First WIP Build - 1/72 Canadian DeHavilland DH.82c from Airfix's DH.82a

[DaveCS]

Hi All,

This is a first post in WIP for me. I normally don't have the time to take photos and then post updates etc. but I figured, for this particular topic I would make a huge exception :D

Just some caveats before I start:

• I'm a horribly slow builder - if you are expecting lots of updates over the coming days it likely won't happen - more like updates will occur once or maybe twice a week (mind you, this gives you more time to look at all the really good builders on this site :) :) )
• I haven't attempted a conversion "on my own" before but I figured this was a pretty basic one to begin with so please bear with me
• I am really looking forward to building this!!

Some background:

When I first got "back into" building kits in my late 30's early 40's I wanted to build a Canadian Tiger Moth. Being Canadian myself it was something that was, to me, unique - and it meant a fairly easy paint job (Trainer Yellow with some black bits ) - The only Tiger Moth option that I was aware of in 1/72, at that time, was the venerable Airfix one. I did have the ability to order a canopy from Aeroclub which I had spotted at the LHS but my first attempt at building the kit went horribly wrong. I lacked experience and, basically, patience.

Now, with a bit of both under my belt, along with the impetus of Paul J's comments in the Tiger Moth Options thread, John Adams' comments in general and the wealth of information online and close at hand (I am about an hour and 10 minutes from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum - CWHM - which has a wonderful Canadian built DH.82c in flying condition) I hope that I can tackle the conversion.

I also have the Pavla kit of the DH.82c but never had the "guts" to tackle it. Having dealt with a couple Pavla kits in the past (Airspeed Oxford and Cessna Crane) I would rather "pass" on trying to tackle the kit since I believe the Airfix kit will actually be "easier" even though it involves converting the basic DH.82a configuration. I will, however, use the Pavla kit as a "guide" of sorts (look at all those quotation marks in this paragraph!! ) for items such as the instrument panels etc.

The Kit, Some Additions And Some Changes:

I'm not going to go into sprue shots of the kit but I will point out where I feel there are changes to be made in order to get the DH.82a to become the DH.82c.

Additions to the basic kit (for my model) will be the following:

• Aeroclub Gipsy Major Engine - thanks to John Adams for sending me one of these (and it includes the correct prop as well!)
• Some home made brass items (cowling, trim tabs, maybe the fairings for the fuselage cables)
• New Interplane struts - made from thin wall brass tube
• Aeroclub Canopy - again, thanks to John!
• Different Decals (again some supplied by and thanks to John Adams, others from the existing Pavla kit)
• Exhaust Shroud

As per the comments in the recent Tiger Moth threads in the Interwar forum and along with the multitude of images of the CWHM DH.82c online there are things that need to be corrected in the Airfix kit in order to make it Canuckable

Changes to the basic kit include:

• removing the baggage compartment
• Moving the landing gear forward
• Using the tailwheel (included in the kit!!)
• Cutting out the cockpit doors
• Not using the fuselage strakes

The Reference Aircraft

http://www.warplane.com/vintage-aircraft-collection/aircraft-history.aspx?aircraftId=14

Built in 1942 at Downsview (Toronto) Ontario this particular Tiger Moth did go through some restoration - I still need to find out if it's built back to the spec as though it had come off the production line at De Havilland or if there were changes made to the aircraft during restoration.

Photos coming soon!!

Cheers,

Dave

[foresterab]

Looking forward to the build at whatever pace works for you

Very jealous you are so close to the museum as well especially after visiting it in the fall. Here's hoping you get to ride in the real thing

[DaveCS]

First steps in this build, for me, is to compare the current Airfix kit DH.82a to the DH.82c - I already had an idea of what was required based on questions/answers in the forum but wanted to look at some things online on my own. I opted for a number of images of the DH.82c at the Warplane Heritage Museum and some from my own collection.

First up... The cowling:

The Airfix kit's cowling:

The red outline denotes panel lines which are either to be removed or cut - in this case, the horizontal panel line (on both sides of the cowling) should be removed or filled in since the DH.82c (to the best of my knowledge) had a top split cowling cover (i.e. both sides came off to expose the engine).

Also... note the shape of the cowling as you look at the cowling head on:

Compared to the DH.82c:

(Photo copyright: John Shupek)

or even:

I believe the shape is overly pronounced for the cowling and will need to be adjusted with either filler or sanded down. Also, if you note photos of the starboard side of the cowling the included air intake for the DH.82a should be changed since it is not the same shape/type for the DH.82c. This would mean some scratch building (albeit minor due to the scale).

My intent is to display the kit with the cowling off and engine "on display" (hence Aeroclub's wonderful Gipsy Major):

Which will be supported by some wonderful thin walled micro brass tubing by Albion Alloys:

More to come..

