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D.H. 83 Fox Moth, half scratch


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Airfix did a very good job on the DH82 kit, the finesse and detail to be highly commended. Some minute nitpicking on a detail: the horns on the elevator were only molded on the upper side of it:

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And not on the underside. But the strut locations are there. I think this is attributable, yet once again, to the "tech" interface, where people that are very computer able do not necessarily posses the aviation knowledge needed to realize certain things:

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The horns were added from styrene sheet scraps:

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Some of the airframes had a duct that run along the top of the nose. The detail is fabricated just in case I chose a reg that had it, but not glued:

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More parts are extracted from the Airfix DH82 kit to see if they can be used. The landing gear as we know won't fit as it is (too narrow for the DH83), but may be I can separate and use the main legs. The struts perhaps can be used too:

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You may have noticed the "X" structure that unites and aligns the struts. This is a clever device added by Airfix to help the modeler with the ever-present "how-to-glue-and-align-the-upper-wing" issue. You are supposed to glue the structures and then once all is set remove the "X".

It may help, and it may work, especially if you are careful, dexterous, and use a sharp blade:

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Edited by Moa
to correct typo
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An excellent tip on making scoops. A certain alien of this parish has always carved them from solid and then had to hollow them out.

 

Martian

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The pants are opened at the bottom to reflect the real thing:

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The extended exhaust is made of styrene rods. The "muffler" is hollowed at the tip to insert the fore and aft lengths and allow a tiny bit of play to adjust. Once all is measured, small holes will be drilled and thin wires inserted to anchor the assembly to the fuselage in the corresponding -and also pre-drilled- locations:

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The Airfix DH82 landing gear. Notice the black spots. Those were little holes for the DH82 front LG struts, now filled with black styene and trimmed:

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Legs separated, axles drilled to accept new wire rigs:

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New wires in place:

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Dry run on the fuselage:

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Airfix solution of the aileron linkages (a molded-in triangle instead of horn and rod) keeps bothering me a bit. In such otherwise refined and detailed kit it just doesn't do it for me. I may remove and replace them, my only concern is a sore spot that I may create by the removal and sanding and adding of the parts, that will not be as neat as the rest. We'll see.

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10 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

An excellent tip on making scoops. A certain alien of this parish has always carved them from solid and then had to hollow them out.

 

Martian

Hi Martian

One of the purposes of posting the step-by-step build is hopefully to provide some degree of help for modelers venturing into the unknown. Most of you are aware of the tricks, but some may not.

One of the frustrating things to me when I saw nice models posted (more like published then) as I was learning, was the fact that you have a gorgeous model, nice, good for you, thanks, but how in heaven did you make it? how did you solve the problems? for modelers that enjoy building, a nice model without background is kind of flat, bi-dimensional, eye candy. Nice eye candy many times, surely, and certainly most enjoyable and thanks for sharing, but again, how did you make it?

I have fun sharing. And hopefully being -even to a minute degree- helpful for a few fellow modelers somewhere, out there, in cyberspace.

 

 

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OK, I just erased those aileron linkages, leaving a minute section as the control horn, and later will add a piece of short wire:

41590512451_efd2fbf892_b.jpg

 

The jig that will be the base of the male mold for the canopy is made:

41590512511_76a2b1abb6_b.jpg

 

The windshield is made of a curved and shaped piece of clear plastic from some undetermined package:

41590512401_3b150a7003_b.jpg

 

I am the kind of modeler that, in spite of previous experience, keeps deluding himself with the thought that once most of the model comes to shape, the completion is near.

But the horizon, as we know, keeps moving ahead, and ahead, and ahead.

The seemingly infinity number of details and parts that need to be fabricated keeps mounting.

And on top of that, I still remain undecided regarding the scheme, so decals can not be started.

I think this is precisely the moment when most modelers just start another darn kit :P

 

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16 hours ago, Moa said:

Hi Martian

One of the purposes of posting the step-by-step build is hopefully to provide some degree of help for modelers venturing into the unknown. Most of you are aware of the tricks, but some may not.

One of the frustrating things to me when I saw nice models posted (more like published then) as I was learning, was the fact that you have a gorgeous model, nice, good for you, thanks, but how in heaven did you make it? how did you solve the problems? for modelers that enjoy building, a nice model without background is kind of flat, bi-dimensional, eye candy. Nice eye candy many times, surely, and certainly most enjoyable and thanks for sharing, but again, how did you make it?

I have fun sharing. And hopefully being -even to a minute degree- helpful for a few fellow modelers somewhere, out there, in cyberspace.

 

 

Couldn't agree more with that philosophy.

 

Martian

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The bubble canopy jig was filled with Milliput and sanded to shape; then a clear part was pulled using the venerable Psychedelic Mattel Vacuforming Machine:

27736668028_cf971bf022_b.jpg

 

I use that little Mattel vacuforming machine contraption a lot, and I am running pretty low on the sheets it uses (opaque and clear). I tried the various substitutes offered online to no avail. I am down now to only four clear sheets, that means four more scratch canopy projects and impending vacuforming doom.

The troubles of a scratchbuilder.

 

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22 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Excellent stuff Moa.

You seem to be heading into trouble with your scratchbuilding; first with diminishing supplies the correct decal paper and now it's clear sheet :headbang:.

I was warned at the Scrathbuilding Shaolin Temple by Master Po (he was an actual master, so copies could be made of him when needed): The Way of Scratchbuilding is one of many hardships. 

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2 hours ago, Courageous said:

Excellent stuff Moa.

You seem to be heading into trouble with your scratchbuilding; first with diminishing supplies the correct decal paper and now it's clear sheet :headbang:.

We the ascetic monks of scratchbuilding are not asking why nobody kits the Kerfuffle-Kaputnik KK-1, of which only one grainy photo exists, locked in a vault in Volkania.

We are asking why there is no high-quality decal paper -thin, white and clear-, or common generic scratchbuilding accessories like the ones Aeroclub used to market (to contemporary, higher standards if possible); or good, perforated opaque and clear plastic sheets for the Mattel vacuum-forming Psychedelic machine of which thousands are around, and so on and so forth.

For example: I purchased these Venturis -I need one for this model- which are excellent, and before I either fabricated them or used Aeroclub ones (of course superseded now as seen in the photo below). The price was right, the quality is high. I wish more manufacturers would cater for the scratch (or kit-improver) crowd:

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Some manufacturers produce superb, incredibly detailed, out-of-this-world engines, for example, like Small Stuff. But they produce (logically enough) only the best-sellers. I don't see many props around, of the little gizmos Aeroclub used to market (joysticks, antennas, etc.).

Some photo-etched manufacturers do produce for instance some interesting generic sets from which I many times use parts. But the versatility, affordability, quality and variety of Fred Hultberg's FOTOCUT sets is gone. I dearly miss their Hawker Oil Cooler, their generic cockpit accessories, their Pitot set which included wind-driven generator tiny props (I just had to fabricate one for this model).

Sigh......

 

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I am surprised about the availability of good decal paper, after all, decal producers must get there paper from somewhere. The same goes for clear plastic, vacform canopy companies must get it from somewhere. I can understand to a certain degree the lack of 'parts for the scratch builders like engines and stuff but the molds are out there...

All we can do is best effort.

With your ever depleting resources, please carry on.

 

Stuart

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On 4/20/2018 at 5:23 PM, Moa said:

I think this is precisely the moment when most modelers just start another darn kit :P

Well, I did it. I started another build, as this one tends to near completion and the other two parallel ongoing builds (Mitsubishi SM-1 and Barkley-Grow) were also completed. But no worries, I will give the present one priority.

 

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