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Aeronavale Dornier 24


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Hi,

 

With my Twin Otter nearing completion (and delayed while I wait for some paint to arrive), I thought I'd make a start on my second entry to this GB.

I readily admit that I know very little about this aircraft; before this GB started I'd have been unable to tell you much at all about the Dornier family of seaplanes. But, seeing some of the models out there in this GB really opened my eyes to this distinctively attractive family of aircraft. Jaime, our host, also has one of these on his bench, but has kindly encouraged me to go ahead with this one, too.

 

So, let's get the sprue shots out of the way. I reckon this is a similarly sized aircraft to the Vickers Wellington, one of which is half-built and waiting for me to get back to it. The Trumpy Wellington kit comes with about ten sprues, so I was a bit surprised that this box contains only three opaque and one transparency sprue.

 

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There's also a simple PE fret in the box. It's nowhere near the quality of the PE that I'm used to from Eduard packs, but I'll make as much use of it as I can. The PE instrument panel in particular is a mystery as there's no detail other than dial bezels, and no decal for the IP, so I can't see that there's much enhancement over a plastic IP.

 

The marking options give two Luftwaffe machines, one of the Spanish ASR birds, and the post-war French boat that I'm planning to build. I'd have preferred to go for one of the Dutch airframes, but I'm not going to add aftermarket costs when I quite like the Aeronavale scheme anyway. One question for anyone that knows: Italeri would have us paint those parts of the hull that are in contact with the water bright red. I guess that this is some sort of anti-fouling paint and is more likely to be a dull red?

 

There's a nice, albeit brief, page on the French aircraft here (in French but Google does a pretty good job of translating, in my view): http://avions-de-la-guerre-d-algerie.over-blog.com/article-127-les-dornier-do-24-t1-de-la-marine-francaise-115606308.html

 

 

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OK, cracking on in traditional fashion, it's the flight deck. I have no reason not to follow the all RLM02 paint guide, with black instruments and dark green fabric surfaces, in this area. The basic structure is built up from the floor, two small sidewalls, two bulkheads, and an IP/bulkhead:

 

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The coloured dials and buttons are utterly fictional. The brown dirt wash is courtesy of AK's Exhaust Wash, but I'll tone it down a bit around the doors before adding some wear.

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Hi Chris,

 

Welcome to your second entry in the GB! I'll follow it with great interest, for obvious reasons :D

 

Great start, by the way!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Slow progress, mainly as I've decided to perform some minor surgery on the turrets so that they can be put in post-painting. Both the front and mid-upper turrets have flanges that sit on small shelves inside the fuselage, so those need to be removed. The transparencies aren't too brittle, so that was a relatively straightforward chisel and sand. The mid-upper turret was also surprisingly badly scratched in patches, so I've tried to polish them out with Micromesh, not entirely successfully (but an improvement). Then some plasticard shelves into the fuselage to give the turrets a base. A faff, and a bit of a bodge, but I think I'm more likely to get a good result from this than from cutting the barrels and trying to mask the turrets so that they can go in before paint.

 

Here's the mid-upper turret. As you can see, the framing on the mould is sufficiently distinct that it's possible to hand-paint, though since I did this before opting for surgical intervention, much has been worn away. The ragged edge at the bottom will be hidden inside the fuselage, but the scratches won't! (This was before Micro-meshing)

 

0846e0c5-84ee-4c0e-a54e-d1b10be978c6.jpg

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I'll be interested in seeing how your post-painting installation of the turrets approach works, Chris. As I said in my thread, I'll install them while closing the fuselage, as per the instructions, and then will mask them (as well as the already installed guns inside de turrets) to protect them from the camouflage painting.

 

I think it will be good for future reference having these two different  approaches :)

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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Right, so tonight was the night for closing up the hull. (Is it a fuselage, or a hull, or both?)

 

Before:

 

5e02cc6d-f8e6-421f-aa29-c746cf2c7650.JPG

I thought I'd try the plasticard stiffeners along the upper join; not something I've done before but test fitting showed a tendency for the starboard side to bow inwards in those areas.

 

Just to show that the turrets do fit (plus this stops them rolling around and getting lost)

86e60c85-f5d6-43ca-b764-c133f0c12de6.JPG

 

 

However, you can see the slight flaw, aft of the mid-upper turret. Here it is in its full glory:

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That's a heck of a step! It's not misaligned underneath, and the tail aligns pretty well. Perhaps I should have put the stiffener on the other side? I sense some serious sanding in my future.

 

I then moved on to the sponsons/stabilisers/sticky-outy-bits

 

9fdfab0d-124b-4637-8b29-e866a9218689.JPG

 

That's a wee bit off as well...

Port side is better - it'll need filler, that's all. This makes me think about cutting out the insert and positioning it as a butt joint. I don't want that strut hole too low.

 

Enough for one night!

