De Havilland D.H.60 Gipsy Moth, double build, 1/72 Avis and Amodel kits

A rather classic subject, and thus unusual for me, but here is a build of two Moths.
I bought the Amodel and Avis releases believing they were different molds, but no luck.
A very old Amodel mold was released long ago, and that was different (and not in a good way).
Therefore, here are two Moths, one for me and other for dear friend David the Tall of Chicago.
As much I may know about really arcane subjects, I am a total illiterate on these widespread types, and had to start to educate myself.
In any case, here are the boxings and contents.
There are many versions out there in different releases, but apparently the sprues are more or less the same. Save that the seaplane has floats, of course, and the Amodel has an extra wing with slats.

I started with the cockpits, but noticed the strange absence of the front joystick.

 Nope, nothing in the instructions. I was told that often the first joystick, usually the student or passenger joystick, was removed and stored:

Floats AND trolley:

I had replaced the kit's joysticks (that only provides one, by the way, for the back seat), but I wasn't happy with them either, thus I made better ones:

I know what version friend David wants, on wheels, but I still haven't decided which would I do, hust in case, I am building the trolley and floats (clamped in the photo):

 What??? what are these parts doing in MY sprues!
Heresy! Sabotage!

 My guess is that they got things wrong here. The parts should go where the little squares are, not where the plan is indicating:

 As in there:

The floats have detail, a bit faint in parts:

 When that seams is cleaned, those inspection caps will go away, thus new are made punching kitchen foil:

 Once you clean the parts, most look really nice, and with pleasant detail:

Cleaning proceeds carefully, but at a good pace:

 The closer I look at the parts as I clean them,  the more respect I develop for the master maker.
The impression of vagueness comes actually form the molding process, not the parts themselves.

 I also love that with these kits you get a lot of spares!!

Whatever parts was practical to remove and clean, are in the container, ready for assembly. Smaller bits or those that can create confusion, are still in the sprues:

Another issue with the instructions.
They will have you glue the other half of the engine with that flat ridge upwards:

This is the wrong position for the part

If you put the part like so, as the instructions ask, it will go ill:

 Problem is, if you do that, the fuselage top won't close:

 The way to glue the part is all the way around, that flat ridge down:

 Thus allowing the fuselage to close, and providing a base for those cylinders, and closing of the gap in that space inside:

 You may have to "help" a bit with the fit thinning that "flute" or air channel:

 The small and sorta cute chunky representations of the throttle quadrants. I actually used them (they can be seen glued already above in one of the images):

The fit of this part of the floor that comes separate is not good. The opening in the fuselage sides has to be enlarged, the the cross-member on the part has to be trimmed back, or it will bump onto the sides:

A first airbrushing session is in the makings:

Base color:

It's been a long day, but there is not much to show at the end of it.
Preparing the floats for the Moth (just in case I want to use them) and a pair of repurposed Norseman floats for a floaty Dragon Rapide. I corrected the shape and am adding the right detail to make them more like the EDO floats they are supposed to represent.
The diorama props are further assembled and enhanced.
Some detail painting on the fuselages of the Moths and an unrelated prop:

More work on the interior before closing the fuselage:

Fuselage halves joined. The fit is not good, as we knew. But can be worked out with patience and ulterior puttying:

To provide prop rotation, the axle is retained by a piece of styrene, thus avoiding the almost universal silly expedient of having to glue the prop at this stage to achieve the same, creating a painting and masking nightmare in the process. How many decades this impractical feature has been carried on?:

 Nose on, airscoop hollowed:

In an incredible, almost unreal feat of modeling, I glued the lower wings to both fuselages.
I deem these builds 99% complete, the worst is surely over...or is it?

First coat of primer revealed more blemishes than I was hoping for. So back to the filler and sanding and priming it is:

The tin foil inspection caps are added to the floats, before the last coat of primer:

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!!
 
