DH 82 Tiger Moth CFS. 1/48th

[Paul J]

 

 DH 82 Tiger Moth T.2 DE459/ FDLJ of  the C.F.S.  RAF Little Rissington , 1948 to 1950.

 

Hi,

Just completed (within my capabilities) the Aeroclub 48th Tiger Moth. Its from the later issue in grey plastic and with the inclusion of double thickness etched brass for the struts. The struts are strong and need some preparing at the edges to remove the step like edges . If you have one you will know what I mean. I tried using the white metal 'N' struts but they were quite soft and buckled easy so were discarded. The main stuts are fine and have the correct aerofoil section that the etched ones don't and these have gone in to the spares box.! But one of the brass ones does have the pitot tube very finely portrayed.  I had a bit of an issue with the windshields that are from vac form plastic but I am hoping I can get a pair from Airfix.  

My model is not fully rigged as I know if I did the long cable runs from elevator and the  rudder, they would not last long. Less is more is my approach to this. However, I did cut some tiny(very tiny!) control horns from micro strip and stuck those in place to the rudder and elevators to add just that little more detail that was lacking. There is a fair bit more one can do to this kit but I know my limitations these days. I made the tail plane struts from plastic rod as too were the two short bracers to the undercarriage assembly.    IN my kit, the nose cowl with the intake to the right when viewed from the front  was missing but I did have the opposite handed one. So to correct it, I cut away the section from the side that needed opening and positioned it to the opposite side. With a bit of filling and shaping I ended up with what was needed.  I also made a new exhaust from plastic tube as the kit one went AWOL.

 

For the colour scheme I went for the late 40s early 50s silver with yellow T bands.  Decals for the yellow and roundels were from the AIrfix decals. The yellow bands as done by Airfix are designed to fit in line of flight but in reality they should be in line with the wing ribs. I understand why Airfix did this as it portrays an airworthy restored example but is not necessarily authentic for a proper period in service scheme. As too, the underwing roundels that are too small for a more authentic aircraft.  The fuselage 'T' band was used but placed in the more accurate position and the excess trimmed off. I was kindly sent some AIrfix decals from  'Bigbadbadge'.  These helped with the larger roundels that I needed for the wings.  To get back to the T bands, I placed them as mentioned above but these left a tiny wedge shape which I rectified by very carefully cutting away form the decals the bits I needed to fill the gaps, They turned out well. Its all good!   Now for the serial and codes. For the numeral digits I used the 549 from the Airfix Chipmunk and swapped them round to make 459; the DE came from my slowly dwindling generic sets by Modeldecal.  As too did the  code FDLJ which came from Modeldecal Set 105 ,I think.   The silver is from the Xtracolor range.

 

Now for the pics, ( if you have got this far...)

 

The walkway decals also came from the Airfix set.

You might just be able to spot the control horns I added among these pics.

Here, you can see the strut mounted pitot.

 The info regarding the codes and serial came from a rather nice book I have on Little Riz It has an extensive listing of all the types flown by the CFS post war with codes and serials.  A very useful piece of reference.  

I'm glad I remembered I had this tome as I could not find anything on line with decent photos of Tigers in the RAF post war except for the restored privately owned ones. The book ahs a couple pics which helped in my decision on how to finish this build and finding that list at the back of the book is a gold mine!!!

Cheers for now.

 

(PS: All the pics were taken on my mobile until I get my camera fixed). Also I have another Aeroclub kit unbuilt that I have for sale but will likely end up back in my to build pile... mainly as a stop gap to see if AIrfix will issue their 48th kit again with different decals.... hopefully!

[Bell209]

Very nicely done! I have one of these in the stash, too (bought before Airfix issued theirs). Thanks for the little tips and tricks.