KP 1/72nd De Havilland D.H.88 Comet racer

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

How unwise would be of me to pretend even the most superficial knowledge on this machine, given the fact that this report is presented in the land where it was born.

What else could be added to what have been said about the excels beauty and the graceful lines of this design, or the feats accomplished by it.

I will just add that because of my unquenchable love for this plane I have built a number of DH88s, from Airfix ancestry and from the beautiful and exquisite resin cast offered also in 1/72 by the Hungarian firm S.B.S. Model:

SBS Model models:

 

 

 

 

 

Airfix model:

 

 

 

And my oldest DH88, also from Airfix, eons ago:

 

 

Still undeterred, I bought the recently released boxing from KP, a manufacturer that has been lately releasing some beautiful kits, the civil Avia BH11 among them:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045353-kp-172nd-avia-bh-11-boska-1923/

 

Encouraged by those releases I embrace now the build of this DH88, an injected rendition of the iconic machine.

I have to say, before starting, that the SBS kit is a formidable one, and I don't believe that any injected kit could beat it, but the idea is perhaps to have an affordable, easier to build endeavor for those that still tremble and shake at the mere sight of a resin kit.

Fear not, this KP rendition is in some ways well above the old and venerable Airfix kit, being a much modern kit, but I am sure connoisseurs will soon find areas that may leave a bit to be desired, as is seemingly the fate of all things produced by humans, including little humans themselves.

Here are some shots of the contents, for your perusing and amusement:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GrzeM]

Wonderful models!

I have both kits (SBS nad KP) and like you I see some shortcomings of the KP kit, but still find it very nice effort.

 

Edit: I wrote "AZ" initially, and corrected to "KP". In fact the kit is produced by the AZ models, under the historic "KP" brand.

Edited December 15, 2018 by GrzeM

[Courageous]

Lovely subject Moa as a WiP. Will be interesting to see what offering gets the closest to the SBS kit.

'Black Magic' is just gorgeous

 

Stuart

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Now, this is a short run kit, meaning that instead of using the known techniques of gluing the parts together right on, aka "assembling", you may need to utilize an arcane technique, nowadays almost in disuse, called "modeling". These pips, for example, will need careful removing:

 

 

 Due to the nature of the molding process (and some questionable master-making) some parts will present small dimples that will need filling:

 

 

The detail is good overall:

 

There is a reasonable degree of surface detail:

 

 

 

More dimples:

 

And the culprit as usual is a master for the part that is not properly hollowed, rendering a too thick area that contracts on cooling. If the spinner and pointy nose would have been a hollow shell, no dimples would have been present. Instead, the master maker produced solid parts that in turn provoked the defect. Nothing to tear your vest and cry, though. The detail on the spinners, otherwise good, will no doubt suffer. I clarify that the dimples are NOT the ones molded for the prop blades, which are located on a different position:

 

 I sanded the main parts flat (since -as it is common with short run kits- there are almost no locating devices), without exaggerating, which will produce a bad fit down the lane, so be careful and restrained:

 

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Moa

[k5054nz]

I'm excited to follow along with this Moa! I've not seen anyone build the KP kit yet.

 

Did you ever build the Frog kit?

[invidia]

Fantastic, will be following this, I have 3 kp kits in the stash, plan is to build black, red and green aircraft!!

[corsaircorp]

Hello Moa !

Oh that's my favourite racer ! (rxcept for the Gee Bee R1) I really love this aircraft !!

Should I find one at 1/48...

Great collection of gems !! Congratulations !

Sincerely.

CC

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Short run technology, small, thin and fragile parts, and thick sprue gates don't get along well.

