D.H. 60T Moth - 1:72 Amodel

[Viking]

D.H. 60T Moth

1:72 Amodel

First flown nearly 90 years ago, the DH-60 Moth series of 2 seat biplanes were a great success and were widely used by civil clubs in the inter war period. By the late 1920's almost 85% of aircraft used by UK flying clubs were DH-60's of one type or another. It was developed though several versions, the most notable being the DH-60G Gypsy Moth, and the DH-60M 'Metal Moth' where the wooden 'skeleton' of the fuselage structure was replaced by a metal one.

Various engines were used such as the Genet, Cirrus, and Gypsy, and this would often prefix the name of the version, and total production ran to about 1,640 examples. The final version had swept back wings, a strengthened structure, and a Gypsy III engine. It had so many changes that it became a distinctly different machine and was renamed the DH-82 Tiger Moth.

The kit.

Amodel of Poland have released a range of DH-60 Moth variants in 1:72 scale, covering the DH-60 Genet Moth, DH-60 Cirrus Moth, DH-60G Gypsy Moth, and DH-60X moth. Received from T7 Models for review is the DH-60T Moth trainer, which in real life was based on the DH-60M Metal Moth. The small end opening box contains 4 sprues of parts, a celluloid sheet with windscreens, a set of decals for 2 options, and the instructions.

First impressions are favourable, with neatly moulded parts spread logically amongst the sprues.

Moulding is with minimal flash, and no sink marks on any of the parts. The struts and other fine parts are commendably thin and delicately moulded, and the fabric effect is quite nicely done. Given that there are several versions of this kit, it is not surprising that many parts will not be required. There are optional props, rudders, wheels, exhausts, struts, headrests etc. As none of these are numbered on the sprues, reference to the parts map in the instructions will be required throughout the build.

Construction is entirely conventional, starting with the cockpit. A slight oddity is that the front cockpit gets the rudder pedals, and the rear gets the joystick, as only 1 of each is provided. It will be a simple matter to scratch up a full set for both cockpits though, and you may want to source some decals for the instrument panels, as none are on the sheet. Once the fuselage is together, the lower wings and tail group are attached. Depending upon your chosen colour scheme you may wish to start the main paint job at this point, or proceed with the struts and top wing. The final stage is the fitting of the undercarriage with the smaller, fatter wheels.

Rigging will be a matter of choice, stretched sprue or invisible mending thread both work well in this scale.

Decals.

A small decal sheet is provided for 2 options.
Option 1 is a Swedish Air Force machine in a very bright red and yellow scheme.

Option 2 is for PP-TZE from the Aeroclub De Santos in Brazil, wearing an overall red scheme.

Conclusion.

This is a neatly produced little kit that means we no longer need to rely on the ancient Frog offering for a DH-60.
Amodel have got the most out of their tooling to produce a number of versions, which is a sensible and very welcome approach (The Cirrus Moth is one of my favourites). The odd lack of cockpit items is a minor detail that is quickly and easily solved, and overall this is well produced new kit that will satisfy the majority of modellers. It will go very nicely with the recent Airfix release of the DH-82 Tiger Moth, and I hope that Amodel consider kitting a few more classic aircraft from this era, a DH-80 Puss Moth would be lovely!

Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Flankerman]

Nice review Viking - but one small correction.

Amodel is Ukrainian - their distributor is Polish..... http://ibgmodels.com/index.htm

IBG Models is a Polish wholesale and plastic model kits producer. We are an exlusive distributor of Ukrainian company AModel

Cheers

Ken

[Viking]

Thanks Ken, you are right!

I just re-read the small print on the box and noted the key words 'World wide distributor' ahead of the address. I blame my aging eyesight!

Cheers

John

[Dave Fleming]

Looks good in the box, hopefully those well qualified can give their view as to the accuracy. I want a few of these!

[Eric Mc]

I assumed these new releases were based on the old FROG moulds. Looks like they aren't. I may buy one now.

[Ramiro Carvalho]

For you guys who intend to build the PP-TZE painting option, I have to inform you that the painting instructions on the kit are wrong.

By looking at photos of the aircraft, the wings appear to be in aluminium color (what is reinforced by the fact that this airplane came from the Brazilian Naval Aviation to the flying school and all Moths on that military branch are aluminum overall) and the fuselage may be red or may not. I am not completely sure the fuselage is red because it appears not so dark in the black and white picture. It could be another color as well. If I discover more on that I will post it here.

The decal colors appears to be correct: black letters on wings and aluminum letters on fuselage. 

A nice picture of the aircraft is here: https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/de-havilland-cirrus-moth

 

 

There is another picture of this airplane in the book "De Havilland Aircraft since 1909" by A. J. Jackson, on page 256 which is from left side and from that it is very clear that the nose of the aircraft of natural aluminum.

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Ramiro Carvalho