Post War Air Travel

Ude Havilland Dove in 1/72

- Rogério 'Rato' Marczak

I don't consider myself an airliner modeller. Over the years, however, I've built some small civilian aircraft as I have my share of fondness for racers, airliners, firefighters, and flying boats. The de Havilland Dove is one of them, with its military brother, the Devon, and its four-engine cousin, the Heron. Scale models of the Dove existed in the past as resin and vacuum-formed kits, but I think the Amodel release from 2017 is the first injected kit of this important aircraft.

Armed with a few photos of the Devon on display at the RAF Cosford Museum, I quickly realized that both kits offered by Amodel, the Dove and the Devon, had the short canopy (many had the Heron-type taller style). A careful analysis of the canopy part also showed that it would not be a good idea to attempt one of the versions with the clear canopy roof either (so forget those beautiful green/white Devons of the Royal Navy). All these things narrowed the number of versions that I could build from the kit significantly, and after studying many Internet photos, I ceded to the charms of a civilian version, incidentally, one of the three decal versions in the kit. My choice was DH.104 04453, PH-MAD, of Martin's Air Charter (the boxart version), on loan to Fairways, Rotterdam.