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1/72 SBS Model de Havilland DH.88 Comet


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Thanks everyone for the kind remarks. It really is a great kit, and I highly recommend it. If we all buy one, they'll do more aircraft! It really "feels" like a styrene kit. The resin is not as brittle as some, and the castings are so thin it really behaves like styrene except, of course, that solvent cements are powerless. It's not difficult to build, but there are a lot of very tiny, very fiddly little parts, both resin and photo-etch to contend with. The fit s very good: it almost snaps together, although in some case removing a hair's width of material helps.

I do wish I had a "do over" on the canopy join as there are uneven seam, but that shows up worse in photos.

The paint is Tamiya acrylic gloss red with a few drops of black added sprayed with my old Paasche H. I thinned it severely with Mr. Color leveling thinner which works great. I probably could have thinned it less, as it tended to pull away from the panel lines leaving them looking "whiter" as you can see. I gave it a few extra coats and that helped. This mix turned out to be quite forgiving: I was able to rub out some bits of dust and some fingerprints, and spray those areas again and it blended right in.

The spinners are Alclad polished aluminum. I wanted the prop blades to have a different tone (which, in they end, they don't) but they were painted gloss black acrylic. While that was still a little tacky I rubbed on some of the aluminum polishing powder that SNJ used to sell. Then a thin coat of Alclad's clear sealer. It's a fairly easy way to get a really polished aluminum finish on small areas.

The decals are very thin and glossy, but they are delicate. Be careful not to let them fold, and once they're set in place, that's it! No do-overs.

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