Dornier 17z Airfix (1/72)

[Roy vd M.]

91. Masking for highlights (very limited number of spots).

92. Difference is small but certain: instead of 10xRLM66+2xwhite = 8XRLM66+4xwhite.

93. RLM02.

94. Painting the wire.

95. Dryfit with glazing... didn't expect the detail of those wires to be visible that well. Makes me doubt whether vacuforming would have sufficient added value.

96. Map of Poland, 1939, shrunk to 1,3cm., printed, folded a number of times (by means of knives). This map will be shown as left on one of the seats, demonstrating (for those with a very keen eye) where the plane came from and where it will be headed once more after refuelling and bombloading.

Total time spent: 49 hours.

[GREG DESTEC]

Stunning attention to detail! Looking very very good!

[Roy vd M.]

Thanks Greg, not sure if I would call it stunning -it's quite pale compared to some other builds I see on this forum- but I'm definitely enjoying it!

[jrlx]

Excellent work, Roy. The use of RLM 66 on the cockpit looks very good.

The photo of the nose glazing also left me wondering if the vacform parts I ordered are worth it... I'll have to think about it over the weekend, as I'm still able to cancel that order.

Cheers

Jaime

[ruudster]

Knap werk Roy! Mooi!

[Bordfunker]

Great attention to detail.

I shall be to following your build closely.

Karl

[Martian]

Love the map idea!

Martin

[Gremlin56]

Excellent work Roy, amazing considering the scale of the model.

[delta7]

I think it is very neat and skilled work. I stick to 1\48 mainly and I lose patience with the etch in that size, so I salute those who work so neatly in this size, well done!!!

[Shalako]

Jolly good job lad, and I see you're very organized/methodological!!

Can't wait to see your skills on painting this beauty!

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Shalako

[Roy vd M.]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate all the feedback.

I'll soon post some more pictures and text re. the build up till now, but let's share the results of quite a few hours of work yesterday!

Cockpit is quite busy, don't you think?!

[jrlx]

Hi Roy, simply supeb work! Congrats!

Cheers

Jaime

[Gremlin56]

This has to be one of the best detailed 1/72 scale cockpits around. No way I would attempt this myself Excellent work Roy

[Roy vd M.]

Quote function doesn't seem to work today, so I'll use italics for quotes.

Excellent work, Roy. The use of RLM 66 on the cockpit looks very good.

Thanks, I think it's not too dark (being said to be the be the problem of RLM66-modeling).

The photo of the nose glazing also left me wondering if the vacform parts I ordered are worth it... I'll have to think about it over the weekend, as I'm still able to cancel that order.

I'm still going to try to vacuform the glazing anyway, Airfix' version is 0,7mm. thick whereas in real life it would have been approximately 0,13mm. in scale. Let's see how it goes.

Knap werk Roy! Mooi!

Thanks, good to see quite a few Dutch-speaking gentlemen on this great forum!

Great attention to detail.

Trying to follow Eduard's instructions as well as I can. Except for the mistakes therein of course.

Love the map idea!

Yeah well ehm... about that... I guess I lost the map Can't find it, but that doesn't matter too much as I like the look of the seatbelts. I don't think I'll make another one.

Excellent work Roy, amazing considering the scale of the model.

Thanks man, much appreciated!

I think it is very neat and skilled work. I stick to 1\48 mainly and I lose patience with the etch in that size, so I salute those who work so neatly in this size, well done!!!

I also have trouble with PE in 1/32 scale... PE producers will never fail to torture the modeller with that stuff, regardless of scale. The larger the scale, the higher the detail they will implement. Not sure if smaller scale is more difficult.

Jolly good job lad, and I see you're very organized/methodological!!

Ask my girlfriend haha

Hi Roy, simply supeb work! Congrats!

Trying to catch up with the high quality level of other Do 17 builds achieved on this forum!

This has to be one of the best detailed 1/72 scale cockpits around.

I guess so... this is my first 1/72 attempt but I'm wildly impressed by all the details. So I'm not sure this level of detailing can be found in many other 1/72 kits + PE.


Thanks everyone for taking the time to write a reaction, following this build and clicking 'like'. It's all really much appreciated!


97. Painting with brush 0: six drops of black (Model Air 71.057) and a drop of white (Model Air 71.001). No thinning required. In the next pic the drums were painted in too light a color. Later they were repainted.



98. The final color:



99. Leather straps of the seats:



100. Prepare oil paints (502 Abteilung). To remove the oil, bits of paint were applied to a piece of cardboard. After half an hour each fragment has a corona of oil. Doing this improves workability of the paint, limits drying time and provides for a nicer end result.



101. The next picture shows several wall areas as treated with oil paint (apply a tiny fragment, different colors in different spots, work it in the model). It's not a big change, but a change nonetheless. Also to be seen on this picture is that a bit of relief was deleted, in order for a piece of PE metal to be placable. Eduard forgot to mention that in its instructions, so be warned.



102. Drybrush with silver-oil paint. Effect was a bit too harsh, so safe for some dots this was replaced by Vallejo Air aluminium.



103. Fixation of the pilot seat is a weak point in Airfix' design (although not as weak as the fixation of the front gunner seat). I used CA glue to set both seats (by means of a 'bridge'). The glue spots were thereafter painted over using oils.



