The DH.82A Tiger Moth biplane was developed by de Havilland in the mid 1930s. Produced in large quantities (over 8,000 units by the end of World War II), it served extensively as a training and liaison aircraft. The ICM 1/32 scale DH.82A Tiger Moth plastic model kit weighs in with a modest 93 injection-molded parts and no photo-etched metal or resin. The gray moldings are nicely engraved and thin where they need to be. The locator pins on the wing assemblies were spot on and needed no sanding after they were glued. The wings also had the right amount of sag between their ribs without looking overdone. The 20-page instruction booklet guides you through 50 assembly steps with excellent illustrations. The big difference between this version of ICM’s Tiger Moth release and those previous is that this one comes with color marking guides and decals for five countries, including Sweden, Portugal, France, the United States, and Belgium.
You start with the interior of the fuselage halves, which I painted olive drab, and then the seats. (Admission: I added seat belts because the kit doesn’t include any, and the cockpit wouldn’t look right without them.) You’ll need to prep for rigging as you proceed. I used .1mm fishing line for wires and drilled .3mm holes where required. The instructions suggest line lengths, but I cut mine longer so they’d be easier to hold when gluing.
I painted the rudder and horizontal stabilizers, but set them aside instead of attaching them as shown in the instructions. The engine was easy to build, but Part D28 should be left off if you want to show the engine without it. I glued the access doors on the port side in the open position to show more of the cockpit. It doesn’t show this option in the instructions, but I was able to make it work.
The wings have holes that need to be drilled out if you want to build it with the rigging. Be careful to use the guide holes because the wing braces have slots near them. The diagrams in the instructions clearly show in red where rigging should be threaded. On Step 40, you can fasten the ailerons in different positions, but remember to also adjust the control stick.
On steps 48-49 (when I attached the stabilizer and rudder to keep from knocking them off), make sure to fasten the control horns (parts D52 and D56) securely because they will be under a lot of tension when you fasten the rigging to them. The last thing I did to finish the build was to mask with foil and paint the windscreens and attach them. The instructions provide mask templates, but I prefer foil masks.
I chose to use the Vichy French air force markings, which were made difficult by the stripes on the cowl. The decals went on well enough, but started to curl as soon as they were removed from the backing. Move quickly. A bit thick, the decals were nicely opaque.
Overall, I enjoyed building the ICM 1/32 scale DH.82A Tiger Moth plastic model kit. The parts fit great, and the scale is perfect, especially for a training or civilian aircraft, and it would look nice next to a Stearman! I would definitely build another. Kudos to ICM!