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"The Star of Africa" - Hans-Joachim Marseille's Do-335 A-2/Trop - Yellow 14 - FINISHED!


Out2gtcha

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Thanks gents!!!

 

7 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

In reality I dont think they fixed the rear cooling problem, but in our Luft '46 scenario they did.

Ooooh, Brian, is it too late to add some trop additional cooling scoops to rear engine?

 

7 hours ago, MikeC said:

Quick question - not trying to be awkward, it really is the sort of thing I wonder about.  Did the hot dry environment in theatre exacerbate the rear engine's tendency to catch fire, or had that issue been fixed  in this reality?

 

Bingo!  However you may be onto something there Ray!  That actually is a great idea, and something that could very well fit into a plausible story. 

 

Now Im going to have to do some mochups to see what might look best, and be most plausible for additional cooling for the rear engine!    Good thing took, as Im at the perfect stage to add such things, as the fuselage is together, but raw and not fully there, even sanding wise, so its a good time to add them. 

 

 

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18 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Bingo!  However you may be onto something there Ray!  That actually is a great idea, and something that could very well fit into a plausible story. 

Now Im going to have to do some mochups to see what might look best, and be most plausible for additional cooling for the rear engine!    Good thing took, as Im at the perfect stage to add such things, as the fuselage is together, but raw and not fully there, even sanding wise, so its a good time to add them. 

 

Scoops.

You need scoops.

Go on.............you know you want to!

:evil_laugh:

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4 hours ago, PhilB said:

Scoops.

You need scoops.

Go on.............you know you want to!

:evil_laugh:

 

 

 

Oh but I do, I DO!     Ive got a side view of the 335 from both directions, so now its just down to where to add the scoops, and what to make them out of.  The spares dresser is chalk FULL of loose plastic parts, and parts still on their sprues, so Im sure I can come up with something. 

 

ATM, Im thinking X2 scoops on either side of the fuse near the top at an angle either on the panel directly ahead of the rear engine, or the two panels directly behind the removable engine cover. I still need to find out what Im going to use, then placement to see where looks best. Right now, I think more toward the rear would be better. 

 

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33 minutes ago, Shawn M said:

louvers, lots n lots of louvers!

 

 

That's an option too!    Im thinking at this point, it will be all down to what I can find to use in the spares drawer.  My spares drawer is utter FULL of parts, so I dont anticipate any issues finding something to use.   The louvers would look ultra cool, but Id need to find some way of representing them well. 

 

Im going to do some digging tomorrow (work stuff tonight) and see what I can find. 

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Ok, so I normally do a 7am to 4pm shift at work at its nearing 1AM here...............

 

Im actually doing some overnight stuff for work, including training of the newest guy in our group (I work in IT and my group handles all of the major pipe backbone carrier Ethernet circuits that traverse the globe) so Im up when Im normally not during the week. 

Because Im in the capacity of "trainer/supervisor" atm, Im not doing jack DIDDLY since Im letting the new guy drive. Im just here to make sure he doesnt flounder too long if he doesnt know what to do, SO...................

 

I might as well post some pics from the past few days progress on the Do-335.  Pics in a minute! 

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First up, I finished the elbow rest for the Ruhrstahl X-4 control stick. Since no pics of the actual elbow rest exist (that I know of) and the fact that this is a later iteration of the X-4 this is what mine looks like. 

 

Its not perfect but looks the part IMHO. It actually swivels and locks out of the way, swinging back toward the console, but I have it locked in the extended position so people can see what its actually for:

 

 

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Next up it was time to make sure the fuselage was closed up.  I got the fuselage closed up, and the spine graphed on. The fit on both was actually pretty good:

 

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Next up, I got the QB exhausts painted and installed. These were not rusted out, nor super weathered ,but I used Alclad jet exhaust, followed by some Alclad pale burnt metal, and then some flat clear with soot on the tips. All sounds complex, but the colors sort of blended more than I expected

 

They actually look much better IRL than in pics:

 

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Then I took some time and got the engine covers installed. This took some doing, as the rear engine covers were a tight fit, and getting the trailing edge around the exhausts was a bit of a task.

For this, I was in a quandary about how to mask all those exhausts stacks off. What I ended up doing, was some fancy dancy masking, by actually making a pocket of tape for the exhausts and attaching them to the panels before gluing in the engine cover panels, both front and rear.  This seems a bit odd, but it resulted in a very tight mask around each exhaust set on each side. So far this has worked out better than I hoped, but the litmus test will be once the model is painted, as I will see if the tape comes off as easy as I hope it will.

I made sure to attach the inner portion of the tape with minimal attachments to the inside surface of the engine covers, so when it does come time to remove the tape, there wont be a lot of tape holding things in place from the inside.

 

I also could not resist putting the cowl, cowl flaps, rad front and both props on as a mock-up to see what things are going to look like:

 

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As you can see, I also cut down the port side exhaust intake shield, as I thought it looked odd extending so far beyond the rear of the exhausts:

 

20190117_192025-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 Both rear engine panels did fit, but they were tight, and will need a bit of finish sanding/tidying up:

 

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All in all, Im very please at how fast this one is going together, and how well its turning out:

 

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Tomorrow today (starting right now actually!) we are supposed to get 6 - 10" of the white stuff,  and hit a low of -5F, so the boss just said to work from home. That means its Friday and Ill be working on work model stuff here. :lol:

 

I think tomorrow I will be hitting the spares drawer to see what I can find in the way of louvers or scoops for some extra rear engine cooling for the A-2 Trop.  I also got the Eduard exterior in, so am also going to try to get the rad screen painted and installed as well.

 

As always cheers and thanks for dropping in on me!

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Thanks Ray!  I'm normally NOT a fast builder at all.  I think this one is going the way its going partly because I'm SO jazzed about how good I feel being able to sit at the bench now as LONG as I like + the fact the this kit is fitting together really well.

 

As to the engine cooling I will definitely try it in both locations. I was thinking that if I did the scoops in the front panel, somewhere in the rear behind the engine, I could even take Shawn's suggestion of putting some louvers in the back, by just scribing them onto the fuselage in the correct location, as if they were closed; no need to hollow things out or make major air-frame changes that way. 

I think the look of the scoops themselves will be really cool, and a very plausible addition to the model considering the theater it operated in. 

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