CarLos

My plan was to enter this GB with the Humming Bird and enter another model only after the first almost finished. But I doubt the I ever started this one without the extra stimulus of this Group Build, so here we go... Aircraft in Miniature offers a lot of very interesting kits of the Golden Age, but we were almost always mismatched; Or the kits were available and I had no money or I had some to spend and they were out of production. So I felt very lucky to acquire this one second hand (from here in Britmodeller if I remember well) but the anticipation of the work needed always made me return it to the stash every time I opened the box. Until some days ago. I forget to take a picture of the contents before starting it, but you may have a look at it with only a few work done: The kit is composed of vacuformed fuselage halves and cabin transparent parts (in double), resin flying surfaces and metal detail parts. A bit of 2mm thick plastic card is included as well. Decals are included for three aircraft - you may see profiles at AiM's page: http://www.aim72.co.uk/page174.html The fuselage parts were pre-cut and pre-sanded, although I had to finish the task. (I think that this was done by AiM, but I don't exclude the previous owner). I would have preferred the more common white plastic and parts not cut, so I could control better the sanding process. The black plastic doesn't help either. The canopy plastic yellowed a lot and will not be used. As you may see, the engine nacelles, wheel pants and wheels are all in one piece. I don't like that, as it makes detailing and painting more difficult, so I will take the wheels off and will open the wells. (The nacelle fronts were included but I already took them apart - they are probably hidden bellow the instructions in the photo above). All the outer panels were warped. The white metal parts are still in their bags and will need a lot of cleaning. As for accuracy, the kit is good enough. Scale drawings are included both in an article by Graham Simons in Wingspan #63 (April 1990) - drawings by Alf Granger - and in a booklet published by GMS Enterprises (the publisher of older books of Arthur Ord-Hume). The quality of the photos printed in this one is truly awful but the plans are very similar to Granger's with a few differences. I scanned, printed and measured granger drawings and they are on the spot on span dimension but 2 to 3 mm larger in length. As you may see bellow, the wings have a good dimension (with some difference at the tips) but the fuselage is way to small, about 6 mm less than the drawings, or 3 mm less than the true dimension. The fuselage is a little short comparing with the drawings in the booklet, that are themselves more than 1mm short. The kit was probably produced having these drawings as a basis. I will not worry myself with the small difference in length and I still must decide if I will correct the wing tips. * * * I began cutting the engine nacelle fronts to open the intakes and place inside the first cylinder but I think I will cast copies of the Airfix Tiger Moth part instead. This is work for later. Then I straightened the warped wings. I confess I was a little worried about that, but it was fast and simple. I just put some boiling water in a mug and put inside the warped portion for a few seconds. When the resin was soft enough I placed the part in a plan surface (my faithful mitter box) and let it cold under cold water. In one case I had to repeat, but it worked well and fast. Sorry, no photos of the warped parts. Probably because there was not a clear definition between the inner end of the outer wing panels and their casting blocks, both inner and outer wing panels had a very noticeable misalignment taking the leading edge as a reference. It was tricky, but I managed to solve the problem this way: * first, I measured and drilled holes for two spars made of steel rod. I used started with a thinner drill and enlarged the hole until the rod diameter, 1.2 mm, taking care to alight the drill with the leading edge in plan view; * Then I glued the pins in the inner panels, using super glue; * When I offered the outer panels to the inner ones there was some misalignment, but then I could enlarge the outer holes with the drill until both panels were aligned against the edge of the mitter box. This time 5 min. epoxy was used to join the wings, which game me time for adjustment and filled partially the gaps. This was much easier to do with the upper wings, as I could place both panels against the edge. With the lower ones I had to trust in my eyeball... I managed to swap upper and lower panels! I knew that the aileron actuators were in the upper surface on the upper wing and the contrary on the lower... but I only noticed after gluing! No big deal, as they were a little rude and the only other difference were the flaps in the upper wing that were in the wrong position anyway. Next I opened the windows. This is problematic to me, as I previously almost ruined a few vacs because of careless cutting, so I decided to be *very* careful this time. I scanned and printed the frames from the decals, cut them carefully by the upper and lower line of the windows. The windows must be correctly aligned between two stringers, and have as reference the port door. I put a spot or two of tube glue to fix the paper to the plastic and then put scotch tape over. Then I cut the paper by the inside of the frames, drilled some holes conveniently away from the frame and took a looong time to cut, replace dull blades, and finish with files. I must confess that aligning the wings and cutting the windows were the main tasks that put this kit far from my workbench for so long. Now that this is solved, the rest should be a walk in the park! Carlos

Thank you very much for watching, guys! Some little progress... I made a mold out of balsa for the upper part of the fuselage. I planned to crash mold, but instead I decided to give another try to my Mattel vacuformer. After several trials the output was not good, as both the valve and the piston gasket needs replacement. It is usable anyway, but it still needs some work. As you may see I almost managed to ruin the molding and I must be very careful when opening the cockpit. I promised to progress on the wings but I am making some experiences about the better option to represent the ribs. Strips of decal, bare metal foil or simply stretched sprue are the candidates. What do you think? Also I became distracted by another De Havilland project...

