De Havilland D.H.4a - Vintage 1/72nd Airfix civil passenger conversion

 

For the step-by-step building article, some historical notes, and the color choice documentation, please go here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/de-havilland-dh4a-civil-conversion-of.html

The plane modeled is neither the first (no cabin), second -still in factory colors-, or last -as seen in the King's Cup, also blue, white fuselage regs and with even more changes- but the third, already all blue, as here:

Here is a conversion of the D.H.4 vintage Airfix kit into a D.H.4a, at the time (1919/20) a stop-gap measure to secure civil transport in a more comfortable way, serving in the fledgling airlines created after the Great War.

Arctic Decals produced the set used on this model with their usual high quality and accuracy. They also have in catalog one sheet corresponding to a later incarnation of this same machine:

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=21443/386815

The conversion entails:

-the deletion of military equipment

-the addition of the passenger cabin with its cover and fairing

-all control horns substituted for metal items

-rigging and control cables added

-new, accurate propeller fabricated (as this plane used two superimposed two-blade props, not a four-blade one)

-addition of the external controls levers that move the elevator cables on the fuselage sides

-subduing the original overdone kit surfaces

-modifying the radiator front for a more accurate representation

-adding the much longer exhaust pipes

-fabricating the passengers’ access ladder

-changing the location of the gravity fuel tank under the upper wing to the other side of the pilot (the kit has it in the wrong side)

-Opening the central bays of the upper wing and install a central rib

-miscellaneous detail (wind-driven generators, fuel caps, etc.)

This will be a nice addition to the growing collection of similarly-modified post-war planes built so far, a good exercise for any modeler wanting a little challenge without going full-scratch:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/01/junkers-cl1-j-10-civil-conversion.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-bristol-tourer-conversion-from-f2b.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/07/modified-172-eastern-express-ex-toko.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/07/modified-vacuum-formed-joystick-models.html

As part of the photography props, a Keil Kraft 1914 Dennis fire engine was built, and an Engine & Things resin Rolls Royce Eagle (that is a little outdated in compared to much modern offers) is posed on a wooden support close to it, as if the engine was just replaced. There are a few things that could have been better (a feeling I have with every single finished model, even after more than 400 of them), but hey, it's not bad.

For some reason, I find much pleasure in turning "swords into ploughshares" and in giving old kits a second chance.