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


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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Brass class and plastic fantastic Heather. :clap2:

10 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

It's all looking rather good to my eye!

Terry

Thanks chaps. Since I took the last photo, I’ve had a chance to see how it looks unclamped. A little filler and some sanding and it should look really nice. Pleased with progress overall. The next job will be to graft the wings in properly, I think.

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Nice one, Heather. Enjoy the rail show. This weekend we have the Duchess of Sutherland and Tornado bringing Christmas market visitors to Lincoln. Big Jobs!

The joys of getting older? well, pro's and con's as with everything. I think it's about time the human body was upgraded to the mark 2.

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11 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Nice one, Heather. Enjoy the rail show. This weekend we have the Duchess of Sutherland and Tornado bringing Christmas market visitors to Lincoln. Big Jobs!

Nice! I find I don’t really get excited by such things as much as I used to. I think I prefer to see such beasts on heritage lines. 

8 hours ago, CedB said:

Looking good Heather but what, no photos of the painted internals? :( 

 

Have a good weekend and I hope the sniffle gets better :) 

Sniffle improving well, ta. I didn’t bother to photograph the painted internals because, well, they didn’t look a lot different to the primer version! When we get back, I’ll arrange an attempt at snapping what’s still visible through the various orifices.

 

With that, time to load the car and head off. See you on the other side!

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Meh. I spent the day recovering from the journey home. It wasn’t a bad journey by any means, but I had done a fair whack of driving over the weekend as a whole, and I was cream crackered when I got back home yesterday. A little run of errands this morning, and then just collapse on the sofa.

 

I will have to admit I’m no longer as young as I was!

 

My plan this evening was to fit the wing assembly to the fuselage, then deploy more Milliput to smooth out the differences. When I picked the airframe up, the fuselage joint around the cockpit popped open. So, clamp and CA is the first job.

 

49200291106_6e8f711b57_b.jpg

 

This does give me the opportunity to try and snap the cockpit painting and decorating. You can see the mismatch betwixt wings and fuselage here.

 

49200290901_896e4c759b_b.jpg

 

Unlike its later siblings, the cockpit area is quite small. I doubt much of the fittings will be at all visible once I’m done.

 

I'll let that CA harden before I try anything else, I think.

 

 

 

Edited by Heather Kay
Fumble fingers.
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49200058768_46e0c0a996_b.jpg

 

Okay, Milliput applied. It’s not quite how I envisaged it, but we will see how things pan out after filing and sanding.

 

49200058553_17afc070cb_b.jpg

 

There’s a large step between wing and fuselage underneath. I’ve filled the chasm, so it’s wait and see in the morning.

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2 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

It’s not quite how I envisaged it, but we will see how things pan out 

Now, how often have we all inwardly thought the very same thing at some critical juncture of a build! :laugh:

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49203496812_c245059bde_b.jpg

 

After about an hour of file clogging and wet'n'dry action, things are looking quite promising. One dodgy area that’s exercising my patience is the tiny bit behind the upper cupola. The Revell wing sits higher, with a slight hump, and even the Milliput didn’t quite work. 
 

49203287036_c4dcde9857_b.jpg

 

From the other direction. A technique I often use on the railway models, where I’m trying to match joints or level up surfaces, is to use a black marker pen scribbled over the area I’m working on. Like using a squirt of primer, but less smelly and messy, sanding reveals low points because the marker isn’t sanded away. 
 

49203287226_8a9e69777b_b.jpg

 

Underneath, things aren’t too bad. A slight complication is raised moulded fuel tanks on the Revell wing. I think I’ve managed to retain most of the feature. One of those serendipitous moments occurred, as I was using a scalpel blade to scrape back the putty. A Swann Morton No 10 - the big curved one - was almost exactly the right shape for the fuselage to wing curvature. 
 

Anyway, a bit more sanding and I think I’ll be happy with the outcome.

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49204470042_a67b9a84c8_b.jpg

 

Crikey! At this rate I’ll have to include this model in my 2019 yearbook post!

 

The horizontal tail surfaces from the Revell kit are slightly slimmer than the Airfix version. The fuselage fore and aft of the slot needed filing, sanding and filling to match. Once I was happy, I stuck the vertical stabilisers on. 
 

The question is now whether I am in the mood to tackle the Falcon vac transparencies, or to think about fitting the engines and undercarriage. 

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Coming on in leaps and bounds Heather, and looking great too!

Personally I'd leave the vac canopies until as close to the end as possible just to be sure my clumsy kits didn't crack them!

