Racing Arrow - 1/72 DO335 "What If?"

[billn53]

In a recent build of the ill-fitting Dragon/DML DO335 Arrow ( https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235034172-luft-46-dornier-do-335-b-8-high-altitude-nightfighter/ ), I totally botched the kit's multi-piece canopy and had to steal a replacement from a Hobby Boss kit in my stash. 

 

 

The Dragon/DML canopy and its Hobby Boss replacement:

 

 

That left me with a nearly-complete Hobby Boss kit. Not wanting it to go to waste, I decided something had to be done. So here we are with my DO335 Reno Air Racer project!

 

 

First, I clipped the wings and added a wingtip fence:

 

 

 

 

 

I also squared off the horizontal and vertical stabs:

 

 

 

 

 

I extended the height of the vertical stab with plasticard, sanded into shape:

 

    

 

The Pfeil is a natural tail-sitter, and plenty of weight is needed to keep its nose on the ground. This is especially true of the Hobby Boss kit. I don't really know how much weight I added, but it's a bunch!

 

 

 

A quick test fit shows the modified Arrow's racy lines (haha):

 

 

 

Moving on to other details, I thinned down nose cowling's flaps which otherwise were a scale six-inches thick!

 

   

 

I also de-fanged this warbird by grinding away the nose cannon. Otherwise it would make for some interesting racing!

 

 

 

The kit's nose gear also needed attention. I cut away the molded-in wheel and mud guard, opened up the nose gear fork, and found a replacement wheel in my stash (formerly a F-4 Phantom main gear wheel)

 

    

 

I enhanced Hobby Boss's bare-bones cockpit with a new seat, consoles built up from plastic stock, a new instrument panel, and an intrepid pilot from the spares box:

 

    

 

    

 

With that done, it was time to attack the reason for this project -- the missing canopy.

 

First, I made a resin mold from another DO335 canopy in my stash (yes, I have way too many of these kits):

 

 

 

The 335's copious canopy framing isn't appropriate for a racing plane, so I gave everything a generous layer of putty:

 

 

 

and after very much work, had a reasonably smooth mold with which I vacuformed a new canopy. Here's the result of my effort:

 

 

 

That's as far as I've gotten so far. Not bad for a few evenings' work!

 

Next up: Putting all the pieces together.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by billn53

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

3 minutes ago, billn53 said:

Is your pilot 11’ tall ? Those rudder pedals look a bit far from the seat ? 😉

[billn53]

LOL they are, aren't they? I recall Hobby Boss did something similar with their P-61 Black Widow...

[Azgaron]

Cool project and nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice idea. I wonder if a fillet would look good up to the fin?

I'm getting all sorts of ideas for a colour scheme but I imagine that

this would be a fifties racer, so a solid colour may be more appropriate.

Nice work on the new canopy BTW.

[billn53]

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Nice idea. I wonder if a fillet would look good up to the fin?

I'm getting all sorts of ideas for a colour scheme but I imagine that

this would be a fifties racer, so a solid colour may be more appropriate.

Nice work on the new canopy BTW.

Grand idea about the fillet. How does this look?

 

 

And a fifties racer... I'm gob-smacked I didn't think of that. There I was wondering if I should add a HUD and glass cockpit... 

 

Team Arrow has already found a sponsor so the colour scheme is already decided. Everything is double top secret... all I can say right now is that the sponsor is well-known in the German brewing industry (wink).

[Rob G]

You've got me wondering now how one would look in Red Bull colours...

[Pete in Lincs]

6 hours ago, billn53 said:

Team Arrow has already found a sponsor so the colour scheme is already decided. Everything is double top secret... all I can say right now is that the sponsor is well-known in the German brewing industry (wink).

Looking good, Bud.

[Silenoz]

Bitte ein bit off racing?

 

Nice work so far, just some ideas from other racers...

 

No higher cockpit far all-round visibility? Or some mirror scoop on top?

[Vicarage Vee]

Patrese,  Mass or Stommelen?.. Classic.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Vicarage Vee

[Christer A]

This is a BRILLIANT idea!

The fin fillet sure worked wonders too.

[billn53]

V2 asked, "Patrese,  Mass or Stommelen?"

 

Team Arrow's senior pilot is Stefan Mass -- Jochen Mass's great uncle.  Stefan was a Dornier 335 test pilot before joining JG44 in the last months of WW2. Known as "The Stig" of  air racing during the fifties. 

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by billn53

[billn53]

Time for a quick update. The empennage is complete and ready for paint. I had to do some minor re-scribing on the fin to restore detail lost when I added the fillet and tip extension.

 

 

 

I sprayed the landing gear bits & pieces, along with the wheel wells, with Alclad's airframe aluminum over a gloss black primer.

