It’s alive! - 1/72nd Airfix Do17E conversion to Do17P Frankendornier

[CedB]

Good luck Heather!

[Brandy]

I love this kind of modelling and you're doing a great job with the nacelle corrections. I also use milliput for this sort of thing as it can be smoothed with a wet finger/knife blade to give a very smooth and invisible transition to the original parts.

Lovely job so far!

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

32 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

Lovely job so far!

Thanks Ian! I do generally enjoy bashing kits into submission, though sometimes I like to just throw some glue and paint in the box, give it a shake and go.

 

I was reviewing the thread earlier, and noted a comment about using the Revell tail parts as well. That prompted me to dig the box out to retrieve them. There’s one or two things that make it likely that I’ll use them. First, the elevator operating linkage doodahs are in the correct location, where the Airfix ones are for the earlier (obviously) E/F model and closer to the fuselage. Second, the starboard fin has the correct 3.5 degree offset, where I’m not sure the Airfix one does. A little adjustment to the slot for the empennage in the fuselage, and we should be good to go.

[Heather Kay]

Oh, hello.

 

 

 

I think this might just work. 😁 

[Kushan_Farsight]

Looks almost like its made to go together! like the old 2 color matchbox kits! 

[72modeler]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

I think this might just work.

Glad you read my post regarding the stabilizers! I also used the Monogram wings to convert an E to the Bramo-powered later version! The Revell boxing is the Frog kit, I believe. Your build is coming along nicely, Heather! (You don't ever pitch parts, because as soon as you do, you find they would have been perfect for a project!) 👍

Mike 

[Heather Kay]

9 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

The Revell boxing is the Frog kit, I believe.

It’s the Monogram one, in fact. The stand has it emblazoned on it in big bold letters. There’s not a lot between the Frog and Monogram/Revell kits, as far as I can see.

[rob Lyttle]

Too late now for the spare milliput, unless you've put it in the freezer... 😊

And that is quite a big bit left, but I make wheel chocks with the leftovers. 

No kits ever include sundries like that, and a parked up plane really needs 'em! 

Gotta have chocks ⚠️

[Terry1954]

I love to see cross kiting like this. Looking really good Heather!

 

Terry

[Heather Kay]

 

Brass Swiss cheese can only mean one thing: eye strain and back ache! 

 

 

Yes, I have begun the task - and, incredibly, almost completed it - of knitting together microscopic pieces of wafer thin metal, and then guessing where they are supposed to fit into the plastic bits.

 

The Extra Tech set is designed to make up as a series of sub-assemblies, which you then fit to the plastic. As ever, some parts fit better than others. One or two parts have been trimmed a little so they fit better. It was more often than not a case of guesswork as to location. Others have various components left off for the sake of sanity. An example of this is the myriad 7.62mm MG magazines which were generally hung anywhere around the cockpit there was space. I’ve left them out completely. Life can be sometimes a bit too short. I’ve also resorted to extemporising the instrument panel, using the kit parts to help position the PE part. If nothing else it will look sufficiently busy in once the canopies and nose are installed. 

 

Anyway, I’ll attempt a squirt of primer over things in daylight, and then paint up the fittings. Then I can button up the fuselage. 
 

Having considered camera bays and crew access hatches, I’ve decided the former can be represented as black painted patches on the belly. The latter is incorrect, but I’ll leave it where it is and make some kind of representative panel over it rather than try to fill the hole. Good old modeller's compromise. 

[CedB]

Nice internals Heather - looking forward to some paint in there?  

[AdrianMF]

Looks smashing in there.

 

I like Milliput, and now I've got Oyumaru I never waste any (but what am I going to do with six or seven badly-moulded FROG Blenheim engine clones??). When people say "brass and solder" I run and hide...

 

It looks like you need to find some pieces in a third colour for the full Matchbox experience - maybe black wheels?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Heather Kay]

13 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

It looks like you need to find some pieces in a third colour for the full Matchbox experience - maybe black wheels?

Well, I have cream resin main wheels.

 

I am contemplating getting primer on the innards, but I have a sniffly cold. That’s never a good thing with face masks. 

[Martian]

Although there is some way to go to finish the model, it seems to me that you have overcome the most difficult bits. Nice work Heather.

 

Martian 👽

[Heather Kay]

Just now, Martian Hale said:

it seems to me that you have overcome the most difficult bits

Cheers m'dear. 
 

Vac-form canopies to come, and no spares… 

[Heather Kay]

Wibble.

 

 

 

 

It seems all my Dorniers have slightly wonky seats. It’s very difficult gauging straight and true in half a fuselage. Will it even notice with the canopies in place? Who knows? Will I even try to reset them? Debatable. By now, my sanity is up the street and round the next corner. 
 

Primer time? It’s nearly warm enough in the paint shop.

 

[alt-92]

maybe a bit of plasticard as a fake floor to help adjust?

[Heather Kay]

10 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

maybe a bit of plasticard as a fake floor to help adjust?

It actually looks worse in the photos. With the Mark I Eyeball (Human) it sort of looks okay.

[Heather Kay]

 

Isn't it funny how a coat of paint makes everything look so much better?

[AdrianMF]

What wonky seats??

[Heather Kay]

6 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

What wonky seats??

[Martian]

13 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

What wonky seats??

Watch out Heather, he's after something!

 

Cynical of Mars 👽

[Heather Kay]

Painting was uneventful. I didn’t have a proper RLM 02 in stock, so I mixed a rough approximation from various acrylic pots about the place. It’ll pass, as far as I’m concerned. I picked out some of the electronic gear in satin black, a few dials and lever knobs in red, white and yellow, and a dab or two of aluminium for scuff marks and belt buckles.

 

 

Then, after polishing the Coke bottle hatch transparencies and installing them, we are all buttoned up. 
 

I left one transparency out. I tried to fit the belly window which has a gun poking through it, but it simply wouldn’t lay flush with the fuselage. I’ll do Kristal Klear or that Humbrol gloop after painting, and forget the weaponry.

 

I think that’s about all I can manage on this for a short while. Off to a model railway trade show tomorrow, then a brief stay with the parents down on the south coast. 

[Greg Law]

Excellent progress Heather.  You must have a steady hand to do all the fine brass work. 

[Heather Kay]

9 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

Excellent progress Heather.  You must have a steady hand to do all the fine brass work. 

Cheers Greg! Yes, steady most of the time. As I get older (damn! I’m well into my sixth decade now!), I’ve begun to notice a small tremor, which usually makes its presence felt just as I’m about to place a tiny component on a drop of glue. Said component either misses the glue, or ends up a bit squiffy. 
 

A decent head-mounted magnifier also helps. I find I’m relying on the 1.6x magnification more and more these days.

 

Ah, the joys of getting old.