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

[TheBaron]

Two great picture updates there Jaime: the addition of those colours is really making those interior regions sparkle! 

[jrlx]

Thanks, Tony, that's very kind!

[bbudde]

Looks great so far; (Italeri did a good job on the new interior) with a careful amount of work on that of course! Cheers

[jrlx]

6 hours ago, bbudde said:

Looks great so far; (Italeri did a good job on the new interior) with a careful amount of work on that of course! Cheers

Thanks! I still have some tidying up to do and a wash to apply before calling the interior done.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[The Spadgent]

It's a shame that the pre shade was lost as it looked great. Regardless, what you have looks wonderful, you are deft with an airbrush sir. Bravo.

 

Johnny

[jrlx]

Thanks very much, Johnny, much appreciated! Next time I'll use black primer. At least it saves the pre-shading step Anyway, the problem was my fear of ending up with an overdone effect.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[Fatboydim]

Hi Jaime, excellent detail. Keep up the good work. 

[jrlx]

Thanks, Joe, very kind!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[pbaudru]

Great job !

[jrlx]

Thanks, Pierre! Much appreciated!

[jrlx]

Dear all,

 

First, I was away from this build for more than a month due to real life obligations. Then, I managed to get back to it by the end of November. However, I still didn't have the time to update the thread. Now that I'm away from the bench for Season's Holidays for a week, I'll finally have the time to show what I've achieved.

 

In my last update I had applied all the basic colours to the cockpit parts (also to the propellers, engine parts and guns). So, I resumed work by tidying up a few spots in the paint job of the cockpit parts, followed by a series of weathering steps.

 

My first weathering step was dry-brushing the raised detail and edges of the cockpit parts with a lighter tone of each of the colours. This was done for the base colour RLM02, mixing a few drops of white to make it lighter. The black parts were dry-brushed with RLM66 (a very dark grey). The seats' cushions, which are RLM70, were also dry-brushed by mixing RLM70 with a few drops of white.

 

Next, I did some metallic chipping of the cockpit parts using a silver pencil. I also used the silver pencil to chip the leading edges of the propeller blades. This produced very satisfying results.

 

The cockpit parts were, then, coated with Aqua Gloss, to seal the previous weathering steps, in preparation for a wash. After drying, I applied a dark brown wash:

IMAG5121

 

After letting the wash dry, all cockpit parts were flat coated with Alclad Flat Kote. The following pictures show the end result for the cockpit parts.

 

The cockpit base:

IMAG5126

 

IMAG5127

 

The PE instrument panel with some metallic chipping and Aqua Gloss on the instrument faces. It's a pity that Italleri didn't provide a decal for the instruments:

IMAG5128

 

The side panels to the pilot and co-pilot seats:

IMAG5129

 

The pilot and co-pilot seats:

IMAG5130

 

The front and back of the bulkhead parts:

IMAG5131

 

IMAG5132

 

Parts for the radio operator position and the door between the cockpit and radio operator compartments:

IMAG5133

 

The PE seat belts were also finished with a wash and flat coat:

IMAG5124

 

The engines were treated with silver, steel and black metal dry-brush, in this sequence, to highlight the cylinder detail, and a final oil grime coat:

IMAG5125

 

Here is the end result for the propellers, already flat coated:

IMAG5134

 

To be continued in the next post.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

[jrlx]

Continuing with the update of the thread.

 

With all the cockpit parts weathered, I started assembling the cockpit. First, I applied the PE seatbelts to the seats:

IMAG5136

 

The seats and other parts were applied to the cockpit base:

IMAG5137

 

IMAG5138

 

This was followed by the bulkheads between the cockpit and radio compartment and at the end of this compartment:

IMAG5139

 

The PE instrument panel was glued in place:

IMAG5140

 

Finally, this front bulkhead with the instrument panel and the side panels were glued to the front and sides of the cockpit assembly.

 

The following series of pictures show the end result:

IMAG5141

 

IMAG5142

 

IMAG5144

 

IMAG5145

 

IMAG5146

 

IMAG5147

 

IMAG5148

 

To be continued.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

[jrlx]

Continuing...

