Dragon Bf110C-3, 235-5 235 Squadriglia (Done)

[IainM]

1 minute ago, mozart said:

Excellent start Iain. 
 

You’ll doubtless know that there’s a short vertical length of pipe that comes out of the underside nacelle that drains excess oil into the “square-shaped cup” athwart the u/c leg then another pipe run from that along the bracket outboard (I think from memory) of the wheel. 

Thanks for that info @mozart - I didn't know that......will def have a look at the books again!

[IainM]

@MARU5137 thank you!!

@mozart found the oil drain pipes you mentioned, thanks! Nice and easy job it seems! Yes, there was a curved larger diameter pipe that fed from the bottom of the engine compartment through the firewall that drip-drained into the cup, then it seems a thinner diameter pipe that ran from the drain cup along the longer side of the door spacer and voided just past the wheel

[mozart]

It's shame the prop is in the way but this picture gives a bit of an idea on the E:

 

 

[monthebiff]

Excellent progress Iain, really like your added details and with some careful adjustments you can fit the U/C legs at the end of the build to avoid damage and ease masking down the line.

 

Regards.Andy 

[IainM]

6 hours ago, mozart said:

It's shame the prop is in the way but this picture gives a bit of an idea on the E:

 

 

He doesn't look very impressed!

[mozart]

5 minutes ago, IainM said:

He doesn't look very impressed!

Oily tyres Iain!!  

[IainM]

3 hours ago, monthebiff said:

Excellent progress Iain, really like your added details and with some careful adjustments you can fit the U/C legs at the end of the build to avoid damage and ease masking down the line.

 

Regards.Andy 

Hi Andy
Thanks! Yes, the legs have been adjusted - just some sanding on on the horizontal beam outer points - as to be inserted right at the end of the build

[chukw]

Wonderful, enviable work, Iain- cheers!

[IainM]

With the work on the bays and u/c finished, I've turned my attention to getting the cockpit parts off the sprues and prepping them for detailing and construction. I was  however still slightly up in the air about the interior colour - was it RLM 02 or RLM 66 on this specific aircraft - or a mix of both?
I popped this question on over on the Nachtjäger group I am member of on FB - and had the pleasure of corresponding with Mr. 110 himself, John Vasco As mentioned before, I'm using the book he and Fernado Estanislau co-authored as my main reference for back-dating the Dragon C-7 kit to a C-3 variant, and John was very helpful in pointing out some very subtle differences in the variants.

1. The decal sheet correctly calls out a C-3 variant - but the illustration itself is incorrect as it depicts a C-4 variant. The actual image of the aircraft I found on the web shows the twin aerial leads and the larger style wing root aerial (correct for a C-3), whilst the decal sheet shows only one aerial lead and the smaller wing root mast (C-4)
2. The "Fernbediensgërat" equipment which was mounted on the framing, port aft of the pilots seat (only on C-2, 4, and other variants) has to be moved to below the cockpit sill on the C-3 variant.
3. The panel of gauges that was mounted to the deck between the pilot and the R/O has to be mounted below the cockpit decking. I'll have to scratch a big compass as well as a different looking radio setup than that which is supplied in the kit.
4. A B&W  image of a "C-1" variant in John and Fernando's book shows very nicely the RLM 02/66 interior scheme, where the flooring and sidewalls (up to a certain level) were painted in 02, and then the rest was in 66, including the canopy framing. I think I'll go with this, as the visual interest will be great!!
5. I think I'll most likely go with the kit panel - the AM stuff I have is way to flat, doesn't depict various switches, etc correctly.

[mozart]

Excellent Iain, always good to talk to the Oracle and get his view of things.  I have that book too, plus another that he and Fernando co-operated on, mainly different profiles but also lots of wonderful photographs.  Your build is making me think about my unmade F, and looking back at my E I was reminded of a happy coincidence:

 

this is the E that I did:

 

 

and shortly after I completed it, this came up on Facebook:

 

 

Well of course I had to have it, so I now have a fragment of one of Schnaufer's early aircraft:

 

 

 

I must get all that horrible glue off though, the fragment is better alongside the model than on the picture! 

[Citadelgrad]

44 minutes ago, mozart said:

Excellent Iain, always good to talk to the Oracle and get his view of things.  I have that book too, plus another that he and Fernando co-operated on, mainly different profiles but also lots of wonderful photographs.  Your build is making me think about my unmade F, and looking back at my E I was reminded of a happy coincidence:

 

this is the E that I did:

 

 

and shortly after I completed it, this came up on Facebook:

 

 

Well of course I had to have it, so I now have a fragment of one of Schnaufer's early aircraft:

 

 

 

I must get all that horrible glue off though, the fragment is better alongside the model than on the picture! 

