+++ FINISHED! +++ Dornier Do 24T, Luftwaffe Seenotgruppe 3, 1942 (Italeri 1/72)

[The Spadgent]

No need to apologise Jamie. Your English is 100 times better than my Portuguese.

All the best kid.

 

Jonhhy. 

[jrlx]

Hi all,

 

I spent my modelling time in September trying to finish my MiG-29 in time for the MiG-29 STGB. As usual, I didn't make it. I'm still working on it but this last week I finally started my entry to this GB.

 

So, I started by removing the main parts off the sprues. Here are the fuselage halves and the lateral floaters:

IAMG5023

 

The parts were joined together with tape to check fit. Fit seems to be good and the panel lines are properly aligned:

IMAG5024

 

Next off the sprues were the wing parts and tail parts. The wing is made up of six parts: two outboard sections (top and bottom parts) and a centre section (also top and bottom):

IMAG5025

 

It seems, from the instructions, that the top outboard parts should be glued to the top centre section first, and with some support on the tips in order for the top surface of the wing to be flat. Then, the outboard bottom parts of the wings should be glued and the bottom centre part should be glued last. There are location pins for the outboard top and bottom parts but no location pins for the centre parts. There are also location indents on the mating surfaces of the outboard and centre parts to aid in the alignment of the wing. The wing span will be almost 40 cm.

 

The tail parts fit perfectly. In the picture they're just holding together without glue or tape. Here we can also see the positionable elevators:

IMAG5026

 

The wing and tail parts were cleaned of moulding lines and misalignments of moulding halves (This seems to be a "feature" of this kit).

 

Next, the cockpit base and bulkhead parts were cut off the sprues, cleaned and dry fit. The following pictures show the fit is perfect and the parts are just holding together without any glue or tape. The interior detail is very good as well:

IMAG5027

 

IMAG5028

 

IMAG5029

 

These interior parts will be painted separately for easier painting:

IMAG5030

 

The bulkheads and cockpit base will also be painted separately but first I glued in place all smaller parts that wouldn't make painting difficult. This small part above the door on the bulkhead behind the pilots:

IMAG5031

 

and the control columns and side levers by the pilots' seats:

IMAG5032

 

I prefer to cut off the sprues and clean as many parts as possible in order to paint everything later. So, with all cockpit parts taken care of, I moved to the propellers and engine parts.

 

There was some flash around the edges of the propellers, moulding lines on the propeller blades and moulding misalignments on the hubs. So I spent some time cleaning all this. In the picture the propeller on the right is already cleaned, while the one on the left is just cut off the sprue:

IMAG5034

 

After cleaning, the propellers were glued to the tips of toothpicks, for later painting.

IMAG5035

 

Next, the engine faces were cut off the sprues. As they'll be enclosed in the cowlings, the moulding misalignments won't be seen, so they were only cleaned of the remainings of the sprue gates:

IMAG5036

 

and also glued to toothpicks for later painting:

IMAG5037

 

The engine cowling parts must be painted black inside. I thought it would be easier to paint their interior while still in the sprues. To avoid spraying other parts, I sawed the lot off the rest of the sprue:

IMAG5038

 

There's really no point in cleaning the ejector marks inside, as they'll be blocked by the engine faces:

IMAG5039

 

Then, I took care of the the guns. There are two MG 15 and a MG 151 (the bigger one). They're not too bad for plastic, after cleaning all the moulding lines. In the picture the MG 15 on the bottom is still to be cleaned:

IMAG5040

 

To improve them a little, I drilled holes on the tips. This was done slowly, using a succession of increasing drill diameters: 0.3 mm, 0.4 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm (this one just for the MG 15s). Here's the result:

IMAG5042

 

The magazines and the gun supports, which will be later glued to the insides of the turrets, were finally glued to the guns:

IMAG5043

 

To finish with the parts that could be painted before closing the fuselage, I took care of the engine exhausts. There are six of these. I cleaned most of the moulding lines with the parts still in the sprues, as it would be very difficult to do it holding them between the fingers. I marked the initial position for drilling holes on the exhausts using the tip of a nº 11 blade:

IMAG5044

 

Then, I used a succession of drill sizes to slowly open the exhausts: 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm and 0.9 mm. The process was done in succession for each pair of parts and then each pair was cut off the sprue to make access to the next pair easier:

IMAG5045

 

Here's the end result:

IMAG5046

 

Finally, here are all the parts that will be painted before closing the fuselage, ready for priming:

IMAG5047

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[pheonix]

That is a good start Jamie. Painting shoukd be a relatively rapid process except where you have to use different colours for specific details. Are you intending to add any extra detail or are you going to build this OOB? The interior details look good even as they are.

