Jump to content

Dornier 217 K1***FINISHED***


PeterB

Recommended Posts

Looking back over what must be almost 65 years of building Airfix kits, I have to say that the pattern of their earlier aircraft releases seems a bit strange at times. Having started off with a supposedly Mk I Spitfire you might perhaps have expected a few more aircraft from the Battle of Britain period, but instead we got a Spitfire IX, a Hurricane "IV" and a Bf 109 "G" followed later by a Do 217E instead of a 17Z and a late war Heinkel He III H-26 I think. Whatever- I bought their Do 217E in the early 1960's not too long after it was released, and when I had probably not really heard of it and here it is, totally refurbished in Maritime colours RLM72/73 over 65, next to a Frog Do 17Z in normal 70/71.

DSC06436-crop

There is of course a strong family resemblance as it was initially intended to be an improved Do-17 but put on weight and was given a new number. Subsequently I bought a book which had details of the plane including the later versions with the new glasshouse nose and I rather fancied one, perhaps a K-2 with extended wings to carry Fritz X or Hs 293 missiles. However I ended up buying this.

DSC06438-crop

The kit was first released in 1977 though this is the 1983 boxing, and over the years they released it as the N1 night fighter in 1979, the K2 eventually in 1996, bnackdatyed it to an E in 2005,  and then they released inline engined M1 in 2011. I think that at one point there was an aftermarket set of extended wings available but that seems to be long gone.

 

The 217 is a curious plane in some respects. As a night fighter it was too slow and clumsy but had long range and made a good night intruder until Hitler stopped operations over Britain as he wanted the German population to see the fallen RAF planes over their own soil. As a bomber it was pretty good but mostly was used at night or on maritime duties and was not too well known in the UK. It had a max bombload of around 8000lb, was quite fast, perhaps 350mph at altitude, and depending on the fuel/bomb load it had a range of over 1000 miles. This will probably end up as a night bomber from KG2 Holzhammer as on the front of the box.

 

Incidentally this is my second kit of this plane, the other was picked up cheap to provide an undercarriage for the Do-217 E refurbishment shown earlier. So if anybody needs any spares I should have everything except the wheels/legs/bay roof and maybe the cockpit floor and turret glazing. I may even have the decs too. Send me a PM if interested.

 

So my contribution to this GB with any luck should be one of the first Do-17 and pretty much the last Do-217.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
  • Like 13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am pretty sure that we will get the latter, but the Do-17 may take too long as I will have to fabricate an undercarriage . I have done a few simple single leg ones before but this is a bit more complicated, but I do have the 217 one to copy and I have AM wheels. The ruddy mudguards may be a bit tricky - we will see!

 

Pete

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

It's been a funny old day - heavy rain most of the time and not very nice. I live about half way up the valley of the River Taf (one "f" in Welsh) from which the English nickname "Taffy" for a Welshman probably originated. At this point the valley starts to get narrow with steep sides - the town and river are about 200ft above sea level, I am at 400ft less than half a mile away and the ridge behind me goes up to over 600 ft, and "Valleys Weather" can be quite strange. I took this photo about an hour ago - it was raining on me at the time and yet just across the valley the sunset was visible and there was some mist hanging over the woods opposite.

DSC06821

The old saw "red sky at night - shepherds' delight" suggests it will be a nice day tomorrow but I am not holding my breath.

 

Anyway, I have been a bit distracted by 3 other GB but as they draw to a close I thought I had better make a start on this. It will be mostly OOB if I am to have time to get the Do-17E/F built.

DSC06822-crop

Bit of touching up to do and I may add a bit more cockpit detail such as a rear bulkhead and some radio boxes. The control column is a bit odd in that it has part of the IP mounted on it alongside the open topped "wheel". Info on the 217 is not that brilliant and the plane is somewhat neglected in terms of references, but I will see what I can find on the interior - Italeri have provided another panel of sorts on the fuselage to the pilot's left.

 

I think the late Eric "Winkle" Brown summed the Do-217 up quite well when he said in 1975 "One would perhaps say it had been a moderate aircraft which established an undistinguished but honourable record".

 

Pete 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Ignore this as my computer has gone funny!

 

 

 

 

Edited by PeterB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with you on the lack of references, I've been finiding it particularly hard to find any reliable pics of the rear of the cockpit. Rather odd considering they made nearly 2000 of them!

 

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi James,

 

I have found some pics - which type of Dornier are you interested in - 17 or 217?

This is a 217K - the 217E would probably be similar. 

https://flic.kr/p/2nt3AD1

I probably have some pics for a 17E and/or Z as well.

 

Pete

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my previous post I mentioned Eric Brown's assessment on it but forgot to include his nickname for the 217 - “Pregnant Pencil” which seems rather apt! I have managed to find a few photos of the cockpit interior and have added a bit of detail. The 217 had a crew of 4 all housed in the nose as in many contemporary German planes. The pilot sat raised up on the left with a high backed armoured seat. The Navigator/Bombardier who doubled up as nose gunner sat below and to the right of him, and at the rear of the cockpit was the radio operator/dorsal gunner on a pivoting seat suspended over the cut-out for the ventral gun position. The kit provides seats and figures for all three of these crew but nothing for the flight engineer/ventral gunner who, according to a plan I found, seems to have been seated behind the navigator on the right of the fuselage. I am unclear who was supposed to operate the guns at the rear and sides of the canopy but it must have been rather cramped in there – why exactly these were fitted as there was a turret just behind them seems a bit of a puzzle but following the losses early in the Battle of Britain they seem to have become a standard fit on early Ju-88A and most if not all Do-17Z/217.