Long ago I learned that this rod-like parts are better cut from stretched sprue than try to extricate them and clean them, wasting time and energy:

 

The cockpit pan is assembled and wing and wheel halves are glued together.
There are very small (and again fragile) additional structural parts to glue to the landing gear legs. Perhaps they were not molded as the ones already present there to allow for the legs to spread and accept the wheels. Whatever the case, they are too wide and need careful trimming and gluing.
Most parts are rendered thicker than one would wish, but hey, short run, affordable kit. What can you do (besides trying to thin walls and such). I have the impression that the wings and horizontal stabilizer (and vertical stabilizer) are again thicker than what this scale calls for. May be it's subjective.
In any case we have a decent kit of a nice, important plane, with some reasonable detail, for a reasonable price. One can't have it all:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, k5054nz said:

Did you ever build the Frog kit?

Hi Zac

I built at least 3 Airfix ones, and two SBS's.

I don't think I ever built the Frog one, may be when I was a kid perhaps.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The instructions and parts' map have a couple glitches:

I believe parts 16 are not some levers for part 25, but the counterweights for the control surfaces (absent otherwise from inst. drawings).

Could not find part 20 (a rod) in the instructions, but spinners are marked in drawing as 20 (and 4 in the parts' map?).

Parts 17 confuse me: there are details molded already on the wing that look like the necessary light housings, and the parts on the sprue do not complement them or substitute in any way that I can see.

Parts 13, intended to be the small protruding exhaust, may need replacement.

To try to cut loose and effectively clean landing gear legs 28 is a joke. Again, I will replace them with items made of styrene rod or stretched sprue.

Canopy looks a bit squatty (I will defer here to the experts) and it is not thin, but clarity is reasonable.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The locating recesses on the stabs roots are drilled through. The landing gear braces are replaced with parts made of rod stock:

[dnl42]

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Some additional notes I am jotting down as the build progresses:

-The nose tip clear part is present in the same sprue that holds the canopy, but absent from the instructions and parts's map. 

-The Ratier prop logo is present on the decal sheet, but not really accurate.

-The landing gear parts that attach to the legs coming from the back at the well should have an horizontal connecting bit, absent from the kit, and are somewhat inaccurate (look at photos of the real thing).

-The interior depicted is not accurate for all the three planes you can build with this kit, so again check references. There are variations depending on the specific plane and at different times on their lives.

-The engineering of the engine gondolas will prevent the modeler from dealing comfortably with the different colors of the elements of the landing gear, wheel well, wheel and the gondola itself.

-The wings are a butt joint with the fuselage (but not the stabs, which have pips, go figure), so it is highly advisable to procure some means of securing them (metal pins, plastic rods, etc).

-As with other DH88 models, you have to take care of the flaps underneath the fuselage, which run from the wing to the center line, and fill any seams that may disrupt their contour.

-If you butt join the wings with the angle they have built in, you may end up with excess dihedral, so check that up.

-There is no provision or any indication for the prominent Pitot that goes on the right wing L.E.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Moa

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Moa

I have not been around for a couple of weeks and am back for a while and look forward to a Moa build very much. Great start. The other builds of this lovely looking machine are fabulous too. 

Keep up your good work.

All the best

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

A base color is applied to the fuselage interior and the cockpit pan:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Detailing of the interior ensues, adding a couple etched parts, some little extras, and some color notes:

 

The cockpit pan should rest on the right fuselage side where the locating devices for it are:

 

The inst. panel and the radio (which I will not likely use) are given a base color, and the additional members added to the landing gear:

 

 

 

[Courageous]

The cockpit looks surprisingly busy and nicely detailed.

 

Stuart

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Courageous said:

The cockpit looks surprisingly busy and nicely detailed.

 

Stuart

Yes, Stuart, the kit provides a nice starting point, I added a few things to spice it up.

The instructions, though, want you to add the spread bar with the "horns" down, whereas the horns and curve should be horizontal to match the back of the front seat.

The instructions do not clarify that the cockpit appointments varied depending on machine and timeline.

Part 25 is very dubious, and looks to me more like a wind-driven generator small prop, and nothing like the gizmo depicted with three vertical levers.

