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


jrlx

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A thing to keep in mind with the Italeri kit is that the tail is slightly too narrow. The kit's rear turret is slightly too small. Maybe this is what is causing some of the confusion. With the real aircraft, the tail turret actually has the same width (circumference) as the one in the front. The first couple of Dutch Dornier 24Ks were fitted with 3 identical turrets (the front turret type). Later aircraft were fitted with the larger, rounder dome type with the cannon in the middle, but all retained the identical front and rear turrets. German Dornier 24Ts were fitted with a different rear turret, but its width should be the same as the front turret. But if you try to fit the kit front turret in the tail, you'll notice that the kit's tail is slightly too narrow.

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1 hour ago, elger said:

A thing to keep in mind with the Italeri kit is that the tail is slightly too narrow. The kit's rear turret is slightly too small. Maybe this is what is causing some of the confusion. With the real aircraft, the tail turret actually has the same width (circumference) as the one in the front. The first couple of Dutch Dornier 24Ks were fitted with 3 identical turrets (the front turret type). Later aircraft were fitted with the larger, rounder dome type with the cannon in the middle, but all retained the identical front and rear turrets. German Dornier 24Ts were fitted with a different rear turret, but its width should be the same as the front turret. But if you try to fit the kit front turret in the tail, you'll notice that the kit's tail is slightly too narrow.

Thanks for the info! The measurements I took from the picture and from the tail turret piece seem to indicate that the tail turret piece proportions are correct (height vs diameter), so it was only a question of lacking the appropriate detail around the lower part, as the engraved frames extend to the bottom of the piece. However, as you say, the tail turret piece is smaller than the front turret.

1 hour ago, CedB said:

Nice masking Jaime, good job! :)

 

1 hour ago, John D.C. Masters said:

Looking really fine there...especially the cleats!  Little teeny cleats...very cool.

Ced, John, thanks!

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This last weekend I finally managed to finish cleaning alll the small parts that go on the the wings (flap and aileron actuators, balance masses, etc) and the wing struts. It was a lengthy process, since there was a lot of moulding lines. The following picture shows all parts ready for priming:

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IMAG5235

 

I also assembled the display base, made up of translucent plastic:

y4mX5eo4WHNwd0VSTfJp-e7QdC4St35m4pFZtdPV

IMAG5236

 

The fuselage sits perfectly on the base. I may end up painting it.

 

My problem now is deciding if I should glue the wing struts, wing and fuselage together before or after painting. My initial idea was to paint these parts separately and glue them together after painting. But now I'm worrying about damaging the painting if I glue things together in the end. On the other hand, if I glue first, painting and masking will be more complicated. Anyhow, I'll do a dry fit before further progress, to check if the alignment of the wing, struts and fuselage presents any complications.

 

All suggestions are very welcome.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

 

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Crikey Jaime that's a LOT of sticks! :)

I would paint the parts separately and use the Joe method of a tiny drop of glue in the hole when assembling. I've not tried this by the way but it seems to work well for him.

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Jaime, you might consider permanently attaching the wing to the centreline supports before painting. They're pretty sturdy, and the side/angled struts can be temporarily fixed to get the correct alignment. Then remove the side struts as it's not too hard to work with them gone.

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3 hours ago, CedB said:

Crikey Jaime that's a LOT of sticks! :)

I would paint the parts separately and use the Joe method of a tiny drop of glue in the hole when assembling. I've not tried this by the way but it seems to work well for him.

Ced, I had to clean about 40 parts, most of them tiny. These I cleaned as much as possible while in the sprues.

 

I'm more inclined to painting things separately but there are no holes for the lateral struts on the wings or for the join between the V-shaped central struts and the fuselage. I think I'll use araldite to get a really strong bond and have some more time to adjust things.