 

Anyway, I have modified the rear section of the floor slightly and added a gash seat from my spares box for the engineer, together with a crude engine instrument panel. I have also made a “wrap round” rear bulkhead and added various boxes/panel as the radio operator seemed to be virtually surrounded by them – I may have to modify the wing tabs so that they clear the bulkhead as the geometry is not helpful! I will somewhat reluctantly have to add the dorsal turret when I close up the fuselage unless I can modify it to fit later. If not I will have to careful not to break/dislodge the MG 13!

DSC06828-crop DSC06827-crop

It is of course nothing like the real thing but it gives a vague impression and makes the cockpit a bit "fussier" when seen through the considerable amount of glazing.

 

Pete

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had expected this to be a fairly simple build but in fact it is proving to be a bit of a pain, at least in terms of the cockpit interior. The thin support struts for the radio operators seat were always going to be a problem due to the lack of positive locating points, and the main floor was a bit suspect as it only had one shallow supporting ledge on the starboard side and a small “pip” on the other, but it seemed to have gone in OK until I checked the canopy. I don't know if it is the kit or something I have done but the floor seems to sit too high, or maybe just that back of the pilot's seat is too tall – whatever, I have had to take the odd millimetre off it and now it seems to just about fit,  but anyway the fuselage is now closed up.

DSC06833-crop

 

The K-1 was the first operational model of the “modified” 217 with the “step-less windscreen and was followed by the K-2 and K-3 with extended wings and control equipment for the Hs 293 and Fritz X stand off weapons but supplies of the BMW 801 radial engine were strained by the demand created by the Fw 190, and so before long it was largely supplanted by the M version with DB 603A inline engines. The main users of both versions were KG 2 and KG 100, the latter being the anti- shipping specialists, though KG 40 did use them for a short period, as did a few other units. The kit provides markings for III/KG2 and I/KG66.

 

Pete

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 19/06/2022 at 00:38, PeterB said:

DSC06821

The old saw "red sky at night - shepherds' delight" suggests it will be a nice day tomorrow but I am not holding my breath.

Pete, if you'd post that pic in the Gallery you'd be the winner! A very good post it is too, it's nice to read about the regular things in our lives outside the model building bubble, where we maybe escape our daily chores and worries. We can indeed do that with one pic and a few words, without going all-public with our lives. Thank you! V-P

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if it is me being more clumsy than usual or maybe the kit with its rather ambiguous instructions, but lately if have been having a few problems getting both the undercarriage bay interior and the engines/cowlings to fit properly. Managed in the end.

DSC06841-crop

Next up - the undercarriage which could be fun as the parts are rather fragile and getting the mudguards on looks a bit tricky!.

 

Pete

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As expected, getting the mudguards on was a bit of a fiddle but anyway the basic airframe is complete now.

DSC06853-crop

Bit of filling to do and then I will get some paint on and see what the joints look like. I have already put some Gunze RLM 76 on to see what it looks like - bit on the blue side perhaps but I think I can live with it.

 

Pete

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi VP,

 

Yes, the original Do-217A was indeed very similar to the Do-17Z but then it started to put on weight!, and finally the K/M versions radically changed the nose glazing. I am beginning to have my doubts about Italeri's take on the paint scheme. They say black undersurfaces with a very high demarcation line which is OK, but the upper surface colours are a bit suspect. They say FS34079 mottle or squiggles over FS36440 or in other words "leaf green" over light gull grey - so I presume RLM 71 over RLM 76. However my sources on the subject of Luftwaffe Night Bombers say that when the "normal" maritime 72/73/65 scheme was overpainted in 22 Black underneath, the 72/73 was initially retained, and when 76 was later applied the mottle/squiggle was either 74 or 75, or maybe even both, so grey not green! Unfortunately most of the profiles I have are for the M version with inline engines, and they either show dark grey over 76 or even 76 over 72/73. I will have to put my thinking cap on as I have no pics/profiles of the planes that the kit has decs for.

 

Pete

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think 74 or 75 over 76 sounds far more plausible than green over grey. But if you can't find anything proving the colours that it should be, no one can disprove your choices ;)

 

James

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, 81-er said:

I think 74 or 75 over 76 sounds far more plausible than green over grey. But if you can't find anything proving the colours that it should be, no one can disprove your choices ;)

 

James

Thanks James.

I have also seen suggestions of a black squiggle, sometimes with either 74 or 75 and at least one where the 72/72 was painted over with patches of 76, but I think I will do a darker grey squiggle. All I have to do now is to decide if the rudder/endplates should be 76 or black.

 

Pete

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Totally off topic but earlier in this thread I posted a photo looking down my garden at sunset and you may have noticed the large holly tree at the left. We have a few trees down at the end of the garden and get a lot of birds in them, which my wife likes feeding. We also get the odd grey squirrel from time to time and although technically vermin we have until now found them amusing to watch. However, earlier this week my wife bought a new nut feeder for the birds which she hung in the holly tree, and within 24 hours a blasted squirrel started chewing the plastic base to get at the nuts. Fortunately one of our cats spotted it and after a few minutes glaring at each other and thrashing both their tails, the squirrel beat a hasty retreat - my wife has gone right off squirrels!

 

Pete

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have made a start on my RLM75 "squiggles" - not sure if I can class it as a true "wellenmuster" or not.

DSC06900-crop

It will need a bit of touching up but not too bad so far - slow and steady is best.

 

Pete

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, this is not proving to be quite as tricky as I expected - so far. When I do mottling I have a problem getting the size, shape and spacing consistent  but random, but here on the wings it has been relatively easy in that respect - the rear fuselage may be a bit harder to get a convincing result on but we will see.

DSC06902-crop

When I have finished I will go round again with the RLM 76, tidy it up a bit and tone down some of the heavier paint where the brush was too "wet".

 

Pete

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...