1/48 Do-335A

[DJJunis]

Looking really good!

 

All the Best!

Don

[Thom216]

15 hours ago, DJJunis said:

Looking really good!

 

All the Best!

Don

Thanks a lot! Doing my best on her.

 

A few more pics for today. Had to leave the house for family stuff, so not much work done. Maybe tomorrow...

 

For today, I got the gear just about done. I can detail paint them tomorrow, but the hydraulic/brake lines are on. A mix of stretched sprue and wire.

 

After that I switched to the wings roots. Because of the snafu with the starboard wing (clicking it in place before I was ready) there was a little gap all along the seam. I put PPP in there.

 

A little gappage on the bottom too, and because of that miss fit, I'm also going to have to repaint the gear well...

 

Can no longer see daylight through there!😁

 

Have to say I'm really liking the PPP. A couple swipes with a wet cotton bud and all of that excess junk came right off!

 

More tomorrow. Model on!

[Sturmovik]

Following this topic because the Do 335 has been on of my favourite aircraft ever since I bought the Revell boxing of the plane.

Edited September 9, 2019 by Sturmovik

[Thom216]

Just now, Sturmovik said:

Following this topic because the Do 335 has been on of my favourite aircraft ever since I bought the Revell boxing of the plane.

Welcome along! I love the beastly beauty of it and it's just a real unique design.

[billn53]

15 minutes ago, Sturmovik said:

Following this topic because the Do 335 has been on of my favourite aircraft ever since I bought the Revell boxing of the plane.

And I'm following because it's been a favorite of mine ever since I bought the original Lindberg kit -- long, long, ago!

[Thom216]

Alright, update time! Got quite a bit done this time.

 

First up was the nose weight, thank you Tamiya for kindly including it.

 

I also decided to close up the canopy. There's a lot of 'glass' there to still see into the cockpit, but of course I forgot to make sure the inside was clean of debris... So I had to take it off again, which also dirtied it up enough to need to pull out a replacement from another kit. (Have to replace that one now...)

 

Then the masks went on and resprayed the gear bays, also using the opportunity to check the seams along the belly.

 

Also got the wing light in place, the shine courtesy of a Molotow silver pen.

 

From there it was on to paint! Yay!

Cockpit color onto the canopy, clear red and green onto the wingtip lights and then black for a preshade.

 

Did the props while I was at it. There is aluminum at the base of the props. Don't know why they don't look it in this pic...

 

And altogether and sitting on my check sheet.

 

Had a little over spray from the aluminum so I'll need to hit the prop blades a second time. The muzzle is gunmetal, as called for in the instructions.

And according to my checklist, tomorrow morning is masking the wing tip lights, putting on the lower antenna and spraying the bottom color.

 

I have the right shade for that, but the greens on top will be 'close enough' in my book. Next build I'll get the right RLMs.😜

 

More updates acomin! Model on!

[Thom216]

Aaaaand I'm behind schedule...

 

Under a shot of paint, that join for the starboard wing is not looking good. A little too wide I think for just PPP to handle. I worked on it a bit last night and got it better, but I think to really do it good I'm going to have to stop planning for taking this to the show on Sun and give that the due attention it needs.

 

I just got some Miliput in the mail, so I plan on removing much of the PPP and replacing that with a thin noodle of 'put. Let it harden, sand and re-engrave the join line. Of course with the too wide gap, there was too much space between the flap and the fuselage, so that was filled last night with styrene and I'll sand it to form.

 

Repairs to be documented shortly. Model on!

[Greg Law]

Excellent to see this build.  Mine has stalled for a while, but will get going again once I finish my GB projects.

In the mean time I'm watching what you do here.

[Thom216]

3 hours ago, Greg Law said:

Excellent to see this build.  Mine has stalled for a while, but will get going again once I finish my GB projects.

In the mean time I'm watching what you do here.

Well, if you don't have the wings on yet, watch out for the locking tabs!

[Thom216]

Got home and first thing was cleaning up the seam and applying the Milliput.

 

Here's where I'd gotten with paint this morning before I stopped.

 

And the milliput in place and left to dry.

 

Probably all I'll do tonight on it, but once dry I'll sand that out and continue. Something good about pausing and keeping myself from rushing, is I now have time to get the correct paints to go on it!

 

Model on!

Edited September 11, 2019 by Thom216

[RadMax8]

Glad to see you’ve dusted this bird off and are cracking on! One of my favorite planes, big and brutish with such flowing lines. 

 

Keep up up the good work!

[DJJunis]

Thom,

Looking good.

I love that kit ...built it years ago...also built the Monogram one which is really pretty good too.

You're doing a great job.

 

All the Best!

Don

 

[Thom216]

Thanks a lot fellas! Just some little things to fix.

 

Started sanding the 'put and boy is that stuff tough! Had to get out a real abrasive sanding stick to start off. I think I should get some sculpting tools and smooth it out before it dries.

 

Thom

[Greg Law]

My wings are on. I discovered that issue the same way you did. 

I'm sure you know this, but I will mention it anyway. I like to mask off seams and remove the mask before 

the putty dries, then remask for sanding. Saves a lot of rescribing. I have just done this on my P-40.

[Thom216]

Unfortunately, this is the main seam line so there's no avoiding it. On the plus side, it's just the one line to redo if need be, so I should be able to do that.

[f111guru]

Thom,

Excellent choice of kit to get back to business at hand sort of thing. I have 3 of the various 1/48th scale DO-335 kits from Tamiya. However I don't have any aftermarket stuff and have set myself to scratch build what I have planned for future builds. In the meantime I'll grab a seat and watch with interest.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

[Thom216]

The more the merrier! I have all three as well, this one plus the trainer and the heavy armed one with the big cannon in the wings. I lucked out as this one was bought at a model show and came with the PE set. The wheels were also another cheap buy from a show. Except for the resin exhausts, I had pretty much all I needed from the start!