Skyways magazine of July 2003 has good references for the DH88, good also to check the landing gear, which can be improved if desired.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Moa

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The somewhat inaccurate canopy of this kit is due to the over-simplification of it shape:

 

The front is angular and drops not far from the vertical, whilst the back is curved and drops in a much wider angle. This is not reflected on the kit's part, which has a somewhat constant section, giving that squatty impression:

 

 

[Andwil]

So only slightly out then 😝. I’m sure you’ll be able to knock up a superior replacement.  Will you vac form or plunge mould one?

 

AW

[GrzeM]

On 12/16/2018 at 12:20 AM, Moa said:

Most parts are rendered thicker than one would wish, but hey, short run, affordable kit. What can you do (besides trying to thin walls and such). I have the impression that the wings and horizontal stabilizer (and vertical stabilizer) are again thicker than what this scale calls for. May be it's subjective.

Interesting.

How the wings (after glueing the halves together) fit the wingroots? I mean the thickness (airfoil), not the mating surfaces.

 

Why you have chosen "wood" colours for the interior? Do you have confirmation for this choice? I've seen photos of one of the Comets with interior in black, but I don't know if it was this particular machine.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 hours ago, GrzeM said:

Interesting.

How the wings (after glueing the halves together) fit the wingroots? I mean the thickness (airfoil), not the mating surfaces.

 

Why you have chosen "wood" colours for the interior? Do you have confirmation for this choice? I've seen photos of one of the Comets with interior in black, but I don't know if it was this particular machine. 

The fit of the wing in shape to the root on the fuselage side is fairly good.

When I built all the other DH88 models I spend an inordinate amount of time collecting and reading references. The construction material was wood, that much we know, and at some point (at the time I built the first SBS kit) I came to the conclusion that it wasn't painted over with another color. I would have to dig hard and long to retrieve evidence for that conclusion in the ever-growing references older of the DH88, something I don't want to spend my time doing. The kit calls black for all the interior, but photos of the real thing show tonal differences, so...your choice. Regarding the color photos you saw, I hope is not a restored machine?

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

15 hours ago, Andwil said:

So only slightly out then 😝. I’m sure you’ll be able to knock up a superior replacement.  Will you vac form or plunge mould one?

 

AW

Here is the thing: the interior is nice, and none of it is really visible if you fit the canopy closed. In my last DH88s I left the canopy open to the side as in real life, so the interior can be seen. That also hides -in the cases of the Airfix and KP kits- the not very accurate shape of the canopy.

I may pull a vac from the kit's part, just to achieve scale thickness -if not shape accuracy-, because the transparency given can't be called thin.

What I am not doing is a master to correct the canopy, I leave that to the aftermarket industry that may also like to add a number of etched parts to dress up this kit, with the bonus of someone issuing those sink-hole affected spinners (on my kit) in resin.

Cheers

[Tomoshenko]

Impressive work thus far, beginning to shape up nicely. Like your display of builds too. I have the SBS kit in the stash, so pleased to hear how well they build up. Notwithstanding your skill of course.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

36 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

I have the SBS kit in the stash, so pleased to hear how well they build up.

SBS kits are, by far, the best kits I have had in my hands and bult in a whole life of modeling and hundreds of models actually built, including all modeling media and of course many different types.

I have built all the major brands in the industry and a fair share of cottage. Nothing equals SBS in -of course- my opinion. But that's not an opinion based on stacking kits in the attic or closet or fondle them affectionately while pondering on their presumed virtues or defects, it's based on building them to completion (several of them, actually). Their price is above many injected kits of similar size, but below some despicable resin offers (and even some injected spawns!) and about the same than -quite good, also- similar resin offerings, that nevertheless can't really compete with SBS's precision, engineering, perfect casts and detail.

When I got and built the first, I was certain that SBS kits came from Mars or a parallel universe with far advanced kit technology.

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Moa