I'm flying in on a Do 17 Tonight: 1/72 Flying Pencil in Spanish markings FINISHED

Thanks Brandon! The last few pieces I needed to complete the diorama arrived a few days ago: a pack of Pegasus farm animals. I decided to add some sheep to the vacant field that my Dornier ended up in. As well as livestock, the Pegasus set comes with a few dogs. One looked like a German Shepherd, and I decided to paint one up as such. I didn't have to go far for a reference, either. My dog Gunter is a German Shepherd, and he was more than happy to pose for me while I painted the micro version of his likeness....for five minutes. We had played an awesome game of fetch earlier in the day, and before I knew it my "reference" laid down on the couch next to me and was in dreamland. Oh well. Here are some photos!

I'm very happy with the way the kit and the diorama turned out - despite all of the issues I had with it along the way! Thanks to everyone who offered me words of encouragement during the building process. Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go feed this guy in the picture above!

Nice work. The fence is a nice touch. Very cool.

BK

Thanks for the kudos on the paint job! The decals were definitely not fun to work with, but I kept on going. I actually finished the kit last week and I've been working on a diorama for it...with real dirt from Spain! I'm waiting for a few more parts and then it too will be complete. Here are some shots:

That's a pretty wild camo scheme. Cool. Thanks for sharing.

BK

I've done a bit more work these past few weeks. I have primed, painted, and decaled my Dornier! A word of caution to any of you folks looking to build this kit....the decals? Are junk. The St. Andrews crosses for the tail fins broke apart as soon as I took them off of the deal sheet. I've included a photo of one to show you all. As you can imagine, I used words that were a lot stronger than "junk" when this happened, so I decided to paint the crosses on instead. The numbers and the Nationalist markings on the side of the plane also split apart, but only in a few spots and were much easier to re-align and laid down well with some testor's decal set. The wing roundels, nickname, and the devil's head insignias went on with no problem. I've also painted and glued the props on to the plane, and have added some battle damage to the right prop as well. It's been a long and rocky road with this plane, but I'm not going to let it get the best of me!

Thanks GazzaS! This build has definitely been a tough one. I busted off one of the PE gunsights last week and it is gone forever...eaten by the basement floor. So I ordered a new fret of various gunsights and found a replacement for the one I lost. I also bought a pre-cut masking kit for the plane, and within a few hours I had every window masked off.

I've decided to build a diorama for this plane, and I've decided to take a bit of artistic license with it as well. I got a bit dremel-happy and decided to add a bit of battle damage to my Dornier. Tonight I sprayed a coat of primer on it, and hopefully tomorrow night I will start painting! You'll notice that I've left the landing gear and gear doors off for now- that's because the gear struts are very fragile and I didn't want to snap them off by accident.

I'm enjoying following your build.  Sorry to see so much putty.  I love the way the wing and fuselage join on the Dornier.

keep up the good work,

Gary

I've been making darn good strides with this kit, in spite of all it's shortcomings! Playing some albums in the background helps, too! I've glued the engines onto the wings, and there were gaps a-plenty. Luckily I've filled them with putty, and they're good to go! I've been toying with the idea of adding a bit of battle damage to one of the engines as well. I've placed the DF loop and the dipole antennas on the plane as well. All of these were PE, and I gotta tell you folks....I'm really getting used to working with PE. I don't know why I was scared to work with it in the first place!

I'm gonna keep going with this kit. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...and at the end of that tunnel is a Wellington in my kit stash that's calling my name.

You're doing a smashing job on this interesting but less than perfect kit. i admire your "sticktoitism"

Thanks Bish and AdeB ! I did some more work on it this evening. Added the stabilizers, and began filling those terrible gaps in the wing roots. It's coming along nicely now! The pre-cut masks for the kit should be coming in the mail any day now as well.

That fit looks horrendous...good luck in sorying that mate!

I've run into another snag with this kit. To put it bluntly, the wings do NOT go on easily. You'll have to sand, and sand, and sand, and sand some more to get them to fit onto the fuselage. I may have sanded a bit too much, so now I'll be making darn good use of my filler putty. Am I discouraged? Absolutely not. And hey, I managed to attach all of the clear parts!  

