De Havilland DH.82a (new info on the DH82 at Singapore added 18/01/2026)

 De Havilland DH.82a 

I got this Airfix model (A68223) as a Christmas present off Debbie in 2024, it was one of the cheap gift sets (including paints and a awful brush) sold by Lidl in the UK near Christmas.

Now I knew the DH.82 had been used by both sides during the SCW and also during the dark days following Dunkirk, with invasion a possibility, Britain had experimented with arming them with bomb racks, etc. 

David Reasoner that stalwart of our hobby has informed me over on The Wargamer`s Forum,  that the Malayan Volunteer Air Force used DH82s on Singapore! He went on the say that some of the final sorties flown against the Japanese before the islands fall were by MVAF DH82s operating in various roles - artillery spotting, army cooperation and light ground attack!

David added the following info (18/01/2026): 

"The final MVAF Tiger Moth sorties at Singapore on 10 February 1942 by Flt. Lt. Dane and Sgt, Nathan are covered briefly on pages 378-379 of Bloody Shambles, Vol.1 by Christopher Shores and Brian Cull with Yasuho Izawa. They attacked the Japanese front lines with 20-pound fragmentation bombs. The two Tiger Moths both survived the sortie to be flown out to Pakan Baroe, Sumatra, the following morning, along with an MVAF Avro Cadet. I have also seen the date for this final mission given as 9 February."

With this in mind I asked Debbie to pick one up and added it to my  (I admit) rather small stash of unmade kits. Anyway as I said in my last post I had decided to start 2026 by building the small batch of aircraft for the SCW which I had collected over the last year or so.

DH.82a in Spanish service  

Used by both sides during the civil war, mainly as a trainer but also as a liaison and as a light observation aircraft. Some came from various military stocks other taken from civilian aero clubs; colour schemes varied depending on previous use and employment. I`ve found no evidence of any conversion attempts to arm the DH.82a in a fashion like the British tried in 1940.

This DH.82 is on display at the Museo del Aire at Cuatro Vientos

It is painted up and marked on the port side as Republican EP.003 and on the starboard side as a Nationalist aircraft 30/103

These photos have been borrowed off the internet I do not own them, if the owner wants me to take them down, please ask.

Now I don`t mind building non-combat elements for my tabletops, but a trainer - I don`t think so.

So I did a bit of out-of-the-box thinking and created an observation plane. 

I swapped out the second pilot and replaced him with a cameraman from Irregular Miniatures, considering that an observation plane may exposed to danger I added a ring mounted rear Vickers gun and then mounted another Vickers facing forward on the top wing!

I painted her in a plain grey scheme with white wing tips and tail following the colours used on a display aircraft which takes part in reinactment events in Spain. I then scraped together some decals (including the Falange badge) and added/altered other markings by hand

Just a bit of fun really, but something for the FARE (Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española) to hunt down 😁