DeHavilland Comet 4B

Roland Sachsenhofer
I have never seen a "Comet" in real- but Ihave been fascinated by this airoplane--beauty since I was a youngster!
Not long ago I realized that a venerable Airfix is still around and waiting to be build.....
Here are some pictures of what you see after opening the package.
The first building steps are quickly done -and, despite they reveal quite a demand for filling, sanding and re-working, they fall together to a very nice representation of this splendid looking first-generation passenger jet!
I am planing to build the Comet depicted on the box-art.

Hanno Kleinecke
Old Airfix at its worst...... No doubt you will turn this ancient relict into a pefect model. Great subject, I`m in !

Soeren R.
That looks like a lot of work, but Im also confident that we will see a really nice result in the end😉

Adam Farnsworth
One I'd like to get at some time. Want a VC-10 1st though.

Stefan Fraundorfer
Ahhh, Roland du wagst einen Ausflug in den Zivilluftfahrtbereich. Da bin ich ja mal gespannt, was dabei heraus kommt. Obwohl ich es in Wirklichkeit schon weiß: ein super Modell. Bis dahin hast du aber noch verdammt viel Arbeit vor dir, wenn ich mir die Fotos so anschaue. Da wäre eine Flex als Werkzeug schon angebracht, um die ganzen Grate zu entfernen.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hey mates, thank you all for your interested replies! I will do my very best to deliver your expectations 🙂
Lieber Stefan, die Flex ist schon ausgepackt...... 🙂

Łukasz Gliński
Watching with great interest what can be achieved with such an ugly kit

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you Lukasz for your interest, it still is..... a little ugly kit!
I did some essential filling and sanding work with Cyanacrylad glue and various sanding papers, I sanded all the erased "panel lines" of, they would not be appropriate in any way for that scale in my opinion. I am planing to draw surface structures and panel lines with a pencil before and maybe after applying the various colors.
The comet is ready for the airbrush- that work will start with the dark blue fin and the black areas on bow and stabilizers.

Glenn
Good luck Roland, I think mine will be sold or binned! I will get a hold of the newer A model kit this is a real dog of a kit. Airfix should be ashamed to re-release this with all the great brand new tooled kits they have now. Oh nice box and decals, But this one should be entered into the "Plastic hall of shame" Now how do you get that steaming pile of poo emoticon? 😮

Glenn
Adam you might want to take a look at the newer Roden kits of the VC-10 and leave the airfix one next to the Comet! 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello Glenn! Indeed, that Comet kit is a little bit on the rough side 🙂
My only A-Model kit so far was a Do-26; after that I did swear not to touch any A-Model box in the next future, at least....... 🙂
You see some new pictures with gloss black, midnight blue fin and bright red on the wings- next my Comet will be sprayed with Alclads "Highly polished Aluminum"/ White Aluminum.

Clifford Keesler
Looking good on this old kit Roland.

Glenn
Hi Roland. A-model kits have improved over the years slowly! They seem to do the really large kits with a hand made fiberglass "shell" for the fuselage sometimes even the wing too! Then you add all the smaller injection molded parts for detail. But the smaller kits remain all injection molded. At least the 1/144 Comet they do fits together better than that old Airfix dog! But with enough filler and a Angle Grinder you should win! 🙂 I want the A-model kit because it has the wing tanks, As i want to do one of the BOAC/Qantas aircraft!
I have a couple of very nice 1/72 Welsh Model Comets too. A Comet 1 that has CAF markings And a Comet 4C with RAF Command markings both very nice Vac Form fuselage and resin wings/wheels etc. These go together really nice!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hi Glenn, you are right with recent improvements of A-Model kits- and they have- and they offer a wide range of highly interesting aircraft kits!
Indeed, a early Comet with those wing tanks would be a sight! 🙂
I wish you good luck and plenty of fun with your A-Model Comet!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Two steps of masking the Comet- on the last picture you can see the white of the upper fuselage having been applied. Tomorrow all the masks will be removed and a layer of clear gloss applied.

Lance Jacobson
In regards to the Airfix Comet - it was released in 1961 so what do you expect? We as a modelling community have become so spoiled (in a good way) with todays toolings, that we have forgotten our roots. Sometimes it can be rewarding to polish up an old dog. But with that being said, you can send the old dog to me if you like...

Glenn
There's kits released back in the mid 50's that have better detail than this Comet! I wish Roland well with his efforts. They say you can't polish a dog. No wait.... that's not the saying I'm thinking of! 🙂 (I need that emoticon i spoke of earlier!) Pity you live so far away to waste money sending the kit. I'll do something drastic with the little Comet or sell it at a local swap n sell?. I still think Airfix should have thought twice about this one before re-releasing it. Same goes with the D.H.88 Comet. Perfect opportunity to release a NEW TOOL KIT! But we now have a fantastic resin one released anyway. That's a lot of work there Roland seems to be taking shape 🙂

Lance Jacobson
You do have a point that some older kits were very well done as opposed to others, I think it depended on how fast the company wanted to get it released. Thanks for the thought of sending too. Roland is doing a great job on "polishing the old dog" .

