Post by Bruce on Oct 12, 2008 22:43:23 GMT 12
in between working on my "big" aeroplane recently I have been pottering around modlelling some of the early NZPAF aircraft to add to my RNZAf collection. I'm not really a fan of 1/72 Biplanes, but they still have a place in the collection so they are worth doing.
A while ago I picked up a job lot of old kits off trademe, which included a good number of early RNZAF Biplanes, including some very rare Merlin kits (Grebe and Hind included). Oddly, many of the kits were duplicates - Including no less than 9 DH Dragon Rapides - in the same box. Included was an Airfix Airco DH4, which true to form actually included two complete sets of parts.
As the NZPAF operated 2x DH4s I could produce an example of those virtually straight out of the box, however whislt browsing a list of DH types on the net, I noticed that the DH4 and DH50A had exactly the same wing span. further investigation showed a significant commonality of parts, so the spare DH4 could become the NZPAF's anonimous DH50A.
First up the DH4 built straight out of box, but Airbrushed to represent A7929, the only NZPAF aircraft to have seen Active WWI service. Although in 1/72 scale all these Biplanes are fiddly - the DH4 is actually quite a big machine - slightly larger overall than a Corsair!
Next attention turned to the DH50A which required a lot more work. Although the wings were basically the same (with some minor mods) a completely new fuselage would have to be scratch built. Fortunately 3 view drawings are available on the net and are easily scaled to 1/72. The new fuselage was built up using plastistruct plastic card and my new favourite scratch building material, "Knead It" epoxy putty. I had to find some photos of an Armstrong Siddeley Puma engine, in order to get the induction structure visible through the cowlings looking correct. The DH50A was a 5 seat aircraft similar in concept to the later Fox Moth. there a a lot of similarities in shape between it and the fox, also the DH60 Moth. It is all flat sided which certainly helped!
It is finished in the overall silver of virtuallly all 1930s NZPAF aircraft, which is pretty boring, and of course serials are not required as the NZPAF example was never allocated one for some reason. decals are the DH4 roundels which are the same size and style.
A comparison between the 2 types:
A while ago I picked up a job lot of old kits off trademe, which included a good number of early RNZAF Biplanes, including some very rare Merlin kits (Grebe and Hind included). Oddly, many of the kits were duplicates - Including no less than 9 DH Dragon Rapides - in the same box. Included was an Airfix Airco DH4, which true to form actually included two complete sets of parts.
As the NZPAF operated 2x DH4s I could produce an example of those virtually straight out of the box, however whislt browsing a list of DH types on the net, I noticed that the DH4 and DH50A had exactly the same wing span. further investigation showed a significant commonality of parts, so the spare DH4 could become the NZPAF's anonimous DH50A.
First up the DH4 built straight out of box, but Airbrushed to represent A7929, the only NZPAF aircraft to have seen Active WWI service. Although in 1/72 scale all these Biplanes are fiddly - the DH4 is actually quite a big machine - slightly larger overall than a Corsair!
Next attention turned to the DH50A which required a lot more work. Although the wings were basically the same (with some minor mods) a completely new fuselage would have to be scratch built. Fortunately 3 view drawings are available on the net and are easily scaled to 1/72. The new fuselage was built up using plastistruct plastic card and my new favourite scratch building material, "Knead It" epoxy putty. I had to find some photos of an Armstrong Siddeley Puma engine, in order to get the induction structure visible through the cowlings looking correct. The DH50A was a 5 seat aircraft similar in concept to the later Fox Moth. there a a lot of similarities in shape between it and the fox, also the DH60 Moth. It is all flat sided which certainly helped!
It is finished in the overall silver of virtuallly all 1930s NZPAF aircraft, which is pretty boring, and of course serials are not required as the NZPAF example was never allocated one for some reason. decals are the DH4 roundels which are the same size and style.
A comparison between the 2 types:
