No 1A de Haviland: 1/32 stripdown Airco DH 1A

[lone modeller]

My sincere thanks to all of you who have dropped by and left such generous comments - they are much appreciated.

Richie: I do not plan everything in my builds - when I write that I have just 'rewritten the instructions" I really do mean that. I do think ahead and keep notes, and have a general idea of the sequence that I intend to follow, but I can and do frequently change my mind as I try to forestall problems.

Stephen.

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

The funny thing about scratch building is that it often takes a long time to make things and progress seems to be going nowhere, then suddenly a lot of things come together and a model really begins to take shape. This is certainly true in this case as I started this months ago and for a long time had nothing on my desk that even remotely suggested that I was making a large model. Now in a few days I can see what has hitherto just been in my imagination beginning to become real.

I checked again the width of the seat belts and found that although they look wide, they conform to the size of contemporary lap belts as used by the RFC so I am not going to replace them after all.

Fixing the ribs of the lower wing to the spar has set things in motion: I have now finished the construction of the lower wing except for the ailerons which I will make later. The compression ribs on the leading edge were CA'd into place - some minor adjustments had to be made to some of the ribs to bring them to the same thickness as the main ribs, but generally they fitted well. I decided that the brass rod was too thin to represent the spars on the real aircraft so I have CA'd strips of 30 thou plastic to the top and bottom of the bars to make them equal thickness to the ribs as on most contemporary aircraft:







The two small wingtip ribs were added at this stage as they were now less likely to be knocked off by handling. Next was the leading and trailing edge frames to the wings - from 20 x 30 thou Evergreen strip. Two small braces on the ribs closest to the nacelle and central strips on the upper and lower edges of the ribs completed the wing structure for now:









I will paint the wings next while I decide whether to make the top wing or add the nacelle details to the existing structure. Either way I am eventually going to have to set a large fragile structure to one side while I work on the other so that no damage is done.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

[kensar]

It's looking very good, Stephen, like an RC plane!
I assume the wings are permanently attached to the nacelles.  Anticipating any trouble painting the wings?

[RAGIII]

That is looking Amazing! I really am impressed by your abilities!
RAGIII

[RichieW]

Really superb Stephen, a very complex build moving along very smoothly! Seriously impressive stuff!

[Bughunter]

Magnificent, just magnificent!

[rhallinger]

That looks just amazing Stephen!  Outstanding modeling all around.   Nicely done.

Best,

Bob

[Bughunter]

Hi Stephen,

Personally I think that the items available on the aftermarket are too large to be realistic

not critics, just a info: have you thought about Gaspatch turnbuckles "One End" in 1/48 ?
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-z0fnvjg/images/stencil/1024x1024/products/39/142/TB_series__23368.1362233314.jpg

They are very small, and I used them on my D.H.2 inside the wings. I think they are not to big, compared to my pictures of a original wing inside.
Mounting is easy: just in a drill hole.
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=8552.0

Cheers,
Frank

[Rookie]

I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy......

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

Thanks Ken, Rick, Richie, Frank, Bob and Rookie for your very kind comments - i really appreciate them.

Ken: the only problem that I antiicipated with the painting was getting a consistent mixture for the colour. As described below I mixed my own, and as I tend to use bucket methods (rather like the original recipie for PC10 and PC12 and probably most other colours used on aircraft at the time), it is not always easy to get an exact match with different mixes. Fortunately I managed to mix enough first time to get a fairly even coverage, and when I mixed a second batch for touch -ups etc I came very close, so I am reasonably happy. It was a fiddly task it is true, but not especially difficult.

Frank: I have though long and hard about the anchor points for the rigging and had already bought some of the single end pieces in 1/48 scale that you suggest. However I am not sure that I would be able to fit these as even with my eye loupe I can barely see them and I have already lost a couple on my tray and desk (they did not even get near the carpet monster!). I found that inserting the thread through the holes was very difficult as the holes were not always completely open and the tread was almost the same diameter as the holes. I am also concerned that drilling tiny holes in brass is not going to be practical (I have tried test pieces), so for this model at least I have given up on the idea. However I have not given up entirely as at some point in the future I intend to try my hand at a tractor aircraft not kitted in 1/32 scale and I may use different materials for the structure which will hopefully allow me to drill and insert anchors for the rigging.

Stephen.

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

Continuing the theme that scratch building seems to reflect the course of evolution - long periods when very little happens punctuated by periods of very rapid change - I have now completed the painting and internal rigging of the lower wings. This is an important stage because I can now add many of the internal details of the nacelle and install the engine, radiator and fuel tank before proceeding more slowly once again with the top wing and tailplane.

Here is the painted structure - a mix of Revell Oker (88), fiery red (330) and Humbrol insignia yellow (154).



When the paint was dry I rigged the internal bracing of the wings using some of the pre-placed threads which had been a nuisance beforehand - now at least there are 4 threads less than before!





I am planning to put on a coat of clear orange later to even the tones of the wood and give a slight sheen, but first I want to complete the details described above.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

[IanB]

That's beautiful work Stephen, very impressive! Are you going to hand paint the clear orange? I use Tamiya which is a pig to handpaint, but those internal rigging wires will not me missable with an airbrush...

Ian

[Early Bird Fan]

amazing work as usual LM, this is coming together very nicely and looking superb

That's beautiful work Stephen, very impressive! Are you going to hand paint the clear orange? I use Tamiya which is a pig to handpaint, but those internal rigging wires will not me missable with an airbrush...

Ian

I use a drop or two of water to thin my tamiya acrylics, they brush on much better and it helps stop the second coat from attacking/lifting the previous coat.

[lcarroll]

Stephen,
    It looks spectacular at this stage, this is going to be a true piece of art when completed. Great work thus far and a true pleasure to follow along!
Cheers,
Lance

[gbrivio]

The structure is truly magnificent, you're doing very well.
Ciao
Giuseppe