Airfix (Heller) DH 89 Dominie RNAS Culdrose in 1/72

[yak face]

Heres my latest , a quite tricky but enjoyable build . Its the 1/72 de Havilland DH 89 Dominie /Dragon Rapide by Heller ,reboxed by Airfix ,finished in the colours of the Royal Navy Air Station at Culdrose in the late1950s .A lovely kit , very fine detail but a tricky build due to the nature of the top wing covering half the windows and fuselage ! I had to build and paint with the top wing off then add it last and fill and paint the joint after . The rigging was a trial too as most of it is double wired!! I'm not 100 % happy with the build due to a few cock ups / errors such as the windows - the kit has five (as do most Dragon rapides ) but most Dominies had four , as I discovered AFTER I had painted and assembled the thing! So the fifth window was filled and touched up and it shows a bit , but its not the end of the world . I added a few extra details such as engine cylinders from cut down bolts , drilling out the exhausts and adding nav and position lights, and the rudder horn balance. Its a beautiful aircraft and I guess thats why i can forgive the hassles ! heres the pics including a few outside ( spring is here -hooray!!) Comments criticisms as always welcome , cheers Tony[ATTACH]105706.IPB[/ATTACH]

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[Dave W]

A top quality build of an old kit.The rigging looks good to me Tony.

[Guest]

Very nice Tony. Nice model and nice aircraft.


Rigging very spectacular. I know how difficult it is and how much patience you need.


Could you fill in what you used for the rigging and how you went about it ?


Laurie

[takeslousyphotos]

Cracking Job Tony ............. A superb build of an odd looking aircraft ..... and that rigging is excellent. Personally, if it was me, that rigging would have driven me mad ......... and the whole thing would have found itself flying at the wall......... Five Big Stars from me for that build Matey.

[Guest]

Lovely, Tony - you've done wonders with some unpromising material. I remember building this one years ago and it was indeed tricky. Another honourable mention for the rigging!

[papa 695]

A great job Tony and well worth a GB yingyang and I'm well impressed with your rigging

[flyjoe180]

The Dominie/Rapide are indeed beautiful de Havilland products. Your old kit has been turned into a wonderful result Tony, very nicely done in all respects. Despite the difficulties you experienced you have captured the aeroplane nicely.

[monica]

nice clean and very well painted Tony like to see some think diffidence


very well done,

[Gern]

Beautiful as always. Like Laurie asks, any chance of a heads up on how you did the rigging?

[Lee W]

Top quality work Tony, big thumbs up from me


Lee

[Guest]

You did an exelent job with that. I tried the same model some time ago but chucked it when I stuffed up the rigging for the umteenth time!


Theuns

[colin m]

Hats off to you old chap. Double wire rigging in 1:72, that's something I shy away from in 1:48.......


Using a bolt for an engine cylinder - great idea, I just can't see it on this Kindle thing.


Anyway, a lovely looking aircraft and a lovely looking model.

[yak face]

Thanks for the great replies everyone , glad you like it . The rigging was done with Bait elastic , a fishing product , made I believe for tying bait to the hook (i stand to be corrected though ) This stuff is stretchy and super thin so is easy to get a tight tension. I simply put a tiny spot of superglue on the bottom of the strut then touch one end of the elastic to it , the bond forming very quickly . Once measured with dividers and cut to length (slightly shorter than the distance needed to allow a bit of stretch and thus tension ) , I apply a spot of superglue to the upper part of the strut and put some accelerator on the cut end of the elastic . When touched to the superglue with the tweezers a bond forms within a few seconds and bobs your teapot- a taut wire ! Another advantage of this stuff is the flexibility , if you accidentally brush against it or catch it theres a good chance it wont break . Colin , the bolt used was actually a socket screw from a light switch cut to size , I used this on the airfix DH 88 comet too as they have the same Gipsy engines , it gives an impression of finned cylinders and stops the empty look of the open intake , cheers tony

[Guest]

That is a lovely build Tony, clean and tidy paint job. Well done mate