Arizona DeHavilland Tiger Moth, Assembly Notes And Historical Documentation

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When is an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) not an ARF? Maybe when it is an
‘ARF (Almost Ready to FINISH)! Arizona Models have filled a niche in the
hobby in the area of WWI (and earlier). They have also managed to explore
the area of various scale planes that will not all look like. The ‘kits’ are
complete in that all the building is done, hardware supplied, and the airframe
is covered – but that is where it stops.
The modeler has a range of option(s) from simply throwing on some paint,
install equipment and be done with it – OR – using the basic scale airframe
and detailing the model to accurately replicate the full-scale version.
First Impressions
The Tiger Moth arrived undamaged and covered in a white (unpainted) cloth
fabric covering. The covering was expertly attached and very few bubbles
appeared during the assembly/flying period. The horizontal and vertical
stabilizers were constructed from open frame balsawood and can be
mounted permanently or removable.
Four wing panels, fuselage and a nice fiberglass cowling rounded out the
airframe. Also included in the kit were a couple of packages of hardware
(struts, landing gear, etc), wheels and a package consisting of two scale
cockpits.
It was at this point the plane cried out in a loud and clear voice, “Detail ME”,
so with that in mind, I did some research and tried to incorporate as many
features from the full-scale on my model.
Assembly:
The first activity was installing the aileron servos in the bottom wing. After the
hinges were glued in place, a standard Airtronics servo was installed on the
plastic aileron hatches. The ailerons required a 12” extension to reach the
wing root area.
Then progress shifted to the top wing’s center section. This has to be
installed correctly or the top and bottom wings will not align correctly. The
supplied hardware made this process simple.
1/4 ARF Setup By Jerry Festa