 

2 hours ago, amblypygid said:

Jaime, you might consider permanently attaching the wing to the centreline supports before painting. They're pretty sturdy, and the side/angled struts can be temporarily fixed to get the correct alignment. Then remove the side struts as it's not too hard to work with them gone.

 

Chris, as said above I'm more inclined to separate painting and one of the reasons is the additional complicated masking needed if I assembled the wings and fuselage together prior to painting. My build is camouflaged in RLM 73/72/65 which implies complicated masking per se.

 

I'll test fit and then decide. Anyhow, I still need to buy slow curing araldite.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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9 hours ago, jrlx said:

My initial idea was to paint these parts separately and glue them together after painting.

I painted the underside of my wing back on the Dornier before sticking it on and adding the struts Jaime, and didn't find the subsequent painting sequence particularly onerous -but of course yours is a bigger beast to contend with.

 

I definitely would recommend 24hr epoxy for added bond strength however..

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6 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I painted the underside of my wing back on the Dornier before sticking it on and adding the struts Jaime, and didn't find the subsequent painting sequence particularly onerous -but of course yours is a bigger beast to contend with.

 

I definitely would recommend 24hr epoxy for added bond strength however..

Thanks for the inputs, Tony! I've been reading your thread of the Do-18 build in search of inspiration :)

 

I'll definitely use Araldite.

 

By the way: in your build did you paint the upper face of the wing and horizontal stabilizer struts with the top camouflage colour? Or did you paint all the struts only in RLM65?

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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8 hours ago, jrlx said:

in your build did you paint the upper face of the wing and horizontal stabilizer struts with the top camouflage colour?

Tops of struts had 72/73 on mine Jaime, this seemed to be fairly consistent but from experience it was always possible for variations to appear in different units.

 

This '24 seems to have a clear 65 to 72/73 demarcation line visible on its ones for example:

Do-24_p172.jpg

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56 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Tops of struts had 72/73 on mine Jaime, this seemed to be fairly consistent but from experience it was always possible for variations to appear in different units.

 

This '24 seems to have a clear 65 to 72/73 demarcation line visible on its ones for example:

Thanks for that, Tony! I've seen similar pictures but wasn't sure the top darkened faces of struts were camouflage or shadows. It's always good to check the experience of fellow modellers :)

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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1 hour ago, jrlx said:

Thanks for that, Tony! I've seen similar pictures but wasn't sure the top darkened faces of struts were camouflage or shadows.

It's not always easy to tell in that shadowed region beneath the wings is it Jaime? I too found that needed careful study.

Note that on the underside of the struts in the earlier shot that the RLM65 doesn't go all the way down due to darker RLM 72/72 around the fairings where the strut meets the sponson. I nearly missed that on mine....

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Sorry to have been AWOL lately but I have had to do a lot of traveling and not had time to keep up with things.....

 

Pleased to see that you are continuing with this one - there is a lot more done since I last looked in. The finer details look very good - in spite of some of the problems that you have had on the way. Looking forward to seeing some paint going on soon.

 

P

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1 hour ago, pheonix said:

Sorry to have been AWOL lately but I have had to do a lot of traveling and not had time to keep up with things.....

 

Pleased to see that you are continuing with this one - there is a lot more done since I last looked in. The finer details look very good - in spite of some of the problems that you have had on the way. Looking forward to seeing some paint going on soon.

 

P

Thank you very much, pheonix! It a pleasure to have you back!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

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Wow! Really great and steady work Jamie. Just had a lovely catch up. I painted the Cat in parts and glued afterwards. It’s a good idea to dry fit first but there were no problems and it solves the under wing and nook and cranny issues. :lol: looking forward to mate of this beast.

 

Johnny.

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On 2/7/2018 at 23:23, limeypilot said:

Coming along very nicely Jaime, good to see you have a plentiful supply of little sticks!

