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AIRFIX 1:72 DH-88 COMET |
Reviewer:
Michael Johnson (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:
29 September 2003
The De Havilland Comet or DH-88 was a high-speed long-range racing aircraft and mail carrier. When this type of aircraft was introduced in 1934 for the England to Australia air race it incorporated features that were new to British designs. From its inception the aircraft proved a success, winning the race for which it was designed. From that time and up to March 1938 numerous high-speed flights were made in Comet aircraft and many long distance records broken. Ultimately three Comets were built, with one later used as a high speed French mail plane.
The aircraft was a twin-engined low-wing monoplane. Retractable undercarriage units were provided which drew up into the engine nacelles. The engines originally fitted to the Comet were De Havilland Gipsy Six of a specially tuned type. These legitimately may be said to have been the forerunners of the Gipsy Six Series II engines which were fitted in the Comets that made some of the later long-distance flights.
Two seats were provided in the fuselage aft of the wings and were fitted with an enclosing cover. Short trailing edge flaps were provided between the fuselage and the engine nacelles. To retract, the wheels moved directly backwards and upwards.
The wings of the Comet tapered towards their tips and had a stressed skin covering on a wooden framework. Plywood covering was used for the wings, which had a final layer of fabric. Similarly the fuselage was a wooden frame covered with plywood. The retractable undercarriage units were hand-operated by a screw jack controlled from the cockpit by a continuous cable. Wheel brakes were also provided.
The special Gipsy Six engines developed 220 horse-power each at 2,350 revolutions a minute at sea level. The petrol tanks had a total capacity of 255 gallons. This supply was carried in two petrol tanks in the forepart of the fuselage and in a small tank behind the cockpit. Engine oil was carried in the engine nacelles. The engines were fitted with automatically-operated two-position variable-pitch airscrews; the pitch was set fine for take-off using a bicycle pump, then coarsened automatically with air pressure as the aircraft climbed.
The maximum speed of the Comet with full load was 225 miles an hour at sea level, and the cruising speed about 200 miles an hour at 10,000 feet. At this height and speed the maximum range of the aircraft was 2,950 miles; at full throttle at 10,000 feet, and at a speed of 220 miles an hour the range was 2,550 miles. The initial rate of climb was 1,100 feet a minute and the time taken to climb to 10,000 feet 13 minutes. Both these figures were obtained with the airscrew set to fine pitch.
The take-off run was about 450 yards and the landing run about 350 yards, with a load of 5,000 lb. The ceiling of the Comet was 21,000 feet and the absolute ceiling on one engine 4,000 feet. The normal stalling speed of the aircraft with the flaps in use was 78 miles an hour, but with a light load was reduced to 63 miles an hour.
© Michael Johnson 2003
When I read Tim Beales review during April this year, I was taken by just how groovy the Comet actually was with its sleek streamlined lines and in go-fast red just to top it off! After a bit of searching, I managed to pick up the kit for an amazing AU $6.75. Good start that!
Came in a typical Airfix side opening box with the box proclaiming “series 0” Only one scheme is offered, with decal and colour information printed on the rear of the box – the red one!. This particular Airfix kit dates back to 1956 but has aged pretty well.
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Airfix originally put both Series 1 & 2 kits in bags with header cards - artwork above includes the first bagged version |
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So what is in the box? There are two sprues within the box, one grey and a clear sprue for the canopy. The canopy is very thickly moulded with indistinct framing lines but is surprisingly clear of scuffs and scratches. Detail is simply non-existent, with no cockpit at all and extremely basic undercarriage details. There is no clear part for the nose landing light, more on that later.
One decal option is provided on the back of the box, along with an instruction sheet with absolutely no painting instructions included.
Fine, this kit has no detail, but who cares? I was not after a contest winner here and after beating myself senseless building the Premiere Hawk T.1A for the last six months; I needed a quick build to keep AMS at bay!
