1/48 Classic Airframes Dornier Do17Z-2

Gallery Article by Colin Latta, IPMS Winnipeg on July 22 2015

 

      

For the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, here is my Classic Airframes 1/48 Do17Z-2.

It’s completed as a machine belonging to 9/KG 76, Corneilles-en-Vexin, France, July 1940 using Techmod sheet 48009 (great decals!). It required lots of detailing, and scratchbuilding, and the fit was sometimes a bit of an issue, but overall it was worth the effort. It’s painted using an Aztec airbrush with Tamiya acrylics, weathered with pastels and oils, and sealed with Tamiya’s “Flat clear”. Aftermarket used were Lion Roar belts, Quickboost gun barrels, Tally Ho gunsights, brass rod and tubing, and lots of milliput.

The kit itself is low pressure injected (limited run) plastic with lots of very nice resin, and the transparencies were fairly thick, but clear. The thickness was an advantage because there was lots of sanding and polishing to get them to fair in smoothly!

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There were several areas that needed either detailing, modification or complete scratchbuilding, The cockpit, even with the resin, needed more detail, stringers and frames were added with plastic strip, an inner sidewall was added to hide an impossible to fill gap, a throttle quadrant, small details and bombsight were scratchbuilt, the guns were heavily modified to look more like MG17’s, the cockpit panel was wired in back, as it was quite visible, and photo etch belts and rudder pedals added.

The ailerons were represented by an engraved line, while on the real aircraft , they were “frise” type ailerons. They were separated, rebulit with sprue and brass wire, trim tabs added, the wing cutout radiused down, and reattached. The missing landing light (from clear acrylic rod), nav lights (from clear tinted bingo chips!), and pitot were added, as were the missing “towel rack” antennae, and the HF antennae on the belly.

The tail required major surgery. The Dornier had a trimable stab that was completely missing, so the stab, elevators, and portions of the fuselage were removed, pivots made of brass wire, sideplates of plastic sheet, trim tabs and actuators added and respositioned, and reassembled as seen in period photo’s.

The engines received ignition wiring, an new ignition loom, and the cowl bracing and brackets that were completely missing (made from lead solder, brass wire, and plastic) Each engine required 15 brass rod pieces, 18 copper wire pieces, 1 aluminum tube, 10 plastic pieces and the drilling of 38 holes!

The Pilots gunsight , the air deflector plate, and the 3 gun position safety bars were added to the canopy from brass sheet and brass wire solder together, and finally, the landing gear and well were extensively detailed and brake lines added.

All in all, this kit took 1 year (off and on) to complete, but it was worth it.

Colin Latta

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Photos and text © by Colin Latta