Tigermoth kit availability

[TonyTiger66]

I just wondered, as it seems on topic:

What are anyone's opinions of the fairly recent AZ 1/72 Tiger, and also of the old Matchbox 1/32 model?

Best regards

TonyT

[Work In Progress]

The Matchbox one goes together well enough and has the relatively low level of detail you would expect from a 1970s kit aimed at a broad audience. It is a canvas onto which a great deal of scratchbuilt detail can fairly easily be added using the many sets of pictures available on the internet, or from life if you have access to a specific full size example. If you are not a long term student of the type you will probably find it looks enough like a Tiger Moth in shape to satisfy you. But it does have shape issues, probably due to being based on the same inaccurate drawings as most Tiger Moth models of that era. There are several built examples to be found on the web: if the shape of those looks okay to you then go ahead and build one.  If you really want to know in detail what's wrong with it, John Adams of Aeroclub is probably the world's leading expert, and is likely to comment here shortly.

[John Aero]

Ouch, sounds like a challenge. I can't comment on the AZ Tiger Moth as I haven't got one. but I can re the Matchbox kit.  The Matchbox kit fits the drawings which first appeared in Aeromodeller March 1961. The drawings by G.A. Cox were highly thought of for the time but unfortunately they contain a  couple of errors one of which is serious. The first is the whole engine cowl is slightly too deep by about 2mm in 1/32 scale. not very much but I think that it throws the look of the nose out. The second error is more serious in that the struts are drawn separately for clarity. The problem is they are over scale with the result that the very characteristic different top and bottom wing dihedrals of the Tiger are thrown out which gives the wrong "sit" to the aeroplane. The front struts should be (in 1/32 scale) 44.5 mm long and the rear struts 45.25 mm long. 

 

The Matchbox wings are a 1 mm too thick and the tips a little too rounded. The tail shapes are good.  The front seat is wrong as it should be a round backed bucket seat which is integral with a sloping draught proof bulkhead. The floats provided are of the Edo type of a later era and are the type fitted only to the Tiger Clubs Sea Tiger. The  Canadian option provided has the incorrect cockpit cutouts for a Canadian type .

It's basically a nice workable kit but has very fragile struts.

 

NB. the Cox drawings were later redrawn and much improved, they were published in Aeromodeller August 1985. However the strut problem was not addressed. The struts being drawn at the centre section gap and not at the reduced gap, main strut station. (100" along the front spar).

 

More anon

 

John

[John Aero]

For those not au fait with the development of the Tiger Moth's quirky shape, perhaps the following might help.

 

The Tiger's predecessor was the metal framed Gipsy II powered 60.T Moth designed as a fully aerobatic military trainer. The Moth had straight wings and virtually no stagger.  Despite alterations to the exhaust pipe this still meant that the front cockpit was surrounded by the centre section struts and made for a difficult exit by parachute in an emergency. DH's then also looked at using the new Gipsy III inverted engine which also gave better forwards visibility. 

 

The answer to the escape problem was to move the top wing forwards by increasing stagger. This immediately upset the centre of gravity by moving it forwards and thus making the aircraft tail heavy. To counter this the wings were (equally)swept back by shortening the rear spars and angling the root ribs. The aeroplane was tested at Martlesham Heath where it was found that when taxiing over rough ground there was a tendency for the ailerons to slap on the ground due to the swept back wing tips. DH's answer was to increase the lower wing dihedral by shortening the main wing struts.    The C of G still needed further adjustment and the top wing was moved a further 4" forward so the the front cabane struts were now vertical.  As a final adjustment the top wing sweep back was further increased from 5 deg to 6.5 deg.

 

So there you have the characteristic look of the Tiger Moth. Design by hacksaw.

 

John

 

 

 

 

[GordonM]

Fascinating stuff John, I've spent 50 years watching G-AHIZ and G-AOEI pottering across the skies of Cambridgeshire and I never knew how their distinctive shape was arrived at! With the beauty and grace of designs that included the Albatross, Mosquito and Comet (both versions) one naturally assumes aerodynamic design came naturally to DH, the Tiger Moth blows that theory out of the water somewhat!

[bradleygolding]

I actually think that Revell might come up with a 1/48 one to go with their superb 1/48 Stearman.

 

Steve

[Bob Henry]

Hey Steve, I really hope that you are right. I would love to see Revell do one with the same attention to detail as the PT-17 Stearman.             Bob H.

[Jessica]

John, does your kit have DH-82C parts available? Or failing that, is there a conversion?

[bradleygolding]

4 hours ago, Bob Henry said:

Hey Steve, I really hope that you are right. I would love to see Revell do one with the same attention to detail as the PT-17 Stearman.             Bob H.

 

Who knows? I suspect that Revell are still smarting from releasing a Shackleton at the same time as Airfix though, that's go to hurt sales for them both. Revell would win for me because they actually use plastic to produce their kits, Airfix on the other hand, flour and water?

 

John's Tiger above looks the part as well, very nice.

 

Steve

[John Aero]

10 hours ago, Jessica said:

John, does your kit have DH-82C parts available? Or failing that, is there a conversion?

Jessica

 

Originally my original Tiger had an option for the Canadian DH-82.(Gipsy) On the sprue there is still a nose cowl with the opposite side air intake of the Menasco and I think that I still have the canopy mould somewhere. and I should be able to find a suitable prop The rest would be small mods to the struts, cockpit and cowl.

 

John.

[Stonenkey]

Can anybody out there help me? I am looking for colour/marking schemes for RAF Tiger Moths based in India circa 1939-45 please. 

many thanks

Dean 

[Work In Progress]

Er, not trying to be awkward, and I mean this as helpfully as I can, but rather than  tack a new highly specfic question like this onto number of old threads, in one case an irrelevant one, it is much better all round to simply start a new thread of your own asking the question.

 

I note that you've had an answer on the Hornet Moth thread but if you need more please start a new thread. There's no extra charge, honest...

Edited July 10, 2017 by Work In Progress