 

Ian

Thanks, Ian! I'm now using a second box of toothpicks :)

 

3 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Wow! Really great and steady work Jamie. Just had a lovely catch up. I painted the Cat in parts and glued afterwards. It’s a good idea to dry fit first but there were no problems and it solves the under wing and nook and cranny issues. :lol: looking forward to mate of this beast.

 

Johnny.

Thanks, Johnny! I'm most inclined to painting the sub-assemblies separately and it's good to know your experience with the black Cat. Unfortunately this week's been extremely busy in the office and I've had no energy at night to even try and test fit the parts. I also still have to buy slow drying Araldite. Hopefully this coming weekend, which will be a long one for me, due to one day of holidays on Monday and Carnival on Tuesday, will allow me to progress further.

 

In the meanwhile, I've been looking at pictures of the real thing, to see how they weathered and also bought this excellent piece of inspiration for techniques to apply:

http://www.migjimenez.com/en/twa-english-version/1410-twa-issue-8-english.html

twa-issue-8-english.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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On 2/9/2018 at 10:25, The Spadgent said:

Ooh that book would have come in handy at the time. :penguin:

It is really interesting and full of great techniques

 

 

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5 hours ago, John D.C. Masters said:

Mighty fine building there...

Thank you very much, John! Very kind!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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Hi again,

 

This weekend I managed to make some major progress.

 

I started by dry fitting the wing and central struts and placed them on top of the fuselage. There are no slots on the fuselage to fit the struts. The wing and struts just rest on the fuselage. Here's how it looks:

y4mYEoXwbxu78ku4VYfMrnZO9Y0enUvkXsHvYQb_

IMAG5239

 

y4mG4lRwTBr8WfcwILIJzKCz8SPQKlTjaVYZM9eb

IMAG5240

 

y4mdJakykXzs5sWwe4EOXU06Gdy59mmqSTTRwSI0

IMAG5241

 

y4m-ZC5A7xNhyjnR3wvZ12HK4wuXhAk-xt1uNRjS

IMAG5242

 

I will definitely paint the wing and fuselage separately and glue them together in the end. I'll use slow drying Araldite, as suggested by Tony ( @TheBaron ), not only for the bonding strength but also because a lot of adjustments between the wing, struts and fuselage will be needed to fit everything together with proper alignment.

 

Having cleared this decision, next I sanded the joins of the engine nacelles. I found some sink marks I haven't noticed before, so I applied PPP and let it dry for a few hours:

y4m7ne4F-TiLIOReKMS9oCAJMDv9uHVOemo1yWOR

IMAG5243

 

In the meanwhile, I carved the slots on the extremities of the outboard wing struts where the rigging cables will be inserted. Here's an example:

y4mRUQ8l8JanGnlo1ni_BIM9MLPOqefjO4Izj50p

IMAG5244

 

The only exception is the front top insertion of the rigging lines, which is done on the underside of the wing, as can be seen in this photo:

33.jpg

(from www.seawings.co.uk)

 

For these connections I drilled 0,5mm shallow holes on the underside of the wing. Here's a detail:

y4mgjTk1lmQiXpIG5F_q_ICk04wdluG9PObpSHDx

IMAG5245

 

I also filled the slots for the central struts on the underside of the wing with blu-tak (the white variety), to avoid later problems with gluing:

y4mOuU2sVCabDQRwr0_AV-zKq9fmq2gI512ibE8j

IMAG5246

 

Later on, I sanded the excess PPP on the sink marks of the engine nacelles and masked the engines:

y4mGiurx-XnPjFbrTe6lKZOSG23y4WIGGip6D5AZ

IMAG5247

 

Finally, I could start the painting phase, which I did by applying Alclad Black Primer.

 

Here are all small parts primed:

y4m8NK502IEYKDC7MXOuN9WbNX14fPl6Ad80jadk

IMAG5248

 

And here is the wing and fuselage, both in a plastic box to protect them from dust:

y4msBXT_001qAwpU1DceE4mhV3oejQ_DDyXoppB6

IMAG5249

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

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