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Two Sea Dragons: De Havilland D.H.89s converted from the 1/72nd scale Heller kit


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Almost ready:

IMG_0590+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The incompletely-filled canopy:

IMG_0591+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The affected area is excised following the frames:

IMG_0593+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

 Beaching wheels ready. And fortunately, I found some more strut material that fits the bill sent to me long ago by @John Aero (thanks!)

IMG_0594+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The exhausts are different in both models than the kit's offering, so their ends are cut off and re-done with stretched and hollowed sprue:

IMG_0595+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The other model:

IMG_0597+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

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The spreadbar retainers in process:

IMG_0599+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

Engine nacelles are glued on, as mentioned before with their float struts anchoring points already drilled. The spreadbar retainers are glued to the floats.

It is of note that only one fore spreadbar was present in this arrangement, the aft part of the floats connecting to the nacelles and fuselage directly:

IMG_0600+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

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A panel for the missing space on the side is replicated with thin acrylic. The top missing panel will follow -made with much thinner clear plastic- but only after painting is done, to avoid the stresses of masking the transparency in that area.

Pity I was forced to deal with this, as the necessary mods for this conversion already consume a lot of modeling time themselves:

IMG_0602+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

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Again some excellent work you are doing here! 

 

Just started reading this wip, I have always been interested in the Dragon and actually have been able to take two short flights as a passenger in one. 

 

I have the 1/32 scale Dragon kit from Lukgraph waiting to be build. Oeps 1/32 scale, I should not have said that... 😜

But then I shared many of my walkaround photograps inside and out of the Scottish Airways version with Lukasz when he was developping the kit. Culminating in the Scottish Airways version that came out.

 

Still I am always amazed at what you can achieve in 1/72 scale! Unfortunately my sight is not what it used to be so I only rarely build 1/72 scale kits anymore.

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15 hours ago, Ed Russell said:

More excellent work.

Thanks, Ed!

7 hours ago, Lightpainter said:

Again some excellent work you are doing here! 

 

Just started reading this wip, I have always been interested in the Dragon and actually have been able to take two short flights as a passenger in one. 

 

I have the 1/32 scale Dragon kit from Lukgraph waiting to be build. Oeps 1/32 scale, I should not have said that... 😜

But then I shared many of my walkaround photograps inside and out of the Scottish Airways version with Lukasz when he was developping the kit. Culminating in the Scottish Airways version that came out.

 

Still I am always amazed at what you can achieve in 1/72 scale! Unfortunately my sight is not what it used to be so I only rarely build 1/72 scale kits anymore.

Thanks.

And lucky boy! Flying on a Dragon! Like Ged, the wizzard of Earthsea!

Yes, 1/72 requires good eyesight, which I have lost long ago. Only with magnification I am able now to build models, and half-guessing in many occasions as I can't judge depth accurately due to an issue with my right eye. But I rather do lacing than build planes in another scale! No sir! A man has his dignity! 😋

 

 

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Just a polite correction.

The De Havilland Dragon is the DH.84, a slightly gawky plane with straight, square-cut wings and dangly undercart. There were 137 built in Australia, so at least one ended up in this country although I haven't seen it flying (ZK-AXI).

The Dragon Rapide (aka Dominie) is the DH.89 -- the graceful sibling that we're talking about here.

 

Tony

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4 minutes ago, Pritch said:

Just a polite correction.

The De Havilland Dragon is the DH.84, a slightly gawky plane with straight, square-cut wings and dangly undercart. There were 137 built in Australia, so at least one ended up in this country although I haven't seen it flying (ZK-AXI).

The Dragon Rapide (aka Dominie) is the DH.89 -- the graceful sibling that we're talking about here.

 

Tony

You are absolutely right, Tony. Thanks for the clarification. I got (lazily) accustomed to the short name as you see it called that way in the text in many references, even when their titles state the (correct) full name.

Good catch.

Cheers

 

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The top skin is glued in place:

IMG_0707+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

Blending of the skins will follow.

Cosmic mythologies have their Manvantaras and Pralayas, their cycles of creation/destruction

We have our own sacred Modeling Cycles of puttying, sanding, priming, repeat.

In fact, Tom Cruise inspired himself in our modeling unavoidable recurrences to make "Live-Die-Repeat".

We have our own wheel of Samsara.

 

 

 

 

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Glad you were able to sort out the canopy glazing, of course we all know you would be able to do this anyway, but it is great to see, it's a kind of modeller therapy watching you fix problems. 

Looking good now with wings on , skins in place and floats getting ready.

Splendid work Moa.

All the best

Chris

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7 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Glad you were able to sort out the canopy glazing, of course we all know you would be able to do this anyway, but it is great to see, it's a kind of modeller therapy watching you fix problems. 

Looking good now with wings on , skins in place and floats getting ready.

Splendid work Moa.

All the best

Chris

Thanks Chris.

The builds reached more or less the point where things seem to slow down, as you work on the surfaces and the details to be added later.

I still have to sort out a challenging stage: the measurement, cutting, shaping and assembling of the floats struts, preserving alignment, and no road map.

 

 

 

 

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First coat of primer. Once again, the vinyl masks (this time from Thunderbird Models) that were located on curved surfaces of the Dragon canopy started to lift in the middle of the airbrushing session. Not nice at all.
I would have paper masks over vinyl masks any time, but sometimes you use what you have at hand. I truly dislike vinyl masks, fine on flat surfaces, trouble most of them on curved ones.
Notice, by the way, that the Dragon is about the same size of the Gamma:

IMG_0907+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

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The short struts that connect the belly of the fuselage with the interior of the nacelles are absent in all seaplane photos I have for the chosen subjects. Those should be therefore not employed.

IMG_0920+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

If this thread hasn't already dissuaded you from ever attempting this conversions, here is a small piece of wisdom: many times in modeling (and in life) when we try to skirt what we perceive as more work, we end up doing double or triple that work. I thought it would be convenient to leave the fin and just add the extension in place and blend it in situ. Well, it can be done, I did it, but it would be much more convenient to remove the fin on both fuselage halves, and make a new one from styrene sheet with the shape including the extension, and glue it later on:

IMG_0921+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

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  • fjaweijfopi4j48 changed the title to Two Sea Dragons: De Havilland D.H.89s converted from the 1/72nd scale Heller kit
On 6/30/2020 at 2:11 PM, Pritch said:

Just a polite correction.

The De Havilland Dragon is the DH.84, a slightly gawky plane with straight, square-cut wings and dangly undercart. There were 137 built in Australia, so at least one ended up in this country although I haven't seen it flying (ZK-AXI).

The Dragon Rapide (aka Dominie) is the DH.89 -- the graceful sibling that we're talking about here.

 

Tony

Hi Tony

I have done some extra digging, and found that actually at the very beginning the DH89 was just named "Dragon Six", not Rapide, due to its engines.

It's only later on, as you correctly pointed out, that it was called "Rapide":

Dragon+six.jpg

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The top wing of the second model is glued on:

IMG_0924+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The Heller kit has a small quirk: if you glue the horizontal tail as it is, it will end up angling back, as it is shown below (exaggerating the angle):

IMG_0925+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The root has to be re-angled:

IMG_0926+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

 And then the pips drilled and re-inserted for a more secure fit:

IMG_0927+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

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I had to share this!

 

Research is so funny!

I just found out looking at an archive movie at Getty Images that the regs' font on the D.H.88 Comets had round corners!

ALL the regs of ALL the Comets of ALL brands (SBS, Airfix, KP) I have made have the wrong font!

So funny!

(sobbing)

 

 

round+corners.jpg

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