Dornier D0-335A-12, by Zoukei Mura - Finished

[Dpgsbody55]

After my Fiat build, I thought I'd stay with the desert theme and do a Messerschmitt 109E.  So I dragged out the Emil I have in my stash which is by Trumpeter and started planning the build.  But looking at the cockpit, I started noticing the usual Trumpy inaccuracies and thought "I can't be bothered with this now".  A pity, really, as the last LSP 109 I built about five years ago was rubbish and the one before that (Hasegawa, I think) was built before the internet was available.  Yeah, I know - the dark ages.   It will get built eventually, and will replace the old Hasegawa unit which may well donate it's engine to another project I have in mind.  After that, I thought I might join in the fun on the Blue Box of Happiness GB with a Messerschmitt ME-262, but I don't fancy my chances of finishing in time, and I don't want to rush it.

 

So instead, I've decided to do another model which is different from the usual - Zoukei Mura's Dornier Do-335A-12.  Here's the box art.

 

 

I will be adding some Z-M enhancements to this as well, in the form of some photo etch for the cockpits and their metal landing legs which I think it's going to need.  I've spent this evening looking over the instructions trying to work out where I can add lead weight to stop it from being a tail sitter.  At least it won't have far to fall on it's derriere.  Here's the instruction books.  Yep; plural.

 

 

Z-M have simply offered extra parts to convert their existing pre-production D0335A-0 single seater into a two seat trainer.  So I really could build either, but at present, I'm inclined to build it as intended for this boxing.

 

Inside the box are clear bits.

 

 

 

And grey bits (thankfully ).  Not sure yet how I feel about the clear stuff, but I'll let you know later.

 

 

And a veritable jungle of  more clear and grey trees too.  This should keep me busy for a while....   

 

I've also got some aftermarket markings to add in the form of some DN Models masks which I was fortunate enough to win a few years back in a monthly draw on this forum.  I'll probably do the top one as this was a German plane after all.  Also, the second one was lost in tragic circumstances at Farnborough in 1946, so I'd rather not make a reminder of that event.  You'll know what I'm referring to if you've read Eric Brown's Wings of the Luftwaffe.

 

So this is me for the next few months.  This is the only other Z-M kit in my stash right now, and after the Henschel I did some month's back, I'm hoping this will be and equally enjoyable build.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Out2gtcha]

Looking like a good start Michael!

[Grunticus]

Such a lovely looking aircraft, that two-seater..I will follow this for certain since it's in my stash. Opening the box makes me wonder if this is not too daunting for me. I was  even contemplating trading it with someone for the less complex Trumpeter A12. Have fun, I'll be following along!

Edited November 18, 2021 by Grunticus

[Dpgsbody55]

On 11/18/2021 at 1:09 AM, Out2gtcha said:

Looking like a good start Michael!

 

Thanks Brian.  I think this one is going to keep me busy into next year, but I've made a start now and so far it's been enjoyable.  I'm sure there'll be a few head scratching moments, though.

 

On 11/18/2021 at 4:54 PM, Grunticus said:

Such a lovely looking aircraft, that two-seater..I will follow this for certain since it's in my stash. Opening the box makes me wonder if this is not too daunting for me. I was  even contemplating trading it with someone for the less complex Trumpeter A12. Have fun, I'll be following along!

 

It is a daunting sight when you open the (large) box and see all those parts there.  Then you open both instruction books and that only makes it seem worse still.  But I'm a sucker for punishment, and having built another Z-M kit recently, it's actually not that hard at all.  You just have to be methodical and I'd strongly recommend studying the instructions too and making notes on them before you start.  Here's all the extra bits to convert the kit to an A-12.

 

 

Not much, is it.  I've been splashing some paint around too, so here's a picture of the instructor's cockpit enclosure, painted RLM66 on the inside.  Although it's clear plastic, this stuff is not your usual brittle clear plastic at all.  It seems to be easy to work with so far.

