Airfix De Havilland Chipmunk T.10 (A04105) 1:48

[Mike]

De Havilland Chipmunk T.10 (A04105)

1:48 Airfix

 

 

The Chipmunk was the first fully Canadian aircraft from De Havilland of Canada that entered service just after WWII, and was used by many air forces as a trainer in the post WWII years, often replacing the biplane Tiger Moth. The RAF trainers were manufactured by D.H. in the UK, and served with the RAF until 1996 when the last of them were withdrawn from service, and there are a lot of pilots that learned to fly during that period that hold the little aircraft in high regard, having taken their first tentative and hopeful steps into the sky at the controls of a Chippie.  Its calm and reliable flight manners made it an ideal trainer, and its more modern construction that used a large proportion of metal parts with only partial fabric covering to the wings, gave it a more modern feel that was suitable for the absolute beginner, or ‘ab initio’ pilot, as they are sometimes referred to.

 

Canada continued to use the Chipmunk as trainer until the early 70s, and a surprisingly large list of operators have used them over the years, including such varied powers as Egypt, Ghana and Lebanon. It is estimated that around 500 are still airworthy today, most in private hands.

 

 

The Kit

The Chipmunk is a new tool that was released earlier this year by Airfix, but we’ve only just got our example due to the popularity of the kit, which already bodes well.  It arrives in a small top-opening box in Airfix’s usual red theme, with three full-size sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, decal sheet and instruction booklet with colour profiles on the rear pages.  The Chippie’s exterior is covered either with flush panels, raised-rivet panels or doped fabric over the metal ribbing of the structure, and all of these surfaces are depicted well here, even down to the raised rivets, which are thankfully positioned on the leading edges of the wings where they should survive construction.

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the cockpit, with two strangely shaped seats that have a diagonal surround with the seat itself recessed in a concave shape behind it.  The front seat’s recess is a separate part that is glued in behind the panel, with a moulded-in coaming behind the seat, and optional seat cushions for a more modern example.  The rear seat is a single part that also has an optional cushion.  The cockpit floor forms a shallow trough with planking in the bottom, and it requires two holes per pilot to be drilled through for an instrument on the floor and the control column, then the seats are both placed behind the controls, slotting into place on twin tabs.  The cockpit is set to the side while the interior of the fuselage is prepared, mostly by painting the ribbed sides, adding a few small holes for the tail strakes if necessary, and a pair of stencil decals on the cockpit sidewalls to finish off.  The cockpit can then be installed in the port side, and on the starboard a pair of additional controls are fixed to the still-open side of the cockpit.  With the addition of a small circular bulkhead under the tail, the fuselage can be closed up and glued along with a bulkhead at the front of the cockpit aperture, which also has some ancillary detail added and picked out in different colours.

 

 

 

 

This model includes a rendition of the DHC Gypsy Major 4-cylinder engine that has about the same output as my car!  The first act is to put the remainder of the cowling in front of the nose on the fuselage, which has the long central section of the engine cowling projecting forward, with optional hinges glued underneath if you plan on opening the cowlings up to show off the engine.  The cowling has a coaming and instrument panel for the front cockpit, which has a decal applied for the instruments, as does the rear panel, which also has a separate coaming and decal to finish it off.  The engine is built up from two halves that trap a rotating axle between them, with input and output manifolds, the latter angling away from the bottom of the motor toward the underside of the cowling.  A C-shaped panel covers the port side of the engine to finish it off, and the two engine mounts are fixed next after removing two moulding-assisting sections from the rear, which you are shown exactly how to remove with the aid of scrap diagrams.  The completed assembly is offered up to the bulkhead and locates on four holes that mate with the rear of the engine mounts, just like the real thing.  The fixed lower and forward cowlings are glued in place, then you have the option of posing the side cowlings open or closed, which also have a small intake added to the top of the starboard piece.