 

P

[jrlx]

Thanks, pheonix! Yes, I'll build it OOB, no additions whatsoever. The interior detail is quite good and, since the canopy is closed, not much will be seen anyway.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[bbudde]

Hello, looking great so far. I guess the Italeri concept with upgrading their old kits with new cockpits etc. for a reasonable price is  a very good way. They were far more accurate than Revell, Airfix in the 70th and fit well. The best choice then for any german WW2 planes in comparison  to others and italian ones either of course. And Italeri produced the best clear parts imho. So I think you have to paint the cockpit tidy. Cheers

Edited October 9, 2017 by bbudde

[jrlx]

1 hour ago, bbudde said:

Hello, looking great so far. I guess the Italeri concept with upgrading their old kits with new cockpits etc. for a reasonable price is  a very good way. They were far more accurate than Revell, Airfix in the 70th and fit well. The best choice then for any german WW2 planes in comparison  to others and italian ones either of course. And Italeri produced the best clear parts imho. So I think you have to paint the cockpit tidy. Cheers

Thanks! Yes, the kit looks really good. The only general problem is the misalignment of the moulding halves, which produces misaligned parts that must be thoroughly cleaned (sometimes is more carving than cleaning).

 

The cockpit is very well detailed. I'll paint it properly and I'm thinking about applying pre-shading, instead of post-shading, as I usually do.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[SeaPlane]

Jaime

Some lovely work and detail here.  This looks to be so much better than the one I built so long ago and is much better than the one I'm going to build idc as the MS version.  Perhaps I better swap out my old Italeri version for this new one; the cockpit pieces on the version I have are very few and with limited detail.

 

Looking forward to the next reports

 

Regards

Andrew

[Fatboydim]

Hi Jaime, good start. Lots of nice detail in your build. Joe. 

[amblypygid]

Ah, Jaime, you're very kind to provide such helpful tips 

 

I'm curious, though: how do you plan to deal with the turrets? I've only really looked at the nose turret, but I can't see a way of sawing off the bottom "lip" safely so that I can put it in after painting the model.

[jrlx]

Andrew, Joe, Chris,

 

thank you for the kind words and interest! Much appreciated

 

1 hour ago, amblypygid said:

I'm curious, though: how do you plan to deal with the turrets? I've only really looked at the nose turret, but I can't see a way of sawing off the bottom "lip" safely so that I can put it in after painting the model.

I'm planning to install the turrets when closing the fuselage. They'll be masked to avoid painting the clear panes and I'll have to mask the guns and gun slits as well but should be simpler than surgery acts to insert the turrets in the end, I guess.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

[The Spadgent]

Nice one Jamie. The detail looks great in this kit. The pit is lovely. 40cm wingspan! she's a beast.  You seem to be off to a good start. Keep it up.

 

Johnny

[jrlx]

Thanks, Johnny! Very kind!

 

3 minutes ago, The Spadgent said:

40cm wingspan! she's a beast.

It seems it won't be much smaller than a B-17 at the same scale!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[CedB]

Great start Jaime with your usual attention to detail and precision drilling.

Those internals look good too, nice crisp detail.

Looking forward to the next update

[jrlx]

Thank you very much Ced, very kind, as always!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[TheBaron]

That kit's got some decent mouldings there Jaime and you're making great headway with it sir.

Tony

[jrlx]

Thanks for the kind words and interest, Tony! Much appreciated!

 

I've been painting all the parts the appear in the last picture I've posted above. I still have to update the thread but been very limited of time. I either work on the kit or update the thread

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[Dazey]

On 9/3/2017 at 6:10 PM, amblypygid said:

What Ced said, Jaime. I've never tried using Vallejo's primer, but I use VMA with Stynylrez, or sometimes without primer, and have not had a problem with lifting paint.

Dear Jaime et al.,

 

Sorry I'm late to this, but FWIW, I've been happy with Vallejo primer. It seems to really help if it's left to cure for some time (days–a week). That seems to really help adhesion.