That looks like hot glue to me.  Some judicious use of a hair dryer should help you remove it, if you can't just peel it off like gum.

[monthebiff]

47 minutes ago, mozart said:

Excellent Iain, always good to talk to the Oracle and get his view of things.  I have that book too, plus another that he and Fernando co-operated on, mainly different profiles but also lots of wonderful photographs.  Your build is making me think about my unmade F, and looking back at my E I was reminded of a happy coincidence:

 

this is the E that I did:

 

 

and shortly after I completed it, this came up on Facebook:

 

 

Well of course I had to have it, so I now have a fragment of one of Schnaufer's early aircraft:

 

 

 

I must get all that horrible glue off though, the fragment is better alongside the model than on the picture! 

Ooo yes Max, thats a pretty epic piece of memorabilia, liking that a lot.

 

Regards. Andy 

[IainM]

52 minutes ago, mozart said:

Excellent Iain, always good to talk to the Oracle and get his view of things.  I have that book too, plus another that he and Fernando co-operated on, mainly different profiles but also lots of wonderful photographs.  Your build is making me think about my unmade F, and looking back at my E I was reminded of a happy coincidence:

 

this is the E that I did:

 

 

and shortly after I completed it, this came up on Facebook:

 

 

Well of course I had to have it, so I now have a fragment of one of Schnaufer's early aircraft:

 

 

 

I must get all that horrible glue off though, the fragment is better alongside the model than on the picture! 

That is an awesome piece of history!!! Well done on grabbing that! Selling soon? Schnaufer is my favourite night fighter pilot of WW2, and I'm planning to build an E variant as the machine he flew in "Donnerkuil". Plus I'll most likely build one of his G's as well....
LOVELY "E" you have built there!!! Get that "F" going!

Iain

[IainM]

Started the removal of the cockpit parts from the sprues and cleaning up the hefty gate attachments, etc. That's one thing IMO that Dragon could have designed a little better - you got to be VERY careful of how you cut in order to minimize damage to some of the details. At least there are no ejector pin mark so far to clean up, so kudos to them for that! A lot of what you see here will have to be modified from the C-7 kit issue to a C-3 variant.




The above two images are an example - the C1 and C3 variants had a radio and nav set-up different to the C-2, C-4 and later. The lower image is what I'll have to do to get it more or less correct.
From what I can see at the moment -
1. Build a new radio set and associated framing with wiring
2. Move the instrument dial from on top of the misdships coaming to the bottom - easy enough.
3. Move the Fernbediensgërat from the canopy frame to the sidewall with wiring
4. Build a new compass, as well as any new boxes, etc as needed.

I did manage to try out some new soldering skills today though! Lead-free solder paste and a torch - managed to build the Master MG15 barrel and sights. Not a drop of CA in sight


Made a start on the IP as well. AS mentioned, I have the kit panel, and Eduard panel and a Yahu panel. The Yahu panel is very nice - but still perhaps a bit flat for my liking in an a/c that will have the canopy panels open. Think I'll use it on my E build I'm planning, that'll have the front cockpit closed.

So what I did was sand the back of the kit panel down to with a micron of its life and then punched out the dial faces. I made a backing of the IP and then made dial faces, which were .2mm smaller than the dial cavities (to allow for paint and decals). These were in some instances raised up bit higher than others to allow for the differing levels of the IP mouldings.


Then using Airscale instrument decals, applied them to the dial faces -
 

So in my mind the plan is to paint, weather the IP etc and then press-fit the back into the front of the IP. Final touch will be some Klear or something similar to represent glass. I've done this before on my Ju88C-6 build, so know it's possible...


However, if that fails last minute, my backup is to use the dial face from the Eduard panel. The fit is OK, and the dials will show through the punched holes, and they'll be acceptable with some Klear applied.....I'm definitely not going to be using the Eduard IP face - it's way too flat (even compared to the Yahu panel), quite pixellated and the wrong colour - a variation of RLM02, whereas this panel should be RLM66. The lumps and bumps on the kit panel are really mostly correct. Would love to see what Red Fox could do for something like this...



That's it for now - off for a well-deserved getaway over Easter. For those of you celebrating this time, have a good one!

Iain

[Uncarina]

Great work Iain! I really like your instrument panel modification, and the JU-88 example is fantastic. Do you have a link for a WIP or RFI of that build? I have a JU-88A-14 to build in need of inspiration.

 

Cheers,  Tom