Hobbycraft Dornier DO-17Z in Finnish Markings.

 

The HobbyCraft 1/48th scale Dornier DO-17Z.

A little about the DO-17.

The DO-17 was a cutting edge schnellbomber for Germany in the 30s, nicknamed the Flying Pencil because of the slick, streamlined lines of it's early variants. But the final variant, the Z was a bit chunkier thanks to the demands of real wartime needs. By the time of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, it was definitely showing it's age and was becoming easy game for the English interceptors it was encountering. This may help explain why, in the late Fall of 1941, Hermann Goring felt he could gift Finland 15 ex-Luftwaffe DO-17's. 

Still, the Finns were happy to get anything to help them carry their war to the Soviets. The only other bombers they had at the time were some aging Bristol Blenheims. The Finns used the Dorniers for bombing, reconnaissance, and even for dropping commandos behind enemy lines. The Dorniers continued their service up until the armistice in September of 1944. By then the remaining Dorniers were principally used for photo mapping. (The Finns also had a number of JU-88's which had become their main bomber type.) 

Dornier DO-63, the subject of my model, was delivered to Finland on January 1, 1942. It served with 1/LeLv 46 until June 30, 1944, when it was shot down by Soviet AA.

A shot of the actual aircraft, DO-63.

And here's my 1/48th scale version!

The kit.

I remember first seeing a Hobbycraft, (HC) DO-17 at a model store in Great Falls, Montana over 30 years ago! I was excited to think somebody made one in that scale, but didn't buy it as I wasn't yet modeling then. Much later, when I saw the same kit on eBay, I snapped it up. I didn't know any better. Had I been more aware, I would have realized that there are much better kits, (ICM, Classic Airframes) available now. The HC kit has many, many accuracy problems. Quite frankly, I decided to address only a few of them.

The kit, the decals and PE, and a very nice reference by Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman.

The first problem is the HC's kit fuselage profile. It tends to sit "Tail-high", and has earned it the nickname "the Banana". Because of the way HC has designed the fuselage, the fix is actually pretty simple. HC has seen fit to mold the fuselage in upper and lower halves. I actually like this since it eliminates the seam in the middle. It also makes correcting the fuselage easy. you just have to saw the bottom half in two and remove a small wedge of material from that lower half. The top half wants to be straight, so you can use that as a guide. 

Here's a link to a good description of the "fix".

There are many other problems with this kit; the interior lacks a lot of detail, the landing gear is difficult to install. The cowlings are wrong. The whole nose is incorrect. There is a window missing on the starboard side and the bombsight housing is located on the wrong side. Some of these problems I addressed, some I just ignored. I decided to just work the kit as much as I felt like and not worry about it. After that, I kind of enjoyed the build!

Fixing the "banana".

After that is done, I turned to working on the interior. There are lot's of interesting parts on the sprue tree, but only certain ones are meant for the DO-17Z! The instructions are pretty vague about the actual location of these parts, and there's lots of empty spaces. At this point I just started ad-libbing and made up a bunch of stuff that looked like 1940 era avionics! Anyway, a lot of detail will get lost after everything is buttoned up, right? I did splurge and used some Eduard seat harnesses.

Okay, after that fun, I assembled the wings, cowlings, and nacelles. The two vertical fins on the tailplane had misplaced locating holes, so I filled one of them. At this point, I should mention that the cowlings are not quite right...the side intakes seem to be located on the starboard side on both engines. So you have to orientate them that way. In doing so, you will find that all the scribed paneling does not match. I've also heard that there are no cooling flaps on these aircraft either. You should just fill all the lines on the cowlings. I didn't figure this out until way too late, so I just let them be.

The wing fit to the fuselage is not too bad.

I used a mask set meant for the ICM kit which is not optimal. I later found that there is a mask set for the Hobbycraft DO-17!

Well, with much of the main assembly finished, I was able to begin having fun. Time to paint! First, I applied the yellow theater marking over a base of white. Than, I taped the separation between the upper and lower camouflage but I used Silly Putty worms for the soft edges of the upper camo colors.

I was pretty happy with the results. Incidentally, the paints used were all Tamiya. Nato Green XF-67, Nato Black XF-69 and for the undersides, a 50/50 mix of Light Blue, XF-23 and Flat White XF-2.

Decals were next. Actually pretty simple for this aircraft.

Then time for more assembly. I used stacked Legos to support the vertical stabs while they dried.

Moving along with the engines. These are in no way representative of a DO-17Z engine, but at this point, I just didn't care! This view also shows the landing gear, which had to be supported by a chunk of Lego!

Getting there, the canopy isn't cemented in place yet.

Here's a peek into the finished cockpit, just in case I can't see it through the canopy!

Almost there, still have to glue the canopy.

Well, it's done! Not the most accurate model on my shelf, but it will fill the DO-17 shaped hole in my Finnish AF collection until I get the gumption to build an ICM kit! That won't happen for a loooong time!

Academy 1/32 scale Nieuport XVII in Italian colors.

The Academy Nieuport 17, 1/32 scale.

A typical Italian, Macchi built N.17

Academy's Nieuport 17, Tom's Model Works PE, and CSM decals

My next project was to be a Finnish Hurricane, but I ran into some issues with the old-tool Airfix kit and, well just lost all my interest in the project for the time being. I had a strong desire to attempt another WWI subject in 1/32 scale, so I pulled the Academy Nieuport 17 out of my stash.

The Academy kit is a re-pop of the Hobbycraft model, I confirmed that by happening to pick up a Hobbycraft version on eBay. The moldings are identical. With the Academy kit however, you get a small photo-etch, (PE) fret and a roll of black thread for rigging! For this build I also used Tom's Model Works' "French WWI Aircraft" Photo-etch set, and for markings, the Copper State Models'  Italian Nieuport sheet.

Tom's seatback attached to the kit's seat pan.

The build starts as usual, after initial cleanup and primer coat, with the interior. The Academy kit has a reasonably nice interior to begin with, although it lacks any instrumentation except for a instrument panel on the PE fret which does not resemble any Nieuport 17 interior I've ever seen. Academy did include a few instrument faces on their decal sheet. I used a couple of those to make a couple of readouts I then attached to the interior framing.

I also used the throttle control and framework from Tom's photo etch fret. Also from the Tom's sheet was the perforated back of the pilot's seat and the seat belts. Finally, a small piece of sheet styrene was carved to resemble the rear former of the cockpit.

The final assembly of the cockpit included a façade of the ammunition boxes forward of the instruments, a steel seat support panel, (From the Tom's sheet), and rudder pedals with some calbling.

The interior with a couple of scratch built instruments and a bit of Tom's PE.

Now I turned to the exterior components. One nice feature of the Academy molding is that the ailerons are easily positioned into a dynamic position without having to cut and glue. I also positioned the elevator in a slight downward tilt that seems common on Nieuports. At this time I also drilled out the holes needed for running the rigging on the wings. There's surprisingly few for this aircraft! 

The kit's cowling required a little attention; It did not have the ribs on the upper cowling which is seen on many N.17s. I used thin Evergreen strips topped with a little stretched sprue to represent those. The engine is a reasonable representation with careful painting. I added ignition wires to the molded on plugs. The prop and the interplane struts were finished with my standard method of a base coat of Model Mast "Wood" followed with a wash of Tamiya Flat Brown and a finish coat of Tamiya "Clear Orange".

The PE from the kit that I did use was the end fitting for the interplane struts. These were nice enough, but I didn't use the strips for the middle of the the struts. They were rather awkward and just not necessary, I simply painted those. 

I wanted to break up the monotonous overall silver grey finish so I pre-shaded the wing ribs, using black, then using a stripe of white on the rib surfaces on the upper wings and to the horizontal stabilizers and elevators. I also used some black to form a break on the fuselage sides.

All this was overpainted with a thinned coat of Tamiya Flat Aluminum. The result came out pretty well, not perfect but I think more realistic than a straight coat of aluminum. After drying, I found the paint was a little rough so I polished it slightly with some tack cloth to buff it up and prepare it for decalling later.

Painting the exterior.

Next, I wanted to have a contrasting effect for the metal cowling and access panels. To do this I used Tamiya "Chrome Silver". Applied directly to the cowling, and to the masked surface of the forward fuselage.

The Tamiya "Chrome Silver" made a nice contrast.

One of the more impressive feature of Italian Nieuports is the tri-color red-white-green applied to the wing's undersurfaces. I had to do a little mixing to make a red that compared to the red of the decals, adding some Flat Brown to the stock Tamiya Flat Red. Tamiya's Flat Green was an almost perfect match with no mixing needed.

These colors were applied to the both to the wings and to the rudder, since I prefer painted rudder stripes to decals. 

The tri-colors on the lower wings.

The scheme I want to accomplish is a representative one for Italian N.17's.

The Copper State Models decal sheet is fairly small but of a very high quality. It's printed by Cartograf. This sheet gives you the Italian roundels and the Macchi style serial numbers that you can use to recreate virtually any a/c's serial you may want. Since I wasn't aiming for a specific aircraft, I just used the serial that was provided without having to go through the tedium of installing the tiny numbers one by one.

Assembly proceeded with a small hitch. The Academy instructions would have you install the forward cabane struts backward! I did that initially but something told me to check it out and sure enough, they were wrong. I had to snap them off and re-attach them. It's interesting to note that the Hobbycraft instructions for the same kit has the position correct!

Academy's mis-direction.

A photo of the real thing.

The correct strut positioning!

Assembly of  the main components could now begin! first I attached the wings' rigging to the holes in the upper wing...

Then, after attaching the top wing and interplane struts, I threaded the rigging through the appropriate holes in the fuselage and lower wings.

One of the interplane struts popped out! I had to affect an emergency repair!

Things were going along quickly now! It was time to install the landing gear. I was a little apprehensive, thinking this would end up being weak and fiddly.

I started by cementing the forward legs into their respective holes on the lower cowling. I let these set for a good long time. Then I superglued the starboard leg into it's (rather small), locating hole. Again, I let this set up for over 24 hours before super gluing the port side leg. The result has been rather satisfying! The landing gear on this kit if the sturdiest of the three I've made so fare, (the others being the Roden Albatros and the Hobbycraft Sopwith Camel).

The final step of assembling the landing gear. 

After installing the landing gear, the next step was attaching the rudder and adding the control cables for it and the elevators. The rudder didn't want to stick to the fuselage very well and in the process of attaching it I managed to break off one of the tiny control horns on it. The cable had already been installed so it was a bit of a struggle to get the rudder fixed!  Eventually, super glue came to the rescue and the rear empennage was finally fixed into place!

Final details were now added. I installed the Vickers MG at this time. I would recommend that you install it before you install the top wing! It's kind of hard to install with the wing on. Next the bell cranks for the aileron controls.  Finally, a little paint touch up here and there.

The result is a nice looking, little airplane. I have several other Nieuport kits to build, a couple of "AModels", (a Bebe and a Type 16), a Roden Type 27, and another Hobbycraft Type 17. It will be interesting comparing the various kit's construction.

As it is, I found this Academy kit to be an enjoyable build. You can get this and the Hobbycraft kit fairly cheaply on the web, so it would be a got subject to try out a WWI biplane subject.