DH.89 Dragon Rapide

Armory Models Group, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its outdated plywood construction.

Developed during the early 1930s, the Dragon Rapide was essentially a smaller, twin-engined version of the four-engined DH.86 Express, and shared a number of common features, such as its tapered wings, streamlined fairings and Gipsy Six engines. First named the "Dragon Six", the type was marketed as "Dragon Rapide" and later simply known as the "Rapide". Upon its introduction in summer 1934, it proved to be a popular aircraft with airlines and private civil operators alike, attaining considerable foreign sales in addition to its domestic use.

Upon the outbreak of the World War II, many of the civil Rapides were impressed into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy. Referred to in military service by the name de Havilland Dominie, the type was employed for radio and navigation training, passenger transport and communications missions. British training aircraft had names with educational associations, and dominie is a Scots term for a school teacher.

Hundreds of additional Dominies were also constructed during the war. Other Rapides continued to be operated by British airlines throughout the war under the auspices of the Associated Airways Joint Committee (AAJC). Postwar, many military aircraft were returned to civilian service. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, de Havilland introduced a Dragon Rapide replacement, the de Havilland Dove.*

Armory Models Group is a Ukrainian company that mainly focuses on 1/72 scale kits, although their 1/48 scale range is growing.

Their latest all-new 1/48 scale release is a DH.89 Dragon Rapide.

I am only aware of a few previous Dragon Rapide kits in 1/48 scale. Dating back to the 1990s , Aeroclub offered a mixed media kit with vacform, white metal and low-pressure injection plastic parts. Kiwi Resin Models produced a resin and vacform kit in 2002, and most recently Isracast had a multimedia (but mostly resin) offering in 2012.

None of these are currently available.

Armory Models Group has now come to the rescue with a very nice 1/48 scale DH.89 Dragon Rapide.

Armory Models Group's DH.89 Dragon Rapide comprises 160 parts in grey plastic, 15 parts in clear, 67 photo-etched parts on two frets, canopy and painting masks and decals for five marking options.

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Thumbnail panels:

The parts are moulded onto seven grey plastic and one clear plastic sprue with impressively fine attachment points.

The fuselage is moulded as full length split into port and starboard halves. The nose, fin and glazing are all separate inserts.

The cabin and cockpit glazing are clear parts that are integrated into the nose and fuselage. I particularly like the upper side fuselage with the side windows are supplied as one part each.

The clear parts are thin and free from distortion.

AMG supplies die-cut, self-adhesive masks to blank off the clear windows. This will be a very neat, clean and fast way to accurately delineate the windows and windscreens.

There are no locating pins or holes so take a little extra time and care aligning parts.

Surface textures are a combination of raised and recessed panel lines, plus scalloped fabric effect for flying and control surfaces.

I like the rudder, wings and control surfaces fabric effect but I think the horizontal scallops on the fin are a bit overdone.

Interior detail is nicely done with with a 27-part pilot's cockpit and the cabin made up from more than 50 parts. These are mainly accounted for by eight passenger seats of seven parts each.

Armory supplies a photo-etched fret with instrument panel, switches, flaps and many smaller details.

The wings are split into upper and lower, port and starboard pieces. The wing parts are one piece each. The lower wing halves have generously sized tabs that slot into the lower sude fuelage, ensuring accurate alignment.

Engine nacelles are nicely detailed from 14 plastic parts each, including spinner and propeller assemblies.

There are three interplane struts on each side. A pair of cabane struts connect the nacelles to the upper side fuselage.

Elevators, rudder, ailron and flaps are all separate parts. the photo-etched flaps may be posed dropped or retracted. Rigging is called out in various steps of the instructions,

Markings are provided for five options in a silver finish with white upper fuselage and fin.

The decals appear to be well saturated and in good register.

This is the first time I have been up close and personal to an Armory Models Group kit and I am impressed. AMG's 1/48 scale Dragon Rapide is a very nice limited run kit.

Take your time with parts cleanup and alignment and you will have an impressive result.

* Historical summary adapted from Wikipedia.

Thanks to Armory Models Group for the sample

Text and Images Copyright © 2024 by Brett Green
Page Created 22 October, 2024
Last updated 22 October, 2024

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