portion I want to remove poking out.
I then made a cutting blade and mounted the tools in my drill press.

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Eyelet cutting mandrel.

The eyelets are mounted on a mandrel during cutting to stop the eyelet crushing.

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Eyelets cut to size.

Eyelets cut to size.

Lot and lots of them.

For size comparison...
The Australian $2 coin is 20mm dia.

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Eyelet punch.

Eyelet punch mounted in the drill press.

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Eyelet set ( under side).

Eyelet set in place ( underside )

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Boot lace strip fixed in position and laced.

Boot lace strip fixed in position and laced.

This was my test piece. I have seen where some people thread the lacing and then fix the strip to the model.
The lace loops on the back of the strip then create a bulge where there should not be one.

I fixed the lacing strip in place using Balsaloc and then drilled through the inner covering and threaded the lacing through all layers.
This was very time consuming as I have all of the inner fuselage bracing in place.
But now the strip lays flat and appears more realistic.

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Lacing on model 1.

Here the lacing is finally on the model.

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Lacing on model 2.

Another view of the lacing on the model.