 

 

I've also started the instructor's cockpit.  This will sit where the main tank would have been mounted.  Small tanks sit infront and behind this.  My usual practice is to build up parts as much as possible then paint the assembly, and only paint individual parts where necessary.  The rudder pedals are Z-M's photo etch pieces.

 

 

However, my first step was to build up the main floor, then add the rudder pedals.  Here it is with two bulkheads in place, and using a fuselage half to check alignment.

 

 

The rudder pedals are the first bits to be assembled onto the floor.  Again, the pedals themselves are etch parts.  Once these parts had dried, I sprayed some Tamiya AS12 all over the insides of each fuselage half, as well as most of the floor.  Then the cockpit areas were painted RLM66.

 

 

Also the cockpit floor and bulkhead were painted RLM66.

 

 

Cockpit in close up.

 

 

That's it for now.  I've begun painting more cockpit bits, so I'll be back with more work on that part of the model soon.  That is, as soon as I've re-stocked on some RLM02, as I'll need to splosh some of that around too before I can really get into the cockpit area.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[curiouslysophie]

I’ll be following this one Michael! The two seater is a cool looking plane. How are the metal landing gear? Are they white metal? Is the casting good? I may stump for a set if I can find them anywhere.

[Dpgsbody55]

Progress has been slow on this one, in part due to life intruding.  After the last update, the first thing was to paint some RLM02 about the place, as this was needed to put the cockpit together.  The lower part of cockpit sides are the inner walls of the nose wheel bay, and some of the inner fuselage also needs to be RLM02.  Here's the undersides of the cockpit floor.

 

 

Here's the left side cockpit wall.  You may notice that I've cut off the pilot's oxygen hose which is abbreviated, and I've replaced it with a length of old guitar string.  I don't play a guitar, btw.  My son makes them for a hobby.

 

 

Next up was to attach a black box to the cockpit floor.  This was duly stuffed with wine bottle lead.  I've also painted the rear cockpit floor in RLM66.

 

 

Both cockpit sides now in place, along with the control column.

 

 

 

Then the side consoles go in, followed by the seat ejector lever (red handle).  I've deliberately left off the levers and knobs that go on the left console, along with the right canopy release lever, as I'm quite sure I'll knock these off before finishing the floor assembly.  You can also see the pilot's oxygen hose now installed, which went in before the consoles.  This hose matches the drawings I have of the DO-335 cockpit.  And when I take a picture of the left console, I'll try and get that in focus.......

 

 

The last bit to go in was the pilot's seat.  This takes quite a while to assemble and paint thanks to the arm rests and foot supports.  I built these foot supports first, then cut the seat back cushion from the kit seat belt piece and glued it in place.  I've painted mine in flat brown leather. along with the head rest, just to make them stand out a little more.  Then the photo etch seat belts were added followed by the box at the top of the seat and the head rest.  I rubbed both the brown leather pieces with my finger to give them that leather sheen.  Lastly, the ejector rails were fitted to the back of the seat.

 

 

The seat could then be slid down the rails cast into the rear bulkhead.

 

 

My next step will be to start adding weight around the cockpit and the gun assembly to go in front of this, but I can't at present because my supply of Liquid Gravity is still in the clutches of the postal pixies .

 

So rather than do nothing, I've started work on the rear engine.  As I started this, I became very glad I had done so, and not started on the front engine yet, as this has given me some ideas as to the pitfalls of adding weight to the front engine.  Here's the basics of the engine.

 

 

In this picture, I've assembled both cylinder heads, attached them to the crank case, then glued on the reduction gear to the front of the engine.  The first thing you can see is all those pistons and con rods in the way.  For the front engine, I'll be removing all  pistons except the front and rear of each head.  This is purely to help locate each half of each head together.  This should help get a little more weight into the nose of the model.  The second thing that occurred to me is that if I fill the engine with Liquid Gravity, it's going to spill over the front of the crank case and interfere with the working of the prop shaft which will be in the front engine reduction gear.  This one will have no such filling obviously, and a long extension shaft is added to the front (actually rear) of this engine.  So I'll be building a wall up to the top of the crank case to keep the Liquid Gravity away from the reduction gear housing/prop shaft on the front engine.

