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Minion's Finnish-ed pencil


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Having given the stash a good staring at and having had a look through other peoples proposed builds and not wanting to duplicate others choices I have plumped for an aircraft I have liked for a long time, Dornier's classic Do-17Z, known as the "flying pencil" due to it's very thin fuselage. Although the Do-17Z was the version used by the Luftwaffe during the early phases of WWII it was rapidly replaced by more modern and capable aircraft such as the Ju-88 not long after the invasion of the Soviet Union, but for my build I will not be doing a Luftwaffe bird. I have long had an interest in the exploits of the Finnish Air Force during both the "Winter War" of 1939-40 and the "Continuation War" as Finland's involvement in WWII is known and have wanted to build a Finnish aircraft for a while and this GB has given me the ideal opportunity to build one it's aircraft, especially as the Scandinavian GB didn't get voted in.

For my build I will be using ICM's recently released 1/48 kit of the DO-17Z which I will build pretty much OOTB.

Here is a picture of the box lid.

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And the contents of the box, still sealed in the plastic bags.

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As I am not building a Luftwaffe example which is all that comes in the box (apart from a Croat flown one which has mostly Luftwaffe markings) I will be using an aftermarket decal sheet by SBS Models which has markings for 4 aircraft from the Finnish Air Force.

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And never being able to resist a winter camo scheme here is the scheme I have chosen.

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As I have roughly zero information on the DO-17 and it's use in Finland I will be building it as it comes so any useful help will be gratefully received, as will all your comments and criticisms during my build.

Thanks for looking in.

 

Craig.

Edited by modelling minion
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:bounce: Yes yes yes! I don't have own references for a Finnish DN but I have made some notes of the ones I've read. That DN-64 was a specific photo recon plane, thus the camera housing protruding from the belly of the cockpit (see the painting instruction above). It was of type Z-3, Finns originally had 15 planes of types Z-1 (4), Z-2 (2) and Z-3 (9). One was returned to Germany early on (DN-60) and 5 planes survived the whole war, though in part because they were under long time repairs...

PLeLv 46 lost 6 planes in the summer of -44, when the going got tough again... 3 planes were lost in AA fire on a single 6 plane mission 11.6.44, one of them subject to friendly fire.

The DN-57 fought through the whole summer of -44 and survived.

Best regards, V-P

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Love to follow anything you build and excited to watch this one. Winter camo really suits WWII aircraft and I was obsessed with Luftwaffe in Russia I must have built about 9 FW190s in winter scheme in about 2 months before discovering Finnish involvement. Always fancied doing a displayable Finnish project and interested to learn more too. Re the build, you use a lot of ICM models who I'd never heard of till I began BM and watching you. You make it look easy anyway but I'm wondering about moving out of the usual Airfix etc comfort zone and trying an ICM. Anyway, this will be good.

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Wow, don't know what to sat to that Val except thank you and that I hope this build lives up to your expectations.

As for ICM kits, I have built a couple of them starting with one of their Yak-7's years ago and their standards have certainly improved with their recent kits such as the Mig-25 and this Do-17. As you build mostly in 1/72 from what I've seen (and I like what I have seen) then Airfix do a very good D0-17Z and The Works are knocking them out for £10, which is excellent value, and I have a spare Xtradecal set for it which has a Finnish one on it which you are welcome to have.

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Great choice Craig, 

I'm sure I've told you I'm a fan of winter camo too and you'll certainly do it justice.

 Thanks to V-P for providing info for you, wonderful to see how helpful this forum is.

 

Good luck with the build, I just hope you... 'Finnish' in time.......

:coat:

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On 7/29/2017 at 9:25 AM, modelling minion said:

Wow, don't know what to sat to that Val except thank you and that I hope this build lives up to your expectations.

As for ICM kits, I have built a couple of them starting with one of their Yak-7's years ago and their standards have certainly improved with their recent kits such as the Mig-25 and this Do-17. As you build mostly in 1/72 from what I've seen (and I like what I have seen) then Airfix do a very good D0-17Z and The Works are knocking them out for £10, which is excellent value, and I have a spare Xtradecal set for it which has a Finnish one on it which you are welcome to have.

If you think my early efforts are good I'm super encouraged. Il need to check the works out. That's awesome re offer of Finnish markings 😥

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1 hour ago, Valkyrie said:

That's awesome re offer of Finnish markings 😥

No problem mate, that's what we are here for, there have been plenty of members who have helped me out whether by sending me spare decals or parts or by sharing information which I would not otherwise have known such as @vppelt68 has kindly done with me on this build.

Speaking of which here's a bit of an update of what has gone on so far. No astounding leaps and bounds I'm afraid guys, I have been cleaning up the cockpit and fuselage interior parts and have done some basic assembly of some of the bits for the cockpit which has gone smoothly so far and has left the interior of the cockpit sections looking like this;

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As you can see there have been a couple of areas which had injection marks which required a little filler but nothing drastic and I think that when all the cockpit parts are added and the glazing fixed in place it will look adequately busy, there are a few bits more to add to the area yet, one of which is the large radio equipment which looks pretty good out of the box;

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With a coat of paint and some dry brushing and detail painting it should look the part.

I have also removed the fuselage bracing sections which help to make up the bomb bay area which are nicely detailed as you can see below;

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I am unsure as whether or not to have the bomb bay doors open or not as nobody will see it unless they pick the model up and look underneath it, which might be the last thing they ever do. It will also speed up the build and might even lead to another entry in the GB!

Since taking these pics I have given the whole interior a coat of RLM02 and tomorrow I will make a start on the radio area and instrument panels after giving them a coat of RLM66.

Thats it for today, thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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  • 2 weeks later...

And finally some progress to report!

I have been slowly plugging away at the cockpit and other interior parts of the Do-17 and I have to say i am quite impressed with how the cockpit looks OOTB but it does need a few additions  (for me anyway) as I think a fair amount will be visible through the cockpit and nose glazing, to this end I have added some wiring on the fuselage sides, not a huge amount but a little bit makes a good difference. Here are a couple of pictures of the fuselage sides with some of the kit details added and some basic wiring, first the port side;

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And then the stbd side.

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And some pictures of the kit seats (which come with very nice webbing detail) which have had some belts added from an Eduard set.

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And a couple of pics the built up pilot seat area, again with added belts and a bit of wire.

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And the radio equipment after some paint and some dry brushing.

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And a pic of the kits instrument panel which has had the kits decals for the instruments applied and I am very happy with how they look.

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And the port side mostly built up, I think it looks busy enough.

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And the stbd side.

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And finally I have added a bit of detail to the landing light housing in the leading edge of the port wing which is just a blank hole in the kit, I will add the light later from some clear sprue.

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Well that's it for today, next task will be to add some wiring to the back of the instrument panel as a lot of it will be visible when the fuselage halves are joined together.

Thank for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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