De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapide G-AKIF - Heller 1/72nd

 

 The svelte lines of this iconic machine are reminiscent of a Golden Age when time flowed slower and beauty still showed in the design of planes.

 (The completed model can be seen here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/06/de-havilland-dh89-dragon-rapide.html

 I love this plane and kit (although for different reasons) so much so that I already lost count of how many of them I have built. Here are just some:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/08/dh89-dragon-rapide-seaplane-uruguay.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/08/canadian-dragon-hic-sunt-dracones-part.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/04/de-havilland-dh89-dragon-rapide-hercule.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/06/de-havilland-dh89-tainui-macrobertson.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/06/normal-0-false-false-false.html

This will be the model of a plane that is still flying providing joyrides in England, in elegant and somewhat circumspect (as corresponds to a Brit) white and blue scheme, a plane my arch-nemesis David the Tall recently had a ride on. Knowing his world-renowned puking abilities, the plane was provided on this occasion with the proverbial bucket. Truth be honored, David did not use it. He waited until he was in terra firma and puked only after a particularly racy trip on a mad cab. I apologize for the digestion-related narrative, but it provides a note of color to the post (that didn't come out right). 

Of the old and venerable Heller kit -known by all-  perhaps not much more can be said. It has two intrinsic flaws: the horizontal tail with wrongly-angled rib detail and a root angle that if left uncorrected will "bend" the hing line, plus and an aileron actuator out of place by one bay. You may like to correct this if you aim for a more accurate model. Both corrections are described below.

I have extracted so much modeling juice from this old kit, and yet didn't exhaust its possibilities. If you click on the links above and then go to the step-by-step building articles, you will see that I opened doors, deployed flaps, completely modified the interiors -even adding toilets!-, employed after-market detail, etc. etc. This build will have a somewhat simpler approach, to just show the uninterrupted lines of this beaut. 

Regarding the after-market accessories that can be used with this kit: an Arctic Decals set that covers masks and "metal" window frames (I have used it before to great satisfaction); diverse decal sets by the same manufacturer; a comprehensive Kuivalainen photo-etched set (now oop, unfortunately), a photo-etched SBS set that covers rigging, aileron actuators and a couple bits; a Tasman kit+set that provides night advertisement "lights" or alternate decals and extra bits, and a Whirlybird set whose contents are not shown online, also most likely oop.
In 1/72nd scale one other kit exists that I am aware of: an equally old and venerable RarePlane vac.

Starting with the corrections. An important thing: the actuators were connected with a linkage running inside the struts, therefore the linkages should be aligned with them, especially if you use the aftermarket photo-etched items:

 

The rib detail is inaccurately following the root angle, when in fact it's parallel to the line of flight:

The molded detail is sanded away:

 New rib tapes engraved:

 

The engraving is completed, the root corrected by removing a thin wedge, a connecting tube provided, and the too-large rigging holes plugged with stretched styrene and re-drilled with a fine bit:

All imperfections and ejector pin marks should be removed, especially the ones in the window area, as they may hinder the fit of the clear parts:

The floor is molded curved, should be carefully bent until most of the cabin floor is straight:

Base colors airbrushed:

The interior is getting ready, this time with only a few additional touches:

Provided you do a good cleaning, the lower halves of the upper wing have a great fit and render a suitable scale thickness:

The infamous white bucket provided for David's personal use:

The transparencies are cleaned and given a bath in floor polish. To the left the list of things that need to be added:

The nacelles are assembled. The noses are given a mock cylinder glued behind the intake:

Nacelles in place:

The window deleted on the plane will be puttied over:

An improvised wind-driven generator is added. The prop will be added when the model is close to completion:

We modelers are annoyed by different things. the spinners have a cylindrical-conical shape, when it should be ogival:

The blades are cut off, and the spinner lightly turned into shape:

Blades reattached:

A couple of details added to the cockpit:

One window deleted as per the original. Interior being glued to one side:

As the prop tips were yellow, that color is applied to be later masked. The center section under the top wing is part of the cabin ceiling, so it is sanded deleting ejector pin towers, painted, and a couple of lights will be added later:

 This second hand kit most likely was exposed  to heat at some point, as one fuselage half was quite deformed; it took some degree of convincing to glue the halves together:

The lower wing goes in:

The Arctic Decals masks set is used to cover the windows. The canopy is added:

Top wing on and canopy masked. The fit of the upper wing is another known issue of the Heller kit. I make the wing coincide with the partial roots molded on the fuselage just above the windows. This creates a step on top with the forward and back fuselage roof, that has to be dealt with, using whatever method you can come up with. I tried several:

A section of styrene is added to make up for the step. Tiding of the seams starts:

The horizontal stabilizer is added. and there is more work on the seams ans blending the added styrene:

