Novo DH-88 Comet Racer

Interesting.  Bending the thread a little, a modeling friend and I were at a local hobby shop yesterday, and he was admiring an Airfix DH-88 in 1:72.  But he was wondering if it is one of the new mold kits or an old one. Anyone know?  If it is just the old kit, was that a decent kit?  In any case, the Comet was certainly a major improvement in aviation, in spite of its limited purpose.  An old saying in aviation design- if it looks really clean to the eye, it probably is.  There were exceptions, but it usually works.

Thanks Don, yes it was an easy kit to build with very little flash and good well lined up pegs and holes on each side of the fuselage. The wings and ailerons in two halves and seperate rear tail fins. Down or retracted undercarriage with all the tiny legs for the wheels and mudgaurds.

You even got not only two flyers, a Pilot and Co-Pilot but also two civilians in long overcoats, no doubt company designers making sure it flew OK!

An old kit made in the USSR but very satisfying.

Very cool build. Different. Geez, I wonder if that plane was the inspiration for one of the planes in Disney's Planes?

Still the old kit, Don.  The Novo kit is a Frog mold.

Neat and what the heck its a good subject.

Thers a vac canopy out there. too.

Thanks guys. I am told here in the UK that this was the forerunner design for the famous Spitfire WW2 fighter.

And yes Frog originally made the kit then handed over the rights to Novo to make.

The Spitfire was a somewhat indirect descendant of the Supermarine S.6B designed by R.J. Mitchell for the Schneider Trophy race.

The descendant of the Comet would be the De Havilland Mosquito,also a twin engine aircraft built entirely of wood, but in most other ways different.

It certainly is one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed, IMO.

I've built the Airfix kit, and I must say it needs a lot of TLC (almost as much as my old RCA TV) to make it look half as beautiful as yours.

Just found out that the kit was made in the late 50's ... at the time my own father was not even a teenager ! 

But like GMORRISON said, it is a very nice looking aircraft.

I didn't give it any TLC, I just cleaned up the parts, rattle can sprayed it and stuck it together, carefully!

I built the Airfix kit a year ago and it did take quite a bit of filler and sanding to get things right but it came out very nice. This NOVO kit looks very good too. Nice job.

Thanks sonofajugpilot, there was no filler needed with this one thankfully.