DH89 Dragon Rapide - Finished

[825]

Just a placeholder for the moment until I finish my BoB and MTO3 builds but I'll be joining with this in the next week or so. 

 

 

[TonyOD]

There’s going to be a whole squadron of Drag Raps! 😁

[825]

The box has three silver grey sprues, which are quite thin with restrained raised detail. A fair few bits have already come off the sprue. 

 

 

The transparencies are nice and clear

 

 

Three options on the transfer sheet. 

 

 

I'll be doing this version. 

 

 

 

[825]

Some paint on and the interior started. First challenge is the missing seat. 

 

 

Bigger challenge is the floor is warped. This is after a bit of bending and straightening.   It keeps going back to banana shaped. 

 

 

However the floor is the least of the problems. Both fuselage sides are warped at the front. 

 

 

 

And the fin is off. 

 

 

On their own own they don't look too bad but here's what it looks like when taped up. 

 

 

A bit of thinking to do. I'll have a look at the other builds here and see if anyone else is having similar problems. 

[TonyOD]

I have a ton of spare DR seats, happy to post you one.
 

And believe it or not the floor’s supposed to be like that. I thought same. Have a look at most recent few posts in my DR build (link in signature 😁)

Edited October 25, 2020 by TonyOD

[825]

2 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I have a ton of spare DR seats, happy to post you one.
 

And believe it or not the floor’s supposed to be like that. I thought same. Have a look at most recent few posts in my DR build (link in signature 😁)

Tony your offer is very kind. I'll PM you with my address if that's OK. Thanks for the heads up on the cabin floor. I've checked and it does fit into the fuselage (the more or less straight one) pretty well. The fuselage is something else. I see that @Dom Barr's build has the same squint fuselage. 

[JOCKNEY]

Great choice @825 delighted to see another Rapide joining the GB.

Best of luck with the build 

Cheers Pat 

[825]

 

Some more paint on the interior. I'll do the cushions in a leather colour and then add some seat belts for the pilot. 

 

 

I added some filied down sprue as a cylinder in behind the hole in the cowling to stop see through. It's not perfect but little will be seen once some paint is on but it will do its job

 

 

 

Assembled the engine/nacelle/undercarriage. Went together well and nice detail. Will need a little bit of tidying up. 

 

 

[825]

I've straightened out the fuselage sides but they still don't match too well so there's going to be a bit of work to do once I come to assembling the fuselage. The fuselage glazing is glued in. 

 

 

I have a set of masks in the stash so I've got them out and these will help. The shape of the windows and the triangular canopy panels would have been a real masking challenging. 

 

 

I find when brush painting aluminium a gloss black undercoat really helps. Also the wings are going to be a nightmare to mask when  assembled due to struts and rigging. So decided to paint the wings before assembly and worry about tidying up afterwards. First coat of gloss black. 

 

 

And whats this sitting hiding away in the corner of the box? The missing seat!  I emptied the box and lid, looked under the flaps in the corner, everything. This is the opposite of the carpet monster. 

 

[Heather Kay]

S'funny, because I had one seat doing just that in my box too.

 

Perhaps they were packed that way at the factory. 

[TonyOD]

1 hour ago, 825 said:

 

I find when brush painting aluminium a gloss black undercoat really helps

I keep hearing this... about to Alu my Thunderbolt and wondering if that’s something I should do.

 

I was going to post those seats tomorrow, guess you’re ok now! Decals still here if you find yourself in need...

[825]

3 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I keep hearing this... about to Alu my Thunderbolt and wondering if that’s something I should do.

 

I was going to post those seats tomorrow, guess you’re ok now! Decals still here if you find yourself in need...

Thanks Tony for the kind offer, but the transfers in the box look fine so I should be OK. 

 

On the gloss black undercoat for Aluminium I've used it a few times. It gives a really smooth layer to be enable the laying down of a few thin coats of the metallic colour. I dilute both to the consistency of single cream with Flow Improver. It works pretty well. The challenge with the Dragon will be the Black undercoat for the Aluminium and the need for a white undercoat for the Signal Red. 

[TonyOD]

29 minutes ago, 825 said:

The challenge with the Dragon will be the Black undercoat for the Aluminium and the need for a white undercoat for the Signal Red. 

Oof, I don't envy you that one! My black gloss and Metalcote are both out of rattlecans, so there isn't much fine tuning I can do! We'll see how it goes...

[825]

Interior completed (to my satisfaction, there's not much to be seen) and some gloss black on the wings. 

