Reviresco DH-2 John Oliver Andrews

I'll be honest, this is not my best effort. A few major blunders which have to do with:

(1) Putting the full wing decal on the top side of the top wing and the bottom side of the bottom wing - BEFORE gluing in the struts; and
(2) Trying to disguise the tiny bit of strut that still stuck out.

In the end I scrapped off the "disguise" and re-painted the bits where the decal came off. I'm not a fan of full wing or full fuselage decals unless absolutely necessary (e.g., lozenge decals are the only option), but in this case it's because the Reviresco wings are smooth and I thought the decal was needed to provide texture / 3-D. It does for the CDL surface but I wasn't keen on the upper surface, dark green decal with very light green rib tapes (?). Anyway, I changed to colour to more of an olive drab - or at least somewhat changed it. Since I had miscmini's DH2 decal set I did think of scrapping off the entire upper wing decal, painting as I liked and using the miscmini decals. However, I don't expect I'll use the Reviresco models much as the metal models are too heavy. I will save the miscmini decals for some Shapeway DH2 models - although I did use the 5998 serial number from the miscmini set.

I have 2 more Reviresco models to build - a Voisin 3 and Siemens-Schukert D.III. After that I won't buy metal models. Other than official model releases I will go with Valom as my 1st choice and then Shapeways.

So....believing one should post lows (this effort) as well as highs (my last 2 Valom Fokker Dr.1s were really satisfying), here's my Reviresco DH-2 for John Oliver Andrews:

Attachment 270442

Attachment 270441

Note the kit came without the wheels and axle so I made the wheels from O-rings. I should have spent more time on them but I was 'done' with the model before I was 'done'.

A brave effort Paul. I did not find my DH2 the easiest of builds either.
Rob.

To be honest it was a time-filler effort while I sorted out what decals I need to make next. Doing the graphics and scaling the decals does take a bit of time. So, I was looking at the paper jig for the DH2 and wondering how easily it would be to assemble - rather easy as it turned out. Since I had the jig done I went ahead with the kit without much thought. Here's what I'd do differently if I did another, which I won't as the metal kits are too heavy for WoG gaming:

1) Do not put decals on the outer surfaces of the wings until after doing the struts - actually these can wait until the very end. I do not know what possessed me to that right up front. I guess I just kept going from the inter-wing decals. Silly really.
2) I would trim the strut wires to the correct size before gluing. The wire is cheap so you can afford to waste several bit of it. It's tricky trimming the wire close enough to the wing so that none of it sticks out to form a bump (as it did for my Pfalz model - where I did put the wing decal on at the end). My wife has very good jewellry tools that I used but I still didn't get the wire trimmed close enough. Trim the wire before gluing and then fill the holes.
3) I would not use the Reviresco decals - and use miscmini decals or make my own. In some cases for a complex figure I might trim the decal. The main issue is that in some cases the Reviresco decals are wrong - the rudder colours were reversed and the roundels had a white border - or I don't like the colour choice - the PC10 was way too green for my liking. It's true that the metal wings for this kit are 'flat' (i.e., no rib lines) so you need to either paint an impression of ribbing or use the decals. It's okay for the CDL as I can paint washes over the decal to get the colour I like and still see the rib lines, but it's not easy to do that for either this DH2 decal or for the Pfalz one I did.
4) Do put the engine in place before the tail piece. Doh!

However, if I get another DH2 model - and I will - it will be Shapeways. I bought valom kits, metal kits and 3D printed models to see what would work for gaming. Were Valom kits too difficult? Challenging but it gets better with practice. Were the metal kits to heavy? Yes. Are the Shapeways too grainy? Yes, they're grainy but they are workable. After my experiment my preferred order - for other than official Nexus/Ares planes - would be:

1) Valom models - done right they're just super but there are limited options
2) 3D printed (Shapeways and Sculpteo) - cheap and good for gaming with lots of choice
3) Re-paint Nexus/Ares - I compared Nexus/Ares Albatros DIII with a Shapeways Oeffag 153 and I just didn't think the Nexus/Ares model was that much of an improvement - certainly not at the price
4) metal models - but there's no need as Shapeways has everything that's available in metal