• Modelers Alliance has updated the forum software on our website. We have migrated all post, content and user accounts but we could not migrate the passwords.
    This requires that you manually reset your password.
    Please click here, http://modelersalliance.org/forums/login to go to logon page and use the "Forgot your Password" option.

Airfix 1/72 DH.88 Comet Racer And Resin Cockpit set. TLAR Models #523

Rhino

Rhino

Super Moderator
20230418_211322.jpg20230418_211434.jpg20230418_211823.jpg
I bought my Airfix Classic Vintage 1/72 DH.88 Comet Racer kit at our recent show in Bondurant. The "Vintage Classic" tag wasn't on the Red Box re-issue model and I had higher detail expectations for this kit. Something MUST be done!

With the rumored "death" of SBS Models 1/72 DH.88 Comet mold, I decided to begin mastering a resin cockpit set for to old Girl.
Sure as I'm sitting here, by the time my efforts bear model fruit, Airfix will issue an improved Comet in 1/72 scale.

Basic floor contours and rear bulkhead so far. Fitting the styrene Master into the existing Comet proves an exercise in plastic-smithing. Seats could prove challenging. I'm using SBS' instructions a reference. I expect to produce a basic cockpit with instrument panels, seats, floor with rudder pedal and control stick boot details with room for super-detailing, as you wish, to fit the classic Airfix model.
Interesting, NO?!

Building the tlarmodels.com website consumes a lot of time after my day job. Still..............

Stay tuned for more developments as this exciting airplane model story unfolds!!
 
20230521_171008.jpg20230521_171518.jpg
Working on the 1/72 Comet seats. Are they exactly accurate? No. Do they fit inside the Airfix 1/72 Vintage Classic (Turd) kit? You bet your Sweet Bippy! That's the whole idea! Make an interesting accessory for a favored classic airplane model.
See how it's just shapes and shaping? Anyone could do it!
 
20231014_115630.jpg20231014_124950.jpg
Finishing existing projects has been much on my mind of late. The Airfix 1/72 DH. 88 Comet cockpit is ready to mold.

I engineered this kit to fit inside the existing Airfix model without much fuss. The front instrument panel can mount to the new coaming. The rear I/P fits inside the fuselage. Rudder pedals are cut down 1/350 watertight hatches. Control sticks and lap belts are up to the buyer.

Time was, Airfix priced their model kits to sell for "Pocket Money". God alone knows what that means these days!
I hope to carry that tradition forward for those that hunger for a more interesting interior for the vintage classic Comet racer.
No, you can't buy this with an EBT card. Silly!
Now, if some smart guy would just make a vac canopy for the old 1/72 Comet, that would be jolly good, wot?
Thanks again for looking in! :Drinks:
:pilot
 
I got an Airfix DeHaviland Mosquito model as a Christmas present when I was in 4th grade. I think it cost something under a dollar. That was at a time when the small Testors paint bottles cost 15 cents each.
I also remember the Revell B-17 Memphis Belle, PBY-Catalina, B-24 Liberator, and Dambuster kits in 1/72 were (If I remember correctly) $2.
 
Right?! I remember laying out a whopping $1.69 for my first Revell 1/72 Flying Fortress at The Hobby Shop in Ames.
Whirlybird Models (Whirly bits) used to make a really nice, complete 1/72 Comet cockpit set with vac canopy, but I'm damned if I see any for sale anymore.

This example is NO WHERE near as complete as theirs, but it is made in America.
 
20231103_183752.jpg
Seats, sticks and gray.
I know, I know. Pictures make the Comet cockpit look black. For contrasts sake, I went with Floquil reefer gray.
Stay Tuned friends! More MacRobertson Air Race fun to come!!
:plane
 
20231104_025720.jpg20231104_021548.jpg
First released in 1957, Airfix' 2014 1/72 Comet seems to be the very same tooling. Sumbitch is older than ME! I'm not sure that's a comfort. :hmm:
I paid Jose' Gonzalez $5.00 for mine. It's worth every penny. These decals depict red 34 Grosvenor House.
Control sticks are bits of .125 wire with a blob of C/A glue on the top.

20231104_034915.jpg
Test fitting got old quickly. I started gluing airplane model parts together and lookee what happened! MUTHERPUSSBUCKET!
Adding lap belts would have been better done before my MEK stuck the soft, vinyl-ish Airfix plastic together. Oops.
 
Looks like a comet to me.
You know when I first saw the SBS models kit I would have laid money that it was a post war racer, I had no idea it was SO early, I mean this thing was really ahead of it's time.
 
Right?! The Hawker Fury and Gloster Gladiator were premier fighters in the RAF at that time and the Hurricane was on the drawing board
Off goes the Comet to Australia without so much as a "By your leave". Loren Pine says the DH.88 was the reason DE Havilland built the Mosquito. Some of the same techniques were used for both airplanes, but I'm calling Bullschtein on that.
20231105_021201.jpg20231105_024301.jpg20231105_025419.jpg
The cockpit coaming part fitted to the model. This is the only part in my interior kit that must be sanded to shape. I cut off the bit of .040 square plastic I used to hold it while I shaped, and made a compass housing.

Time to ugly her up! Kit reviews comment on the amount of filler needed to smooth the engine nacelles into place. They ain't just whistlin' Dixie!:bash:

I like to add brass bosses for brass propeller shafts on my airplane models. My kit's nacelle halves weren't completely molded. Plastic surgery resulted in a much better look. I will pose the canopy open to show off the cockpit. That's wise. The canopy fits almost as well as the engine nacelles did. :lol:
20231105_045027.jpg
Smoothed and slick! ready for primer. Alclad Chrome with Tamiya clear red overcoat?
This is NOT the amazing 1/72 DH.88 the Hungarian SBS resin kit is. This 2014 reissue is not too bad for a 57 year old tooling, all things considered. The last airplane model I worked on was the 1/72 resin Moonbat. This seems simple by comparison even after adding the cockpit parts.

Writing instructions begins right away! I hope to have a couple 1/72 Comet cockpits on the website yet today.
Thanks for looking in again!
 
tlarmodels.com

1/72 Airfix DH.88 Comet Resin Cockpit set TLAR #523 NEW!

I recently bought one of Airfix' 1/72 DH.88 DE Havilland Comet model kits. It came in the new red box and wasn't stamped "Vintage Classic" like they have done on the well loved, old-tool kits they reissue from time to time. It happens that rather than a new cool tooling, this kit was, in fact...
tlarmodels.com tlarmodels.com
Did it! A few new listings today!
Have a look if you care to!
 
Sorry I got the last two DH88s from SBS, they really do go together like Tamiya kits. I wont have near the surgery that you've had. Thankfully, I don't have the skills either.

:plane
 
In a house full of Academy and Tamiya kits, I wonder why I'm building this ancient Airfix kit. If I wasn't showing off the basic Interior kit, It is doubtful I ever would have. Having come this far, now I have to finish this old turd. :facepalm:
 
20231110_025003.jpg
I made a brass rod jig to hold the Comet for priming and painting.
Future undercoat and Alclad chrome. Remember the Gaffney Peachoid or more recently the Golden Fying Fluck?
Stay tuned, my friends, to see how the red piece-of-candy paint job turns out!
Perhaps one CAN polish a turd! :lol:
 
20231110_080812.jpg20231110_080910.jpg
Not so very red, is it, chaps? Tamiya clear red and Alclad chrome seem to lack the opacity to cover very many sins. She's more orange than any other shade. A second coat may make the difference. Not quite the effect I had hoped for. :bm:
Whaddyagonnado?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top