Well, I was almost leaning toward the Arctic explorer original boxing for my Moth, but fate intervened...again.
Unfortunately it seems that G-AAUR's registrations were not white, nor was the expedition title on the fuselage.
For you amazement, amusement and perusing, here is a PDF with photos that shows that.
http://www.dhmcc.com/November 2016 Newsletter.pdf
O also got more photos showing a color on those regs and lettering (compared to white or metal objects) further proving my doubts.
So all things being equal, if I can't use the kit's decals, then I rather do whatever other subject, related (G-AAZR, the other Moth in the expedition, of different colors) or not.
There are a couple of images that are "burnt" and seem to show white regs, but better (and more) photos show it may have been not so.
In fact, in some photos the lettering has the same hue of the wings, not looking like aluminium -as the kit would have it, compared with the aluminium or aluminium-painted (white?) floats.
 
Therefore: Beware, you proud owners of this boxing, things may not be as viewed by Avis in this regard.
 
I just went back to the photos but the Moth logo (that was silver) on the tail has a higher reflective rate than the surroundings (supposedly also silver).
Here is page 5 of the photo catalog at the Scott Polar Research Institute, where the first photos of the planes appear.
You may follow on to page 6, etc, for more photos.
https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/picturelibrary/catalogue/baare/gallery/page5.html

https://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/?s=moth&images=1
and following pages.
 
Nah, John, those wings I believe unlikely that they were silver dope...
Again, look at the logo on the fin and the general hue of the flying surfaces:

Has been suggested by John Adams that these colors were black and orange, with white floats. I tend to agree.

Nice detail as mentioned before:

 Here the two Moths as now. To remove and clean those very small, very fragile struts is a task better carried with patience and care...
NOTICE : the different upper wings (with and without slats), the differently bent exhausts, different rudders, different fuel tank on top. 

 The Arctic plane had a little blister on the cheek, that flew from the sprue to the Great Beyond, so another was made:

The mechanical resistance of those tiny and weak components is close to nil (that's no fault of the manufacturer, they are closer to scale).
Since assembling the upper wing and undercarriage unavoidably involve stresses, this will be interesting.
What have I gotten myself into, and doubly so!:

NOTES: parts 15 and 18 are mixed (reversed) in the instructions. One is a tailskid and the other a joystick.
This is the second mishap (the first being the engine the instructions will have you glue downside-up) -that I could tell.

Another issue with the kit you should correct: The section of the floor that comes separate has a crossbar as part of it. The thickness of the part is insufficient to be flush with the rest of the floor (as I found out it should be), and the crossbar will impede the part to be located lower to match the rest the floor:

Correction is needed:

Bottoms leveled:

 And structure in place:

The redoing of the problematic area is done:

 The floats are ready too for the white coat:

The floats are united via brass Strutz, as I did not trust the kit's exiguous injected plastic braces.
The beaching trolley was used to some extent to get things aligned, but -given the imprecise nature of the parts in this kit- good ole eyeball is necessary:

Painting of a few parts for both models begins:

The landing gear and a pair of cabane struts are in.
All locations are marked, but need further drilling or fiddling to accept the parts.
The cabane struts attach sideways, a not very elegant solution.
To say that the landing gear is a fiddly assembly is an understating.

Somebody was watching the soccer match when they should have been paying more attention:

More shenanigans: The engine fairing should stop before the canopy, and not run all the way to the opening, otherwise it prevents the canopy from seating properly. Hey, a DIY kit!.
The small section will have to be removed (This also valid for the "normal" configuration, the fairing should stop before the windshield):

 The aft portion of canopy fairing is glued in place.
The aft portion of the engine fairing (too long in the model) is nicked back as described above to allow the canopy to be set in place: 
The kit does have some small pips in the guise of control horns, but they are replaced for more visually effective photo-etched ones:

The canopy for the Arctic version is masked. Not easy, really, in such small size and without clear indications (there are some . I looked at photos:

