The De Havilland DH 88 Comet is, for many modelers, a celebration of beauty. Its racy but elegant lines gleam with refinement and charm.
The story of the type is well known or can be easily
accessed so I won’t be repeating it here, but perhaps a few modelers will not
know that the red machine popularized by Airfix decades ago was not at any rate
the only one produced.
The model (G-ADEF) presented here represents “Boomerang”, a
machine (The fifth and last built) that didn’t participate in the MacRobertson
Air Race of 1934 but later on was engaged in record attempts.
The DH 88 design (machine G-ACSS) not only won the
above-mentioned race but also achieved fame for its records and feats.
I remember building this model as a child and it didn’t change much -if at all- over the decades,
and some (but not unreasonable) work must be done in order to squeeze a decent replica
from it.
The kit I got was a generous gift from fellow modeler and
friend Jim of Pugetopia. He has a farm where he raises Midget Mutant Furry Black Seals
that are trained to cook, mow the lawn and sand the decks.
Work on the model started by separating all control
surfaces, deleting the parody of cockpit (a flat slab and two humanoid heads)
and creating a recess to later install the flaps.
An interior was created as per images, mostly sratchbuilt
but also using a couple of photoetched parts. The canopy was used to create a
vac copy together with a clear nose tip as per images. Decals were produced for
the two instrument panels and compasses.
The general fit of the Airfix kit, as countless generations
of modelers know by now, is not superb. The main problems are the wings and the
engine gondolas. The latter are just empty shells that have a sore-looking
front. I removed their locating pins as they are there to misalign the
assembly. The left horizontal stabilizer has its slot on the fuselage
misaligned too; you have to file the slot down to make the stab half seat
correctly. A basic resemblance of the engines was built and glued inside of the
nacelles as per images to provide something to look at through the front
opening. An exhaust that can also be seen in photos was also added using simple
soldering wire. The landing gear is kind of simplistic. Now, for some reason, I
didn’t notice all of the above when I was a kid. I was happy then making engine
noises around the living room table and I am happy now working on the model
exercising skills and learning new solutions.
I added styrene discs to the wheels to compensate for some
molding flaws. The props followed suit, as the blades are of dubious shape,
flat, and the spinner has little to do with the real thing. Blades were
removed, the spinner smoothed out and the division seen in photographs
engraved. There is a minute disc at the very tip of the spinner which depicts
the automatic mechanism to change pitch in the original, and a tiny bit in the
middle of the disc.
Nav lights and a tail skid were made too, together with the
counterweights for the tail control surfaces.
Floquil silver and Model Master blue were used on the model,
which was previously primed and given a gloss black enamel undercoat to provide
a background for the silver.
Props and spinners were painted Alclad II polished aluminum.
Decals were home-made, even for the tiny Ratier logos for
the prop blades. A model rail-road MV lens was glued at the tip of the nose
behind the vac bit. A combination of photoetched circles and punched-out metal
foil discs were used to depict inspection lids and fuel tank caps. The canopy
framing was done with decal strips and positioned open, to add some “let’s go” flavor to it.
And as we all well know, now after spending all that time
and effort on the venerable Airfix Comet a new 1/72 DH 88 kit will be released.
Or will it?
No comments:
Post a Comment