I made a work-in-progress thread on another forum, but thought I’d share here as well, because I’d like to brag abit about this kit: the 1/72 Dh.9a by Clear Prop Models. The firm was unknown to me, but reviews were good and they weren’t exaggerating. It is one of the best Great war kits I’ve seen, and arguably the best two-seater. It’s more costly than the competing KP, but worth every penny in my opinion.
I built it almost put of the box, only some small changes. The one thing to be careful is the very brittle plastic (hard plstic gives crisp detail but also brittleness): I snapped two struts before I learnt that they really do not take any compression. That’s the only downside… I’ve been playing with its big WNW brother and it really felt like I just had a scaled down version in my hand - I do suspect the designers have been looking very close on the WNW kit.
Some smaller changes were made, mostly to accomodate the selected scheme:
- Outer pairs of struts should be narrower than the inner pair but the kit comes with one-size-for-all. This is the only real inaccuracy I found. I reduced the chord accordingly.
-The fuselage is late style, but some of the option should have early style. The difference is in size of cloth-covered panel on the aft. Some filling and scribing was enough to adapt it.
-Replaced the triangular fairing on the front with a half-circular (different manufacturers had different style)
-White decals are borderline transparent, consider white base - I didn’t as I
Some build shots: comparing the office deck with the WNW ditto:
he pilot’s instrument panel is a treat
The kit comes with a full set of Cooper bombs too, with PE fins, though I saved them for other projects.
I do hope they and theirs are sound and well - based in Kyiv - and that they sell well, I would love to see more one day. A DFW C.V perhaps?