© Michael Johnson 2003
Assembly started by cementing the two fuselage halves together followed by assembling each wing, these were simply joined to the fuselage and after adjustment to achieve the correct dihedral; the whole assembly was set aside to cure. I then cleaned up and assembled each engine. The radiator intakes are simply blank holes, so I blocked them off with some trimmed plasticard and brush painted everything in black to stop any light getting through. I toyed with the idea of opening up the 4 exhaust slots on each side of the nacelles, but decided to do something a little different.
Assembly proceeded smoothly and very quickly with all joins and seams treated with Tamiya filler, the worst areas being the fuselage/underside joins and the engine nacelle/wing joins.
The undercarriage and tyres were painted at this stage. Propellers were painted in Humbrol matt aluminium and the spinners in gloss aluminium. SnJ polishing powder was then applied to the spinners with a cotton bud and buffed in with a lint free cloth to polish up the aluminium.
Each undercarriage bay was painted black to hide the complete lack of detail.
As mentioned earlier, the kit is mid fifties Airfix, with the office represented by blanked off plastic and two misshaped blobs representing the pilot and co-pilot. Thus I set out to “enhance” the canopy.
These complex steps are listed below for complete clarity
Cockpit enhancement complete!
Now that the fuselage assembly and cockpit enhancement was completed, I turned my attention to the canopy. Dry fitting showed that the canopy required some work to sit correctly. This was done with a file and I then cemented it into place and filled the gaps with putty. Then the whole canopy and surrounding fuselage area was sanded down to smooth out everything. Any trace of the ill defined canopy framing was completely gone with the canopy requiring polishing with a three stage fingernail file and Novus plastic polish to restore clarity and shine.
I then masked the whole canopy in preparation for painting
© Michael Johnson 2003
Now that construction was finished I could settle down to painting. I decided that the airbrush could stay in its nice wooden box while I resorted to a spray can for the overall red finish. The only can of red I had in the cupboard was Humbrol Flat Scarlet. I used this paint which went on thickly but evenly. It was only after I laid down the first coat of Future that I discovered that it had “orange peeled” badly!
Out came the wet and dry again and I spent about forty minutes sanding the red down to a nice smooth finish. Two more coats of hand brushed Future prepared the way for decaling.
The decals are typical Airfix, relatively thin but blurry and out of register. I could live with this for this kit and my recent Tucano build but CMON Airfix get your act together! I was recently berated by another forum member on Aircraft Resource Centre for daring to ask if replacement decals for the new Airfix Hawks were on the horizon.
The decals went on extremely well, with no problems at all, even the fuselage stripe. Several more coats of Future made the shockingly matt carrier film disappear all together. By this time the Comet was very glossy, just the way I wanted it, no “scale effect” here!
I decided not to add the nose light using silver paint and I certainly did not want to grind off the fuselage tip, replace it with a block of clear styrene and sand to shape, polish AND then repaint!
I then turned my attention to the solution of the exhaust slots on the engine nacelles. Black decal strip was cut to appropriate thickness and lengths and applied over the raised kit representations. This was tedious and exasperating but was a much neater solution than painting. The decals were then sealed with some future and then carefully over painted with Aeromaster flat to give each slot some “depth”
The pre-painted undercarriage and propellers were then added and my Comet was finished.
© Michael Johnson 2003
The 1:72 scale modeller who wishes to build the comet has the Airfix kit as the one and only choice at the present time.
Back in the pre-dawn age, Frog marketed a vastly superior 1:72 Comet, with a better cockpit, poseable control surfaces and that little nose light transparency. It was re-released by Frog-Novo at a later stage. I have seen this kit on eBay from time to time with prices strictly in the collector’s domain. If anyone has one of these surplus to requirements, let me know as I would be keen to acquire it!
Whirlybird market a compete resin cockpit interior. vacuform canopy and decals for all three production Comets. The decals in particular are very fine indeed as I acquired a sheet for an all grey comet from AeroWorks while they were at WASMex earlier this year.
For the quarter scale enthusiast (like me) Heritage models market an all resin Comet for the princely sum of AU $120. L
OK, it is Airfix; it is basic with no detail. But it looks GREAT!
Recommended for beginners and experienced modellers who want a quick fix.
© Michael Johnson 2003
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© Michael Johnson 2003
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