 

Ian

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49204875541_d1b4ef63f4_b.jpg

 

These are Revell's cowling fronts and representations of the radial engines.
 

The only major difference I can see for the 17P is a pair of intake horns (carburettors or oil coolers, don’t know). From my plastic stocks I found some tube about the right diameter ("about right" here meaning "good enough") and rigged it in my Dremel's chuck and did nasty things to it that would give a health and safety consultant a fit of the conniptions. After a couple of goes, I got four more or less the right shape. 
 

Pretty happy with that.

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This is coming along very fast Heather.  It is hard to keep  up with your progress. You will have this finished before mine arrives. 

You have definitely given me the Dornier bug. I broke out my Do 215 yesterday and put together the engines. 

Then I ordered another ICM Do 17z kit to do the Libyan Dornier. 

 

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8 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

A technique I often use on the railway models, where I’m trying to match joints or level up surfaces, is to use a black marker pen scribbled over the area I’m working on

That's so elegant. I'm going to have to adopt that in future myself if you don't mind Heather?

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22 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

if you don't mind Heather?

Why should I mind? 
 

A word of warning, though. Make sure to clean off all traces of spirit-based markers, like the ever-present Sharpies, before trying to paint anything. Ask me how I know this. :facepalm:

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A few more bits, and I will call it a night - and a pretty successful day all told. (Who said I was supposed to be working on paying stuff? Sometimes, paying stuff can wait.)

 

49205538496_52556b077f_b.jpg

 

Odds and ends. I used Revell's elevator balance horns, because they fit. After checking, it turns out the 17P didn’t have rudder balances, so that saved me a job. The cowlings/engines were glued on. I drilled out the exhaust stubs. The engines are really too close to the front of the cowlings, but it’s one of those compromises due to the age of the original moulds. Oh, and the undercarriage legs and tail wheel have been fitted.

 

49205538171_d793729a22_b.jpg

 

Like my original Do17Z build all those years ago, I treated this crosskit to a set of resin main wheels, supposedly designed to fit the Airfix 17E/F kit. The axle dimples were way too big for the kit parts (both kits, I checked). I plundered my brass tube stocks and found something that would let me sleeve the wheels, after drilling them out 2mm diameter. I will need a bit of care to ensure the wheels fit straight and level, but that will be after painting. For now, I’ll leave the wheel bay doors off, while I contemplate what else needs fitting before I think about painting the thing.

 

That’s all a bit quicker than I thought. 

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1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

It definitely looks like a Flying Pencil. 

Wow from that angle it really looks the part. I don't know why but I always find this variant of the Do17 family to be the most elegant before the front end was turned into a greenhouse.

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Well, things slowed right down. I was going to do things over the weekend, but in the end nothing happened.

 

Anyway, with the bulk of the main assembly done, I’m working out odd little details before plucking up courage for the transparencies. I’m also deciding on the camo and markings. I am very tempted to brush paint, mainly because I still find an airbrush a real chore to use. That aside, I’ve been rummaging through my decal stash to see if I can assemble sufficient letters to make up my chosen aircraft's code.

 

Well, it seems I can't. No problem with the national markings, of course. The thing is I can’t seem to find any generic Luftwaffe letter and number code decals out there in the wild. That's not actually true, because there’s a couple of sheets for fighters. Nothing obvious for bombers, though. Lots of stuff for Do17Zs, of course, but next to nothing suitable for 17Ps. 
 

Any ideas? 
 

I am beginning to think of making my own on my laser printer. The chosen aircraft had a white letter, which is available on one of the sheets I have to hand. The black letters and numbers could be drawn and printed on transfer paper. I think I’ll look at that, as there are some unit badges that may also need to be created.

 

Meanwhile, if the weather warms up a notch, I might get some primer on the airframe to see how much remedial work is required before painting commences in earnest.

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Hi Heather,


May these be of help? 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-German-Luftwaffe-Serials-decals-transfers-ww11-models-Fantasy-Printshop/200949778029?hash=item2ec98a466d:m:mh1eK72BH63XBgXRFdc6yTQ

I note in the dropdown list of compatible aircraft - 

Do 17M & P -  Fuselage  6.5mm / Under Wing 10mm

 

Enjoying following this build along - you might even make it into this years completed builds with the rate its been developing this week!

I have a Airfix Do17E and a Revel Do17 Z-2 kits potentially in the queue to be built next and watching this to see which way it pushes me! 

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