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5 minutes ago, pheonix said:

Have you tried polishing the scratches with toothpaste? Brasso metal polish is also supposed to work well (though I have not tried it myself). Just a suggestion: I use it to polish clear parts when necessary.

 

P

 

Nope, never tried any kind of polishing compound, but I'll give it a go. Thanks!

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It’s great to see another Dornier in the GB Chris :thumbsup: .

 

I’ve been wanting this Italeri kit for a few years. I specifically wanted a Spanish scheme and this new release has it :). It looks like it goes together quite quickly; that’s a good idea with the extra fuselage join location tabs.

 

Watching with a lot of interest

 

Best regards

TonyT

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Great progress with closing the fuselage and thanks for the tips regarding the stiffeners. I also found that the starboard float tended to be misaligned with the fuselage join but in my test fit I think I managed to align it well. The port side had no problem, like in your case. I don't think my kit had the step in the aft fuselage top join but I'll be on the look out for it when I close the fuselage.

 

I'm also worrying about assembling the wing...

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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Looks like you've got similar sponson issues to me Chris! My manuals for the '18 variant call them bootsstummel (wing stump) which sounds a bit brutal...

Lovely work there on this 'un mate!

:thumbsup2:

Tony

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Thanks, chaps. Since at the moment the Twotter is receiving multiple coats of white paint (really, I'd strip the paint off if I was confident of doing that, and confident that I'd ever repaint the damn thing), more work is going into the Dornier. 

I did consider prising the hull back apart again to try to rectify that step, but by this morning it was well glued and I felt it a risk too great, so out came the sanding sticks. Some shape lost but I hope it won't be noticeable, and a couple of panel lines to rescribe (must get a scriber...), but I think a reasonable solution achieved with a smear of Vallejo putty. We'll see when primer goes down.

9d8f76b3-9428-4b7b-8b50-95b69484da34.JPG

 

 

Then it was time to tackle the bootsstummeln (thanks, Tony, and apologies to any German-speakers that I've just offended; I hope that's the correct plural). Rather than chop off the locating insert in the troublesome starboard bs, a clear head helped me conclude that it would be simpler just to widen the hole in the hull. And, lo, a much improved fit was found.

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Not great; both bs look a trifle undersized to me.

And port:

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And some more Vallejo (there's a line of rivets just underneath each bs which is very good at attracting putty, that was annoying)

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Those portholes, btw, were done earlier on simply to see how Micro Krystal Klear would look. Some are a bit cloudy, which I think indicates I'm laying it on a bit thick. And I don't have any clear epoxy to try the Baron's trick (too late anyway now with the hull all sealed up). I might just ream them out after painting and redo them, as I don't fancy trying to mask them.

 

 

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Good progress, Chris. I'm a bit behind you. I'm still painting the interior and haven't updated my thread yet. It's good to see where some problems lie ahead, though.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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I'm glad it's of help, Jaime. I did a bit more last night but really found that I couldn't bend the kit photo etch. I assume that these are representing walkways with slightly raised edges, but the edges are so thin that I can't bend them either with my bending tool or a pair of pliers. The short length, between the nose turret and the cockpit, got bent out of alignment, so I ditched that. I didn't even try the longer length, just stuck it on unbent!

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That's worrying to know, Chris... The PE really seems a bit thick, compared to PE from Eduard and Brengun. I'll give it a try, anyway when the time comes.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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Yeah, maybe a little thicker than I've seen from Eduard. I did the intakes tonight, they're no problem at all, in fact very nice to fold; the problem with those other parts is that it's really hard to keep a grip on the narrow edges.

Here's the long PE walkway (unfolded); I think you can see how narrow the folds would be:

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I mentioned the intakes. There are four PE efforts to add:

Two at the front

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And two larger ones to the rear

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One obvious problem with the rear ones is that they are flat, and the fuselage most definitely is not. But other than that angle, it's not likely to be particularly noticeable after primer goes on.

 

Other than aerials, tie-downs, and other easily dislodged parts, that essentially completes the hull work. The wing comprises six parts: top/bottom halves for the central and two outer sections. The central has no locating pins and doesn't quite line up. Compared to the very tight fit on the rudders/elevator, it's much worse.

 

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The fuselage with PE looks good.

 

Regarding the wings, I think the best way to assemble the parts is to glue the top parts first and ensure they have a flat top surface. Then glue the outboard bottom parts and, in the end, the centre bottom part. At least this is my plan, after inspecting the instructions and doing initial dry fits.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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Not much progress during the week, but then took one of those big steps last night.

 

resized_2d29954e-ec13-4e9e-909a-379632ac

 

That's not glued on, just balanced on the three central fuselage struts, but it balances pretty well without any further support, and that gives me confidence that getting the wings on won't be quite as arduous a task as I'd expected.

 

I think I'll be laying down some primer on it today.

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