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Leopard & Hornet Moth


MattCom

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Hi everybody !

That's my first message on this forum :analintruder: !

I recently discover that French AF used in 1940 Hornet & Leopard Moth.

This planes cames from civilians and were take by AF in 1939 at the beggining of the war.

At the moment, i'm still searching in what kind of unit they were used (school or communication it seems), but the most important is that i'd like to make this plane in 1/72...

In fact i am searching good drawings of this two planes... I recently buy the Stuart Mc Kay Book but no drawing in it :weep:

For the Leopard i had the "awful" Vami model kit wich needs a lot of works. I also have (found on web) the old "Flights" drawing wich seems to be faulse in many points...

For the Hornet, no kit exist, but i hop to make a conversion with the new airfix DH 82... but for this i need a good drawing...

Does anyone of you can drive me to a good source for making a godd work on this two marvellous little planes ?

Thanks a lot !!

Best Regards

Matt

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Matt,

here is the drawing I have that looks best to me.

I'll have a look for my Leopard Moth drawings for you,too.

Cheers,

Martin

Nah, Photobucket won't load pdfs, so PM me with your email address and I'll send them to you that way.

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Alf Granger drawings of both aircraft appeared in Wingspan magazine - the Leopard Moth in March 1991 and the Hornet Moth in November 1992.

I think your Tiger Moth to Hornet Moth conversion is going to involve scratch-building wings and fuselage, as I don't think they had a lot in common. Having said that, neither is that hard a task and even if everything goes wrong you haven't wasted too much effort when you have another go!

Peter

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I have drawings of all the Moths and converting a Tiger to a Hornet is IMO a rather odd thing to do as only the nose front cowl is usable. I have vac moulds and Masters for both of these fuselages in 1:72.(only 35 years old) Nearly all Leopard Moth drawings are based on the 1;48 ones in the 1940 Aeromodeller, and 1:72 versions of this were drawn later for Aeromodeller and a proposed Harboro DH book which unlike the Miles, Westland and Bristol was never printed. The best Hornet Moth drawings are the Canadian Historical Society ones, which IIRC I sent copies to Scratchbuilder.

As to the French connection I would suspect these were Civilian ones conscripted as communication machines during WW.II.

John

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Reference your drawing over photo picture. There are variations in the Leopard rear top decking Some early a/c had slab sided fuselages, such as CMN Later ones such as PKH and CTJ had a stringer down the side and a definite rise up to the tail plane mount (as on the drawing) which might have been raised but I need to check this. In your photo the tail plane trim is set to nose up making the tailplane appear lower than in the drawing. Plus the u/c is unloaded in the photo but loaded in the drawing. The more common rear end is as in your photo and most machines still extant have the stringered fuselage.

John

PS The tail plane height is standard on all DH 85's but the tailplane fairing can change.

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I dug out the boxes containing the 40 years old (Yes 40, I started making patterns years before I went public in 1982) patterns of the types that were never produced commercially. These are the only parts left and a bit knocked about, the moulds are around some where. There are others. The plastic parts were intermediate patterns to become injected kits.

John

SDC11420_zps8e71083e.jpg

SDC11424_zpsba2a8f29.jpg

SDC11436_zps0e46dbe1.jpg

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I have the Planet Models Leopard moth and it is a lovely kit a little scarce on parts but beautifully moulded and detailed it will make a stunning model buy three !!

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The Puss is one of my all time favorites, even among the other Moths. I did a 1:72 vac way back in 1972 and the mould still runs but there are no clear parts as that mould disappeared. I have started a 1:48th one because I wanted a model; to go with my full size Gipsy III prop which has very special connections with a pretty convincing provenance. For many years I believed the prop to be off a Puss Moth, but recently I did some further checks and I found it to be off a Fox Moth which had the same connection and an even more astounding history. Hence the Fox Moth patterns. I'd like to find time to finish them both of along with the other DH's.

Ah well.

John

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have an unnamed 1/72 vacform of the Puss Moth , I think I bought it at Newark in the late 1980's , it simply had a blue coloured 3 view drawing and a spec for the aircraft and a sheet of vacform parts . No instructions , decals or clear parts . I bought another vacform kit that day from the same era it was also 1/72 and was a Miles Falcon TP7 and made by Arne Andersson of Sweden , kit number 019 . This has clear part and a 4 view drawing as well as the vacform sheet . By todays standards both kits a crude . I love that period of aviation and would like to see more kits of British civil aircraft from it .

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My comment about the kit being crude should be taken in context , were this kit produced today it would have white metal or resin detail parts , I intend to make my job a little easier by using Aeroclub white metal parts . When you produced this kit , did you have a particular aircraft in mind ? I ask as I have yet to choose a colour scheme , and there appear to be a number of different arrangements for the glazing in the cabin roof .

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It was made to the old Aeromodeller plans in a wartime magazine so it predates my metal odyssey it has the small fin and rudder which limits it. A new set is no big deal to make out of Plasticard and the rest of the airframe is standard. P005 is the prop.

Regards

John

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