 

It was time to take care of the transparent parts. Here are the tools used to remove them from the sprue and clean the attachment points. To avoid damage I start by using a micro-saw, followed by the blades to remove excess sprue and the sanding sticks to finish off:

IMAG5122

 

Here they are, off the sprue:

IMAG5123

 

These parts were, then, washed in warm water and dishwasher detergent and left to dry for a day. Next, they were given a bath of Aqua Gloss, to improve transparency and brilliance. Unfortunately, the improvement isn't great, as the parts have a bit of distortion.

 

According to the instructions, the gun turrets should be inserted between the fuselage halves when closing the fuselage. I intended to do this, which implied installing the guns in the turrets and a complicated masking job later, with a high probability of damaging the guns while handling the model during subsequent building, painting and weathering stages. So, I thought better and decided to adopt Chris' (@amblypygid) approach in his Aeronavale Dornier build: I cut the base ring from the front and mid turrets (using a micro-saw), so these turrets can be installed in the end of the build:

IMAG5149

 

The frames of the turrets will be hand painted, since they are fairly well demarcated as raised lines. But the canopy was masked for airbrushing:

IMAG5150

 

The base rings and turrets were mounted on toothpicks for easier handling during painting. The rings will be also airbrushed:

IMAG5151

 

Finally, the fuselage windows were glued in place. For this I used Revell 's Contacta glue for transparencies and let it cure for one day. Then, applied CA around the interior edges of the windows to ensure a strong bond to the fuselage and avoid any of them to get pushed and lost into the fuselage while handling the model. I also repaired some damages to the Aqua Gloss coat but this was a bit useless since the windows are thick and full  of distortion:

IMAG5152

 

To be continued.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

[pheonix]

Wow Jamie, that cockpit interior looks the business: superb finish there. The engines and propellors also look very good - I especially like the chipping which is sufficiently restrained to look very convincing. I di hope that you can get more done before the deadline - I would really like to see one of your models in the gallery.

 

P

[CedB]

Your usual superb work and a finely detailed cockpit Jaime - nice work!

[jrlx]

2 hours ago, pheonix said:

Wow Jamie, that cockpit interior looks the business: superb finish there. The engines and propellors also look very good - I especially like the chipping which is sufficiently restrained to look very convincing. I di hope that you can get more done before the deadline - I would really like to see one of your models in the gallery.

 

P

Thank you very much pheonix! This was my first attempt at chipping with a silver pencil and I also think it produces good results, at least for small areas, being a quicker and easier method than using a metallic paint layer, chipping fluid and scrapping the base colour. I'd also like to finish this one in time but I'll only be able to resume work after Christmas.

 

2 hours ago, CedB said:

Your usual superb work and a finely detailed cockpit Jaime - nice work!

Thank you very much, Ced! Very kind and much appreciated!

 

I still need one or two more posts to get the thread up to date.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[TheBaron]

Quite seriously good looking work on both the interior and the glassworks Jaime. I agree with Phoenix about the restraint of your wear & tear effects - really nice results!

Tony

[jrlx]

32 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Quite seriously good looking work on both the interior and the glassworks Jaime. I agree with Phoenix about the restraint of your wear & tear effects - really nice results!

Tony

Thank you very much, Tony! Much appreciated!

 

I'm afraid the transparencies are not the best to show the interior. However, I know it's there and can always go back to the pictures

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[jrlx]

Continuing with the thread updating.

 

The next phase was the closing of the fuselage. First, I glued the cockpit sub-assembly to the inside of the starboard fuselage half:

IMAG5154

 

Next, I glued the ring bases of the gun turrets in place:

IMAG5155

 

Finally, the fuselage halves were glued together by slowly applying Tamiya's Extra Thin glue in small stretches along the joins. The fit is rather good but despite this and all my efforts to the contrary, I managed to produce a slight vertical misalignment between the fuselage halves, resulting in a slight step along the joins. Here we can see the fuselage halves clamped together while the glue cured overnight:

IMAG5156

 

The next day I glued the canopy in place. The fit on the sides and top is rather good:

IMAG5157

 

But there are some gaps to fill in, due to the slight misalignment of the fuselage halves:

IMAG5160

 

Another problem I found is that the canopy is slightly wider than the fuselage, as can be seen here:

IMAG5158

 

If we look at pictures of the real machine, we see that the front lateral window could slide back over the window section with the V frame, which should be flush with the fuselage:

 

It seems that Italeri didn't bother moulding the rear section of the canopy (the section of the windows with the V frame) flush to the fuselage, while keeping the front lateral window slightly proud and aligned with the rails on the fuselage. Or perhaps it would be too difficult to mould the canopy piece this way.

