De Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSS - completed

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September 27, 2020
Each nacelle has cooling gills on both sides. With a small round milling head I thinned carefully the material from inner side.
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October 1, 2020
Seams cleaned, separation lines restored. As usual I used CA and plastic as filler.
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October 1, 2020
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October 1, 2020
Etched rear part for the inner side of the flap area reinforced with plastic stripes.
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October 1, 2020
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October 1, 2020
Rear parts of the nacelles: left and right reversed🙁🙁🙁 arghhhh!
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October 1, 2020
Sometimes the most radical way is the best way: nacelles ripped off.
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October 3, 2020
On course again.
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October 3, 2020
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October 3, 2020
Next step: engine puzzle.
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October 4, 2020
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October 5, 2020
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October 5, 2020
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October 5, 2020
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October 5, 2020
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October 5, 2020
Right: behind the cooling gills white paper is well visible as airbrush-dust protection (engine should remain black an not will be red).
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October 7, 2020
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October 7, 2020
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October 7, 2020
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October 7, 2020
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October 7, 2020
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October 9, 2020
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October 9, 2020
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October 9, 2020
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October 10, 2020
A dish of aluminum sheet as reflector
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October 10, 2020
Shoulder harnes added.
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October 10, 2020
I don’t like photo etched flaps because they are to fragile and it’s difficult to fit them on the rest. Because of that I invested one half of hour and made them of plastic.
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October 10, 2020
Pudding plane - Time!🙂
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October 15, 2020
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October 15, 2020
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October 15, 2020
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October 17, 2020
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October 19, 2020
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October 19, 2020
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October 19, 2020
Landing gear completed minus red covers and air valves
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October 19, 2020
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October 20, 2020
Tires and air valves in place = landing gear completed.
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October 20, 2020
Surprisingly the landing gears stays in place without glue🙂
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020
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October 21, 2020

43 27 September 2020, 15:42

bughunter
A new project?! This plane is a beauty 👍 Watching!

29 September 2020, 17:25

Bernhard Schrock
A small progress in WIP building: the wing is completed and both rear parts of the nacelle are in place. But I made a mistake and reversed the parts. Now the are in wrong angle. I hope that my best friend (CA glue) will help me to set things right by gluing the forward parts under "tension".

1 October 2020, 04:22

Hanno Kleinecke
Veery reassuring to see that happening to even someone super experienced like you...... ( reversed sides)
Thats my typical way of doing and then discovering the instructions afterwards 🙂
Doubtlessly, this will be no problem for you to fix.
Can't wait to see that beautiful red paint coming into view !

1 October 2020, 05:22

Spanjaard
a beautiful plane indeed. looking forward to what you do with it 🙂

1 October 2020, 08:05

Alec K
Following. Keeping my fingers crossed for those engine nacelles 👍

1 October 2020, 12:35

Bernhard Schrock
Thank you Hanno, Spanjaard and Alec for your supporting words. For about one hour I tried, bent, glued and realized that it's impossible for me to fix this mistake in a way that satisfies me. So I ripped of the parts again fortunately without damage. This is a big advantage of CA in comparison with standard plastic glue. More luck next time! 🙂

1 October 2020, 17:28

Christoph Kunz
Count me in

1 October 2020, 18:51

Alec K
Eureka 🙂 👍

2 October 2020, 12:19

Zbynek Honzik
Watching!

2 October 2020, 15:48

Treehugger
Ripping the glued on parts off, I've done that a couple of times. 😄

3 October 2020, 12:15

David Funke
Oh, I´ll take a seat....

4 October 2020, 19:15

bughunter
Your instrument panel looks better than a Löök😉
Regarding the fit: You are doing the test build, prior starting production? Or this kit is only for collectors but not intended to be build.

5 October 2020, 16:49

Bernhard Schrock
Thx bughunter. I'm curious when I can see a second Comet build coming ... indeed it is imo more a collector kit.

5 October 2020, 18:05

Erik Off
Och, ich wollte sie schon bauen - irgendwann.😉
Dein BB wird dafür wieder eine große Hilfe sein und der Link ist schon abgespeichert.😉

6 October 2020, 05:43

Slavo Hazucha
Somewhat behind the first-row spectators, but definitely joining this! Just coming back from a project with a lot of red, looking forward to this 👍 What are you going to use for the perfect "Rosso corsa" effect? I guess this is where old-school gloss enamel color would get a stage to shine... 🙂

6 October 2020, 09:26

Bernhard Schrock
Indeed it is a big challenge: entire plane in red. I plan to use my usual technique. First I'm going to airbrush the canopy area dark grey and then a base of pale rose (mix of light grey and red). Based on my experience 100% gloss for a model is too much gloss and makes it look like a toy. Because of that I will mix H19 (gloss red) with H174 (satin red).

