Scale aviation modeller international

Converting the 1/72 Pegasus DH.4 by Peter Ibes

F

irst contested on 8

September 1922, the King’s

Cup was established by

King George V as an incentive

to the development of light

aircraft and engine design. The

first race, covering 810 miles,

started from Croydon Aerodrome,

south of London, to Glasgow and

back again after an overnight

stop. The winner was Captain

Frank L. Barnard, chief pilot

of the Instone Air Line, in a

passenger-carrying Airco DH.4A.

Ever since reading about the

first King’s Cup in a book on the

early years of British commercial

aviation by Samuel Instone, I

have wanted to build a model of

the aircraft that achieved this

extraordinary feat. But while 1/48

modellers have the rather nice

Roden kit to work with, in 1/72 the

only kits available of the Airco DH.4

bomber are from Airfix or Pegasus.

For the passenger-carrying

version, one needs to either source

a conversion kit from Classic

Plane, which includes the Airfix

kit, or resort to scratch building.

However, amazingly there

is a decal set available that

contains all the markings for

this particular aircraft. Arctic

Decals from Finland offers a sheet

both in 1/72 and in 1/48 scale.

PEGASUS KIT

Having earlier built the 1/72

DeHavilland DH.16, based on the

Airfix kit, I knew that the actual

conversion is not that difficult.

But as I wasn’t overly impressed

with the ribbing of the wings as

presented by Airfix, I decided this

KING’S CUP

THE WINNER OF THE FIRST

74 • JULY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

BY SACCO DE VRIES

PEGASUS DH.4

BY PETER IBES

1/72

074-77-CIVIL-DH4-0718.indd 74 11/06/2018 14:01