JWM Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 (edited) Hi, Recently I post a short story of conversion of Frog/Novo Percival Proctor into Percival P3 Vega Gull Six. It warmed me a bit and I started work on something, what I had been planned from about 10 years, to do one day. It is to construct models of DH 84 Dragon and DH 90 Dragonfly. I know, tahat there are kits of them in vacu technique or a resin one. However I want to try it anyway.... This is my first time when my scratch conversion of biplane(s) which needs preparation of new wings and then it will need rigging, I hope that I will manege, but I am not sure... The basis is SINGLE DH 89 Dragon Rapide/Domine from Heller (my is reboxed by Airfix). The other main sources for canibalization of parts are DH 88 Comet by frog/novo (incompleted, engines went to Percival Q6 Petrel, which I alredy posted on RFI) and old mould of DH 82 Tiger Moth (old tool), Airfix. Idea is that wings of DH90 I will do from outer parts of wings of DH89 (reshaped of course), wings of DH84 I will do from Tiger Moth (outer parts) and DH89 (central parts). Engins of DH90 will be done basicly using engines of DH 89. The fuselage of DH90 will be done with a lot use of fuselage of DH 88 Comet. The fuselage of DH 84 will be done from that of DH 89. Engines will be done from one DH82 and a resing copy of it. Anyway - I do not have any idea what to do with old mould DH 82 from Airfix . I started about 10 days ago from cutting the nose of DH 89. Then I turn to fuselage of Dragonfly. I planed to do two cuts, to remove some part of Comet fuselage. (I am sorry for the quality of photo, I have not noticed that it is not sharp before I cut already) After a while it was looking like this: Meanwhile I started to cut wings for Dragon I had to remove slots, as you see from one wing. Here wings have basic shape I attached struts which, after shaping will imitate ribs. And below I present the idea of wings for Dragonfly In my up to now scratch build of airplane with windows I was always cut the openings for windows. For the first time I am testing another idea - just to glue a transparent plate with just masked windows. I started to work on interior. The floor is made of very thin plastic card, to eneble it put inside. I have to cut Dragon Rapid engines into pieces. The Dragonfly and Dragon had four cilinders smaller engines the the six cylinders ones of Dragon Rapid. Marked are lines for cut. I was also filling space between ribs of Dragon's wings with thin layers of Tamiya filler. You cannot use too much filler at one, since it drying by evaporation, and the solvent is disollving polystyrene, so there is a ris of deformation of wing. This is one of key source of my fear, regarding this build. Today I stopped at such stage: Thank you for watching, Regards Jerzy-Wojtek To be continued.... Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Hi Jerzy. This is very interesting indeed, particularly the Dragonfly which is one of the prettiest DeHavilland aircraft ever built in my opinion. If you need any information from the original factory drawings then please let me know. good luck with this one. Chris. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Instead of the filler I'd recommend either Milliput or Gunze Mr Dissolved Putty. Neither attack the plastic in the same way the conventional fillers do. Milliput is easy to smooth to the desired shape when wet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garryrussell Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Yes..the Dragonfly, so aptly named. Dainty and prettywith a lovely freindly face. Watching this with interest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Thank you Chris. I have some plans from Internet, that what I use as background in photos are from a Spanish book (Aviones Guerra Civil...). I like both of them a lot - Dragonfly is simply pretty but Dragon looks like some scratch build in original... And thank you Graham for this hint - I did not know this stuff. I have to look around for it, Cheers J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 This is a conversion I've been contemplating, Watching with interest! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 This is going to be worth watching. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Neat start. Love it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 (edited) Hi Today evening I work a little on Dragonfly. This is a achieved progress: Cheers Jerzy-Wojtek Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 (edited) Hi Just adding filler, waiting and sanding. I focused on Dragonfly first. The progress for today evening so far: Still filler applying and sanding of fuselage is not finished. BTW - can someone suggest me nice camo? I found one from Netherlands , something like overall Pale Blue-Green (Sky? - Humbrol 23?) with "neutrality" orage triangels. And black number (962) on sides. Regards Jerzy-Wojtek Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Jerzy-Wojtek I am beginning to think you are invincible All your ideas are excellent All your methods bear watching and learning from And 1930s de Havilland aircraft rock I love this bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 Thank you Bill! Too much, too much good words.... Regards Jerzy-Wojtek 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted November 28, 2014 Author Share Posted November 28, 2014 (edited) Hi I made some progress with Dragonfly only. First I added nose end. This is a piece cut from some nose taken from drawer... And here a tail is seen also, the perspective makes it lower, but this is just apparent. Here vertical tail and lower wings are shown: I started work on upper wings - silver parts are from DH89 and light grey are from Comet Finally I put it together, just lower wings and tail, not upper wing, of course You might see some reinforcements of joints The problem is to keep everything with right angles.... Regards Jerzy-Wojtek To be continued.... Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 There's one here - scroll down http://www.aussiemodeller.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3537&start=10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Aero Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Sadly that's the ill fated Dragon which crashed fatally a little while ago. I notice that you are using the Miranda drawings. These in my opinion are scaled up from the drawings in A.J.Jacksons British Civil Aircraft volumes and are a little mixed for accuracy. Your kind of modelling is exactly that, 'Modelling'. Regards John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanW Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 That's some "real" modelling you're doing there - awesome work and I'm learning from your techniques! Cheers, Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I like this. One topics I need to follow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 (edited) Hi Report from the progress. 1. Dragon. Today morning I get photos (many thaks Ed! of Dragon ambulane inside. I tried to do this: The blankets are from alu foil. That is all for Dragon for today. 2. Dragonfly Central part of lower wing should be more thicker than outer parts. This is very unusual. I hav not realized details of this shape initially, no I think I see it properly. I had to add some thin plate on the top of central parts from boths sides. Besides it I worked on upper wings and engines. I start to make a dummy of engines. A trick - I use a die to produce a plastic screw, which imitates then cylinders. And I constructed ai inlet in new position and shaped fronts Aha - indeed I am using drawing by Molina. Are they really with some flaws? Cheers Jerzy-Wojtek (to be continued....) Here some Dragonfly photos from today: Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Aero Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 The reality of the DH 90 centre section is a little more complex. See the attached photo. John 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Thank you John for this hint! I just realized it yesterday, when I found photos of SAAF DH90: http://www.dehavilland.co.za/DH90_Dragonfly.html Regards J-W. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 (edited) I was working on Dragonfly stabilizers. I cut them out of Fi-156 (Heller/Smer) spare ones: Besides stabilizers in photo you may see resin copies of wheel and propeller as well as silica form for propeller (left). The diameter of propeller was a bit then reduced to match the plan. And stabilizers on position: I tried to correct the trailing edge of wing - the recent hint of John, and what I noticed also on SAAF photos (I hope it is visible ) (EDIT 26 07 2017 - some photos are not upgrated yet to flickr, sorry) Cheers Jerzy-Wojtek (to be continued...) Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted December 13, 2014 Author Share Posted December 13, 2014 (edited) Hi, I started to construct canopy of Dragonfly. to be continued.... Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM switch to Flickr 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 CRIKEY !!! JWM You have done a lot since I last came by, just lovely work.. FANTASTIC work Sir. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted December 19, 2014 Author Share Posted December 19, 2014 (edited) Just to report some progress in DH-84. Fuselage with windows and resin copies of Airfix DH82 nose for engines: Cheers J-W. Edited July 26, 2017 by JWM Switch to Flickr 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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