104. The instrument panels receive a drop of Gator Glue and then the fronts are put into their designated positions.



105. To depict instrument glasses, I used drops of Quickshine Floor Finish. It will dry to transparency.



106. Last time I showed that Eduard's panels (see hereunder radio instruments) are slightly glittering and in a too-light tone. Very simple solution: mix a bit of dark brown + yellow oil paint (502 Abteilung), put bits of oil paint on the photo etch, right after that distribute the paint on the PE by using your thumb, and remove the paint as much as possible with your other thumb. The result: better color + bit of dirt. Ready in one minute. I like the slightly dirty look so I leave it like that. Otherwise turpentine can be used.

See here the difference between the amended version (top) and the original PE part (bottom).



107. Seats were finally put in position. Options: either put the seat wrong, or put it in a very fragile way, or use CA glue. This mainly applies to the front seat. Right now there's no or barely any side wall plastic touching the seat. Small mistake by Airfix, easily forgiven taken into account the high level of the rest of this kit.



108. In-between results:





109. Body halves are glued together with Gator Glue, and taped.



110. Aluminium for chipping, graphite (side of pencil) for a few damage spots such as on the pilot seat. The plane gets very little wear, now that it's situated in the absolute beginning of the war.



111. Not much sanding is required to make the curve. Eventually also the final seat was put in place; tedious job.



112. Hey! The body has some unwanted curvature Didn't notice that before...



113. Using a hairdryer, pliers and pincers it was straightened. The Gator Glue managed to withstand this heat.



114. Straightened.



115. Cockpit finalized. Attaching the levers and cranks, behind pilot seat to the left, was nerve-wrecking. Grrr...



116. Yesterday I showed the model to other modellers and some of them said they expected a larger model. Here a coin to show the scale and size.



Totally spent time: 60 hours.

[CedB]

Amazing details there Roy and very intricate work - very good job!

[Noah Greggs]

Wow this is fantastic!!!! Considering the scale it pure magic!!!

[GREG DESTEC]

Excellent work and progress Roy.

[Roy vd M.]

Amazing details there Roy and very intricate work - very good job!

Wow this is fantastic!!!! Considering the scale it pure magic!!!

Excellent work and progress Roy.

Thanks guys, much appreciated! Comments like these always keep the spirits high!

117. Followers of my threads know that I don't limit my topics to describing the 'successes'. I always describe the fails as well. Reading modeling magazines it sometimes seems that no mistakes are made, that everything goes fine and a model falls together. Not true with me at least.

Vacuforming. Hmm.. let's say that I don't give up easily.

118.

119. Attempts 1-3 looked like this.

120. Attempt 4 (prelude: "I have here in my hand a part of an old BF109... should I use this as a test specimen? Ehr.. no, not necessary; I already ruined too much plasticard. Let's just use the original Do17z-part". Result:

So I just ordered a spare from Airfix. They already mailed me that they don't have that part in stock. Totally understand, this being such an ancient kit .

Further attempts (using the BF109-cockpit) were undertaken using Blu-Tack as a mold-fortifier. Using that, I got the canopy vacuformed, but the clear sheet always broke under the pressure.

121. Next, I got a 'perfect' vacuformed canopy... in normal styrene. It's .25mm thick.

Tried this using the clear sheet... unfortunately it reacts completely differently. Specific research re. this problem (Evergreen) points out that this type of clear plastic (styrene) is not suitable for vacuforming. I'll therefore order a different kind of plastic, Pet-G .020. Can't order that in the Netherlands, am trying to order in the USA. Anyway, now I can finally get on with the landing gear bay photo etch, with which I had already started.

Here the (roughly cut out) regular Evergreen card-version.

When everything will be in fully functioning condition, I'll make a small how-to with all used materials.

Total spent time thus far: 66 hours.

[Roy vd M.]

Just ordered this. Seems to be perfect! Low shipping costs, 5" by 5" size which exactly fits the frame I made! Too good to be true? Let's find out

[jrlx]

Hi Roy,

I'm not sure I fully followed your vacuforming steps but I'll be interested on your tutorial on it.

I'm waiting for the vacuform transparent parts I ordered at my LHS, which are designed for the Revell kit. Let's see if they fit or not. They should be here by the end of the month.

I'm still waiting for the replacement transparent sprue from Airfix (mine was foggy and CedB sent me his in the meanwhile). They're saying they're out of stock on the transparent parts since I asked them, by the end of July. However, this week they sent me the replacement lower wing parts, which where malformed in my kit.

Cheers

Jaime

[Roy vd M.]

Thanks Jaime,

Till now I didn't really explain the vacuforming, I'll await the Pet-G plastic and then I'll make a step-by-step tutorial about making the vacuform apparatus + vacuforming itself.

I'm aware you're awaiting the same replacement part. If I don't have it by the time I want to start painting I'll just buy a new kit and throw it in a tombola or so after the replacement part will have arrived. Fortunately the kit isn't that expensive.

[Carius]

Fantastic job!

[Roy vd M.]

Yeah

[Gremlin56]

Hi Roy,

you have been having some adventures

You know that masochism means never having to say sorry

On a more serious note though great respect for the work you are putting into the "Pencil". I hope that the "Lure plastic sheet" gives better results for making your own canopies.

[Roy vd M.]

Yes it wasn't the nicest job to do (modeling is much more fun) but I really wanted to have a vacuform canopy. Too much detail inside the cockpit to be left in a less than visible state. And well.. I can use the knowhow for any future plane project.

Thanks for your nice reply