Painting by numbers. 1-10 1/72

[alancmlaird]

This is the promised continuation of my own group build within the De Havilland Group Build 2017 which I (predictably) failed to complete in time -  I might have made it but for two things. Life got in the way, and I admit I'd never have got all eight models (DH1 and 1A, DH2, DH4, DH5, DH6, DH9 and 9a) rigged in time even if I'd been able to construct them. The more sharp-eyed among you will have noticed I have added a '10' to this post. I may have backed myself into a corner here as I do not actually have a kit of one yet, but I can always hope!

 

So, to reprise.......

No.1

DH1A built in the traditional way the ghosts of the IMPS founder members would have found acceptable - ie, almost entirely styrene. Wings cut about from some salvaged Eastern Express Sopwith One and a Half Strutters. Fuselage a spare left over from a Phoenix vacform DH1 kit. Scratch-built Beardmore engine. Struts all cut from plastic card and shaped to taper. Tailbooms from brass rod (the only non-hydrocarbon in the model). Wheels and prop from spares box. Lewis gun from Frog Walrus with thicker 'mk1' barrel mod. Plus 80 (at least) sections of stretched silver sprue from an old Airfix Bulldog kit!

 

About halfway through the build, I realised I didn't really have enough references to complete the model adequately - I'd say the Windsock Series is a must if you are building any WW1 model, Datfile No.148 in the DH1's case, though the Crowood Airco book has some excellent pics and is an interesting read anyway. I now own both. Which bit of 'a cheap build of some old kits from the stash' have I failed to grasp?

For the opportunity for an RFC finish in other than clear dope or PC10, I wanted to paint my model as one of the six DH1As sent to the Middle East/Egypt, eg the drawing shown in K. Munson's 'Fighter Aircraft 1914-18'. However, I opened a can of worms with this! The Munsen drawing has badly misinterpretted existing photos. The upper fuselage is shown in PC12 dope (a kind of 'red lead' colour) when this would be grey as these component are made of aluminium. The sides are shown clear doped which suggests that this scheme would have been clear doped all over - not PC12. Since these were, in effect, second-hand aircraft and were most likely delivered in their original clear-doped scheme, and it is probable that the protective PC12 coating was applied once it became apparent the damage strong sunlight could do to the linen covering. The Datafile acknowledges the paucity of original DH1/1A photographs and I suspect that they have printed most of them!

 

Therefore I felt free to extrapolate the scheme on my model from no evidence whatsoever, and opted for serial no 4609, the only DH1a to have claimed an enemy aircraft shot down.

 

By the rules of this forum, the following model is not yet 'completed' but is as near as dammit. The wing walkways will be painted when I can figure out what finish they would have had - grey painted aluminium panel or a dusty black rubberised covering? Just the strut-mounted pitot-tube to re-attach (it fell off), some of the rigging has come adrift, and add the serial to the rudder. At this stage there is almost nowhere left to safely pick up the model!

 

The roundels came from the Airfix BE2c - the lighter blue ones I thought fitted the 'faded' look of a well-used desert aircraft best.

 

Right! now to finish the DH1.....