 

 

 

Then the Thunderbird Models masks applied, apart from the front window on the starboard side which had parted from the fuselage. So it was glued back down with Gator Grip and taped down. 

 

[stevehnz]

Good to see these Dragons being built. I have several in stock & to know they come together ok, albeit with the odd hassle, is a comfort. This one looks to be coming along nicely.

Steve.

[825]

Interior glued in. Took a bit of time to get in and the front end will need some attention down the line. 

 

 

Some silver paint, Revell Aluminium, onto the wings. 

[825]

I've started to glue the fuselage sides together. Although I've done a bit of work straightening the sides out a bit they don't quite go together terribly well. There's mismatches here, there and everywhere. I started at the base of the fin and worked forward to where the wing goes. Then did the same on the bottom. I then glued the section above the cockpit. 

 

 

I'll leave the front end which will need work to get a workable match. Work needed top and bottom. 

 

 

Also the fin/rudder on each side doesn't match. 

 

 

And now some filler on, and the fuselage put away to get solid before attacking it further. 

 

[825]

Now the nose glued up. The top is not too bad, although I did make that the priority as I thought I would be able to work more on the bottom. 

 

 

Here's the bottom which is seriously in need of attention.

 

 

So it was out with the Milliput.

 

 

And I added some Milliput to the top of the fin. 

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Blimey this ones putting up quite a fight, isn't it amazing that the quality control could be so different between the kit you have and the others we have seen in this GB.

Great to see your progress 

Cheers Pat

[825]

8 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Blimey this ones putting up quite a fight, isn't it amazing that the quality control could be so different between the kit you have and the others we have seen in this GB.

Great to see your progress 

Cheers Pat

Thanks Pat. It is strange as everybody in the GB keeps saying how good the quality is.  With this one it's just the fuselage halves, the engine nacelles have gone together beautifully and apart from some work needed as a result of my cack handedness the wings are great, and the test fit into the fuselage gives a really nice joint. I wonder if the kit got overheated somewhere or something. 

 

I've also got the SBS rigging set as I thought it would be ideal for that but it's a lot more complicated than I thought. 

[Heather Kay]

33 minutes ago, 825 said:

but it's a lot more complicated than I thought. 

it does look that way, but if you follow the directions carefully it all works out. Start from near the fuselage. Note that one or two wires, where they’re doubled next to an etch pair have to be fitted in a certain order to avoid a tangle. 
 

Good light, good magnification, good tweezers, and use a glue that gives you some wiggle time. I used ordinary PVA. I also ignored the small discs on the fret. No-one was going to notice them missing.

[Rabbit Leader]

Keep at it @825 some kits might have a few mould issues, however they all go together with a bit of spit and lots of polish. My He 112 nose was shocking, however a good does of CA and filler fixed this nicely. My Heller Bf 109B nose was also a smidgen off, however nothing more than you would expect for this era of model kit. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[825]

3 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

it does look that way, but if you follow the directions carefully it all works out. Start from near the fuselage. Note that one or two wires, where they’re doubled next to an etch pair have to be fitted in a certain order to avoid a tangle. 
 

Good light, good magnification, good tweezers, and use a glue that gives you some wiggle time. I used ordinary PVA. I also ignored the small discs on the fret. No-one was going to notice them missing.

Thanks Heather, I was planning on using something like Gator Grip which does give some wiggle time. I usually find cyano rarely works for me in these circumstances, all I end up with is sticking my fingers together and hard to sand off glue runs in inaccessible places. At least PVA will swab off with a wet cotton bud. Like you I won't worry about tiny things that won't be seen. 

 

Did you paint the wires beforehand and what did you paint them with?  

[825]

1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Keep at it @825 some kits might have a few mould issues, however they all go together with a bit of spit and lots of polish. My He 112 nose was shocking, however a good does of CA and filler fixed this nicely. My Heller Bf 109B nose was also a smidgen off, however nothing more than you would expect for this era of model kit. 

Cheers.. Dave 

Thanks Dave, as you probably see I'm certainly persevering. Once I get some sanding and polishing done, hopefully it'll all look OK. I was keen to get the upper nose as close as possible to make sure the canopy fits OK. 

[Heather Kay]

7 hours ago, 825 said:

Did you paint the wires beforehand and what did you paint them with?

I left them in bare metal. I don’t know if the real ones were japanned or painted or bare. I quite like the glint as they catch the light, so I left them in natural metal.