DH.82a Tiger Moth RAAF + a Civilian one

[Ray S]

Hello all. 

 

I have just finished this little beauty of a kit, the Airfix 1/72 Tiger Moth. It is the second of these new toolings that I have finished, and I have enjoyed both! The kit itself is delightfully moulded, but there were some mould blemishes on one of the interplane struts, along with some flash but neither were a problem to sort out. I needed some filler between the cockpit openings but that was pretty much that. The only parts I really had problems with were the main undercarriage parts, and that is only because of my ham-fistedness. I decided to add the wheels right at the end having test fitted them, but when I did, the undercarriage disintegrated! Thankfully, ala Hot Chocolate, I put it together, again. This time though, I added the wheels first - should of (have?) done that first time. The model did get rather fragile towards the end.

 

I brush painted with Colourcoats Foliage Green, varnished with Revell Matt varnish acrylic and rigged with InfiniModel rigging line. All in all, I loved the build.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not add the cross-bracing between the rigging wires though. I may try that later.

 

 

I also photographed this with the other one I did, from the original boxing of this new tool kit:

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

Edited September 25, 2020 by Ray S
Edited Title

[dogsbody]

Well done!

 

 

 

Chris

[SAT69]

Very nice clean model. The other model is quite impressive as well. I like the instrument panel!

[bigbadbadge]

Stunning Moths they look wonderful.   Great work 

Chris

[Doc72]

Both look really nice and Tiger Moths in Foliage Green are not seen that often.

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Very impressive Moths in this scale.  I would love to see closeups of the civilian one as well.

[Pete in a shed]

Nicely done. The Moth looks very business like in Foliage Green.

 

Pete

[Bangor Lad]

Nice work. Double jeopardy is always faced with small biplanes. They look so fragile full size which multiplied ten gold when they're scaled down!

[tonyot]

Lovely and well done for finishing them both,....... I gave up on the pairI was building when the struts kept snapping while rigging them! 

Cheers

            Tony 

[kapam]

Brilliant builds!

I envy your talent to get such beautiful and precise results.

I have the Airfix kit in my stash but the rigging is the challenge that makes me hesitate.

[BigginHill]

Very nice outcome, i have one of these lovely little kits in my stash. The rigging is really effective, would you share your technique? Do you drill through the wings and pull the rigging through, then fill after trimming?

Edited September 25, 2020 by BigginHill

[Ray S]

Thank you all for the lovely replies and 'likes'.

 

1 hour ago, BigginHill said:

Very nice outcome, i have one of these lovely little kits in my stash. The rigging is really effective, would you share your technique? Do you drill through the wings and pull the rigging through, then fill after trimming?

 

For the rigging @BigginHill, I drill blind holes in the top wing and drill all the way through the lower. I pre-fitted InfiniModel rigging thread into the blind holes in the top wing before fitting the wing, and tacked the wires securely out of the way with scraps of masking tape so they did not accidentally get glued where they shouldn't. Then it was just a case of threading the wires through the appropriate full holes and securing with some superglue (I apply it using some fishing line held in tweezers - they curve of the line is very useful for accurate spotting!) while holding the line taut. Once that has set, I reinforce the glue with a few spots more underneath prior to cleaning up. I hope that helps for you.

 

13 hours ago, ColinChipmunkfan said:

Very impressive Moths in this scale.  I would love to see closeups of the civilian one as well.

 

@ColinChipmunkfan, I will take some later today and pop them on here too. There are some things I did not do with that one which I did on the RAAF version - rigging between the cabane struts, painting the cockpit glazing framing, etc.

 

Oh yes @BigginHill, the cabane struts - I fitted them to the fuselage first (instructions say to fit them to the top wing), and then fitted the four rigging wires to the fuselage and, when set, pulled them over the bar at the top of the struts. That then was still able to fit properly to the top wing, but gives easier access - that is why I did not fit these wires to the Civvie one, as I followed the instructions...

 

All the best everyone, and thanks for looking, liking, and the comments!

 

Ray

[occa]

Simply beautiful, and the foliage green just looks right

[Pedro1]

Very nice, I may have to get one of these as well. I also like to contrast with the civvy machine 🙂

Peter

[Ray S]

Hello all again.

 

At the request of @ColinChipmunkfan, here are some photographs of the civvie Tiger Moth. This was the original boxing of this new tool kit (from 2013 - crumbs, that long ago?). It shows a Tiger Moth from the Tiger Club at Headcorn Aerodrome, Ashford, Kent. I found even then it was a fragile model in its later stages, and I have to admit I was puzzled about how to fit the interplane struts. There are small pins on the struts, but relatively large rectangles for them to fit into on the wings. When I looked into the rectangles with a newly purchsed magnifier I think I saw incredibly tine holes inside the rectangular ones! Whatever the answer, the struts fitted.

 

I did omit some bits to this kit, I did not rig the cabane struts (I followed the instructions and fitted them to the upper wing first and that left no room for access to rig), I chickened out of painting the cockpit framing, and did not rig the tail elevators, just the rudder. I corrected all those with the Aussie one. Oddly, there were no control horns on the underside of the tailplane elevators.

 

Anyway, here is the civilian Tiger Moth for you:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one was brush painted with Humbrol 20 Crimson enamel (before I discovered thinning paint makes it work better!) and Revell 90 Silver acrylic. I cannot remember what I rigged with, I think this one was EZ-Line. In this instance, I did not drill any holes, I just used a spot of CA and soaked the end of the line in accelerator and it gripped where it touched. I then trimmed the line to just short and did the same at the final anchor point with just a hint of tension on the line.

 

I hope this has been okay for you.

 

All the best everyone,

 

Ray

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Thanks for posting Ray. This one looks really good too!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Now that civvie is a beauty!!!!!!

Excellent job! I like that deep red very much!

[2996 Victor]

Hi Ray,

I'd like to add my compliments to all the others and say that these are two splendid Moths! I really want to have a go at this kit.

I especially like the Aussie version, and I'm intrigued by the Foliage Green finish - I guess it was a trainer rather than, say, a spotter, but I'd always assumed (dangerous!) that Aussie trainers were also yellow. What's the back story? Is it a kit option?

Anyway, they're a pair of excellent aeroplanes!

Kind regards,

Mark

[Ray S]

Hello all, thanks again for the kind comments.

 

@2996 Victor, this RAAF aircraft was allocated to No 12 Local Air Supply Unit at Kiarivu Airfield, Papua New Guinea in 1945. It is option 'B' in  the A02106 boxing by Airfix. 

 

As to the back story, No.12 LASU was a Transport Unit, but I cannot find too much out about it.

 

There is something on 'Pacific Wrecks' website, but I do not know if it is this particular aircraft. It mentions A17-48 as the aircraft involved, but this one is A17-489. I would like to think this is the one as it had an interesting experience!

 

https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/dh82/A17-48.html

 

I hope that is of some use, all the best.

 

Ray

[2996 Victor]

Hi Ray,

 

Many thanks for the extra information, sounds like its an interesting option! I haven't followed the link yet, but will do now - thank you!

 

All the best,

 

Mark