Dragon Rapide almost there.





Minor problems with the cheat line caused by poor technique, silly problem that I can't now correct, I painted the fin colours opposite to the correct ones, should be blue red blue and one piece of rigging relaxed and has had to be retensioned. Final trimming tomorrow.

Andrew, beautiful paint scheme.

Okay with the deadline approaching a certain sense of urgency takes over and having said that ..... ta dahhhhhhhhh the Dragon has a coat of aluminium dope!

Progress. If this were a monoplane I'd be nearly finished by now...

Decals on

There were few enough of them, and for the most part they're applied to smooth flat surfaces so they went on without difficulty.
Next, the fun part

wow, look at all the super cool stringbags! five star campaign!

This stringbag now complete!







I am not happy with the rigging, going back to drilling the wings and the white cheat line still has a wobble on the LHS.
If I built it again I would change the assembly/paint/ decal order, too late now. Great campaign and lots of njce models of types we don't see often. Jessie, I've never seen a civvie DH4 kit, looking very nice. Next, a DH Vampire? Well it was, but now going to do a Victor for Russell Anderson's campaign.
Wot? No campaign Gallery? Can't find it, am I being thick or is it missing

we are always our own harshest critics arent we. I think its stunning and wouldnt notice the flaws that shout at you.

the gallery is in the 2013 directory
Home » AeroScale » Aeroscale Campaigns » 2013 Aeroscale Campaigns » Venoms, Vixens and Vampires...

Thanks for that, and it was me looking in the wrong place, doh!!

Andrew, that Rapide is really lovely. It certainly beats the one which sat half-built on my shelves for decades and is now only good for parts

Add a top wing and all of a sudden I've got an airliner! The stringbag part will have to wait a bit until the glue hardens



Civvy DH-4s were tolerably rare, but they set the world on the path to commercial air service so they deserve their day in the limelight.

Absolutely, my first flight was in a Fox Moth a distant cousin of your Four. Imagine London to Paris in a DH4. Imagine the effect on the C of G of a heavy passenger, and where is the fuel tank? between the pilot and the passenger cabin, they don't design them like they used to!

Hi again

Lovely work Andrew and Jessie!

I think I'll have to admit defeat in my battle against the deadline, because I won't get a day off work until mid next week - well after the campaign's over. I'll carry on with the Vamp to prove to myself I can still actually finish a build these days, but it won't make the round-up.

All the best

Rowan

Are we truly going to have a DeHavilland campaign without a single Mosquito?

@Andrew: even being from across that little pond I have always loved the Rapide. It looks really good being a biplane.

@Jessie: I admire the DH4 and it seemed to have long legs to be able to stretch into so many different versions. Your airliner looks like one out of a book I had read (it had lots of photos for me to read )and the airline that I was reading about was in Canada. Ever since the read (1971) I would be on the lookout for that version of a DH4.


Bob

Ok you are right, here is a Mossy

Unfortunately it was in the Frog campaign

Look back a page to find not one but two Mossie speed build entries (it takes a certain amount of courage and chutzpah to enter a campaign during its final week)

Of course, it's refreshing to have so many other de Havilland designs showcased rather than the scene-stealing Mosquito.

So now you know where to find it

Andrew, Jessie - super work! Its always refreshing to see nice clean civvy birds.

Afraid to say that mine has met with disaster during the decalling. And all of my own fault.
The real problem was my rushing to complete the decalling last night so I could give myself a comfortable few days to do the tricky final assembly. For the sake of speed I also decided to use the kits decals, despite them looking a bit dodgy. I did not leave sufficient time for the Klear coat to harden properly (barely an hour). I also used some of the the new Humbrol Decalfix, which I have not used before even to test something. Result was that the decalfix softened the Klear and turned it white. Even after a whole night drying, it still had not cleared up. I also have a suspicion that the two do not mix. Humbrol themselves claim that a gloss coat is not needed and the stuff will work straight onto a matt finish. I plan on trying the stuff on some scrap decals with a good hardened Klear finish to test for any incompatibility.

I also found out too late that the fin flash was too big for the rudder. Again something I should have checked and trimmed. The final digit just overlaps the trailing edge. It also dried crinkly around the edges and refused to settle down even with Microsol. The fuselage roundel was also printed a bit off, the white outline appearing more as a crescent around one half. The only one that behaved itself was the fuselage stripe.
In desperation I decided to strip off the decals with some masking tape. Great idea yeah. Not. The fuselage roundel came off no trouble, but those on the wing proved to be far more stubborn and I ended up taking off some chunks of paint with them. Bugger! Only now do I realise I should have soaked them off with hot water.

So at the minute the upper wing is sitting in a sealed tub with some oven cleaner sprayed on to strip the paint. Its looking increasingly unlikely that I will meet Friday's deadline.
I plan on replacing the decals with a set of Pegasus RFC Roundels. I should have better luck with these.


Stephen

I've never had it that bad so late. I hope you get it together, I guess, otherwise there is the Hangar Queen. The boss might allow an extension, seems a shame after getting so far.
Rowan, I was looking forward to seeing that kit finished after all the problems, shame you ran out of time

Thanks Andy. If we get an extension I can try to have it done by then. It will not beat me! Worst thing about it is that in hindsight I could probably have just painted some thinned olive drab over those white smudges. But whats done is done. The wing is now back to clean plastic so I'll get another lick of paint on tomorrow. I think this time I'll use some clear gloss enamel. It might take longer to dry but I know the stuff doesn't react with decal solvents.

"Are we truly going to have a DeHavilland campaign without a single Mosquito?"

"Look back a page to find not one but two Mossie speed build entries (it takes a certain amount of courage and chutzpah to enter a campaign during its final week)."

"Of course, it's refreshing to have so many other de Havilland designs showcased rather than the scene-stealing Mosquito."

Thank you for the encouragement Jessie.

The Ancient Airfix Mossie is very nearly complete. It is drying right now after it's 2nd paint sand go round. Tomorrow, I paint and Thursday apply the decals which come from the current Airfix 1/72 release. I decided to do a late war silver paint scheme, the kit has it's faults but I can't get over how beautiful the design is.

Here is my completed 1:72 Omega resin DH-60 G:-

In-box review:-http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/review/9445
Thank you Jessica!

Stephen, I'll allow an unofficial extension for you to recover from your disaster. The thread will drop off the "official" list but I won't stop ribbon awards just because the "official" deadline has passed

I've sometimes managed to recover from that "white" problem by applying more Future. It seems to dissolve the white surface and lets it dry clear once again.

Meanwhile, I only see 7 finishers in the gallery and I know that there are more finished models than that in the thread. Don't forget to post your finished model in the gallery, because that's where I'll be looking come award day.

Well, I finished the Classic Airframes de Havilland Sea Hornet Night Fighter. On time, and under budget

Some of it is my best work, some is not. Certainly a few errors along the way, but I am glad to be done. I really do appreciate all the help and encouragement I have gotten along the way!

Thank you for including me in your community!

Nice work Dave.