DH.88 Comet

[Bengalensis]

So at last I have decided on my second entry, the 1/48 de Havilland DH.88 Comet by Mikro Mir. The machine itself hardly needs any introduction. One can argue abut what is the most beautiful aircraft ever, but there is no way getting around that the DH.88 Comet will always be one of the stronger contenders for the title. If the choice of this kit half way into the GB is a clever choice remains to be seen...

 

 

Plenty of space inside the box. I bought the kit when it was first released, I think in 2019, I had it on pre order. Since then I have opened and closed the box many times, every time with the feeling that this is not the time to tackle this challenge...

 

 

For a challenge this kit seems to be, partly due to what I find in the box, but not least due to what I read from every build I see published. Seven sprues of grey styrene, a clear sprue, photo etched brass, printed clear sheet, canopy masks and what looks like nicely printed decals. Clear signs of limited production moulding on the grey sprues, but then I like to build obscure resin kits...

 

 

Judging by the instructions and the parts the kit has high ambitions with lots of internal details. Unfortunately there is only five valve covers included on the sprues for each of the two Gipsy Six R six cylinder engines. I’m not sure, but this might have been rectified in later production. It didn’t upset me much as I’m more interested in the overall look of the machine...

 

 

Actually I’m not sure I really need all the internal detail parts...

 

 

Maybe build one separate engine for a display stand and then only what is seen through the air intakes?

 

 

Very well, I’m going to give it a try. The 1934 Mac Robertson Trophy Air Race, London to Melbourne. Red, black or green? Most likely red...

[klubman01]

This looks interesting.  

Trevor

[Bengalensis]

I started with cleaning up the fuselage halves, rudder and canopy. There is a good deal of flash to remove, a lot in some places, with some care needed as to not remove too much. The fit looks promising, some work will be needed after gluing, but nothing dramatic, it seems.

 

 

Next will be preparing the cockpit parts to see how that affects things, then some internal paint.

[Courageous]

On 10/21/2024 at 7:25 PM, Bengalensis said:

Red, black or green?

Get another two kits and do all three....

 

Stuart

 

[JOCKNEY]

10 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Get another two kits and do all three....

 

Stuart

 

 

@Enzo the Magnificent have you hacked into Stuarts BM account  ? 

Looks a lovely kit and the aircraft is a cracker, best of luck with it 

 

Cheers Pat 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

22 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

 

@Enzo the Magnificent have you hacked into Stuarts BM account  ? 

 

 

   People are just generally coming round to my way of thinking.

 

Not sure if that's a good thing or not...   

[CliffB]

What a lovely choice 

[Bengalensis]

Progress has been slow recently, but at least there has been some progress. As I have worked more on the parts and made some studying, it has become clear that there are aspects of the model that could be improved for better accuracy, and that work is needed to make it fit together. I have decided to not bother too much about detail accuracy – it will certainly look very much like a DH.88 out of the box – and concentrate on making it go together as well as possible.

 

The cockpit floor and bulkheads need trimming to fit without pushing the fuselage apart.

 

 

While at it I did a second test fit of the canopy and some minor trimming.

 

 

I glued the bulkheads to the floor while dry fitting the parts into the tightly taped fuselage. The joint for the front bulkhead is very weak and needed a piece of Evergreen strip as reinforcement.

 

 

I now have the beginning of a cockpit assembly that can actually, as it seems so far, be inserted into a joined fuselage.

 

 

 

After a little trimming I can also click the two instrument panels in place after joining the fuselage. I think.

 

 

The seats looked very crude as they were. I used the Dremel and some sanding to create something with a little more shape. I have little idea how the seats really looked in 1934, but I feel more comfortable with this.

 

 

A few days ago I had these parts ready for paint.

 

 

And some painting has been done. Do not use my choice of colours as a reference. I think the cockpit should be pretty dark, and it looks bright here, but closed up it looks quite dark when I dry fit the parts. Anyway, I plan the canopy to be closed.

 

 

Ready for a little assembly work.

[klubman01]

Looking good thus far.

Trevor

[Bengalensis]

Today I decided to work most of the day at the model bench instead of the office bench. After some faffing with the instrument panels I was ready to close the fuselage. Not to my surprise I discovered I still had to fit the cockpit into one fuselage half before joining them.

 

 

So that’s what I did.

 

 

 

The two halves glued together without much drama. Some nasty sink marks around the tail planes received some filler.

 

 

As so often much of the cockpit disappears. But it’s OK.

 

 

 

Like everyone else I discovered the nasty misfit between the fuselage halves at the tail.

 

 

And also the mismatch of the panel lines around the tail skid.

 

 

The rudder indicates that the longer fuselage half is more correct, so I glued in a piece of Evergreen styrene strip as filler.

 

 

Some sanding and rescribing later I had a tail I was more happy with. Not sure how accurate it is, but it makes more sense. Some more work will be needed around the tail skid. There is a photo etched part to be fitted that I’m not so sure about.

 

 

Here we are after sanding all joints, the filler around the tail plane and some rescribing. I’m quite happy with this.

 

 

 

The parts for the landing light (I suppose it is) in the nose needed some work as well. The exterior glass was too large, so I sanded down the back until I had a descent fit against the fuselage.

 

 

I just need to remember to paint and fit the inner piece of the light before the wing parts goes on...

[Courageous]

Lovely work in the cockpit Jörgen, it's a pity that much of it disappears into a 'black hole', hopefully a nice clear canopy will reveal a little. Good work with fixing the back end.

 

Stuart

[Bengalensis]

@CliffB @klubman01 @Courageous

Thanks a lot for your kind words gentlemen!

 

Got a little bit more done today. The tail planes are in glued in place, after a good deal of work sanding them to shape and cutting the slots to make a good fit. Short run injection moulding, sometimes not far from building resin kits. I actually enjoy this kit now. The CA will be left to cure over night before I start sanding.

 

 

The tail skid and the photo etched fairing have been shaped and glued. I think the photo etched piece might work in the end, with some sanding and blending in. A little filler might be called for.

 

 

There is an ambitious set of photo etched parts supplied to build the deployed centre flaps. I might be ungrateful, but I just want them raised and smooth. The photo etched parts doesn’t look ideal for that.

 

 

I cut a basic piece of 0,5 mm sheet styrene.

 

 

After the edges had been chamfered I glued it flush with the underside surface.

 

 

The inside of the joint was reinforced with Evergreen strips.

 

 

After some sanding and cleaning there might be some hope.

 

 

I also started to glue the nose light in place with a thin bead of Kristal Kleer.

 

[Bengalensis]

The nose light is now secured with a blob of epoxy from behind to make sure I don’t push it in when it’s time for masking. The clear cover is quite thick. I will try to polish the inner chamfer I have done later on.

 

 

The tail plane joints needed some sanding, most of it on the fuselage, but are now smooth.

 

 

I drilled and fitted some thin Evergreen rods into the elevators to improve the glue joints a little.

 

 

And here they are glued in place and cleaned up. I suppose that at some point I will need to address the three rather lacking counter weights...

 

 

A little filler was shaped behind the tail skid to get closer to what I see in photos.

 

 

The centre wing piece has been glued after some further fit adjustments. The nasty sink marks behind rear joint will need some filler.

 

 

If this will be a good way to build up the wings remains to be seen. I’m now thinking to first prepare the fit between the top and bottom halves and the top halves against the fuselage and centre piece, then glue the top halves in place and finish off with the bottom halves.

 

[Bengalensis]

In the afternoon I adjusted the fit of the top wing halves as best possible, which actually wasn’t bad at all in the end. Then committed to glue, as usual in this build I’m using CA which I also fill up the joints with.

 

 

 

Towards the evening that all felt good and cured and I started work adjusting the undersides. They were both a bit large, needing material removed, mostly under the engine nacelles, some at the trailing edge and a tiny amount at the tip. With that done the fit was, again, pretty good. More CA applied, actually quite a lot is used to double as filler in the joints. This will now need to settle over night.

 

 

But it’s quickly cured enough to appreciate that beautiful lines that now starts to take shape...

 

[Courageous]

Looking very sharp .

 

Stuart

[Bengalensis]

Thanks a lot gentlemen!

 

It is perhaps not the most enjoyable pastime, but it must be done; finishing the glue joints. The wing root joints has been filed and sanded smooth.

 

 

Followed by the leading edges.

 

 

And the underside of the thin delicate wing tips.