6 October 2020, 12:47

Treehugger
Does that mean you don't use a gloss coat over the entire model, nor any varnish, or at least not for this project?

I have had imo good success with applying a gloss coat (or two), and then in an instant turning the model from looking like a toy, to a more realistic looking surface that has shine and reflection to it, being satin. Having said that, I have had trouble applying the satin varnish in a uniform way, perhaps because my lighting by my desk isn't the best. I always need direct light to be able to see where I spray the gloss coat, or the varnish, or I don't even see what I am doing when airbrushing that stuff. I have lately been using goggles for my eyes and a dust mask, as I like keeping my face close to the model when airbrushing. :| Heh, on top of that I like having wireless headphones, listening to modeling podcasts on youtube.

6 October 2020, 13:07

Bernhard Schrock
Treehugger: this is correct. As usual (in 9 of 10 cases) I use no gloss varnish before applying decals and no varnish after applying decals. The different shininess of the surface is a important part of my "finish philosophy". At last I used semi gloss varnish for my Hughes racer because I had the correct blue shade only as semi mat paint.

7 October 2020, 06:42

Slavo Hazucha
Cool progress, especially like the balance rods! 👍

Where you take all that solid technical data for all those updates & modifications - internet, or do you have a grand library of source materials?

9 October 2020, 15:23

Bernhard Schrock
Thank you Slavo. I decided to build the red plane because it's preserved in excellent condition in shutterwotth collection. As usual I looked first on Wikipedia (commons) for original pictures and found a lot of information.

Further I discovered a very interessant thread:
ww2aircraft.net/foru..villand-comet.51473/

9 October 2020, 16:02

Bernhard Schrock
To minimize dust particles during airbrushing red I decided to use semi matte paint. Yesterday i completed the finish via airbrushing a clear coat. That worked and I'm very satisfied with the result. This morning I took off the masks: I used the kit's exactly precut masks. Warning: some left a little residue on the clear part. Possibly you can't leave them on for too long.

17 October 2020, 08:03

bughunter
What a beautiful and elegant plane 👍 Great work as usual!

17 October 2020, 17:29

Daniel
I can only agree!

17 October 2020, 17:39

Christoph Kunz
Simply WOW

17 October 2020, 18:20

KlausH
What a beauty! Great work Bernhard! Your hints will be very useful for my Comet. Thanks much!

17 October 2020, 18:21

Alec K
Outstanding work indeed 👍

18 October 2020, 12:58

Slavo Hazucha
I was too busy for a couple of days and boy what an escalation of progress!!! That´s a really great shade of red and the canopy - clarity, perfect fit, sharpness & thickness of lines... - looks just fabulous 👍

19 October 2020, 10:51

Hanno Kleinecke
Seehr schönes Rot und tolle „Beine" ! Das sieht nach ‚ner ziemlichen Fummelei aus, die kleinen Hilfsdrähtchen.......

19 October 2020, 11:47

Zsolt Czegle
Klasse Arbeit, wie immer! 👍

19 October 2020, 19:56

Clifford Keesler
Very nice so far.

19 October 2020, 22:48

Bernhard Schrock
Nice to hear that you like my "House"🙂. I almost finished today but I noticed that the propeller blades have some imperfections. Tomorrow I have to manage the last airbrush session.

20 October 2020, 19:20

Hanno Kleinecke
Fertig ! What a pretty little „Red Rooster" 😄 ! Beautiful work !

21 October 2020, 18:03

Lochsa River
What a beauty...Bernhard, you never disappoint.....so clean.

21 October 2020, 21:36

Clifford Keesler
Excellent job Bernhard.

21 October 2020, 22:19

Alec K
Looks funky with landing gear out 😄. But what an elegant aircraft 👍

22 October 2020, 00:21

Michael Hickey
Beautiful looking Comet Mate.👍👍👍

22 October 2020, 05:32

Christian Ristits
Sehr schöne Arbeit!

22 October 2020, 05:43

Erik Off
Wunderschön! Einfach wunderschön! 🙂

22 October 2020, 06:22

Felix Troschier
Excellent finish as usual

22 October 2020, 15:44

David Taylor
Very smart Bernhard lovely comet.

22 October 2020, 17:07

Christoph Kunz
Eine absolute Schönheit.

22 October 2020, 21:30

Slavo Hazucha
Looks fast even stationary! 🙂 Great job once again - museum piece 👍 Sooner or later I´ll have to try a racing/record machine, this is just too tempting for "watch only"...

29 October 2020, 19:19