Allied Model Aircraft Images
by Ken Zelnick

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DeHavilland DH-10

After spending months in the paint shop, the DH-10A has moved into the construction phase. I have now attached the lower wings to the fuselage, the engines to the wings, and added the tail surfaces. Interplane struts were in place until I fumbled the model just before taking these photos. Damage was fortunately limited to knocking off seven of the eight struts, and cracking open part of the upper fuselage seam, nothing that can't be fixed with a little glue and time. I have started drilling holes to install rigging, and have started attaching 2 lb test monofilament fishing line (.005 or .006) to the upper wing with CA. I will then drill holes completely through the lower wing so I can pull the lines taut. This should provide rigging that is at least semi-functional. Next up is attaching the upper wing, then the undercarriage.
Most of the interior is scratch-built. The only components included with the kit were the instrument panel, seat, and floor section. I scratched a lattice floor for the front and rear gunners, and skinned the kit-supplied floor with some of the same material. Everything else was scratched from sheet styrene, stretched sprue, and wire. I went by the Windsock Datafile as much as I could, but some items, such as the spare Lewis ammo drums, are speculative.

The kit engines were hopeless, so I scratched some new ones out of sheet styrene, wire, and plastic rod. The nacelles were too long and incorrrectly shaped at the rear, so I shortened them and skinned with sheet styrene.

An item of interest is that all the sheet styrene was scavenged from old packing material and plastic drinking cups.

SPAD XIII

Hobbycraft 1/32 SPAD XIII

Done in the markings of Italian ace Francesco Baracca. This was built mostly out of the box as an online review for the Roll Models web site. I added a few cockpit details, but the most significant change I made was to extend and round the wingtips to more closely resemble those of Baracca's mount. The wings in the Hobbycraft kit are the later, square-tipped variety. I brush painted this with Ceramcoat acrylics thinned with Future. I didn't think any of the Ceramcoat colors were satisfactory directly out of the bottle, so I mixed my own, trying to get as close as I could to the colors indicated on the box. When using these paints, keep in mind that they darken considerably when they dry. Rigging was done with 0.009 inch beading wire.
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