Home  |  What's New  |  Features  |  Gallery  |  Reviews  |  Reference  |  Forum  |  Search
Eduard's 1/48 scale
De Havilland DH.2

by Jerry Creager

When Eduard issued their new 1/48 scale de Havilland DH-2 I could not wait to get started building this new creation. I have been a WWI junkie for a long time and this was an aircraft for which I had been waiting.

Eduard issues the DH-2 in both a Profipack and standard kits. I recommend the Profipack version because there are a number if fine photo etched parts that add a nice touch to the finished model. The cockpit features some nice photo etched instrument bezels, seat and seatbelts as well as a frame for the windshield which attaches to the machine gun. Eduard has provided a fine assortment of instrument faces on the decal sheet which are more than enough to do the instruments called for in the three optional layouts.

The kit is well molded and has excellent detail. The trailing edges of the wings are very thin and generally there is very little flash, if any.

The construction of the kit is straight forward and is best accomplished by working with sub assemblies. The fuselage is made up or the cockpit and aft section to which the engine mounts. This assembly mounts to the lower wing and fits nicely. Once I had the lower wing and fuselage finished I pre drilled all of the holes for the rigging in both the upper and lower wings and installed the turnbuckles which I made from very fine stainless wire. The real aircraft had a considerable amount of rigging and the turnbuckles added a nice touch. The kit instructions do a good job of showing where most of the rigging goes but there are some missing details around the boom and wing rigging. I highly recommend the Squadron/Signal publication for the DH-2.

The struts fit well and the upper wing can be mounted without too much trouble. I would recommend using a jig to help align the wings to make sure the leading edges are square with one another.

The next sub assembly is connection the twin booms to the horizontal stabilizer and rudder. This is a critical stage for correct alignment and it is essential that a jig be used to get the alignment right. The twin booms mount to the upper and lower wings and it doesn’t take much to get out of alignment. At this point in my construction I found that the plastic in the booms was too soft and flexible and this created a problem keeping the booms straight and properly aligned. I further compounded the problem when I started rigging because the tension on the rigging was causing the boom to deflect just enough to be noticeable. At this point I regrouped and made two new booms using the kit boom struts and pieces of carbon fiber rod that was the same diameter as the plastic. This was much stiffer and held the alignment and rigging without any problems. I add this note that the problems with the boom assembly may not be attributed to the soft plastic but could be the experience of the builder. Others may not have the same problem.

The last critical assembly is gluing the booms to the location points on the upper and lower wings. Again, a jig is essential to holding the correct alignment. Even when glued the whole airframe is delicate. The fiber carbon rod added a lot to the rigidity of the completed airframe. The last sub assembly to install before rigging was the landing gear and the engine. Prop being installed after the rigging was complete.
I chose one of the paint schemes using the decals included in the Profipack kit which is the doped linen on all surfaces of both wings and tail.

I highly recommend this kit to any WWI enthusiasts and this will certainly not be my last DH-2.

 

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Images Copyright © 2005 by Jerry Creager
Page Created 27 June, 2005
Last Updated 27 June, 2005

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Gallery Index