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you for discussion and exchange of thoughts- and your words to "this old dog".
The decals are nearly complete, before putting another layer of clear gloss I want to add some signs of usage- indeed, those polished and well trimmed civi-aircraft also have their quantum of wear and tear! I aim at a finish that comes close the appearance of those Comets in the following link- please look here: kativ.eu/ivoHobby/ph..B%20-%20Airfix/Pics/

Clifford Keesler
I think it is looking quite well Roland.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you very much Clifford!
I did some disturbances of the all too neat white, alu and grey surfaces with pencil and pastels, furthermore five antennas have been reproduced with stretched sprue.
You see two pictures of fitting of longer sprues and two pictures of the trimmed "antennas".....

Glenn
Nice Job Roland! Looking good! How did you go with that horrible windscreen? Looks like the windows are replaced on the front?

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you much for your appreciated comments!
The cockpit windows are the weak point with this project, you remember the pictures of the non-fitting and quite ugly looking "clear part". I did not change this part, filled the gaps and sanded it to an reasonable size, hoping that the decals would give an appropriate appearance of the cockpit glassing.
The decals are of superb quality- but still the windows look unsatisfying.....

I added two disillusioning pictures 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
The "Comet" has reached its destined airport: my show case 🙂
The simulation of panel lines with fine lines of pencil worked well for me; as you can see on the early pictures of this build I have sanded out all erased panel lines on the beginning of this build.
The cockpit windows and the all too thick and rough landing gear parts- even when I did some detailing with etched parts/ fine wire- remain the week spots on this build.
But I am quite happy I could finish my first 1/144 scale project! 🙂

Stefan Fraundorfer
Da ist aus diesem grottenschlechten Bausatz ja noch ein ganz ansehnliches Modell geworden. Ich hätte da wahrscheinlich nicht die nötige Geduld dafür gehabt.

Łukasz Gliński
It's very nice Roland, congratulations. It's hard to see why the landing gear is supposed to be a weak point actually. Can you provide some more of the panel lines? I'm thinking of using the same idea in the future. 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you both mates!
Lukasz, the landing gear as a weak point means it´s thick and crude layout, which, as a look at the walkaround pictures exposes, have not in common wit the real thing.
I will make some close up pictures of the "penciled" panel lines! 🙂

Burkhard D
Klasse, immer wieder schön zu sehen, was man aus so einem antiken Bausatz rausholen kann. 🙂 👍👍👍

P J
Amazing result! 👍

Just like the other Airfix Comet models of the DH88, the DH106 is a beautiful plane that would benefit from a decent tool!

Glenn
Agree! Airfix should do a NEW TOOL DH.88 and Comet 1 and Comet 4 in 1/72 scale. They did the Nimrod but i'm not sure it was a big seller worldwide? I find them at swap n sells for around half price! That's why i have four. But i want to do MR2 and R1 and AEW3 versions. Plus I'd like to tackle a MRA4 version was hoping for a conversion for that one! 🙂

P J
Comet 1 or 4 in 1:72 would be superb! 😄 I would love to 'park' that next to my Nimrod!
I have Frog/Novo 1:96 Comet 4s which are nice models – they require very little filler!
I also have the F RSIN 1:144 Comet 1 in my stash which looks better than the Airfix versions of various vintages that I have accumulated.

Clifford Keesler
It turned out nice Roland.

playtime 222
@PJ Surely an Airfix Nimrod and a bit of scratchbuilding will suffice? 😄

Christian Ristits
Sehr schön!

Hanno Kleinecke
You turned this crude old kit into a beautiful model Roland, congrats !

Adam Farnsworth
Finish looks great. Well done

Glenn
LOL! nice one playtime 222... The Welsh Models 1/72 Comet kits are very good resin and vac form and would be a LOT easier then scratching up a new fuselage to "deflate" the Nimrod one! GOOD LUCK with that! 🙂 P J even the F RSIN 1/144 is pretty crude in some ways. I'd go the A-model ones anyday over those.😉

P J
LOL! @playtime 222! 'Scratch unbuilding' - or deflating as Glenn says - is beyond my abilities! Welsh Models 1:72 Comets I'll look into. I managed to make the dire Airfix DH-88s quite presentable; they were the first models I made once I'd 'born again' and they did make me question how much of my stash I'd ever build. Damned things took me ages. I did learn some useful filling/sculpting skills though. 🙂

Glenn
I think turning the Nimrod back into a Comet would be a bit like turning a Super Guppy back into a B-29! (I'd rather not go there!) But i did see someone turn 2 Academy 1/72 Stratoliners into a Super Guppy (with very nice results!) and lots of scratch building! 🙂 The Welsh Models kits are worth a look but they are pricey! I have a "couple" of his 1/72 B737 kits too and they look great built up.