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High
Planes Models 1/72 D.H. Moth Minor |
The Moth Minor was intended to replace the Tiger Moth as the basic trainer
but thanks to the war it failed to do this. The RAAF had a number of
them, serials A21-1 to -41, but did not take them up to the extent of
the Tiger Moth and in fact gave a number of them to civilian operators
during the war.
As with all HIgh Planes Models kits you need to have some experience
before attempting them. This kit provides the majority of the items required
to make the kit except the exhausts and some holes that require drilling.
These holes varied from plane to plane so you will require some good
reference photos of the aircraft you wish to model. This kit varies from
the other kits I have seen from HPM in that there is none of the usual
blue plastic with heaps of flash. The parts are provided in resin and
have minimal flash, but you will still need to trim and test fit prior
to glueing.
High Planes gives you four pages of intructions in both black and white
as well as colour as you can see from the images below.
The kit comes in the usual stout High Planes Models carboard box
with a number of zip lock bags. I did a rough test fit of the fueslage
and the wings and found a few problems that would require some fixing.
The fueslahe halves require careful fitting as they don't fit together
correctly around both the cockpit and the wing joint area. The lower
wong spar also doesn't fit correctly in the space provided but this can
be easily rectified. The lower wing spar would also require trimming
as the upper wing halves are shorter than the spar.
The remaining parts are a collection of very finely detailed parts that
look like they should fit well. There isn't a great deal of detail in
the cockpit but not a great deal is able to be seen in this scale in
such a small area. You are also provided with a set of vacform windscreens
with a spare set in case of accidents.
You are provided with a small set of decals from Wessex Transfers that
cover the following aircraft:
- A21-8 of 83 SQN, Strathpine QLD, Sept 1943. Colour scheme of Earth
Brown/Foilage Green and Sky Blue undersides.
- A21-36 of the Engineering School Laverton. Coluor scheme of either
Green uppers with yellow lower or Foilage Green/Earth Brown and yellow
lowers. This second scheme is the interpretation of an image by the
manufacturer.
- A21-6 Laverton, 1940 in all over silver dope.
- A21-7 of 23 Sqn, Lowood QLD, 1942 in over all silver dope.
- A21-31, DH Factory, Bankstown, 1940 in overall trainer yellow.
- You are also provided numbers for A21-4 and A21-10 as they were finished
in a similar manner to A21-31.
This is a very small aircraft in 1/72 and would not take a great deal
of space in your collection. The kit like all others from High Planes
does require careful construction but I don't consider it beyond the
average modeller who has a number of kits under his/her belt.
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