Eduard 1/48th Airco DH-2 By Matt Bittner

The Kit

The Eduard kit of the Airco DH-2 consists of 91 injected molded parts very well done. There are decals for 2 schemes both from 32 Squadron.

As with most aircraft kits, construction starts with the cockpit. Between the molded-on sidewall detail and all the bits and pieces that go into the cockpit, Eduard provides a most comprehensive 'pit with nothing else to add but seatbelts. In fact, I can't see - aside from the usual instrument panel, corresponding film and aforementioned seatbelts just how a "profipack" kit can enhance what's in the non-profi kit. Once the nacelle is finished it is added to the cockpit floor/lower-wing, all one piece.

Construction now moves into some of the detail items, such as the engine and landing gear. However, none of those are added until close to final construction so getting all of it accomplished beforehand will save time in the end.

From here you have to decide how you want painting and construction to continue. The next step in the instructions has you mount the upper wing to the lower wing/nacelle combination. At the very least you need to paint these parts prior to proceeding with this step.

Now that the wings are together, it's time to put the rest on. This includes the undercarriage already assembled, along with the booms and all struts for the booms. You'll need to take care removing the booms from the sprue as they're too-scale and appear to be a little fragile. Still, better to deal with them this way than to have to assemble them out of all struts. Assembling the booms to the wings/nacelle also means assembling the booms to the tail surfaces so care should be taken to ensure everything lines up.

Once the major pieces are together, then construction is finalized with some smaller bits, followed by the rigging. Oh, the rigging! Prepare to spend plenty of time with the rigging; regardless of what method you use to rig. However, be happy that Eduard provides most complete rigging diagrams. That's right, that's "diagrams", as in plural. There are a lot of "wires" to attach to this machine once finished.

Conclusion

Eduard is to be commended for molding the DH-2 in the fashion they have. It definitely will help with the assembly of this model, although nothing Eduard could have done to facilitate easy rigging. This is a "boomer" after all, which means there were a lot of wires holding it all together.

Our thanks to Eduard for providing the review example.