[Thom216]

Okay, using the miliput for filling that gap did not work as I had hoped. After a lot of sanding (seeing as I had put it on waaay thick) it didn't even stay in the gap... However it did leave of lot of miliput dust in a lot of the panel lines for me to clean out, so yay!

 

Once that was out, I fell back onto simple styrene strip. I took the thinnest of strips that I had and lined it up along the wing join and then glued that down. (after the fact, I probably should have just glued half-round down into it and then re-panel-lined it, but this is the way I went.)

 

After a bit of sanding, I end up with this.

 

I used a marker to check it. The wing join is still mostly there. It has disappeared at a spot near the front but that will be easy to reapply, the same as with the lines leading towards the fuselage.

 

Hopefully once that's all done I can get back to paint. And as for paint...

 

The weekend is coming up, so I'm looking to get a lot closer to finished on this.

 

Model on!

[Roy vd M.]

10 minutes ago, Thom216 said:

Okay, using the miliput for filling that gap did not work as I had hoped. After a lot of sanding (seeing as I had put it on waaay thick) it didn't even stay in the gap... However it did leave of lot of miliput dust in a lot of the panel lines for me to clean out, so yay!

Try using CA glue. Like Milliput it won't shrink. After half an hour it has dried and you can do this (another Dornier by the way  ): 

 

 

[Thom216]

8 minutes ago, Roy vd M. said:

Try using CA glue.

Thank you for the suggestion. I do use CA sometimes for closing up seams but have found sometimes it is tough to panel line across it, esp if it set up for too long.

[Roy vd M.]

Ah yes if you want to rescribe, CA glue is not a great option.

 

Perhaps you could try using the multitool on the Milliput... it might stay put(ty) a bit better, as the frictioning movement is not in long lines like the sanding stick would do.  

[Thom216]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:37 PM, Roy vd M. said:

Ah yes if you want to rescribe, CA glue is not a great option.

Actually, I will be correcting myself.  Or, 'how I learned to stop worrying, and love the CA...'

 

PPP? No. Millipu? No. Stryene strip? No. CA..? Oh hell yes!

 

The stryene strip was working, to a fashion, but there were a few times where I had to reapply the extra thin Tamiya cement to get it to stay down. And a few times where I sanded too far... Finally, I said 'suck it' and I sparingly applied some CA along the join, and stayed away just long enough for it to be sandable, and then did so. Doing that, I worked my way up the root and then used dymo tape as a straight edge and a pin in a handle to gently scribe out the new lines. And repair all the neighboring panel lines that had been obliterated during the 'process.' (And also put a feel-able low spot near the wing root that is thankably only visible when looking forward from the trailing edge...)

 

Should have done the CA way sooner then this may have been able to make the last model show. Oh well...

 

After all that, here's what I got.

 

Literally every panel line to the left of the wing join and almost to that round access panel in the middle of the wing had to be rescribed. The round access panel near the front of the wing I managed to save from destruction.

 

So, thankfully moving on from there (mostly) and I started painting the bottom again, this time with the Hataka light blue RLM65. I resprayed the panel shading and started again with the bottom of the starboard wing (now on the left side of the picture) and I am liking the slight color difference from the Tam Light Blue XF-23. The XF-23 is a teeny bit bluer.

 

The problem though, is that its hard running it through my airbrush. Using it, the Hataka RLM65, straight from the bottle, the color would spray well at first, and then a few moments later would just stop shooting out. Opening up the air valve and doing some quick pulls on the trigger would get it to spray again, but again only for a few moments.  That, and a few seams that I need to fixed before going forward, called a halt to my painting for today.

 

Anyone have any suggestions on the paint issue..? Do I need to thin it more? Is it my airbrush..? I'd say I'm all ears, but since this is a written format, I'm all eye.

 

Model on!

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by Thom216

[Roy vd M.]

As it is too much of a coincidence to let this one pass by untold... today I bought one bottle of paint... just ONE, after perhaps one years of not purchasing any. The color is... RLM65, or, 71255 by Vallejo Model Air. I guess it's destiny for you, reader of this response, to grab a bottle as well!   

 

To ensure I'm not joking: 

 

 

 

 

This said, if you don't believe in destiny I guess you could try solving the Hataka issue by diluting the paint a bit. I think that should tackle it. 

 

 

 

[Thom216]

1 hour ago, Roy vd M. said:

As it is too much of a coincidence to let this one pass by untold... today I bought one bottle of paint... just ONE, after perhaps one years of not purchasing any. The color is... RLM65, or, 71255 by Vallejo Model Air. I guess it's destiny for you, reader of this response, to grab a bottle as well!   

 

To ensure I'm not joking: 

 

 

 

 

This said, if you don't believe in destiny I guess you could try solving the Hataka issue by diluting the paint a bit. I think that should tackle it.

Well, since kismet is involved, that will be my first attempt at solving the flow problem!😁

[Roy vd M.]

If you haven't worked with Vallejo Model air before, here's the formula I use:

 

- 2 drops of Vallejo flow improver (71.262)

- 5 drops of Vallejo thinner (71.261)

- 10 drops of Vallejo model air paint. 

 

Mix in the cup and you're set. Always works, with every colour of Model Air (didn't test the metal colours so not sure about that). If I need to spray a lot I'll simply copy and past the formula into the cup, leaving out the flow improver: 2 drops flow improver, 5 drops thinner, 10 drops paint, 5 drops thinner, 10 drops paint, 5 drops thinner, 10 drops paint, et cetera.