DaveCov's Airfix 1/72 Airco DH4 1918 (01079)

[davecov]

More progress to report.

A first coat of H29 Matt Dark Earth was applied to the upper surfaces of the wings:


It was also applied to the fuselage and tailplanes. I followed up with a second coat:


A third coat was applied to the wings, fuselage and tailplanes. After finishing painting the pilot and gunner, they were glued inside the fuselage:


That is all for now.

Dave

[davecov]

Another update.

Decals were applied to the wings and fuselage. Sadly, they were out of register and the white surround of the roundels were lop-sided. I trimmed them the best I could. Aside from that, I glued the Vickers gun to the fuselage and the Lewis gun to the Scarff ring:


The rudder decals were particularly awkward to fit, especially as they were over-sized and actually went over the fin as well and I had to cut slots to fit around the tailplanes:


The bomb racks were painted, painting of the guns finished, wheels were fitted to the axles and the propeller dry-fitted to the front of the radiator:


The instructions say to glue all cabane struts to the upper wing. However, I fitted the shorter cabane struts to the fuselage otherwise it would be more difficult to get them to fit properly. I then fitted the exhausts which I had previously drilled out and painted the ends of. Note the rather offset roundel:


The lower wing skids were glued in place and the wing glued to the fuselage. I also fitted the undercarriage to the fuselage:


That is all for now.

Dave

[Andy T]

Great progress Dave. Looks like the decals were a faff.

[davecov]

You are not wrong, Andy.

The larger cabane struts were glued to the underside of the top wing:


I painted the wider part of the white edge of the fuselage roundels with Matt H27 Sea Grey to make them look more circular. Then, I started rigging at the tail and then turned to glueing the top wing to the bottom. I started with the two fuselage short cabane struts, followed by the port wing struts and then the starboard wing struts. Unfortunately, I used too much pressure on the outside starboard struts and they broke. Since taking the photo, I have glued and clamped the broken struts:


I will leave the struts to dry properly before I carry out any more rigging.

That is all for now.

Dave

[Steve-the-Duck]

Still and all, looks pretty good

[davecov]

I hate rigging biplanes and ships and more often than not, I don't bother. However, I was determined to rig this Airco DH4 and whilst doing it, it was a good reminder of why I don't like rigging!

First job was adding the fore/aft rigging between the struts:


Then I added the rigging between the aft struts. I did make bit of a mess of the paintwork but I expected that and it will be tidied up once all rigging has been done:


Time for the forward struts to be rigged:


I still have to add rigging from the rudder to the fuselage and some more on top and bottom of the wings. Once that is done, I will tidy up the paintwork and decals before fitting the rear gun and bombs. Final act will be to apply some light weathering and varnish:


That is all for now.

Dave

[Steve-the-Duck]

An object lesson in how to make a good old kit look brilliant

[Ian M]

Nice one Dave. Looks like the real challenge starts here.

[Jim R]

Well despite the problematic decals and the fiddly rigging that is a superb result.

An object lesson in how to make a good old kit look brilliant

Definitely.

[papa 695]

The build is looking great Dave, and fantastic work on the rigging.

[davecov]

Thanks everybody. :thumb2:

As I have been enjoying building this DH4 so much, I decided to build a companion for it, namely the Airfix 1/72 Sopwith Pup (01062-1):


Build thread is here.

Dave

[Steve-the-Duck]

Oh yes indeedy!

[davecov]

Having been distracted by my Sopwith Pup build, it is time to report some more progress with the DH4.

I have decided to dispense with the kit roundels and have ordered some replacements. As a result, I am not worried about damaging them whilst cleaning up after rigging. In retrospect, I shouldn't have applied them when I did, but at the time I didn't know how fragile the decals were:


The elevators during rigging:


View from the top. The gunner is waiting for his Lewis gun:


I have glued the bombs to the racks:


The gunner has his gun now. I still have to do a bit of rigging on the top of the upper wing and the underside of the lower wing. I also have the rudder rigging to do but that can't be done until the fuselage roundels have been replaced:


That is all for now.

Dave

[yak face]

Great work dave , theres certainly a lot of rigging on this one , cheers tony

[colin m]

That is looking really nice Dave. I know you said you weren't keen on the rigging, but it does make all the difference, well done.