Neil's De Havilland 88 Comet Racer

[Neil Merryweather]

Well I’ve got a nice old one -from 1958- only a year younger than me- but possibly even a year older.
Scalemates kind of implies that the tool was originally made by Plasty of Germany in 1957. But this is a re-boxing from 2012. I would have preferred to model the red one that’s flying at the Shuttleworth collection, but I only have the decals for the green one, so green it will be-life’s too short.
I don’t want to take too much time away from the D-Day diorama so I’m going to build this out of the box(almost).



There’s only 24 parts so it shouldn’t take too long.




I haven't made a plane in ages , so this will be a nice change
cheers
Neil

[colin m]

That's a lovely looking aircraft, but as you know by now, that is a tired mold. That just means you get to flex your modeling expertise on this classic vintage kit.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Nice one Neil

[Airborne01]

What a beautiful aeroplane that is - especially, as you say, in the red livery!
Steve

[Valeron]

Will be following. Good luck

[flyjoe180]

A beautiful aeroplane Neil, great choice

[Nicko]

I'm following Neil. I rather like the green. I think there should be extra brownie points for the oldest tooling in the GB....

Nick

[stillp]

I believe the Airfix model is actually based on the non-flying replica of G-ACSR that is in the DH museum, rather than on the actual aircraft. A shame that the original no longer exists, although it's sister "Grosvenor House is at the Shuttleworth Collection and is flown regularly.
Pete

[Geoffers]

Nice one Neil, I will follow along to watch you whip it into shape.

Good luck

Geoff.

[Neil Merryweather]

I'm following Neil. I rather like the green. I think there should be extra brownie points for the oldest tooling in the GB....

Nick

Thanks Nick, but I think Jim's got that at the moment with his 1956 Rolls Royce

[Jim R]

This will be fun. As Colin says the moulds will be worn out after 55 years - let's hope not too badly. You have the skills to fettle it ????

[Neil Merryweather]

This will be fun. As Colin says the moulds will be worn out after 55 years - let's hope not too badly. You have the skills to fettle it ????

maybe, but do I have the inclination....?
I'm confident you will make a genuine silk purse out of yours, though

[Neil Merryweather]

I have to apologise for my tardiness with this one; there’s been a lot of real life that’s gotten in the way since the end of March, but I haven’t forgotten it.
I started with the cockpit, which is actually non-existent in this model, with two blobs for the pilots’ heads...


Totally unacceptable to a figure modeller such as myself, so it was ‘off with their heads’ and open up the fuselage to add a bit of believability to the cockpit. I found some reference pics online which shows a very minimal cockpit- just what I need for the low-input job I intend to do with this. I’m not going all @Yakface on this!


I found a couple of seated pilots from this rather wonderful Revell set, which I have in my stash.




So I glued the trunks to the legs and was just about to do the arms when I thought I'd better see where they sat in relation to the inside of the cockpit canopy.
Sadly the moulding is so thick there’s barely enough room for just the torsos, never mind legs and arms! PLUS it’s so thick that I’ll be surprised if we can see anything but some brown blobs through it! I guess I should have left well alone. Hey ho.
So here are our two intrepid pilots


I had to dredge my memory banks for how to approach an aeroplane kit as it’s actually five whole years since I last built one - I do hope nobody’s going to suggest reading the instructions....
I started with the nacelles and, as has been suggested, there remains a lot to be desired about the fit of this venerable old kit.


So it’s out with the Perfect Plastic Putty.

[Jim R]

Totally unacceptable to a figure modeller such as myself, so it was ‘off with their heads

Either the French Revolution or Alice in wonderland
I'm sure your cockpit improvements will look fine.

[yak face]

Nice one Neil , one of the most elegant aircraft designs ever . Its a product of its time though ! I did the Black Magic version a few years back and ended up building the cockpit and crash moulding a new canopy as the old one was terrible. Good thing is the actual aircraft was mainly plywood skinned and very smooth so there arent many panel lines to lose when the filler gets sanded ( experience with this aircraft helped in the design and production of the mosquito) Cheers tony