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

[davecov]

Thanks to Ian (@papa 695) for setting up this GB. I will be building the Airfix 1/72 Airco DH4 1918 (01079).

During the late Sixties when I was aged 10 or 11, I came across the Airfix DH4 for the first time. It was a memorable build for me due to the fact that when I started to build it, there were a lot of missing parts, including a fuselage half! It was the first time that I had missing parts so I duly completed the enclosed complaint slip and sent it off with a handwritten letter to Haldane Place. About three weeks later I received two complete poly-bagged DH4s plus the missing parts for the original kit. I ended up making three DH4s which I enjoyed very much but I have never made one since then!

This is a 1987 "Special Edition" boxing released with a "Vintage Aircraft" label:

The back of the box shows a potted history of the DH4 with translations in seven languages:

I can recall that the original poly-bagged versions of the DH4 were moulded in a pale yellow colour. This release is moulded in a rather brittle grey plastic:

One of the two runners which comes with two figures:

The second runner. Parts are in a pretty good condition without flash and very little in the way of seams to clean up:

The decal sheet has a slightly brown staining and the blue roundels are printed off-centre which means that there is a white surround to part of the roundels:

A double-sided sheet contains a potted history of the DH4 with translations in seven languages on one side:

The reverse side has the Assembly Instructions spread over four sections along with a decal placement and painting profile:

That is all for now

Dave

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Nice

I thought for a long time about getting one of these to make it's replacement, the DH9A, the 'Ninak'. There was a conversion kit out there at one stage. But now there's a rather excellent Ninak, in about four different versiond from KP

I'll watch with interest as the last one of these old jobs I did was the Brisfit, which almost disappeared under extra work and drtail. I do like the U-shaped main struts, which several of these OLD kits had, a feature which only began to reappear recently

 

[papa 695]

Thanks for joining in Dave, looks like a very nice kit.

 

[Tim Marlow]

That looks in fine fettle for moulds that must be older than most of us. Should be a good build Dave.

 

[davecov]

I finally got started on this build two nights ago.

After separating the parts from the runners they were cleaned up. Due to the fragile nature of the struts, I cleaned them up before removing from the runners:

Nowadays, I often have problems trying to rig ships and biplanes due to dexterity issues with my arthritic hands. However, I am going to try on this DH4, and have drilled out holes for the rigging:

I glued the propeller pin into the back of the propeller and will cut off the retaining disc when the propeller has been painted. This will allow the propeller to be fitted at the end of the build. The seat has been glued into the starboard side of the fuselage. I found that the fit of the lower wing to the fuselage wasn't very good so I have added a piece of white plastic card on the centre of the lower wing.

That is all for now

Dave

 

[Jim R]

Fine story from your youth Dave. Very good customer service back in the day although my one experience of Airfix customer service was also good.
Looks a decent kit given it's age. I hope the rigging goes ok.

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Hi Dave,
I'm certainly no expert,so this'll be brief!! ...
.. just wanna say it's looking good mate ,
... I can't get get quick progress on my entry, it's a big leap of faith for me!!

 

[davecov]

Time for some painting and construction.

The interior of the fuselage halves were painted with H56 Aluminium. I am not sure if it would have been that colour in real life but it can't be seen once the figures are added. The seat was painted H62 Matt Leather:

Whilst I was in painting mood, I started on the struts, figures and propeller:

The fuselage halves were glued together:

I applied filler along the fuselage joins. Note the white pieces of plastic card to which the rudder rigging will connect to:

I said in a previous post that I had added a small piece of plastic card to the centre of the lower wing. After glueing the fuselage halves, I found it necessary to add plastic card strips across most of the wing to fill gaps in the join:

The struts, exhausts and propeller have been painted but I still need to do a bit of work on them. I have also painted the figures and only need to paint their faces. The gunner had lost his seat to the carpet monster so I made a new one. The main undercarriage legs have been glued to the ends of the axle box:

That is all for now

Dave

 

[davecov]

Another little update.

I sanded the fuselage filler and fitted the tailplanes to the fuselage. Then, using a hairy stick, I painted the underside of the wings with a first coat H74 Matt Linen. Not shown, I also applied H74 Matt Linen to the rear section of the fuselage underside and the underside of the tailplanes:

I also brush-painted the front section of the fuselage with a first coat of H27 Matt Sea Grey:

The paintwork will be left to dry overnight and I will apply second coats tomorrow.

That is all for now.

Dave

 

[papa 695]

Nice work so far, coming along nicely Dave.

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Looking very good. Keeping tabs on progress

 

[Mickc1440]

Coming along nicely

 

[colin m]

Looking good Dave. Speedy progress too.

 

[Dave Ward]

You can see the problem with the DH4 - the distance between the pilot & the gunner! Without any intercom, communication must have been.................difficult!
It was remedied in its' offspring - the DH9 pilot/gunner were back-to-back
Dave

 

[davecov]

Dave, I was thinking the very same thing last night. I was wondering if the gunner had a large "ugly stick" in his cubby hole to whack the pilot on the head when need be.

Dave

 

[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