Cheers,

Dave

[k5054nz]

Ooh this sounds promising Dave! Excellent, I look forward to following it. Also that engine is gorgeous.

[DaveCS]

So, that cowling and engine. . . . I've got the engine and since I'm going to display the aircraft without the cowling I'm going to need to ensure I have both sides of the cowling off and "laying around" per se. I decided to scratch build the two parts (apparently the cowling is split along the top and not as how Airfix's DH.82a has been kitted). I've had some thin brass sheet laying around that I figure would be in scale. I don't have scale plans so I had to use the full Airfix cowling as a guide. I also had to make my own intake filter from some plastic strip - it's still a bit out of scale but that should be easily corrected.

Now.. what are those other pieces there with the cowling/air intake? To the left is the firewall which will "plug" the fuselage opening allowing me to mount the Aeroclub Gipsy Major. Below the firewall are the beginnings of the replacement interplane struts, again, made with the Albion Alloys thin walled micro brass tube and flattened with their "strutter" tool. I was hesitant in purchasing the tool because, at the cost of 25 GBP, it was pricey (and then to have it shipped across the pond as well!!) but in the end, the tool did what it was supposed to do and has produced some pretty decent replacement struts. I'll get a photo of these, compared to the Airfix struts, in future posts.

In order to display the kit with the cowling off there were some small bits that had to removed from Airfix's kit and a bit of surgery had to be done:

The items encircled in red need to be removed. The best reference photo is the one from WalkArounds.ScaleModels.Ru - the aircraft is the Canadian Warplane Heritage Aircraft (and having been to the location I know that this is a good reference photo):

This makes it pretty easy to determine where to remove and cut from the fuselage. After the surgery you have this:

I've left just enough (I hope!! ) of the Arifix kit there to maintain the connection points for the landing gear and cabane struts.

Now, about that firewall; the firewall was scratch made from plastic sheet (I believe it was 0.20 mm) - just thick enough to be solid and able to bend slightly to form to the shape of the Tiger's fuselage opening. I outlined the fuselage then took into account the thickness of Airfix's plastic and accommodated for that when creating the plug. A bit of sanding/filing down of the plug and, well, it fits pretty darn good!! :D :D

More to come either later today or sometime over the weekend

Cheers!

Dave

[DaveCS]

I've been busy today... being the weekend so there's a bunch of "stuff" going on in the fuselage of this bird...

The instrument panel on the DH.82c is different from the DH.82a. So. . . . . a little scratch building:

The panel on the left is unpainted (obviously) and the one on the right is what the finished panel looks like. I had various references with some showing a "natural wood" panel but I opted to keep it in the grey/greenish type colour instead. Of course this means that the instrument panel shrouds from the kit would need to be removed in order to be installed.

That little top lip on the kit instrument panel was removed and retained for installation into the fuselage. Speaking of fuselage... I'm not sure why the images show it to be so "black" because it's not... regardless.. here it is:

I added some Eduard seat belts that hopefully will look the part. Here's how the instrument panels look with the seats installed:

Note the shrouds above the instrument panels have been glued into place. The next steps for me were to drill out a bunch of holes in the fuselage and set up the control wires and fuselage braces that are in front of the windscreen. The DH.82c has a set of control wires coming out of the rear fuselage to control the elevators while the control wires for the rudder were placed just above the lower wing join approximately mid front cockpit.

I used two different thicknesses of elastic mending thread for these wires/braces. Braces were made from the thicker thread while the control wires were the thinner thread. I have opted to have a single rudder wire instead of doubling up as on the real aircraft. In this scale, it may look a bit too much but if I do another DH.82c in 1/72 I'll maybe try to double up and see how it looks

Finally I joined the fuselage halves and added the lower wing. I may opt to do some more tomorrow or later today but for now... this is where it stands..

Cheers,

Dave

[AdrianMF]

Wow! Looks great! On my last one I started the cabane bracing from the top wing and pulled it through the front fuselage, but that won't work for you because you have the firewall. That interior looks great too.

Regards,

Adrian

[DaveCS]

Wow! Looks great! On my last one I started the cabane bracing from the top wing and pulled it through the front fuselage, but that won't work for you because you have the firewall. That interior looks great too.

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian!

I considered how to handle the cabane bracing but once I realized just how elastic that "thread" was it basically made the decision extremely easy. I have never used anything so elastic that is thread based but this stuff is incredible.

Thanks for the compliment on the interior.

Cheers,

Dave

[DaveCS]

Ahhh... Sunday was quiet... not much going on but a bit too much fun on Saturday night So... the Tiger Moth's engine mount got started:

Then late last night and for a bit of time this evening, added the elevators/stabilizer, and finished the engine mount. There will be more brass and plastic and thread to be used before mounting the Aeroclub engine but so far it's coming together quite well. Also added the cabane struts at this time and test fitted the top wing. Airfix's engineering have made it so easy to build this biplane; far easier than any other biplane I've built so far.

