1/48 ICM Dornier Do 217N-1

[Mottlemaster]

The instrument panel difficulties happened in my build and I forgot to flag them up . I actually remember thinking at the time to mention it to you but after struggling for half an hour with twezers and glue probably slumped on to the sofa to recover. I didn't have photo etch to add a further degree of difficulty.

Another area to keep an eye on is the upper fuselage/wing joint as a step can be avoided.

If anything else comes to mind I'll let you know.

Cheers Alistair

 

 

[81-er]

Thanks Alistair. I do remember your issues with the wing step, so I'm prepared for that. Thank you for mentioning it though. I've got a plan of action involving thin shims of plasticard, sanding, and filler, all used in the areas most appropriate. Having tried the glazing for the ventral gun position in place, that is slightly too narrow along one edge. Unfortunately that back edge is pretty much frameless, so I can't put a support or spreader behind it. My options now are shim it out to the correct width and apply a little heat to hopefully encourage it to stay in the new shape, or to carefully sand down the fuselage sides to disguise the join. I think option two is probably the better of those.

 

James

[81-er]

A bit more progress last night. First off, I glued the filler pieces between the bomb bay roof and the fuselage sides in:

 

 

 

Probably not so obvious there, but there are some gaps along the joint with the fuselage sides. I’m hoping these will be hidden by the doors, but I’ll check and fill if needed. What it has done is give the fuselage a bit of rigidity, as it had been a bit flexible.

 

I glued some slivers of 10thou plasticard on to the low side of the ventral bulge to make up the worst of the height difference, then roughly sanded them so they weren’t standing proud:

 

 

There’s still a step along the line the glazing butts up to, but I’m going to try filling that with some UV glue when I attach the clear part.

 

The plasticard was then covered in a wodge of filler and left to dry:

 

 

The last thing I tackled was the “towel rail” aerial just ahead of the tail wheel. That’s been bugging me since day one as it looks really clunky and was covered in flash:

 

 

I made a pair of replacements out of 1mm diameter styrene rod and some 0.3mm brass wire:

 

 

The uprights and the downturn of the brass are all over length and pass through holes in the fuselage for added strength. I still need to finesse the tops of the uprights a little to get them level, but I’m much happier with this then the kit parts.

 

James

[modelling minion]

Nice work James, the towel rail is a big improvement and it looks like you have got the step in the fuselage sorted.

 

🇺🇦

[81-er]

Thanks Craig  I'm getting there, but there's still a lot of work in that step. It shall be vanquished, it just might take a while 🤣

James

[81-er]

I've made a bit more progress on this. The filler under the cockpit has been smoothed back and I think it's looking pretty decent now. I've also got the tailplanes on:

 

 

And that's where the problem became evident. Maybe not so clear in the photo, but there's a twist in the fuselage and the tail is canted about 15 degrees to starboard when compared with the spar. I've got a building jig on order to correct this, but there's no chance of this being done by the deadline now. I will keep plugging away and updating until it's done.

 

James

[Mottlemaster]

1 hour ago, 81-er said:

And that's where the problem became evident. Maybe not so clear in the photo, but there's a twist in the fuselage and the tail is canted about 15 degrees to starboard when compared with the spar. I've got a building jig on order to correct this, but there's no chance of this being done by the deadline now. I will keep plugging away and updating until it's done.

 

That's a shame James but im sure you will find a fix .

I have just taken a look back at the instructions and feel that the fit issues i had originated with an error in assembly of stage 08 in the instructions , particularly part no A15 ,C7, A17 and A11 . 

i ended up with a twist in my wing spar ( can be seen in pic on my build thread ) . Lucky the plastic is soft enough to allow it to be twisted to fit the wings without forcing them out of position .

I have built two Dragon Ju88's which have a reputation of being tricky builds , but they are far more forgiving than the ICM 217 .

 

Take care with stage 34 . i would not cement C2 and C6 to both sides of the engine nacelle as this allows  spreading of completed nacelle to avoid gap beneath wing . ( i didnt do this

 

Cheers

Alistair

[81-er]

You may well be right, Alister. I'm also wondering if I was mistaken in gluing in the sides of the bomb bay earlier than the insturctions suggest. I did it thinking it would add some rigidity (which it did), but I suspect it also helped "set" the twist. Once the jig arrives I'll see what I can do about straightening it.

 

Too late on the tip with the nacelles, mine are already together. I'll just have to get creative if I have gaps.

 

James

[Andwil]

A bit of rotten luck with the twist, I hope you can fix it.

 

AW

[modelling minion]

Very sorry to hear about the twist in the fuselage James and that you won't get this one across the line by the deadline.

Please do keep us updated with your progress though.

 

🇺🇦

[81-er]

Thanks chaps. I'll definitely keep you updated

 

James