First coat of primer:

The canopy individual window panes are now masked. Among other details dealt with: the addition of the mass balance and nav. light to the rudder, the drilling of the positions of the nav lights on the upper wing, the drilling for the whip antenna and beacon positions on the fuselage back, drilling of the position for the smaller light below the nose, plugging and re-drilling of the exaggerated holes for the rigging of the tail area. The model is ready now for the white color:

A white coat goes on:

The set from Arctic Decals is spot on and as usual behaves perfectly:

The exhausts, smaller light below the nose and the red beacon on the aft belly can be seen here too:

Red decals for the fuel caps, sticks for the fuel gauge:

 The wing struts are now added:

The rigging of the tail area is done including the control horns. The struts that go from fuselage to nacelles are added:

Completed model:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/06/de-havilland-dh89-dragon-rapide.html

Granville Q.E.D racer - Plastic Passion / SBS Model resin in 1/72nd scale

 

 

(Photo from the SDASM photostream. https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/8392341345)

The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/05/gee-bee-r6h-qed-172nd-plastic-passion.html

Congratulations to Plastic Passion / SBS Models for releasing yet another beautiful and important racer. This is excellent news for the ones among us who love those speedy machines and their exciting stories.

The kit is in well-cast resin as one would expect from SBS, but since this is a joint venture with Plastic Passion, the parts come from masters made by Gábor Szabó, who many of us know for his excellent, beautifully-built  models, seen often on the Net. The feeling of the kit is slightly different from your typical SBS, its a bit heftier, the resin pouring blocks bigger and more "solid", making removal of the parts less speedy than with a typical SBS release. The fit is fairly good, but not as sharp again as with the other kits. You get interior and exterior detail, a bit simplified but sufficient for the average modeler and what can be actually seen. The engine and prop are generic and the most obsessive among us may like to improve those a bit. You get a decal sheet with several options, and additional parts for them. As for the plane color, I believe the shade of green on the kit is maybe too bright. The original "Lucky Strike Green" looks somewhat darker, and a bit duller. No interior colors are provided. 

The late and much-missed Jim Schubert wrote an article on the Seattle Chapter IPMS/USA
magazine of September 2014.

Contents: the kit comes in a very welcome sturdy box, well packed, with the parts bagged.

A view of the parts provided:

Those pouring gates need careful removal:

Parts separated from their casting blocks:

Washed:

Due to the interlocking design the main parts self-align and self-adjust. Not a very sharp fit, but fair, needing minor adjustments and some putty:

The LG legs also lock on the wing. These features put this kit above the usual butt-joint resin kit that charges the modeler with extra work:

As I am modeling the MacRobertson option, holes for the pants' lights need drilling. This is done with successively increasing diameters of drill bits, in order not the chip the resin:

The prop is generic, and has the counterweights molded as triangles (to facilitate de-molding). These are actually discs. The axle in the real plane is not a thin pip, but quite hefty, and so is the prop hub:

 

The counterweights are replaced with punched-out styrene discs, and a small section of tube is going to be mounted on the tiny pip to better resemble the original. The "discs" do not point directly to the front, but follow the inclined plane of the blades. Others may like to replace the prop altogether:

The Q.E.D. cockpit doors were located only on the left side, not on the right. The small vertical partitions on the latter should me puttied over (very easily done):

The kit suffers, like most kits, of interioritis, that is an inflammation and swelling of the interior that prevents the fuselage sides from closing tightly. A few doses of sanding stick, measuring the response of the patient as you go, and problem solved:

The engine is also generic. Those among us that suffer from OCD, may like a more detailed replacement (the original engine was a P&W Hornet, Small Stuff sells a fantastic one, there are other brands on the market), although its adaptation will require extra work:

Base colors are airbrushed:

As you can see the limited amount of parts and the simplicity of the assembly translates into a faster build (not that anyone should rush, we all know what that leads to).

I just can't help myself. Another engine is prepared and another prop of more accurate proportions is scratchbuilt:

A joystick was lost to the Twang Dimension, thus more are made (spares always find their way into another project, saving time down the lane):

The cockpit pan is glued to one side. The seam indicated by the arrow will mercilessly show, so a headrest or auxiliary bulkhead must be devised:

Like this, leaving a space to clear the canopy:

If another engine is used, most likely an extension like this one will need to be employed, lodged in the kit's cavity molded to plug the provided engine:

Wing and horizontal tail are glued. As explained, they self-align. The fit is fair, but will necessitate some filler:

A bit of an issue. In the original plane, the exhaust is a collector ring, the stacks are present only on later modifications, and the cowl covers them almost entirely. The kit's cowl can't do that, being narrower (see bellow, in this configurations  as just mentioned there were no stacks, but a collector ring and two exhausts at the bottom and sides) so the cowl may not be narrow for the collector ring, but the stacks have to go for all the versions provided in the kit:

You may add two retractable bar steps and a foothold seen in photos:

When eventually installing the cowl do not install it parallel to the first panel line, as it is inclined -that is, not perpendicular to the thrust line (which is correct, the original also had that inclined panel line). The wheels won't fit in the spats, so the little axles that protrude to the sides have to be sanded down. Bear in mind that the wheels are molded flattened, so put the proper area down as if touching the ground -and at the right ground angle:

The home-built prop is being dressed up:

The seams are undergoing puttying and sanding, and the little holes where the rigging goes are used as a guide to re-drill them approximately at the angle that the rigging goes, as I use "ceramic wire" for it. 

As noted above: the exhaust system went through some changes, individual exhaust stacks WERE NOT PRESENT for the MacRobertson, Thompson or Bendix, but were present for Sarabia's "Conquistador del Cielo" and "#61" flown by George Armistead (that is, later in the life of the plane). So, fellow modelers, look at photos of the EXACT plane you want to model, and deal with the exhausts if needed (as explained, you will need to delete those exhaust stacks for ALL the versions on the decal sheet). For the kit's versions there was a collector ring and what looks like two exhausts under and to the sides of the cowl, so all those little stacks have to go. This will also allow me to sand down a bit the nose, giving a bit more clearance around the cowl to match photos.

Puttying now those partitions on the right hand-side and the remains of the exhaust stacks. As you can see the  model builds relatively quickly, and having a god surface and just one color to apply helps that further. If not for those little corrections and the changes I decided to make (prop, engine) the model could have been completed now:

The kit unfortunately doesn't include canopy masks, I wish it had, as it is a big time saver and commercial masks are almost always more precise than home-made ones. The main sections are easy enough, but the front of the canopy requires care, and marring the superb clarity of the transparency would be such a bummer. Mayhaps in the future either SBS or Peewit or someone else would release them as an aftermarket item.

Time to add the landing gear legs and tailskid. In reality the tailskid was formed by leaf springs. All fits well:

First coat of primer and as usual a few touch-ups to be made:

The prop with Hamilton Standard logos, absent from the kit's decal sheet. These came from:

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=21459/949254

The lights provided (one spare, is if as they knew modelers...😃) for the pants are well molded, and, very nicely (and sincerely, unexpectedly) they include this detail: the lenses are recessed exactly like the original, so when you mask the mask should go inside leaving a thin protruding rim:

The decal sheet is missing, for the MacRobertson race, the number on the belly (46, same as in the vertical tail):

So one may need to be made by the modeler. (easy enough if you have a printer, even just a black laser printer: scan the tail number on the decals sheet, cut a circle from white decal paper and then added the printer number as another decal, or print the black number on white decal sheet and cut a circle around). Hopefully new batches of this kit may have an additional image as an errata.

At this point, before painting, I added the masked wheel pants lights and the small spread bar/rigging cables fairing provided in the kit between them. The canopy is an excellent fit and clarity:

Airbrush in action:

Canopy and lights' masks off:

The kit does not include the navigation lights, a CMK set can provide those, or they can be fabricated.

On second thought, after modifying the kit's prop to make it somewhat closer to reality, and then scratching a better one, I decided to have a go again to get further close to the real thing with its prominent features, hub, counterweights and stem*:

*(This is done because somehow I feel the spirit of the late Jim Schubert, -missed friend and ultimate perfectionist- looking over my shoulder and saying "maybe you can do better than that" 😏)**

**(I know the same spirit amicably haunts Tim Nelson and other fellow modelers)

Perhaps better now:

The retractable steps are fabricated:

The nose is glued. The QED had an eight-rod cowl support, prominent in photos, arranged in a special way (not completely radial). This has been done with lengths of thin wire:

The wheels go on.  Ready for decaling and the addition of the new prop and other details:

The decals are applied. They take a long time to loosen, but they are in register, the colors are solid and they have good definition. Beware, they are thin (which is good), so avoid folding them:

The kit is missing the number on the belly, which was home-made. When applying the regs on the wings, position them so the rigging locations are between the 4 and the 3.

Decals should be applied before rigging.

Resin lights -not provided in the kit- form a CMK set are separated:

Rigging is added, as well as the nav lights and Pitot. You can also see the thin metal rods that held the front of the cowl. The two exhaust stacks visible in photos are added at the bottom/sides of the cowl:

Propeller added, as explained, this is my third and most successful try at providing a more accurate prop for the model:

Retractable steps in place. Model photographed with phone in bad lighting, when weather allows it, the completed model post will be uploaded:

Completed model:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/05/gee-bee-r6h-qed-172nd-plastic-passion.html