 I think it's ready for the paint. Once more, the way Avis solved the cabane struts is not completely satisfactory, as it's a bit heavy for the scale in regards as how the struts comes from the side and stand a bit too much that way. Vertical/Diagonal slots would have been preferable for me, so the struts can be more "flat" against the fuselage:

A miscellaneous collection of parts for both models is airbrushed in several colors:

The canopy for the float version and the struts for the land version are painted:

Wheels and prop also ready:

For the nitpickers among you:
The Arctic plane seems in photos to have a pressed metal Fairey-Reed prop, with the same spinner of one of the provided props, but it's actually not covered by any of the kit's variants.
I will leave mine in peace, since it's hard to tell the difference in 1/72 unless you look for it.

Nevertheless I made Fairey-Reed prop from scratch, to show that is possible:

Masks are made for the orange areas in G-AANL. For that I had to scan, resize and print the side view, since it is not to scale in the instructions:

 Masks applied, sorting the struts and relief detail:

 Aluminium is airbrushed on the lower wing, whilst a gloss white base is needed on the other surfaces before the aluminium is applied:

 The flying surfaces of G-AAUR are also sprayed white in preparation for the light orange:

The time has arrived for the convoluted masking of G-AANL, the model for my friend.
He hasn't the remotest idea of how time-consuming this task resulted to be.
I would use the trope "I became very familiar with the curves of this little Moth" to describe the process of producing and adjusting the masks*, but I can only imagine the barrage of unsavory comments that this declaration would entice.
*By hand, no software, not plotter, no nothing.

Gloss black is airbrushed:

And now the masks are off:

The masks of the second model are lifted:

The canopy is on. The fit needed a bit of adjusting:

 The small gap between the fin and stab, as per the original:

 The exhaust has to be "threaded" through the first inverted V pair of struts:

 Two very fine wire holders were inserted in drilled holes in the fuselage to support the pipe, as per the original. I had removed the kit's oversized ones that were located on the pipe:

Wheels and stab in place on the other model:

I have spent some time doing dry runs of the addition of the upper wing.
The vague nature of the moldings that particularly impacts small parts like the struts regarding length, affects alignment and positioning.
This is aggravated by the flimsy nature of the parts involved (they are closer to scale, which on the other hand is good).
After many trials, I could not commit to glue the upper wing on either of the models. I have built many, many, many biplanes before, but these little fellas are giving me grief.
The cabane struts in my samples are a tad too long, so the external wing struts "float" and can't reach their locations. Trimming back the cabane struts equally and to the proper length is tricky business.
I will give it a rest until tomorrow, but I just wanted to make a note of the things encountered at this stage for those who have the kits.
These kits are in some regards very similar to the New Airfix's DH82, and I know the former are short run while the latter isn't, but the Airfix kit is a much more precise (and therefore more pleasant) affair.
Nothing terrible, mind you, but I take note of these things.
Abler hands may not encounter issues at all, though.

Finally the upper wings went on:

Finally the floats went on, after much struggle.
In the original plane the decalage (angular difference) between thrust line and floats is quite noticeable (this normally facilitates take-off and alighting), but I think the kit got that angle higher than it should be.
In any case, I don't want to risk another nightmarish session of relocating everything, so that's how it's going to be. There are minute misalignments too, that nag me greatly, but I had it with this one.

Most of the rigging is done. Little benches for the aft part of the floats are fabricated, so the model can stand with some dignity:

 I have to wait now a bit for the decals that I just commissioned, and the queue is long, as we know 😉
After decaling is done, it will be then possible to add the many control cables, stab struts and other details. So this one goes into hibernation, and we will continue with the other model:

G-ANNL follows suit with the rigging and windscreens, and will go to hibernation until the decals arrive for completion of rigging and details:

The decals for moth models have arrived from Arctic Decals in Finland. The usual high quality product:

 Decal application started, and after an afternoon of work all went well. The sets even included the DH decals that go in the struts and the multicolored Moth logo:

 Control cables and props added. An advance of the post with the completed models:

To be continued...