Hey 7474, glad to see there's another Maiden fan out there, as well as another Clash fan! This one's for you: a trooper flag I got a few years back outside Buffalo on their "Maiden England" tour:

Great progress on this. The Clash is awesome, I like their "Rudy don't fail" song, I came across their "Rock the Casbah" music video on Youtube and F-4s are the jet fighters, pretty cool. I'm an Iron Maiden fan, would love to model one of their touring 757s, even the 747-400 that they're going to use on the Book Of Souls tour next year.

I'll be following this one. 

I've been getting some more work done on the Do-17. Setting the cockpit inside the left fuselage half was....let's just say it was a bit trying. The directions for this kit as I have probably stated are not the best, so you're really on your own with this one. But I was able to put it in, as well as a the bulkheads.

Putting the fuselage together was not the easiest task, either. There are no alignment pegs/holes to assist in putting this thing together, so you've really gotta be careful when you reach this step. I ended up using an old vise that my grandpa made in 1941, and some of my girlfriend's rubber hair ties to clamp both sides together. Due to the slight pressure I was putting on the model via the vise, I opted to use super glue as opposed to plastic model cement, which I was afraid might warp the fuselage in conjunction with the pressure from the vise.

Aside from assembling the tiny machine guns, I've begun cementing the clear plastic parts to the fuselage. I've got tomorrow off from work, so I'm hoping to get some more quality time with this kit. With the hard part (hopefully) over, I'm looking forward to getting this thing finished up!

Well it's been a busy few weeks, started a new (old) job, vacationed in Vermont, and moved in with my girlfriend. It's only been in the last week that I've been able to sit down at my (new) workbench and get crankin' on the Do-17! The landing gear in this kit are, well, mini kits themselves. Between the tiny PE parts and thin plastic pieces, it was a challenge to put them together! But they're completed now, and I'm happy. Also, it's kind of nice when your ladyfriend not only embraces the fact that you're a modeler, but leaves you notes at your workbench...am I right, folks?  Oh and AdeB, I checked out your band on Facebook, you guys rock!! I liked your page too!

I do build in 72nd. I have thougt about the Roden kits, only because they are the only option for early 111's. But i have read they are not greta kits. But the early P's were also seen in this scheme and i am planning on getting the new Airfix P-2.

Thnaks for the infoon the belts, i like the look of those.

Great start! I love painting engines (my fav bit of any kit)

BTW, if you like the Clash, check out my band: https://www.facebook.com/EnemiesOfPromise

https://soundcloud.com/enemies-of-promise

Bish, what scale He-111 are you looking to build? Is it 1/72 Roden kit? And the seatbelts were included with the kit. I'm really having a good time with the photo etched parts, they're really not as difficult to work with as I thought! I completed one of the engines tonight, lets just say there was A LOT of sanding involved before I was able to piece everything together. I had to apply a decent amount of filler putty in between the gaps of the engine cowlings. But everything is all set with it, and I'm content. So far this isn't the best kit I've worked on, but it's definitely not the worst!

lawdog, I DO have a copy of "Combat Rock" in my vinyl collection, and now that you've reminded me I think I'm going to have to listen to it

Cool song and even a better kit, nice cockpit details.  

Toshi

Nice start. Are those seat belts included in the kit.

I had never thoguht much about that scheme until i did the Stuka.And i really liked it but would liek to see it on a large winged aircraft, so i am looking to do it on an He 111 and one of these, i know RS have quite a few Do 17 kits in 72nd scale.

Great start!  I have the Airfix "z" variant sitting in my desk drawer waiting for me to make that first cut.  You may inspire me to get cracking!  Look forward to more updates.

Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone! Bish the paint scheme was one of the things that made me want to build this plane. Ajd, hopefully someone will make a pre-z flying pencil in a larger scale!  And as for you Clash fans, it's good to see I'm not the only one out there who appreciates good music! I never got a chance to see them however, in fact I believe they broke up the year I was born. I've made a bit of progress over the past few weeks. I got over my fear of photo etched metal parts almost immediately, due in no small part to the tips that were spoken of in the May 2013 issue of FSM. The cockpit is all set, and I'm working on the engines and cowlings currently.

Last time I saw the Clash was in Europe, in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the Melweg "Milkyway".  Great band for their time.  I think it was during the late '80s?  Looking forward to your build.  I'll be following it closely.

Toshi

Great kit, great taste in music....

Nice, will be watching this. last year I built a Ju 87A in the pre war scheme. I really liked the scheme and want to do one on a larger wing surface like the Do 17. And I also have their other 17P kit, with the early war markings, so will be keen to see how it builds up.