 

 

I’m saving the remaining wing joint for maybe tomorrow...

[Bengalensis]

More filing and sanding later the underside is also nice and smooth.

 

 

The ailerons are also fitted, again after some trimming.

 

 

I think I must do the engine nacelles next, which means looking closer at the landing gear, the question of engines or not and other things that will most likely also need some work to make them fit. For a start I glued the halves together for the wheels and the oil tanks, and cleaned up the parts for the gear to remove all mould lines.

 

[Bengalensis]

I’ve finished the wheels (except flatting them for weight) and the oil tanks. I also glued together and cleaned up the rear section of the nacelles and cleaned up the joints. Their fit against the wings looks quite OK at once, as does the fit of bulkheads, after some trimming. Next I will have to make all three of those parts fit together together, not just only two and two or the other two… only after that can I determine how to alter/open the locating holes for the landing gear, which is also necessary. I think I have figured out how the landing gear is supposed to be assembled, and which mounting holes in the tiny parts that are missing completely (due to low volume mould limitations I think) or need to be opened. Work will continue on that. This one is not falling together by itself... but I can watch the beautiful lines while fiddling with the parts.

 

[klubman01]

Lovely to watch this progress.  You've done some neat work on the joints, etc.  Good luck with the landing gear - it looks a bit delicate and fiddly.

Trevor

[Bengalensis]

18 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Lovely to watch this progress.  You've done some neat work on the joints, etc.  Good luck with the landing gear - it looks a bit delicate and fiddly.

Trevor

Thanks a lot Trevor! I hope the joints will still work under primer, time will tell.

[Bengalensis]

The landing gear was quite fiddly indeed, but here are two assembled units, pretty much square, symmetrical and even. I have also opened up their locating holes in the wings, where they now fit. It still remains to make this work together with the nacelles.

 

[PeterB]

Yes, it certainly looks fiddly - reminds me of the one on my various Fw 200 Condors a bit.

 

Pete

[Bengalensis]

My plan was to spend most of the weekend on the Comet and make some good progress. Come Saturday morning I somehow found myself starting doing other things, and that just went on and on... So not much to show I’m afraid. The wheel fairings (if that is the correct term in this case) were cleaned up tonight. They need thinning from the back, but I wasn’t happy with any of my Dremel tools for this job, so I’m going to have to do some shopping on my next visit to town.

 

 

I then started cleaning up the parts for the forward section of the nacelles, the engine covers. Two parts were slightly short shot.

 

 

One just needed a little CA and some sanding dust, the other had a thin piece of sheet styrene glued in.

 

 

This was easily sanded to shape.

 

 

Then I cleaned up all the other parts, and started to adjust them to actually fit together. I suspect that making the nacelles good will be the major effort in this build. I now have all the parts fitting nicely together two and two, possibly even three, but that does not include the wings. Quite some way to go...

 

 

I’m also toying with the idea of having one engine visible with the outside panels removed, but that will probably need some cutting and modifying to make it a reasonably correct display. I need to dig deeper into research to understand how the panels are divided and removed.

[Milan Mynar]

Nice building.

[Bengalensis]

I decided on a plan to install both engines, but the left will only be used to hold the propeller and show what’s visible through the holes, while right engine will be shown with the outside panel removed. I think this means the engine covers need to be painted separately and installed after the engines. What will happen with this remains to be seen…

 

I decided to leave the wing out of the equation for now and made the side pieces fit well against the rear section of the nacelles (nothing here fits well without some adjustments…), then taped them tightly together and applied a little glue at the bottom joint. After some more adjustments the nose pieces could be fitted and with a little further work the top pieces could be glued, all surprisingly well aligned. Here we are after the CA joints have been filed and sanded smooth.

 

 

 

Enter the wings. After some more trimming, mainly to get the engine covers to fit well against the wing leading edges, everything looked quite promising. Much better than I expected. This is just loose dry fitting.

 

 

 

It was good enough to apply glue to fix the rear nacelle sections to the wing. Hopefully when all has cured I will be able to remove the engine covers and have them fitting well.

 

 

 

While CA was curing I made a dry fit of the assembled landing gear. They clicked nicely in place (yes the locating points had been adjusted earlier…) and I think it can work.

 

 

 

After this I needed a little flight study again as a reward.