Revell 1/48th scale

Dornier Do-217E

Revell 1/48th scale Dornier Do-217E

KG40 France 1940

Built May 2005 to April 2006

1. In late May 2005 I started the Revell 1/48th scale Dornier Do-217 E-5 kit. This was purchased in the previous year (2004), since then I collected various complementary items.


2. Here we see a magazine article about building the model as well as detail sets by Eduard, CMK, Tru-Detail, Verlinden and Decals from Aeromaster.	3. Here we see the virgin sprues still in their bags.	4. Good references are invaluable. Sadly there is not a single example of this German World War Two bomber plane anywhere in the World... But there are several good references. The best is from the Warpaint series pictured here on the left.	5. The left hand cockpit side (pictured upside-down) in July 2005 after a month's work.

6. The opposite cockpit side after airbrushing in semi-gloss black. Note the Instrument Panel on left.	7. Between July and mid-November this project sat on the shelf whilst I finished the Eduard 1/48th scale Tempest. In November we dusted it off and airbrushed on the cockpit grey....	8. At this stage of the build the cockpit details have been touched in with Humbrol Satin Black and the seat cushions and seatbelt painted. This is the overhead instrument panel.	9. The first colour applied to these seats seemed to come out almost bright orange so they got a recoat with a better leather-coloured brown. The seatbelts on the lower seat are moulded-on.

10. Late in November the cockpit detail painting is finished and the whole thing has been dry brushed with aluminium and then washed with thinned black oil paint before a final white dry brush.	11. Most of this detail is straight-out-of-the-box showing what a good job Revell - Monogram made of it. The cabling towards the bottom was added with copper wire.	12. This seat is a resin item from the Verlinden set. I could have replaced the seatbelts with Eduard's pre-painted ones but this paint job really brings out the detail anyway.	13. This photo shows the cockpit painted and assembled. Note the Bomb sight on the extreme bottom-right of this photo.

14. The other side of the cockpit showing the pull-down crew seats from the Eduard detail set.	15. A close up of the instrument panel show the superb effect that the Eduard photo-etch panels and photo-print instruments has on this area. Looks like real - which is, afterall, the idea.....	16. This photo shows the unusual fuselage layout of the kit. A lot of tape was used to hold it together during assembly.	17. By early December 2005 the fuselage has been assembled and work is underway on the wings.

18. The Verlinden set includes the Flap inserts. This is probably the only useable part of the Verlinden set as the rest is inaccurate. Even the flaps are exceptionally inaccurate.	19. A little bit of weight on the tail helps to set the horizontal tail sections. Pegs hold the tail together.	20. Here we see the Verlinden resin vertical tail surfaces, tail cone and engine cowlings that have been cut from the Kit parts.	21. As mentioned the Verlinden "Superdetail" set is quite dreadful. The resin horizontal tail moveable surfaces are copied directly from the Revell/Monogram originals including the Copyright lettering.

22. The Verlinden Flaps are used but they are still inaccurate as they lack the span-wise stringers. Here we see the rear of the engine and undercarriage pods being set into the wing.	23. The entire engine/undercarriage bay was set in sections to fit around the CMK Resin firewall seen here. The CMK set is as good as the Verlinden set is bad.	24. However, following the CMK instructions mean you have to glue those pods to the wing section by section.... As seen here...	25. Here we are again with those awful Verlinden tail surfaces. They are too short (by a lot!) hence the white plastic padding at either end.

26. The engine cowlings have to be thinned down to 0.5mm from the kit's thickness. Not easy because they are not moulded from one continuous piece of plastic hence they were fragile.	27. Cutting Edge supplied the Propellers being assembled in this shot. Cutting Edge also supply resin flying surfaces which should be used instead of the Verlinden ones.	28. During December 2005 we moved onto the CMK Resin Engines. Here we see my hand working the razor saw to remove the resin engine block from its plug.	29. After a bit of clean up and assembly we have a few parts of the CMK engines lying around the model making desk.

30. Later in December both engines are assembled and the metal work is being added from a combination of CMK's photo-etched parts and wire.	31. Shortly before the New Year work had been conducted to add the engine exhausts. However, ALL the exhaust parts are misnumbered on the instructions so you just have to cut them out and guess.	32. Some guesswork later. The exhausts actually don't fit well at all so they have to be re-engineered to fit. This is odd because the rest of the engine is truly fantastic.	33. The wings were cleaned up and the new CMK Resin Cowling rings added. The black lines were to line up the parts. Note that the wing trailing edges are very thick and it took a long time to thin them down.

34. Pictured during January 2006. The Verlinden Flap bays have been boxed in and the flap actuator added. Photo's suggest these Flaps are horrendously inaccurate. In fact nothing in the Verlinden set was of any use.	35. Those inaccurate Flaps. They look nice but possess only five stiffeners on the inboard set. There should be seven and their cross section is an "I". You'd be better off scratch-building this if you want it. Do NOT purchase the Verlinden set.	36. Overview of the model during January with the elevators in place.	37. The resin elevators and rudders attached. Another items from the Verlinden set that was appallingly inaccurate.

38. Although copied from the Kit Items the elevators are too deep front to back by a couple of mm. I didn't notice until I came to attach them.	39. The rudders were OK...	40. The engine bays have been using a combination of kit items and CMK parts. The engine mounts can be made out.	41. The rear of the engine bay showing the rear of the mounts and the exhaust ducts for cockpit heating.

42. Pictured in February 2006. This shows detail work on fitting guns to the Canopies.	43. Here we see the addition of the shell chute for the front cannon that exits through the underside.	44. The next set of photo's are from March 2006. One engine received undercoat - the other didn't.	45. Flaps & undercarriage bay doors after airbrushing and a coat of acrylic gloss.

46. The cockpit glazing interior was masked and sprayed black then interior grey.	47. The main gear legs are shown here after primary colour airbrushing and before washes and dry-brushing.	48. One of the engine bays after airbrushing but before its oily wash with acrylic, thinner and gloss.	49. Various items AFTER their dirty wash and dry-brushing. Note 20mm cannon in nose glazing.

50. Various bits and pieces prior to assembly. All are painted and weathered.	51. The engine bay covers after their dirty oil wash and dry brushing.	52. The flaps after their wash and dry-brush. The wash was acrylic based.	53. One of the engine bays after its dirty oil wash and dry-brushing.

54. Pictured in April - here we see the Canopy being fixed in place.	55. Later masking was applied in order to protect the canopy from the filler and subsequent clean-up.	56. Filler applied...	57. The gaps are filled and cleaned up before the masking is removed to reveal a lovely clean joint.

58. Next; the tooth-pick undercarriage and masking for the undercarriage bays.	59. Close-up of the temporary undercarriage used to support the model during painting.	60. Same for the tail-wheel....	61. Now on its temporary undercarriage the model is ready for the masking off of exposed paintwork and canopy.

62. First the engine bays are temporarily covered up with the actual panels that will be used later.	63. Next the masking of the canopy using Eduard pre-cut masks. These only work on flat panels, they peel off the curved areas.	64. The top green was airbrushed on before masking of the camouflage pattern.	65. Next the top surfaces are masked with Tamiya masking tape and friskette ready for the underside black.

66. Xtracolor "Exhaust" was used for the underside as it is a good 'scale' black.	67. The following photo's - thru to completion, were taken in May 2006.	68. The CMK Resin Engines look great after their Alclad finish with plenty of washes and dry-brushing.	69. Then it is time to mount those flaps. blobs of white Blue-Tak gives us a handy way of holding them whilst the superglue sets.

70. Steaks of exhaust in Dark and Light grey were applied by airbrush over top of the Decals. This pattern of exhaust stain is copied from pictures of the exact same aircraft.	71. Then we mounted the CMK Engines in their bays. The cowling rings were then added.	72. It took a lot of fiddling with tooth-picks and superglue to get these engines in place.	73. Next we wrapped the model in plastic bags and masked it so the Guns could be airbrushed with Gun-Metal from Humbrol Metalcote.

74. That's it! Finished. We mounted the wheels and engine panels and all was done. Here we see a close-up of the tail.	75. A final view of the engine bays with their inspection panels propped open. Photo's suggest these were not really propped up like this.	76. A view of the nose glazing show the 20mm gun emplacement in its canvas sleeving.	77. Close-up of the rear turret. Note how the guns have sights added from photo-etched parts.

78. An overall view of the nose area showing the cabin entrance hatch open on the underside.	79. Dropped flaps look good - if not accurate.	80. Views of the underside showing how well the 'scale-black' shows off the true black of the decals.	81. A hatch so realistic you could almost imagine climbing into the cabin yourself.

82. Undercarriage legs look good.	83. Tail-wheel looks good. Note the tail-wheel bay doors have been left off deliberately to match photo's of this specific aircraft.	84. Rear fuselage.	85. General view of those notorious open flaps.

86. The finished model sits on the dark hard-wood base that has been made for it. These bases are available from EBay.	87. A lush view of the top showing all the details.	88. A good view of the cockpit. Plenty of detail there.	89. Good sturdy undercarriage.

90. Climb aboard.	91. Photo's added September 2006 showing the newly completed base.	92. The display base was custom made for the model and boasts a...	93. .....name plate.

94. The grassy background is meant to be France in 1940.	95. All it needs is a little ground equipment.	96. The flash shows extra detail.	97. You can see inside those flaps.

98. Aerial view.	99. More.	100. More..

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