De Havilland DH88 Comet "G-16" - Istres-Damascus-Paris race - Clear Prop! 1/72nd

 

 

 

Considered among the most beautiful designs that aviation ever produced, the De Havilland DH88 “Comet” is a favorite among modelers. This may explain why we have several kits of them from different manufacturers on the market. Having built them all (see the building post):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/11/de-havilland-dh88-comet-clear-prop-from.html

I would say that this Clear Prop! release can be proud of its position among those kits, and the fact that is injected plastic provides an option for those not comfortable with the material of the superb SBS Model resin kit.

The “Comet” needs no introduction.  Five in total were built (three of them specifically for the MacRobertson England to Australia race), and the number of possible schemes, as they changed hands down the lane, easily exceeds the dozen. Clear Prop! offering has superb detail, is in general a pleasure to build, with precise molding, mostly clever engineering and mostly good fit, which explains why having built already several Comets I wanted to build this one too. As I wasn’t ecstatic by the manufacturer's conventional scheme choice, I had a look at those other schemes. If you feel inclined to do that, notice that in many cases it’s not just a matter of slapping different decals and using other colors, but also taking care of different details on the nose, nacelles, cockpit and such. SBS Model by the way offers aftermarket decal sheets for “Black Magic” and “Salazar” in case you want to adapt them to this kit.

Clear Prop! is arguably among the best injected plastic manufacturers, but there is still room for improvement. I have a few comments on this otherwise nice kit: the wing halves fit is not good and needs material removed, and the canopy and cockpit opening look to me a bit off in shape. Still, I would buy any Golden Age, Early Bird, or Classic civil kit they may produce, without hesitation. As I already have built a model of the red G-ACSS, I adapted this kit to represent Comet race number “G-16” for the Istres-Damascus-Paris race, which was yet another reincarnation of the kit’s registration. Other avatars of the same plane are “The Burberry”, “Australian Anniversary”, and the original Istres-Damascus-Paris scheme before the race that had “G-16” without the black outline, and perhaps didn’t have the race number on the center section underneath the wing. It can be also seen (and therefore modeled) as race number 5 in the King’s Cup of 1937:

 The possibility of adding their aftermarket engine is a good bet on part of Clear Prop! and surely the model looks great with it. This kit will delight modelers with reasonable experience as well as advanced modelers who no doubt will extract some pretty good modeling juice from it.

 

 

Bellanca 28-70 MacRobertson racer - Dekno 1/72 scale, resin and 3D-printed parts + Arctic Decals

 

Dekno’s Bellanca 28-70 "The Irish Swoop" is a much welcome addition to any modeler’s racers/record planes stable, or for the ones that just love civil airplanes in general. Looking elegant yet powerful, this Bellanca design piloted by the Irish Fitzmaurice arrived at Croydon but was not allowed to participate in the MacRobertson England to Australia famous race for reasons that may have not been the right ones (see the building post). In any case, with some mods after a bad landing, later on and as the “Flash” crossed the Atlantic proving its worth at the hands of Mollison.

For more information please refer to the step-by-step building post:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/10/bellanca-28-70-macrobertson-racer-dekno.html

Now the Bellanca 28-70 can be added to my growing collection of MacRobertson racers, and one day I should photograph them together “at Croydon”:

Ye ole Airfix Comet kit: 

Pander Postjager, Execuform + scratch:

SBS Comet resin kit:

Miles M2F Plastic Passion/SBS kit:

Granville QED, Plastic Passion/SBS kit:

KP kit:

Heller + scratch parts DH89 "Tainui":

That's without counting the Northrop Gamma plane commissioned especially for the race by Jackie Cochran with a Conqueror engine, that never made it into the race due to mechanical problems (modified WB kit with scratched nose and top fuselage back, but Dekno/Arctic Decals now sell a nice conversion set -parts + decals- for the original kit) :

Dekno’s kit comes in the format of its later releases: main parts in cast resin with good surface detail and smaller parts 3D-printed. A sheet produced by Arctic Decals and a vac canopy (with spare) accompany the set together with well-printed instructions. If you have followed the building process you have seen that the model was built in a fairly short time (even shared with other modeling projects) only necessitating a few adjustments. If you are building it, again the step-by-step post may help you sort out some minor interventions to smooth the ride.  Every new release of Dekno is a joy, and I now just pre-order them as I am confident of their quality, which has greatly improved over time. Still, they need a modelers’ touch, but nothing uncomfortable or beyond average experience. Dekno should be congratulated for their commitment to present modelers with beautiful designs of the Golden Age, an area practically dismissed by most manufacturers, with some honorable exceptions.

With just a bit of care this Dekno kit will be turned into an appealing model to enhance your collection.

 

You often discover something you have forgotten after taking the photos of the "completed" model. In this case wires associated with the LG mechanism: