Bridlington & Wolds Scale Model Club Forum
Models => Modelling Projects => Topic started by: cph64 on January 04, 2021, 03:24:55 PM
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I bought this kit a few years ago on a visit to Doncaster Air Museum. It's one of a series of releases by ICM of the Do 215. It comes on four light grey sprues, with a lighter fifth for the nightfighter parts, and one clear. There are 148 parts, not all of which are used, including 30 of the 40 m/g magazines, the clear sprue also having redundant parts. Markings are for 3 machines, 1 from NJG1 and 2 from NJG2 with 2 a/c being variants of RLM 74/75/76 and one overall RLM 02 (black). Included in the instructions are cutaways of the a/c which will help in positioning parts. ICM also make this plane in 1/48 so they may have just scaled that down to create this kit I'll check my references.
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I've been meaning to pick up one of these kits for a while so shall be watching this build Chris. I may have an xtra-decal sheet for one of these too if you may be interested? If so, I'll check and get back to you.
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Hi, thanks for the offer Wizzel it will interesting to see what options are on the sheet if you can find it.
Painting started in the cockpit area, RLM 02 overall with RLM 66 instruments.
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Hi Chris,
Looks an interesting project. Cockpit looks like there will be plenty of scope for detailing, paint washes, etc.
Bigkev
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Looking forward to this, I always liked the look of this aircraft.
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Is the radar on the nose plastic or brass think Albion Alloys do some brass crosses that can be used to make this with brass tube so you can bend them to the correct angle.
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Thanks MSea I'll check them out. Progress has been slow as, per other reviews, the instructions are vague to part placement. It's been constant cross-checking with online and book references. I definitely wouldn't recommend this kit for a beginner. Examples as follows: the instructions show fitting part B28 under part B17 and fitting both to the fuselage side. Photos of the real area don't show part B28 fitted so I left it out. After joining the fuselage halves you're supposed to fit the clear glazing, part G9, into the access door which would prove very difficult. I fitted mine prior to joining and even then had to enlarge the opening. I've also spent a lot of time trying to work out how the seats are placed. The instructions don't show that the legs on the rear gunners seat are splayed. I'm fitting this after joining the fuselage halves so hopefully have got the angles correct.
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Well you're not doing so bad Chris.
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Cockpit halves joined and I've deviated from the instructions again for the next two procedures. As I think fitting some of the parts late in the build could lead to parts falling into the body I've put the bomb bay doors in place and the same with the blanked off ventral gun position. The gun pack is not a good fit so this is being sanded as best as before it will be fitted plus I've deepened the recesses for the cannons.
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Due to lack of positive indication regarding the position of the radio sets etc. they're about 1mm too far back so I've had to cut a recess into the rear wall to get it to fit. This in turn meant that the part that fits onto it was too big so I've used a smaller spare part from the kit. Fitted to this are several magazines for the rear m/g. They're very small and delicate and I managed to break three when removing them from the sprue, good job there's about 20 spare (Wizzel beware!!!). I've continued fitting the parts of the lower fuselage and blended them in using PPP. The next exiting part will be fitting the front and rear fuselage parts together. Ah the joys of modelling!!!
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As this kit is the original 2008 release the instructions for the location of the wheel bay parts didn't allow the wing halves to mate up so I downloaded the instructions for the 2017 release. This is a re-tooling so has better parts and breakdown but gave better views of where the parts in the nacelles should go. Building the first nacelle was like building Ikea furniture, it takes ages to work out what goes where but the second on flies together. Being an earlier release there were still gaps at the joints even after cleaning up the faces.
I've also managed to get the rear gunners seat in place, with the help of superglue, the rear wall and spars in place but you have to fit the wing halves over these seperately as the moulded detail wont allow you to slide the wings on. Again due to the way the kit is broken down any misalignment shows up big time, hence the use of a lot of filler.
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Lots of work going on here.
Looking good.
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Second wing fitted. I did this the way I should have done the first by fitting the upper part first then adding the underside, it still needed filler though. If you get the re-tooled newer release the upper wing comes as one piece so you don't have this problem or the ones with the engine nacelles. I think ICM must have had a lot of negative feedback about the kit which caused them to retool.
The tailplane comes as a one piece upper but the instructions would have you fit the actuators through the upper and lower halves before joining these together. No way!!! I cut them in half and added them after.
The infra-red search light had been pre-painted with Tamiya Clear Red and the blanking plate, which isn't mentioned in the instructions, for the nose section fitted before it was joined to the fuselage. Nose windows were masked and a coat of RLM 02 added as some of the inside will be visible. Some blending in is still required.
The engine nacelles were the next to receive the file, fit, file, fit treatment but still need PPP and some filing to get them to start looking correct. Further work is still needed.
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A fair amount of work on this one Chris.
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Well done for keeping on with this one. I think I would have binned by now!
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I've been tempted Howard!!!
The undercarriage has taken a long time to fit as it's made up of seven fragile pieces, which kept breaking, and there is no clear instruction on how they go together and where they fit. The new tooling has this down to two pieces complete with location holes!!! I worked things out using the kit plans, the new tool plans and an article in SAMI.
The cockpit is masked using a combination of Tamiya tape, Maskol and some of the Montex masks for the Airfix Do 17Z. Surprisingly the masks for the wheels don't fit but those for the Bristol Bombay do. Some fettling was required to get an' as near as' fit for the canopy with gaps filled with PPP. This has been given a coat of RLM 02 representing the internal framework.
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It's trying your patience is this one Chris. Keep at it though. I'm sure you'll make a good job of it in the end!
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Another labour of love Chris.
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Another labour of love Chris.
Looks like that is what it is!
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patience grasshopper
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Hi Chris,
Another great build.
Looks like you are winning in this build, judges score you ahead.
Cheers,
Bigkev
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Thanks for the positive comments everyone.
I'd painted the underside RLM 65 Hellblau before realising that it should have been RLM 76 Lichtblau, now here's the thing RLM 65 sprayed thinly over Halfords Grey Primer looks like RLM 76 so no need to respray, bonus!! Left overnight to dry the undersurfaces were masked with tape, blue tack and Maskol before the uppersurfaces were sprayed RLM 75 Grauviolett. I tried spraying differently by doing individual panels for a change which has created a 'mottled' effect. I'll see what it looks like when dried thoroughly.
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That looks excellent. 8)
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Looking good Chris.
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I used up my supply of Blue Tack and had to resort to Maskol in a couple of places. Then it was off to the spray box for the RLM 74 Graugrun which will be left overnight before removing the masking. Fingers crossed.
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Thanks for the positive comments everyone.
I'd painted the underside RLM 65 Hellblau before realising that it should have been RLM 76 Lichtblau, now here's the thing RLM 65 sprayed thinly over Halfords Grey Primer looks like RLM 76 so no need to respray, bonus!! Left overnight to dry the undersurfaces were masked with tape, blue tack and Maskol before the uppersurfaces were sprayed RLM 75 Grauviolett. I tried spraying differently by doing individual panels for a change which has created a 'mottled' effect. I'll see what it looks like when dried thoroughly.
Hi Chris,
That mottled effect looks very effective, even at this early stage.
Power to you Guv!
Cheers,
Bigkev
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Masking removed and I'm pleased with the result. The kit instructions only show side views of this aircraft so I referred to a photo of a Do 217 Nachtjager for the upper surfaces and used artistic license for the rest. Just a little bit of bleed on the underside so that can be touched up after decalling. And I should have known better there, the saga continues!!! The first one shattered and I repaired as best as then so did the second, but even worse so they were binned and I turned to the spares box. Luckily between odd spares and the Xtradecal sheets I obtained the crosses and swastikas. The remaining kit decals have had two coats of Klear applied but I will go back and do a third or even a fourth later. If the Unit codes and Nachtjager badges shatter then I'll have to source them from elsewhere as I don't have the correct letters or size of badge in my spares box.
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It's been a trial Chris, but looks well worth it!
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The Gruppe markings almost went on with out a problem, one side gave no trouble but the other side split. These were repaired as best as and then I realised that they were in RLM 02 so I coated them in Klear again and painted the cracks accordingly. The white around the Nachtjager badges shattered and came away as did part of the white around both green 'D's. These were repaired using the white pencil I have for canopy liners. The red walkway lines on the body couldn't be saved so were replaced by spares from the Do 17Z build but the ones on the wings were repairable, which couldn't be said for the warning signs so these again were sourced from spare. All the fuel/oil markings had to be repaired as best as.
The mudguards aren't a great fit and had to be eased into place and then the flame dampers were fitted after making adjustments plus painting and applying washes.
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Hi Chris,
Nice end result, despite all the problems you encountered.
Is the next project a 'simple straight forward build'
Bigkev
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It nearly is Kev, lol!!!
Framework tidied up and touchups complete. The four upper machine guns were fitted as per the instructions but looked to long so they were removed and shortened. On the strength of that the holes for the belly pack cannons were deepened and the nose cannon shortened. I'm taking a stress break from this before tackling the FuG 202 aerial array. Abion Alloys don't appear to do anything small enough that I can see so I'll use the kit parts for the limbs and try thinning down the spare aerials from my Bv 222.
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Looking pretty good Chris.
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Looks great, well worth the effort!
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Even more for the collection.