 

 

 

The majority of my effort, however, has been spent on the cockpit. My pilot is now in place and I've glued down the vacuform canopy. It didn't fit as cleanly as I had hoped, so some careful puttying was needed around the edges. A few more sessions with putty & sanding sticks will probably be needed before I am ready to prime & paint.

 

 

 

I hope to be able to take advantage of the long weekend that is coming up to make more progress.

[Azgaron]

Nice work! The metal looks very nice!

 

Håkan

 

[billn53]

Over the long Memorial Day weekend I was able to put in a good bit of time on this build. I'm now pretty much ready to add decals and finish up with the various bits and pieces that will complete this project. Here are pics of my weekend's efforts:

 

I masked off the canopy and did some final prep of the canopy-fuselage seam:

 

 

 

I then sprayed a primer coat, using Alclad's gray primer with micro-balloons. This was my first time using the Alclad gray primer, I really like how it went on:

 

 

 

But it also revealed some additional touch-up work was needed:

 

    

 

    

 

    

 

After taking care of the above items, I was ready to proceed with painting. My color selection for this racing Arrow is a bright orange. I was afraid that the orange would have issues covering the gray primer, so I added a flat white undercoat:

 

 

 

Gloss orange (as well as gloss yellow, red, etc.) can require many coats to cover, but I found a tip online that worked great. It's based on flat colors being more opaque than glossy ones. So, the trick was to first paint my Arrow with a coat of flat orange, followed up with the final gloss orange color. For the flat orange, I used an old bottle of Floquil CN Orange lacquer that I found at my local shop:

 

 

 

I let that dry, then polished the surface with various grades of polishing cloths before spraying the final gloss coat. For that, I used Tamiya TS-12 lacquer that I decanted out of the rattlecan.

 

By the way, here's another tip for you. I happen to own a breadmaking proofer, which is basically a temperature controlled box used for raising yeast dough. It works great for reducing the time needed for paint to dry, plus it keeps dust off in the process:

 

 

 

While my paint was drying, I turned my attention to the propellers. Here, I decided to use a pair of aftermarket five-bladed Sea Fury props. I was able, with a bit of effort, to adapt the Arrow's spinners to accept the new props:

 

   

 

After assembling the propellers, I sprayed the blades with semi-gloss black, then masked off the tips and spinners for detail painting:

 

    

 

This was my first ever attempt at painting a Luftwaffe-style spiral on the spinner, so cut me some slack if it's not exactly perfect!

 

With that done, I retrieved my orange Arrow from the proofing box and sprayed a coat of Alclad aqua gloss in preparation for decals and some very light weathering:

 

 

 

And, that's where we are for now. Till next time, keep modeling!

 

 

[Max Headroom]

Mad. Utterly stark raving mad.

 

I approve!!!

 

Trevor

[Christer A]

That's one tasty looking Pfeil!

Excellent finish!

[Silenoz]

looking good so far.. will you give it a real shiny polished finish?

[billn53]

Decals are on. Team Arrow's sponsor can now be revealed:

 

 

 

I've never experienced decals that behaved like these did. Within seconds of placing the decals on the model, the decals started to wrinkle up as if I had doused them with an overdose of setting solution. In the end, they flattened out and look really nice. However, I did screw up the big decal on the starboard wing while trying to roll out the wrinkles (that was before I realized that if I just left them alone, everything would turn out fine). Note how some of the letters have become warped, especially the "Jage" and ending "r":

 

 

 

I'll let these dry out and give everything another coat of clear gloss. To answer Silenoz's question about polishing, my clear coat is an acrylic and I understand it is best to let acrylic paints thoroughly dry (weeks, not days) before attempting to polish them out. Maybe someone has firsthand experience and can give me some tips?

 

My next post will likely be an RFI. All that's left to do is add the props, exhausts, and landing gear. The canopy still needs to be unmasked -- I have my fingers crossed that everything still looks fine there.

 

Finally, this past weekend (Memorial Day weekend) we had a number of warbirds fly in to my local airport. Here are some pics I took:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If only I had a couple thousand bucks to burn, I would have dropped it immediately for a Mustang ride:

 

 

 

 

[Azgaron]

Nice paint job, and cool with that orange color! Jägermeister decals looks cool too!

 

Håkan

 

[Vultures1]

Looks great in that orange scheme and the choice of sponsor is perfect - top job!

[Pete in Lincs]

Great orange.

Get me a ticket to ride in Fifi!

[billn53]

Less than two weeks since I started and this project is complete!

 

 

More pics are in the RFI section: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235038938-just-for-kicks-do335-arrow-as-a-reno-air-racer/

 

[Azgaron]

Love how it turned out! Excellent fun build, and looks great!

 

Håkan