Subject: Re: Gallery Article - De Havilland DH 89 Dragon Rapide
From: "Steve Bamford ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Aibara Darius @Consult" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 15:20:25 -0700

Hi Darius,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks for sending it in.   

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com
 
Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
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Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Aibara Darius @Consult 
  To: Steve Bamford ARC 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 12:50 AM
  Subject: Gallery Article - De Havilland DH 89 Dragon Rapide

  Gallery Template #12
  Steve

  Second set of photos for the article just sent 

   <<DragonRapide 2.zip>> 

  PS: I may have mis-spelt De Havilland with only one "L" instead of two.  Grateful if you could correct if possible.

  "1:48 Aeroclub DH 89 Dragon Rapide" 

  by "Darius Aibara"
  --------------------

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  Each year at the Flying Legends airshow at Duxford in Cambridgeshire there are a couple of de Haviland Dragon Rapides giving joyrides to the public before and after the airshow.  These wonderful aircraft represent a golden age in commercial aviation - a period that unfortunately is not well served in kitf orm.    For de Haviland aircraft fans there is the 1:72 Dragon Rapide kit by Heller and 1:72 resin kits of the Dragon and Dragonfly by Rug Rat Resins but the only 1:48 scale kit that I am aware of is the Aeroclub mixedm edia kit of the Dragon Rapide.  I recall reading somewhere that 1:72 is the Gentleman's scale, however that presumably refers to Gentlemen with particularly good eyesight, which counts me out.  I will stick with 1:48, especially when it comes to rigging a bi-plane - of which this is my firsta ttempt. 

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  The Aeroclub kit (sadly now out of production) is a mix of vac-formed, low pressure injection moulded and white metal parts.  The fuselage halves, seats, instrument panel andc ockpit glazing are provided in a single vac-formed sheet, with the main wings, engine nacelles, mainwheels, tailplanes and rudder supplied in injection moulded form.  The left and right upper and lower wings are provided as singlem oulded parts which makes clean-up very easy - no messing around trying to get thin trailing edges!  The cockpit controls, props, tailweel and outer wing struts are cast in white metal and Aeroclub supply several sizes of aerofoil section plastic strutting (presumably ex-Contrail) for you to fashion the remaining wing and tailplane struts.  The kit decal sheet providesm arkings for a silver and blue civillian "Island Air Services" aircraft and an all-silver Royal Navy "Dominie".

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  The vac-formed parts were separated from the backing sheet, sanded and cleaned up in the usual fashion.  The Aeroclub instructions illustrate a typical passenger seat complete with triangulated framing but suggest a simplified plastic block support.  I decided to try and replicate the framing using soft steel wire and the Aeroclub vacuum formed seats.  Cushions and arm rest padding were made from thev ac-form backing sheet.  The seats were super glued to the vac-formed floor and the vac-formed front and rear bulhheads attached along with a plastic card cabin roof to complete the interior.  The roof hides the reinforcment that I provided to the upper wing connections.  The passenger cabin windows are formed solid but slightly raised from the fusealge sides - I drilled out the window corners and cut out the windows leaving about 0.5mm of the raised element behind to form a "frame".  The interior was brush painted before fixing to the fuselage as were the inside and outside of each fusleage half.  The window frames were masked and painted silver and then each window was individually glazed using the clear plastic sheet supplied by Aeroclub.  I used Micro Crystal Clear diluted with water to secure the glazing.  The interior was fitted to the left fuselage half and then the halves were joined.  After the glue had cured I sanded the seams andb rush applied several coats of Humbrol No.25 "Blue" to the roof and base.  A few coats of Johnson's Clear turned the matt finish to gloss.  Pre-painting and glazing the fuselage halves proved much easier than attempting the process after assembly.

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  The wings were prepared separately, with the engine nacelles glued and filled and then the whole spray paintedH alfords "Rover Metallic Silver".  The nacelles were then masked and painted Humbrol Blue, following which holes were drilled in each wing for the rigging.  I used photographs on Airliners.net and in the Dragon Rapide article in the October 2001 issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling as ar efernce for this, and only broke one drill bit doing this, which is a record for me!  The struts were cut to length and painted - where practical I reinforced the strut to wing connection with short lengths of steel rod (cut from sewing pins).  The kit wing and tailplane to fuselage joints are just butt fit so I reinforced them with lengths of steel wire passing right through the fuselage and embedded about 10-12mm into each wing root.   The wings were super-glued to the fuselage, lower wings first, then the struts and then the upper wings.  The upper wing to fuselage joint was filled and then the whole was left for a day to cure.  The filled joiunts were then sanded, more coats of paint and Johnson's Clear applied and then the model was left for a further day.  

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  The rigging process was surprisingly straightforward.  I used lengths of stretched sprue secured with superglue into the pre-drilled holes in the lower wings and then (after the glue had cured) drawn through the holes in the upper wing (which were fulld epth), drawn taught and secured with Tamiya tape.  The upper wing holes were filled with superglue and the model left to cure for 24 hours.  The excess rigging was sliced away from the upper wing and the wing sanded and brush painted with Humbrol Metalcote Aluminium, brushing across the wings front to back.  Props and scratch built control surface mass balances were thena dded to complete the job.

  To end I thought I might share a couple of stories related to me by a friend of mine who inhabits a GA forum called PPrune.  These concern a somehat unorthodox pilot who flew Dragon Rapides on the services around the Scotish Highlands andI slands.  On one occaision the pilot dressed as a Scottish Laird, complete with plus fours etc. and boarded with the passengers.  Waiting with them for the, as they thought, late pilot he began muttering and harrumphing and then stated in a loud voice that he had read about flying in a magazine and that it seemed quite straightforward and that as the pilot had not turned up he was going to fly the aircraft.  With that he marched up front, started thea ircraft and taxied off.  The passengers, response is not recorded!  On another occaision the same pilot entered the aircraft, after the passengers had boarded, sporting dark glasses and a white stick.  He proceded to make his way to the cockpit using the white stick to guide him and disappeared behind the front bulkhead.  A few seconds later a sign appeared from behind the bulkhead which read "Blind Flying Today".  Again the passengers' response is not recorded!

  Photos and text © 2004 by "Darius Aibara"

  Regards

  Darius

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