I have the Japanese version (Tabby) and I think it's the same plastic. It's a good kit, that compares well with plans, but (from memory) has no locating pins and is less easy to assemple than, for example, the Airfix DC-3. Nothing wrong about it. Carlos

May be the Boeing P-12? I didn't refer it because this one is American (and the Seafox is not a fighter...).

In my opinion Amodel is one of the most interesting manufacturers out there, offering subjects that nobody else does. The earlier kits surely needs good modeller skils and a tube or two of putty. But at the end a very satisfying result can be achieved. Take a look at Matt Bittner's one: http://www.internetmodeler.com/2004/january/aviation/meb_spad.php (The same issue of Internet Modeler offers three build articles of the pulpit SPAD! http://www.internetmodeler.com/2004/january/contents.php )

In my opinion Amodel is one of the most interesting manufacturers out there, offering subjects that nobody else does. The earlier kits surely needs good modeller skils and a tube or two of putty. But at the end a very satisfying result can be achieved. Take a look at Matt Bittner's one: http://www.internetmodeler.com/2004/january/aviation/meb_spad.php (The same issue of Internet Modeler offers three build articles of the pulpit SPAD!)

I can't believe no one is entering a Chipmunk!

J-W, the Broplan Gamecock II is not a vac but a short run injected kit. The only British biplane fighters made by Matchbox were the Fury, the Siskin and the Gladiator. Other than Veeday, Flycatcher kits were made by Aeroclub (injected), Esoteric (vac) and Karaya (resin) and the Gamecock was produced by Aeroclub and Pegasus (inj.) and CMR (resin).

I may consider to enter my Swallow, but only after the Humming Bird! Here are a few other interesting kits I could enter in a GB extending for one year: Both the Vami Leopard Moth and the Kiwi Resin Fox Moth are chalenging kits. The Albatross is a beauty, but it's not something to make in a hurry. Carlos

My entry for this Group Build is one of the smallest (if not the smallest) De Havilland aircraft. Having followed the excellent series of articles on "British pre-war ultra-light aircraft" published in Aeroplane Monthly by Ricard Riding, and having later acquired the book, the Humming Bird is a long time favorite of mine. I started scratch building a model long time ago after plans published in AM, but these proven inaccurate and the model stalled. I also tried to represent the very prominent ribs with tape and didn't like the result, another reason for putting it apart. Here is the picture of the parts made, before Choroszy issued a resin kit: As you may see, the wing is wrong in plan view (I decided to believe in Granger's drawings!) and has also a bad profile at the root (hard to see from the photo). Also the fuselage is twisted: All this correctable. I started working on the wing. Made a groove to have more gluing surface and glued some triangles of thick plastic. After an hour or so of working with files and sanding sticks the result is still not perfect but it is much better. I also cured the twisted fuselage, but before going any further I must decide on the aircraft that my model will represent. I am not sure if it will be G-EBHX or any other aircraft. At the moment I am more inclined to one of the aircraft at the Lympne Trials with a Douglas engine, but this may change. This to say that I will concentrate at parts common to all aircraft (wings and tail, top fuselage) and leave the nose for later - there is a considerable variation among the airframes, and also the same aircraft at different times. That's all for now. I hope to come back soon, with more progress on the wings. Carlos

That would be great. Thank you!

Thank you for all the info! The conversion may be done, it's just a matter of making new outer wing panels in scratch and modify the fuselage and tail surfaces. By the way, are you sure about red as the darkest colour in the b&w photo?

It seems to be a good subject for a modification of the kit. Are the colours known?

*Very* nice! I hope this one will be one of the options: :

This is something I may consider but only after knowing the price and reading an extensive review. A new injected kit of the G 24 would be welcome, unfortunately I don't think this will happen soon. Also interesting is the Ju 46 Europa. I hope it is not the MPM kit with new parts.