De Havilland D.H.80 Puss Moth / AVI 1/72nd + Peewit masks

 

Certain types, given their simplicity of lines and harmonious design earn a place as "classics".

This De Havilland D.H.80 Puss Moth is a good example. A nice civil kit of a known type that saw extended use, with many potential color schemes and even many surviving examples.

AVI's kit is fair in general with good detail, beautifully clear transparencies and realistic treatment of the wing surfaces, but a bit let down by inexplicable hiccups. I would say this is not one for the beginners. The designer didn't get correctly the side windows bottom partition line in respect to the fuselage (see the building article) and missed the doors, plus the anchoring of the landing gear legs, and struts is challenging, as their locations are just dimples. The wing has a very small tongue at its root that inserts into the transparencies.

If built with care -and corrections are made- it will render a nice model (provided, as said above, you sort out the absence of doors, the mistaken rendition of the lower section of the side windows (that should have been part of the fuselage sides), a batten that runs in the wrong place and other minutia). Beware that there could be small variations from plane to plane, so check photos when possible, and remember that restored planes sometimes do not follow to the letter the original.

For a glimpse at the building process and the problem areas please visit the step-by-step article:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/08/de-havilland-dh80a-puss-moth-avi-models.html

As explained in the building article, I saw a photo of the plane on wheels taken in Egypt -where it spent part of its life- the same registration that the kit represents on floats. I decided to build it on wheels, doing away with the floats and associated parts (I recently built and posted several floatplanes and needed to come ashore).

AVI deserves credit for creating these beautiful civil types that other manufacturers won't favor, with good and delicate detail, but we hope that the silly mistakes mentioned above will not be repeated in future releases.

Yet another beauty from the Golden Age of Aviation, serenely cruising the skies of imagination.