 

Jaime, I think this is a really interesting choice. I think that in profile the Dornier resembles the Kawanishi Mavis, which I consider quite attractive (probably not a chance resemblance). I'm afraid I can't offer anything sensible on the RLM dilemma. 

 

Regards,

David

[jrlx]

4 hours ago, Dazey said:

Sorry I'm late to this, but FWIW, I've been happy with Vallejo primer. It seems to really help if it's left to cure for some time (days–a week). That seems to really help adhesion.

 

Jaime, I think this is a really interesting choice. I think that in profile the Dornier resembles the Kawanishi Mavis, which I consider quite attractive (probably not a chance resemblance). I'm afraid I can't offer anything sensible on the RLM dilemma. 

Thanks for interest and comments, David. I also think this Dornier has beautiful lines. You're right about the Kawanishi: the resemblance is striking.

 

REgarding paints, I eventually bought a bottle of Tamiya XF-27, so I'll use XF-26 and XF-27 for RLM 72 and RLM 73. The tonal relation seems to work better than using Gunze and Tamiya as discussed earlier.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I did a bit of work last week and week-end, so I should really show some progress here, before I have too many pictures to deal with.

 

In the last post on work done I had several parts ready for painting. I started by painting the metallic colours, all of which were from Alclad range of paints.

 

First, I used ALC-106 White Aluminium for the rudder pedals in the cockpit:

IMAG5052

 

and for the star-shaped thingies that cover the engines:

IMAG5053

 

The engine radiator grills were painted ALC-112 Steel:

IMAG5054

 

The engine faces were painted ALC-121 Burnt Iron:

IMAG5055

 

The guns were painted ALC-120 Gun Metal:

IMAG5056

 

and the exhausts were painted ALC-123 Exhaust Manifold (which looks a bit brownish, unlike in the picture due to lighting):

IMAG5057

 

A few days later, in the week-end, I moved to painting the other colours. I decided to pre-shade the cockpit parts, so I chose to start with the darker colours. First, I painted the RLM70 bits.

 

The seats in the radio operator compartment:

IMAG5058

 

This bit on one of the inner walls of the cockpit:

IMAG5059

 

The propellers:

IMAG5060

 

and some other cockpit bits and the pilots' seats:

IMAG5061

 

Then, prior to pre-shading, I masked the previously painted areas, which was really a lot of work:

IMAG5062

 

IMAG5063

 

Next, I painted the matt black parts.

 

The interior of the engine nacelles:

IMAG5064

 

The control  column handles and PE instrument panel:

IMAG5056

 

Then pre-shaded the cockpit parts and also painted the matt black bits on these parts:

IMAG5065

 

IMAG5067

 

IMAG5068

 

IMAG5069

 

IMAG5070

 

To be continued.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

[jrlx]

To finish with, I moved to the lighter interior colours.

 

First, I painted the PE seat belts with Tamiya XF-57 Buff:

IMAG5072

 

Next, I masked the previously painted black bits. Again, a lot of lengthy and tedious work:

IMAG5073

 

IMAG5074

 

IMAG5075

 

After all this, I painted all parts with RLM02. In the end the pre-shading is a bit too subtle, as I was so afraid to end up with too stark an effect that I applied too much RLM70. The results show a bit better in photos taken under day light but are very subtle nonetheless:

IMAG5081

 

IMAG5082

 

IMAG5083

 

IMAG5084

 

IMAG5085

 

There's still a bit of tidying up to do in places and a bit of detail painting to do.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

[corsaircorp]

Hello Jaime,

Hey, you're going strong !!

Very nice job and fast ! This time you will finish before January !!

Sure !

congratulations.

Sincerely

Corsaircorp

[Brandy]

The kit detail looks pretty good on this one, certainly a lot better than a certain Do18.....

Coming on nicely!

 

Ian

[jrlx]

CC, Ian, thanks for the kind words! I certainly hope to finish before January. Fingers crossed

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[CedB]

Looking very good there Jaime - I do admire your attention to detail and your patience masking up all that stuff; I still use a hairy brush on the internals because I'm too lazy to mask, but looking at your results I may try harder!

Very nice, neat work

[jrlx]

37 minutes ago, CedB said:

I still use a hairy brush on the internals because I'm too lazy to mask, but looking at your results I may try harder!

 

You're very kind as always, Ced. If I had to repeat all that work, I'd probably brush paint the interior details... I'm not so sure it would make such a big difference, especially if thin layers of ink were applied.