Avis 1/72 DH60G Gipsy Moth Coupe seaplane

 An Arctic explorer:

(The construction post can be visited here):

 https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/05/de-havilland-dh60-gipsy-moth-double.html

Identical to the Amodel release 

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/10/amodel-172-dh60-moth.html

but with added parts, the generic sprues will allow you to put some nice little things on the spares bin.

I commissioned for this model a set from Arctic Decals, as I wasn't happy with the kit's choices regarding color and marks, after studying many photos of the original plane. The set also included details missed by the manufacturer.

I really like many of the Avis/Amodel subjects, and greatly compliment them on the release of a variety of attractive, mysterious, significant and beautiful civil planes. I have bought many, as a way to support their choices.

Their moldings are delicate enough, the parts count satisfying, the level of detail generous, and the subjects as said wonderful. One can tell that the masters were good, but...the short-run nature of the molding process unfortunately affects much of the good, rendering the fit quite vague -to say the least-, and frankly bad in many cases. The engineering is not always the best, and the chunky nature of some of the resulting parts forces you to much cleaning and adjusting, and dry-fit is an absolute must.

This kit was no different, the canopy fit was poor, and (the worst part for me) the floats and associated struts were a veritable freaking nightmare to assemble and align The struts were not the right size, their anchoring points vague and inefficient.

Now, I am used to tame kit beasts, of all sorts and qualities, but even after many, many attempts, I am not satisfied with the floats and its struts, and still have some minor misalignments, something I am not happy at all. But at some point it was either trash can or just leave it at that.

As explained, I commissioned my own decal set as I did not trust Avis' color choices or marks. My choices are somewhat speculative, even if based on what we like to call educated guesses, so the scheme colors are far from being truly reliable.

I have another boxing of the DH60 by Avis or Amodel somewhere in the stash, but I won't be building again their two-float seaplane, as it did not work -for me- at all.

I would rather build one of the many colorful schemes you can see around on wheels.