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Paul Carpenter
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Eduard Airco DH-2. 1/48 Profipak. 14SQN RFC

October 12, 2017 · in Aviation · · 25 · 3K

Hi all,
I know I normally construct Australian Flying Corps aircraft but the is my all time favourite aircraft.
To be fair, this one was used by a sister squadron to 1SQN AFC.
Now this is a pretty good kit anyway but I got pretty busy with some modifications.

I carved in some wrinkles into the sides of the nacelle with some old dentist's chisels. They were very smooth and a little lifeless and so I felt they needed softening up a little.

There is quite a lot of plumbing inside the nacelle which was not rendered. A lot of this plumbing passes between the timber framing and the linen skin of the aircraft so I plumbed the aircraft and then added a new set of frames in very thin styrene strip to give the effect required.

My favourite part of this model was achieved with pastel chalks. On aircraft covered in Clear Doped Linen, you can see a shadow or projection of the cockades on the lower side of the upper wing (see the first photo below for this phenomenon on a French aircraft.) I think my attempt looks pretty reasonable!

I added bungee suspenion to the axles, a seat cushion, fuel pipe fro the over wing fuel tank, pulsometers, pressure gauge and valves.

It should be added that the rigging diagram in the kit instructions is just plain wrong. Get yourself a copy of the Windsock datafile and go from there.

On a final note, the engine pushrods in the kit are about 1mm thick, scaled up thats 5cm (2"). Not even in the ball park right? Stretched sprue replacements look much better!

Hope you enjoy.

Reader reactions:
16  Awesome

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.


25 responses

  1. Fantastic work to bring this model up to scratch. the rigging looks like you had help from a spider. So, Eduard models are not always as good as we thing out of the box?

    • Hi George. Yes, but I guess this was an older mould, but certainly not one of their originals. I think the engine lush rods were a typo at the factory..0.5mm instead of 0.1? Who knows!
      No spiders were harmed in the making of this model. Ha ha.

  2. thing = think! ha ha

  3. Gorgeous, Paul! It's a nice think, er, thing you've done. Your attention to detail is excellent.

  4. This is so beautiful! A trully fantastic work, By the way, the base, did you build it or buy it?

    • Hi Alfredo and thanks for the kind words. I had the base turned up by a local woodworker. I actually had him turn three of them. These are made from Australian Redgum. I asked for the upper surface to be slightly recessed so I could fill it with whatever ground work I desired.

  5. Anybody who tackles kits that have multiple wings, struts, rigging and all that goes with the associated difficulties in that kind of model construction has MY vote. Nice job, sir.

  6. Great piece of a solid work!

  7. As noted, not the best example of its type as a kit, but your extra attention to detail has lifted it into a better class of model.

  8. Having successfully climbed the "Mount Everest of WW1 models" you're now officially a Real World War I Modeler. 🙂

    What would you do with the WNW kit?

  9. There are two things make me scared,in our hobby:
    .-Painting the smoke ring camouflage on ww2 Italian Macchi.
    .-Rigging the DH2.
    You did the second one as e real master modeller! Congratulations.

  10. Wow - excellent - I was going to say we're going to have to nickname you "Spiderman" with all that excellent rigging, but George stole that thunder! All of your effort, and the overall weathering and finish work, really paid off. A beautiful aircraft.

  11. Your work is awesome. So fine and detailed.
    Congrats

  12. WOW! What beautiful work, Paul. Outstanding build Sir, I love the way your model came out. Stunning!

  13. I love every aspect of this build. Subject, base, painting, rigging, weathering. Everything. Huge well done.

  14. Another Wow! A great build!

  15. I can't add much - the rigging is insane! However, the idea of recreating a degree of translucence through plastic is really taking this modelling business to another level. Brilliant - so much to learn just by looking!

  16. I'm at a loss of words. I have a set of 1/6 scale RC plans for an electric version of this one... and I thought the rigging was insane at that scale.
    Masterpiece is a word that comes to mind. I also like the shadow wing emblems showing through from the upper surface... nice touch. I notice something new each time I look at your build.

    • Thanks for looking. I would love to build an RC version...but they always end up in pieces. God only knows what motivates people to build and fly those four engine bombers in large scale!

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