Allied Model Images
by Neil Crawford

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DeHavilland DH-4A

After the war some DH4's were rebuilt as DH4A's by replacing the rear gunners place with a two-seat compartment, cloth covered with sliding windows. To compensate the centre of gravity change, the top wing was moved back to give a 90 degree wing angle.

Instone Airlines was one of the first airlines, flying between London and Paris with DH4A's until larger planes went into service, Instone were originally a shipping line, their airline merged with Handley-Page and some other small airlines to become Imperial Airlines One of their DH4A's G-EAMU was prepared for the Kings Cup Air Race in 1922, and won it.

My model is converted from the Airfix DH4, which is a good model, basically correct, except for the undercarriage which is too short, and the wing surfaces that could have been better. If you think there is a lot of rigging on a DH2, then a DH4 is actually worse. The rigging is mostly stainless steel, except for the long contol lines which sagged under their own weight, I used strue instead. Painting and lettering are from lots of different sources, and homemade. The propellor is hand-carved and I'm rather proud of the brass sheathing, which came from a chocolate wrapper. It took about a year to build.


Depperdusin Monocoque

Depperdusin Monocoque winner of 1913 James Gordon Bennett trophy (pilot Maurice Prévost). First plane over 200kph.
"Kit": Classicplane vacuum-form/ scratch
Paint: Tamiya
This was an awful vacu-form, there was about 3mm mismatch between the fuselage halves. I fixed that by dipping it in a cup of tea and bending outward. The rest is mostly scratchbuilt. Wheels are from Aeroclub, the engine which is a double-rotary 160 hp Gnome comes from two Airfix Sopwith Pups, propeller is cut down from an Airfix Avro 504.


Nieuport 17

This is the Revell Ni17 from the collectors series, it is the second WW1 model I made, so must be about 30 years old. The decals are from ABT, I don't know how accurate they are, but as the kit is straight from the box, it probably doesn't matter.


Rickenbacker's Nieuport 28

Nieuport 28 from the Revell 1/72 kit. This is the 94th Aero sqn machine that Eddie Rickenbacker flew, before he got a Spad. I won't be making another one, so I chose a famous one. I added a cockpit interior, corrected the front cowling, scratchbuilt an undercarriage, added aeroclub m/g's and engine, and carved a new propellor from walnut. Decals are adapted from Microscale and a horrible old sheet of "Finishing touch" decals, that had the best "hat in ring". Paint is Humbrol, followed by future/klear, and finished with pastels.


Nieuport VI Schneider Trophy Racer

Kit: Scratch (1:72)

Nieuport VI 1914 schneider tropy racer, scratchbuilt 1/72 scale. It was favorite for 1914 flown by Charles Wymann but the new Sopwith racer turned out to be much faster so Weymann never even started. My model is completely scratchbuilt. The 160hp twin row rotary engine is made up from two Aeroclub 9 cylinder LeRhones, epoxied together. Various other commercial photo-etched odds and ends were used, mostly from the from the Part set for the Nieuport IV. One thing I liked about the Part set is that it gives the WWI list (wwi-models.org) as reference, and those photos were taken by me and Pedro at the Swedish Air force Museum, so it feels somehow fair to use them! Fuselage is a simple box construction skinned with plasticard, as are the wings. Engine cowlings are crash moulded and covered in kitchen foil. The interior frame is made of wood. Floats and prop are made of wood veneer, tail float is from an old drop tank, lengthened and slathered with putty, covering is also aluminium foil. rigging is stainless steel wire. Struts are brass or steel wire, glued together.


Tummelisa Trainer

Tummelisa swedish trainer. This one is cheating a little because it's in 1/50 scale. The drawings happened to be in that scale, and in those day's 1/48 wasn't so established, this was over 20 years ago. I had just got Harry Woodmans bible, so was very inspired by that, and felt that I really wanted to scratchbuild everything, so even the tires are carved from plasticard, silly thing to do really! All the markings are handpainted.


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