Wings of Intent: De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapide G-AKIF

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: