De Havilland DH9

[BAC]

Here's a conversion kit I got off the 'bay a while back so I thought I'd give it a go. The kit is made by Blue Rider and I don't know anything about this company.

Here's the Airfix Sprues

And the conversion kit in which you get a new fuselage (but need the Airfix tail), metal engine, exhausts, prop, radiator, guns and ring gear for the rear gun

Here's the DH9 at Duxford.

The first thing to do was cut holes for the engine and cockpits. This was easy enough as the plastic is really soft -a bit like recent Airfix releases! The engine was superglued in and the fuselage put together.

A bit of filler is now needed!

The fuselage needed a bit of filler and so did the lower wing join. The figures were painted then glued to their seats and they dropped straight into the fuselage. Then the struts in front of the pilot were added and rigged as it's easier to do this next. Afterwards the top wing was added. It all squared up quite nicely.

The wing struts were given a coat of white paint followed by a light coat H26 Khaki to give a streaky effect. Once dry they were over painted with Clear Orange to look like varnished wood. The Lower top wing and upper bottom wings were given a couple of coats of paint. A final coat will be done once rigged.

I've begun the rigging starting on the inside areas and working outwards as it's easier.

The main rigging has been done. Once the green, grey and underside cream has another coat I'll add some of the decals and then add the control wires for the rudder, elevator and ailerons.

I've glued on the white metal radiator and made a water tank from aerofoil strip and a water pipe from round strip.

Wing roundels and fuselage decals added. The ones on the fuselage had to go on before the rigging to the tailplane -which is now done.

Still to do;

Paint tyres

Add roundels on lower wing and rudder decals

Glue on rear machine gun

Fit and paint prop

Rig airleons

Add tailskid

Plus anything else I've forgotton!

[BAC]

It's now done!

Phew! What a fiddely one!

Cheers!

[wkennerley]

Wow you have done a good job on that. I did a Dragon Rapide last year and vowed never to try another similar plane!!

Cheers

Wayne

[Rowan Broadbent]

Very neat result from a difficult starting point, well done indeed!

I had the same coversion kit many years back (I think it was originally done in the mid eighties). Wingnut are going to be doing a DH9 some time soon - now that will be a big beastie in 32nd!

[Colin @ Freightdog Models]

That looks really nice, well done.

The Blue Rider fuselage was made for them by Pegasus, when Chris Gannon cleared his stock out to me I found one of the test shots and asked him about it. I bought one at Telford a few years back, a limited edition of 9(!) with Greek Navy decals included but no metal parts (instructions suggest using Aeroclub ones - I'm not sure if they are Aeroclub bits with the one you had?)

Colin

[fredsopwith]

Lovely job.

What did you rig with ? I have just managed to aquire the Blue Rider WW1 Italian sheet, but am finding the transfers very brittle, probably due to age, how did the decals go on for you ?

[BAC]

Thanks for all the comments!

The decals were a bit old and brittle with alot of sludgy stuff comming off the backing paper whilst in water -old glue maybe? They needed lots of Micro Sol and Set to get them to stay down and conform to the aircraft shape, then some Klear. The tail decal was unusable because it was the wrong shape and they split. I used the Airfix tail decals but the blue was the wrong colour so in the end I painted over the tail decals then added the seperate 'Blue Rider' reg number decal.

I noticed in the above pics that I'd forgotton to add the underwing skids, but they've been fitted now.

Cheers!

[Nico Teunissen]

Very nice model, I love it!

Cheers, Nico

[blimp]

ardpol resins do a nice '9 in '72 , it has those markings too ! plus loads of other subjects - at http://www.ardpolmodels.com.pl/pic.php?pic=cDhzNDAwLmpwZw== http://www.ardpolmodels.com.pl/index-en.php

Edited May 6, 2009 by blimp