 

Here's the engine all painted.  I've put most of the engine ancillaries onto the back of the engine, then painted the lot with Tamiya rattle can semi gloss black.

 

 

This is the bottom of the engine, before the fuel pump/distributor and inlet manifold are added.

 

 

Since  took this pic, I've added that fuel distributor and manifold and realised I've shot myself in the foot.  I should have cleaned out the holes for the spark plug leads, but the inlet manifold in particular gets in the way of any such clean up.  Watch this pace to see how I deal with that.  Yeah, I have no idea either .

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

[frank83]

Well... ZM has obviously taken the extra mile for clear parts 

I love the authentic look of the building instructions. Well thought...

This is going to be an interesting build and I'm here as a front seater 

[Phartycr0c]

Those pistons and crank details are insane! quite why you would need that extent of detail unless of course someone is doing a full museum cutaway, then its a waste IMHO.

 

I'm currently building the HK kit and they dedicate all of the space inside the front engine to perfectly fitting nose weights where the ZM despite its level of engineering leaves the weight issue to the builder. Strange.  

[Dpgsbody55]

On 12/4/2021 at 5:47 AM, frank83 said:

Well... ZM has obviously taken the extra mile for clear parts 

I love the authentic look of the building instructions. Well thought...

This is going to be an interesting build and I'm here as a front seater 

 

I think this kit dates from a time when Z-M molded all exterior pieces in clear so that you could show off the insides to full effect, or paint one side and leave the other clear, or just paint the lot.  If I recall correctly, their TA-152's were the same.  Someone please let me know if I'm wrong on this.  Either way, it's part of the Z-M philosophy of modelling the entire plane and not just the obvious bits, as they like to show the workings.  Personally, I like this way of doing things.

 

This authentic look was also a feature of the Z-M Henschel HS-129 I built a while back.  Same style of instructions, which are as detailed as the model itself.  They also give the modeller pictures of how each stage should look after you complete those stages, which is a great help and another nice feature of these kits.

 

Thanks for joining me on this journey.

 

20 hours ago, Phartycr0c said:

Those pistons and crank details are insane! quite why you would need that extent of detail unless of course someone is doing a full museum cutaway, then its a waste IMHO.

 

I'm currently building the HK kit and they dedicate all of the space inside the front engine to perfectly fitting nose weights where the ZM despite its level of engineering leaves the weight issue to the builder. Strange.  

 

It's all just a part of how Z-M do things, but it does have a purpose in holding the heads onto the block and aligning them properly.  Glue is only applied to the outer edge of each head, and the con rods interconnect so you glue that connection too which gives the assembly a better bond.  Tamiya do it a little differently, but both give you a better result than most others who offer an engine in their kit as the parts have a more detailed look.

 

Yes, I like HKM's offering a weight in their kits.  Their Gloster Meteor has the same feature and I do wish Z-M had thought of a way to install a weight.  I'll be using Liquid Gravity on mine, but it would be nice not to have to spend more money mail ordering stuff.....  Which the postal pixies STILL have in their clutches...    They're late on their promised delivery date too...    But perhaps the way Z-M have done it here, I'll end up with a better model anyway with Z-M detail and a nose sitter.  Time, and whatever skills I can bring to bear, will tell on that, though.  However, it must be said that many other kit manufacturers also don't provide a nose weight for their tricycle undercarriage'd models either.  I'd agree that more should.

 

                       __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

So after the last installment I'd started work on the rear engine.  The next stage was to add the kit's spark plug wires and some of the plumbing.  Here's the outer ignition harness, magneto and supercharger in place.  All this was sprayed with Tamiya rattle can AS12, then some details picked out, and the flexible plug leads were painted a slightly darker metallic gray.

 

 

The flash on my camera has caused a blurring of the silver colours against the black engine.  It's not actually like that "in the plastic".

