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Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  19 April 2003

Kit Details:

DH Comet by AIRFIX in 1/72 scale

The Aircraft:

The de Havilland DH88 Comet was specifically designed to compete in the 1934 Victorian Centenary Air Race from Mildenhall in the UK to Melbourne in Australia. Three aircraft were built for this purpose, and the one depicted by Airfix is the bright red overall aircraft purchased by A. Edwards of the Grosvenor House Hotel. A black-coloured DH88 called "Black Magic" only made it as far as Baghdad before being forced to retire. Two other Comets were made: one acted as a mail plane for the French government, and one took part in a UK-South Africa Air Race.

Kit Parts:

This is a reissue of one of the earliest Airfix aircraft kits, which was originally released in 1957. There are 24 parts moulded in light grey polystyrene. Despite the age of the kit, the quality of the parts is very good, with only minor flash and mould lines to contend with. his means that some of the smaller parts will need a number eleven blade running over them before construction.

The American letter-sized single instruction sheet has the ubiquitous general modelling instructions in the languages of the EU on the front, and four construction steps shown on the back. A painting guide and decal placement is shown in a colour drawing on the back of the box.

Construction of the kit:

The aircraft is 75% complete in the first step, which sees the two fuselage halves joined, and the two solid wings and tailplanes located in their slots in the fuselage before being cemented in place. The cockpit interior is non-existent, with the inside being represented by two pilot heads emerging from a solid fuselage. This would have been the norm in 1957. It is possible to hollow these out and add a more detailed interior, but as I wanted to do a quick build, I left these as is. No interior painting guide is given, but the box art implies a black finish, so I painted the inside using Humbrol 33, and painted the pilot's faces flesh, and gave them leather flying helmets. Only minor filler was used around the wing joints.

Stages two and three consist of the assembly of the port and starboard engines. These consist of a wheel that is clamped between two axles emerging from Y-shaped undercarriage units. These locate on the inside of two engine nacelle halves. Before cementing the two engine halves together, a simple pin acting as the propeller shaft is located in a hole at the front of the engine unit, and a spinner and propeller unit is fixed to this once the engine nacelle has been joined. There is a simple undercarriage door that locates toward the front of the undercarriage bay. Airfix have an open hole at the front of the engine nacelle, presumably acting as the radiator intake. I don't like empty holes in my models, so I filled it with Humbrol Clearfix, and painted it in Humbrol 53, so that I wouldn't see shafts of light passing through the undercarriage bays. 

The final stage is to cement the two engine units to the wings in the allotted places, add the one-piece canopy, and then finally, add the tiny tailskid to the lower rear fuselage. Again, some filler and sanding was needed at most joints. 

The canopy was reasonably clear, but a little on the thick side. This, along with the painted framing, helps to mask the lack of cockpit detail and the solid pilot heads described earlier. I finished off the kit by adding the balancing horns and aerials depicted on the box art (but not in the instructions) using stretched sprue. There was a glazed tip of the nose of this aircraft, and no clear part for this was supplied by Airfix. In my case, I represented this by painting the fuselage tip using silver paint, but others may have a similar-looking clear component in their spares box.

Decals:

One set of white decals is supplied for the overall bright red "Grosvenor House" DH88. These comprise of a single long white fuselage stripe, the registration letters "G-ACSS" for both fuselage sides and top and bottom wing surfaces, and a number "34" in black in a white circle for the tail unit. No paining guide was provided for the internal colours, so I painted the wheel bays and tyres black and used silver for the remaining undercarriage parts and for the spinners and propellers.  

The decals were of good quality, and went on well with no silvering. However, they did have a tendency to bed-down very quickly, with not much room for manoeuvring when in situ. This did cause me a little difficulty when attaching the long fuselage stripes, as these had a marked tendency to folded around themselves.

Accuracy:

The DH88 had a span of 44 feet and a length of 29 feet. In 1/72 metric scale, these would be 18.6 cm and 12.3 cm, respectively, which are exactly the measurements of my model. 

Overall:

This is a fine looking model, and an excellent quick build. It would be a very good first kit. They say that a change of work is as good as a rest, and I began this kit when frustrated with another much larger, and much expensive, kit. In the end, I ended up tossing the other kit to one side and spending my time finishing this. So I would say that it provides amazingly cheap relief against AMS.

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