Oh ya.. trim tabs... still gotta make one for the rudder too..

Cheers,

Dave

[CliffB]

This is a fabulous project Dave

Cliff

[DaveCS]

Thanks Cliff!

What I've noted so far - the micro brass tube is pretty incredible for creating just about anything. I used it for the engine mount and have used it to create replacement interplane struts and just this morning I was able to create replacement landing gear struts which will have the landing gear "moved" forward a tad to conform to the Canadian bird.

Cheers,

Dave

[Paul J]

Loving it! I think I may have to "borrow" some of your ideas so I can build another!!

[dogsbody]

Looking real good, Dave.

Chris

[DaveCS]

Chris, Paul, Thank you !!

Plodding away slowly - the work week usually means slow work on the hobby which, in a way, is a good thing. Patience is a virtue after all ... or so I've been told

I'm normally an early riser and, usually, at the gym but the last few days have found me a wee bit under the weather so when I do wake up due to my circadian rhythm I sit down at the workbench to fiddle. This morning I added the home made brass "front" landing gear bracing struts to the kit's plastic struts. They fit quite well and with a bit of CA glue they should be just as sturdy (if not more so).

I also test fitted the wheels and the Aeroclub engine, just to see what it will look like and in hopes that the weight of the engine wouldn't pull down or tip the nose. Happy to report that it did not. The engine still needs further detail to make it really look the part but that's something I hope to add in the coming days/week.

Pardon the poor lighting - it wasn't, at the time daylight...

Oh yes, the tail wheel; added that too but it doesn't really "look" like the DH.82c wheel but since it came with the kit, it will do

Cheers,
Dave

[Tomoshenko]

Great stuff, am enjoying the build, and echo Paul J's comments that it'll serve as a good reference source for future builds - though in my case it will be for a Tiger Moth. Oh yeh, the brass tubing is good stuff innit. Lots of potential to use for all kind of stuff, and produces a lovely sharp, and in scale look.

[Spookytooth]

I like this a lot Dave, lovely engine mate.

Simon.

[DaveCS]

Thanks again guys!! No work done on the bird yesterday evening so I hope to get something done this evening. My next steps are to step up the prepping for rigging on the upper wing and to start adding some bits and pieces to the firewall before adding some wiring to the engine. Oh ya, almost forgot, still have to finish all the other parts of the cowling too!!

Cheers,

Dave

[DaveCS]

Now that most of my distractions (i.e. that darn H.P. Hampden) are out of the way, I can get back to this build - and especially now because I had ordered this book at the beginning of April and it's just arrived. Should prove to be a very good reference for the rest of this build and onward.

Cheers,
Dave

[Martian]

Nice work!

Martin

[DaveCS]

Thanks Martin!! I hope I can get this little baby done by next week sometime!!

Cheers,
Dave

[foresterab]

I have a few of those manuals for automobile repairs...never knew they did aircraft too.

Either way...great pickup. Looking forward to seeing the final product.

[Mitch K]

Superb! I'm enjoying this very much. Nice to see some metalworking going on.

[Jessica]

Tip for displaying the cowlings: They have a piano hinge running down the top centerline, and open like butterfly wings with rod supports to hold them up. There's a support running from the firewall to the front of the cowling which sits above the engine. The nose bowl splits in two as may be seen in your first reference photo. I know that from having worked on this one during the summer of 1982. (Note the open cowl)

[DaveCS]

Nice!! Thanks Jessica! I was going to leave the cowling completely off but I may opt to display it as you suggest.

Tonight I made slow progress... but that's ok... this is meant to be a relaxing hobby after all :banghead:

The theme for this evening? "The Joys Of Small Engine Repair" Photo to follow...

Cheers,

Dave

[DaveCS]

Ahhh .. the joys of small engines..... really small engines. (that's a Canadian 10 cent piece, the smallest of the coins we have, next to the Aeroclub Gipsy Major engine)

It seems to be coming along quite well. The exhaust, filed down from kit part C2, seems to be a perfect fit for the Aeroclub Gipsy Major 1c engine. Checking some references I was able to come up with a somewhat believable "scheme" of piping/hoses/etc.which I fashioned out of some old soft craft wire I had laying around for the last two decades (I KNEW it would come in handy one day!! ).

I've since test fitted the engine and it's "ok" but could be better - I think in this scale it may be fine but it's not "perfect" but certainly will look the part once painted and such.

I've also fashioned the bottom part of the engine covering from lead foil (thanks to my love of wine.... I have plenty of that stuff to go around ) and some Evergreen strip - it will, as well, look the part once painted. I thought it easier to do the bottom this way than to try to use the kit part which was rather thick after it was cut up.

I think she's just about ready to be drilled (for rigging), some minor finishing and sanding, and then, I think, some paint... all over...

Cheers,
Dave