 

 

Here's the other twelve plug leads.  As I mentioned in my earlier update, I'd already put the fuel injection distributor and inlet manifold on before I gave any thought to the lower ignition harness, which meant I couldn't clean out the plug holes to firmly glue the parts in place.  So I cleaned out what I could then glued what I could.  The remaining unattached leads were glued in place with some Tamiya super thin glue.  This seems to have worked as after all the handing during building this motor, they're still in place.

 

 

If I get really ambitious with the front motor, I might make the fuel lines.  Or not, if I regain my sanity....

 

In the next pictures, the exhausts have been added, along with some of the engines cooling system.  The header tanks are interconnected and the pipe leading out of the bottom of the tank connects with the same tank on the other side, and also with a pipe yet to the added to the underside of the engine.  The exhausts, however, go on first and the header tanks glue to the exhaust shields.  As the plane I'm building was very new when the war ended, I'm building it with little wear, so the exhausts themselves were painted steel, then aged slightly with a dry brush of rust.  Also, note the orientation of the exhausts - they're facing towards the front of the engine.

 

 

 

Here we have the engine finished.  First, the front engine mount goes on around the reduction gear housing, then the mounts to the mounting frame.  Then the rear engine mounts go on and the whole lot is placed in that frame.  The last bits to go on are the pumps in front of the header tanks on each side, which connect to one pipe underneath the engine.  Then a third pipe is attached underneath the engine.  I assume that these will connect with the radiator at a later stage.  Here's some shots from each angle.

 

Right side.

 

 

Left side.

 

 

Rear.

 

 

Front.

 

 

Underneath.

 

 

Lastly, placed into the front bulkhead and into the fuselage, so that I can work out what part of the fuselage will need painting RLM02.

 

 

Did I mention that the postal pixies still have my two week old order of Liquid Gravity?????  I know I ordered from Melbourne, 3,420km away from my home on the other side of the country, so I'm guessing said pixies have placed it in a little red wagon and are walking it across the country.  .  This means I can't finish the front cockpit area.  So I think I'll do a bit more on the middle cockpit and maybe the bits behind the rear engine.  I guess all these sub assemblies have got to be done anyway, before I can glue the fuselage halves together.  On the bright side, it may help me get a better handle on just how much weight I need to add to the nose when I finally get my parcel.  You may have noticed in earlier pictures how I've crossed out those instructions that I have completed, which may help me figure out this enforced haphazard construction plan of mine.

 

Until next time.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[IvanVasili]

WOW!! The engine looks spectacular! This is a very cool project.

[curiouslysophie]

Looking great Micheal! It’s coming together nicely. 
I haven’t had much time to get to the bench recently, but I have been working on modifying the superchargers and doing some other little (i.e. completely unnoticeable) modifications.

 

I’m enjoying your build, can’t wait to see the bird with wings!

[Dpgsbody55]

On 12/6/2021 at 1:48 AM, IvanVasili said:

WOW!! The engine looks spectacular! This is a very cool project.

 

Thank you.  It's really great to be building something a little different to the usual SpitHurriFockeSchmittZeroStang.  Not that I don't enjoy them, of course, but this kit is a pleasure to build as well.

 

On 12/6/2021 at 2:32 PM, curiouslysophie said:

Looking great Micheal! It’s coming together nicely. 
I haven’t had much time to get to the bench recently, but I have been working on modifying the superchargers and doing some other little (i.e. completely unnoticeable) modifications.

 

I’m enjoying your build, can’t wait to see the bird with wings!

 

Thanks Sophie.  My Liquid Gravity order finally arrived late yesterday, so I'm madly adding weight to every nook and cranny I can.  I'm still a long way off the wings, which I suspect might have very heavy leading edges when finished .  

 

I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on your build too.  You do some really good work.

 

On 12/7/2021 at 6:16 AM, MARU5137 said:

Outstanding  looking Engine  

   

AWESOME build.

You are doing a SPLENDID  Job.

