DH-4B Mailplane, Gary Adams, 1/48 Scratchbuilt

Wings of Peace July 2010 - January 2011 Open Theme Winner! The plane modeled flew in the early '20's for the USAMS. It was converted from a Dayton-Wright built DH-4B by sheathing the fuselage in plywood, moving the pilot to the rear cockpit and relocating the landing gear forward. The plane was lost in November 1922 in a fog induced crash in Centre Co. Pennsylvania. The model is a combination of conversion and scratch-build in 1/48th scale. The wings and tail plane from the Roden DH-4. Fuselage was scratch-built using sheet styrene over a styrene frame. A full cockpit and instrument board are featured. Eduard WWI RAF seat belts and Eduard PE wire wheel spokes were added. All details are made from wire, solder, stretched sprue, rod and sheet. The engine was built by combining 2 Vector 6 cylinder Mercedes engines with a Engines and Things Liberty block. The plane is finished with oil paint wiped over a base of MM sand then sealed with Tamiya clear yellow. The wings and tail are sprayed with Alclad II aluminum. Rigged with EZLine fine elastic thread. Fuselage markings were done in MS word and home printed. Weathered using oil washes, chalk pastels and various colored pencils.