DH.4 (Dayton-Wright built)

[Mike]

DH.4 (Dayton-Wright built)

1:48 Roden

Built by Airco, and designed by the famous Geoffrey De Havilland, the DH.4 was a day bomber that joined the fray in WWI in 1917. It was notable in that it had effective defensive armament with twin 7.62mm Marlin machine guns in the nose, and another 7.62mm Lews gun mounted on a ring in the rear of the cockpit, operated by the observer. The US production was married to the Liberty motor, which generated around 400hp, which gave it a speed & altitude capability that put it out of range of many contemporary fighters.

The kit arrives in a slim top-opening box, with a painting of the aircraft swooping low over Capitol Hill, perhaps to emphasise the fact that this is the American built version. Inside are 8 sprues of medium grey styrene of varying sizes, a long thin decal sheet and the instruction booklet.

The wings are on the largest sprue, and are single piece units running full length. This has enabled the designers to get a good thin trailing edge to the parts, and mould in the peaks and troughs of the fabric covering. It looks to be well rendered, without being too severe, and there are even bulges here and there (particularly around the Cabane strut area) where the material has been stretched over some internal structure.

The fuselage parts have the internal bracing structure moulded into the insides, but this has resulted in some quite noticeable sink marks in the outside, which will need filling to give an accurate representation of the outer fabric. There are also a few shallow ejector pin marks on the interior, but these should disappear quickly under some filler.

Cockpit detail is good, although as with all WWI subjects there's usually not an awful lot in there. The bucket seat is provided as a single part with a separate button quilted cushion, and sits on a brace between the fuselage sides. The instrument panel has fine bezels on the individual instruments, although these might disappear under all but the lightest coats of paint - decals or careful painting will be needed for the instrument faces themselves. Stick & pedals as well as a "stool" for the rear crew to sit upon are included, as well as a fuel tank that is situated between the two cockpits. Quite a suite of gun types are included on the sprues, which must cater for the various marks, and the rear gunner's ring mount is made up from four delicate parts, which will need some care not to mangle them during construction.

Before closing up the fuselage, two engine inserts are placed inside the cowling onto which are moulded some simple engine cylinders and head gear, although detail is a little lacking here. The single piece horizontal tail sits atop the fuselage halves and is sandwiched between them and the top decking, which has some rather nice cooling vent detail on the cowling end. The vertical tail and rudder affix to the top deck by two small location pins. It may be wise to drill and pin these items further to enhance strength.

The interplane struts are all included with moulded detail at their ends, which is a little soft, but at least location holes have been provided for each part to assist greatly in placement. A 2-view rigging diagram is provided at the rear of the instructions, which although not the most complex I have seen, should keep the modeller busy for a wee while.

The landing gear struts are sturdy, and should stand up well to handling, and again mount to the lower wing via some small locating pegs and pits in the underside of the wing. The tail skid, and outer wing skids are also provided, and look extremely delicate, so best left to the end of the build.

A good selection of munitions are provided, comprising two racks of four bomblets each, two larger bulbous nosed bombs, and two more conventional looking large bombs, and it is left up to the modeller to decide on the load for their intended model, although the three decal options are depicted with the medium-sized bulbous nosed bombs installed.

The decal sheet consists of a set of red/blue/white roundels, two stripes for the tail, plus sundry other crests, nose-art and codes. The printing is slightly fuzzy under magnification, but doesn't show under normal inspection, although the black and white are slightly out of register from the red on my sample, which leaves a tiny blank shadow around some edges of the red in the two "19" decals. That's easily remedied with a fine brush though, so not of major importance.

From the sheet you can model one of the following:

• 19 of 20th Aero Squadron (Bombing), USAS (serial 32457) France 1918
  
• D-11 US Marines Northern Bombing Group (serial 32274) Netherlands 1918
  
• 17 of 11th Aero Squadron (Bombing) USAS (serial 32808) France 1918
  

Conclusion

It's a good rendition of a handsome WWI aircraft, and the early American liveries are nice to see. Of course a few aspects of the kit are a little lacking in detail, but the detail in other places, such as the front cowling more than make up for this. When built and rigged with care, it should make a nice replica of this landmark design.

Review sample courtesy of Roden.

[j3cubfan]

Interesting!!!! Being born and raised in Dayton Ohio, I had no idea that this was out. Definite must have....

[Flankerman]

Built by Airco, and designed by the famous Jeffery De Havilland

Is he the brother of the more famous Geoffrey de Havilland ?????

Sorry, couldn't resist.... I'll get my coat.

Great review BTW.

Ken

[Mike]

There's always one!