 

Thank you.  I thought I'd post the pictures on the Discussion thread on LSP engines, which you conveniently bumped. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

My internet order for Liquid Gravity finally arrive mid week, so I've been able to get on with the model.  It's not actually liquid, but tiny lead balls which are held in place by adding thing CA glue after filling the cavity.

 

First up, I needed to add weight to the ammo boxes for the upper machine guns, as well as the cannon magazines.  I've also filled what I think are the engine oil tanks that are mounted behind the front cockpit.  I could only partially fill the machine gun ammo boxes as the outer half had to go onto the inner half which is part of the forward cockpit wall which contains the brown cannon breach cover.

 

 

Here's that weighted cockpit front wall in place and you can see that it's immediately tipped this assembly on it's nose.

 

 

 

Next, the cannon is manoeuvered into place on the now heavy magazine and this can be glued into place.  I've also added the machine guns and front engine firewall, together with the fuel tank support frames, aft cockpit bulkhead and oil tanks.

 

 

My next step was to build up the front cockpit instrument panel using the Z-M/Eduard etch pieces.  A drop of Micro Klear was added to each instrument to give a glassy effect to the gauges.  I also added wires to the back of the panel as these may be visible when it's complete.

 

 

Trail fitting the aft engine then tipped this now heavy piece onto it's tail.  More weight is needed, so I made fences on each side in the area beside the pilot and filled these with more Liquid Gravity and thin CA glue.  The picture also shows the bomb bay bulkhead and frames and one of the aft rear frames.  You can also make out my IP wiring.

 

Left side:

 

Right side:

 

I'll be touching up the guns later on.  I may not display these anyway, but larger than life pictures and long sightedness have exposed my failures again .  If anyone who builds one of these later chooses to copy my weighting of this area, please be careful as to where you position the lower fence, as it may fowl the right fuselage side when you fit that.  It's not the end of the world as some judicious filing will remedy the situation.  Ask me how I know .

 

I've also completed the instructors seat, added it to the rest of the instructor's cockpit shown in my second update, and glued the whole into place on the floor.

 

 

 

There should be a small fuel tank fitted behind the instructor's cockpit (part K2), but I've left this out as it won't be seen once that part of the fuselage is fitted, as can be seen in the next picture.

 

 

The main wheels will be set at a point about level with the instructor's seat, leaving a lot of plastic, and therefore weight, aft of that point.  Any part I can leave out that will not be seen I will do so, but there's not many such deletable parts as the aft radiators can be seen from the outside or from the rear engine bay if that is left open.  It must also be considered that the rear fuselage and tail needs most of the inner structure to support it properly, given the weight of this when finished, so I have completed that, although leaving off parts F7, F26 (both) and F35.  Here's a picture which may illustrate that point.

 

 

Still to be added is the rear prop drive shaft and reduction gear.  Then when the fuselage halves are joined, the rear engine covers, the tail surfaces and propeller.   At the front end, I've yet to build the front engine, but I have put the front radiator together and filled that with weight.  Given that the engine and radiator are way out in front, that leverage they cause should ensure that this isn't a tail sitter.  My plan is to build the rest of the model before starting on that engine, so that I can add only the weight needed to keep this on it's nose wheel.  Which will also be weighted.

 

The last part I can present now is the rear cockpit instrument panel.  Again, it's a Z-M/Eduard etch job with Micro Klear drops added to the gauges, as well as more wires on the back of the panel.  These may also be visible when finished.

 

 

In place, along with a switch panel.

 

 

I'm presently edging ever closer to being able to close up the fuselage, but there are still a few things to do before I can do that.  The front cockpit left console is still without it's controls, some detail is still to be added to the nose wheel well, canopy release levers plus one or two other things needed before I can close it up.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[DHPRO]

Great choice! This was my last build. Was my first ZM build and loved the detail. 

 

I see you’ve added some lead to the cockpit. I filled the front engine block and the ammo box both and it still only barely managed to be enough.

Edited December 15, 2021 by DHPRO