 

Anyway, there wasn't much that could be done without a complicated surgical operation and risking damaging the canopy part, so I decided to live with this state of affairs. I just filled in the gaps between the canopy and fuselage. For that I used Squadron's White Putty diluted with enamel thinner and mixed with a few drops of RLM02, to blend in with the cockpit interior colour. This was applied to the gaps with a number 0 brush. Here are the results, which were left to dry and will be tidied up when I return to the bench after Christmas:

IMAG5163

 

IMAG5164

 

IMAG5165

 

To be continued.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

[jrlx]

There were still some big parts to be glued together.

 

First, the lateral winglets that act as floaters (what's really their name?):

IMAG5161

 

The tail plane and double fins with rudders:

IMAG5162

 

The fit of the above parts was so good that I just applied TET along the joins and applied some clamping with clothes pegs and let the parts dry.

 

There were some joins to improve on the tail sub-assemly, nonetheless. I used Perfect Plastic Putty here:

IMAG5166

 

The following big challenge was gluing the wing,  which is made up of three sections, each made up of a top and a bottom part. Initially I thought the best approach would be to glue the top parts together, to ensure aperfect alignment of the top parts, and then glue the bottom parts. However, test fits led me to conclude that it would be safer to glue the part of each section together and then glue the three sections, as the fit between these was good.

 

So, here are the three sections clamped while the glue cured. I used medium thick Tamiya glue:

IMAG5167

 

The three sections were glued together and placed to rest over a LEGO gig, which would ensure a symmetrical dihedral of the outboard sections:

IMAG5168

 

IMAG5170

 

To further ensure the proper settling of the wing to the jig, weights in the form of filled paint jars were applied over the joins of the centre and outboard sections of the wing:

IMAG5171

 

This was left to cure overnight and the final result was very satisfying.

 

There were gaps along the joins of the wing sections which were filled in with PPP. Here are the results after cleaning:

IMAG5172

 

IMAG5173

 

This is as far as I managed to go before going away on Christmas holidays. The thread is now up to date.

 

I still need to finish cleaning the wing joins along the leading and trailing edges, the tail sub-assemblies and the fuselage joins. Then, the tail and wing-lets will be glued to the fuselage and the painting phase will be initiated. I'll paint the wing and fuselage separately and glue them together in the end.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

Nice tidy work as usual Jaime - good job

5 hours ago, jrlx said:

the lateral winglets that act as floaters (what's really their name?)

I know the answer is somewhere in The Baron's thread... sponsons?

[pheonix]

That is really developing into a very fine model. The wings look spot on to me - well done with that. (I approve of the jig BTW). I think that you would be asking rather a lot of a kit manufacturer to procuce a canopy which represents the sliding window - that is a very thin section and would be difficult to make the mould for. In any event the cockpit canopy looks very good and apart from the odd anorak I doubt whether anyone would know!

 

P

[jrlx]

Ced, pheonix,

 

Thanks for the interest and kind words!

 

Ced, thanks for pointing out the correct name of the sponsons. I knew I've read it somewhere but couldn't recall where exactly.

 

This thread is again on hold till after Christmas, as I'm in Porto for the season's festivities with my folks. That will leave me with less than two weeks to finish the model in time. Let's see if I manage to do it.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[The Spadgent]

Great work Jamie, the office looks rather splendid indeed. Nice BIG wings. Looks like you have your work cut out next year. Merry Chrimble sir. 

 

Johnny

[jrlx]

Thank you for the kind words, Johnny, much appreciated!

 

I wish you a Merry Christmas too!

 

Jaime