 

 

The lower wing is full width, and is strengthened by adding a short spar into the area between the main wheel sockets, with a small landing light inserted from within, just right of centre.  The lower wing is then slotted into the gap in the lower fuselage leading edge first, locking two tabs in position within the root fairings and dropping the trailing edge into its matching socket.  The upper wings have tabs on the root edge, and these should be glued in place to set up before you add the two separate ailerons, which also have tabs to locate them.  Similarly, the lower elevator fins are full width with the root fairing moulded-in, and accepts the two top surfaces, locating with those new donut-shaped sockets that Airfix are now using.  This slots into the front fairing on the fuselage under the tail, and is then joined by the rudder fin, of which you have a choice of two depending on which decal option you have chosen.  The optional elevator strakes are slotted into their pre-drilled holes, and the elevator flying surfaces are attached to the trailing edge of the fins to complete that area.

 

The Chipmunk’s fixed landing gear is simple, and has aerodynamic fairings moulded-in, with a slot for a clear landing light in the top of the port leg, and there are also a pair of unweighted legs with stretched oleo-scissors in case you are posing your aircraft in flight.  The main wheels are each a single part, as is the tail wheel with its strut, which fixes to the small bulkhead at the rear of the fuselage.  The prop is a simple two-blade affair, which are moulded as a single part with a front and rear half of the spinner to close it in, with a hole in the rear to fit onto the axle projecting from the engine.  A pitot-probe and two aileron actuators are glued to the underside of the wings, and a choice of blade antenna on the fuselage is shown, with a scrap diagram for each one to show their correct orientation that finishes off the airframe along with the open cowlings if you have chosen those.  The canopy is an inventive assembly, beginning with the installation of the windscreen with a t-shaped central rod running up the inside, then a jig is used to attach the two side panels at the correct angles to the vertical so that they can be mated with the roof, rear panels, and a stiffening cross-brace at the rear.  You are told under no uncertain terms not to glue the parts to the jig, but someone’s just bound to!  Before you glue the canopy in position, you have a choice of utilising the two identical pilot figures, which are a bit average, with the usual hands-on-laps pose that I really wish we could get away from.  Once that decision is made, your last choice is to pose the canopy open or closed, either of which options requires the addition of the small handles on the port side of the roof.

 

 

Markings

There are a generous four options on the kit decal sheet with a choice of some different-looking schemes, even though all the options are British in origin, and some are restored airframes.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• WB585 (G-AOSY) in the colours of No.2 Flying Training School, restored by Vintage Fabrics, Audley End Airfield, Saffron Waldren, Essex, England, 2020
• WB549, First British Chipmunk, displayed at Farnborough, Hampshire, England, 1949
• Royal Navy Historic Flight, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset, England, 2009
• Army Air Corps, Army Aviation Centre, Middle Wallop, Hampshire, England, June 1968

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

We’re very late to the party, but that doesn’t stop it from being a great release from Airfix, with loads of surface detail such as the rivets, the little V-shaped zip-up inspection pockets under the wing and the fuel gauges on the wing tops.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[JP Steve]

Kind of sorry they didn't include a Canadian scheme.  Surely there were some in use in the Canadian training establishments?

 

[Rod Blievers]

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and a choice of blade antenna on the fuselage is shown, with a scrap diagram for each one to show their correct orientation that finishes off the airframe

Great review Mike, but with respect, the instructions err here in that they show the lower "blade" mounted vertically - since it was mounted perpendicular to the skin and offset from the centreline it can't be vertical, viewed from ahead it's offset to the left. Here you go:

 

 

Cheers, Rod.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Rod Blievers

[Harold55]

Thanks for the review Mike.  I have mine on the slow boat from China and hope to tackle it by the Spring.  Yes, I too wish one scheme might have been Canadian but my wife took one look at the choices when I showed her what I ordered and she said: "Ok, as long as you do the red one" which I interpret as scheme A.   So I guess its going to be the Red one.

[Mike]

10 hours ago, Rod Blievers said:

Great review Mike, but with respect, the instructions err here in that they show the lower "blade" mounted vertically - since it was mounted perpendicular to the skin and offset from the centreline it can't be vertical, viewed from ahead it's offset to the left.

Anyone that's read this review and your comment won't make that mistake now   Unless they have my memory

[Rod Blievers]

Quote

Unless they have my memory

You too? I think it's called "too many birthdays"!

[Mike]

1 hour ago, Rod Blievers said:

You too? I think it's called "too many birthdays"!

What is? 🥥

[Rod Blievers]

Memory failures Mike. I can tell you clearly about 30 years ago, just don't ask me about yesterday!