HK Models 1/32 Do 335

[stona]

The first green, RLM 82, is on.






Next will be the splinter camouflage. The often asked question is to mask or spray freehand giving a soft edge. I can spray a tight line freehand but to attempt to replicate the splinter accurately freehand is not something I fancy.


The original aircraft was not masked, it was presumably marked out somehow and then sprayed nicely with a tight demarcation. Here are a couple of original parts, photographed before they were assembled into one of the aircraft at Oberpfaffenhofen which show this well.










The issue for me is scale. The demarcations you can see at full size are going to be part of the scheme on an aircraft that was over 45 feet long, mine will be 1/32nd of that length. For me, though masking will give a hard demarcation, it will enable me to exactly replicate the splinter pattern and give a better scale representation of the demarcation between the colours.


Others like a softer edge for artistic reasons, which is good too. Whatever floats your boat


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

Ahhhh....I love it.


Another super build....and, another super Steve's thread

[Vaughan]

Looking good Steve. Just a question why were the wing tips painted aluminium?

[Ian M]

Just read the thread from start to here. Great work so far on a very unusual looking bird.

[stona]

Looking good Steve. Just a question why were the wing tips painted aluminium?

Hi Vaughan,I should have explained in that post.


The version I'm building, M13, which was the first B-2 'zerstorer' prototype, had extended wing tips fitted increasing the wing area to 41m2 (from 38.5m2).


When they were fitted is not exactly clear, but the photographs taken in March 1945 at Friedrichshafen-Lowenthal show them, and they are obviously unpainted. The filler on the major joints is also clearly visible, particularly on the undersides.






The natural metal/puttied joints look is what I'll be going for.


Cheers


Steve

[stona]

Here's the basic splinter scheme on. It's done as per the Dornier manual, not the instructions.There's something a bit odd about the scheme on the fuselage in the instructions, not sure what, I ignored them






Now, you might ask why didn't you spray the aluminium wing tips before the camouflage? A very good question, one I'm asking myself without finding an answer! I should have sprayed the wing tips, it's not a disaster and I can easily spray them once the camouflage colours have dried and hardened, but it would have been easier to spray them first.


Cheers


Steve


Edit:


The problem with the instructions is that they have lazily just mirrored the two sides of the fuselage making the scheme seem symmetrical.






It is impossible to achieve this whilst maintaining the correct pattern over the fuselage. That's because the two sides are not symmetrical. Only the port side is correct here.They should look like this.






Which is not too difficult at all.


It's only a small thing, but I can imagine people trying to follow those instructions getting themselves in a bit of a mess trying to make them work. You have now been warned

[Guest]

Iam liking this a lot


Scott

[flyjoe180]

Great research Steve. I think your splinter scheme looks the part in that scale.

[Guest]

Well my knowledge of any colours you could put on a postage stamp, then bin it as I'm colour blind anyway, great job so far though.

[Robert1968]

This is really coming on very nice Steve and I really am pleased in the splinter pattern you have chosen.


With this Aircraft being mainly experimental I was thinking on the colour ref and with the war closing in on the luftwaffe wouldn't it be fair to say that not all Pfiells were painted the same ( lack of paint/ equipment etc.


It's just a theory but I remember the He162 Salamander I'm sure I read somewhere that these were sometimes not painted in RLM colours?


Your definatly creating a true masterpiece with this


Cheers


Robert

[stona]

This is really coming on very nice Steve and I really am pleased in the splinter pattern you have chosen.
With this Aircraft being mainly experimental I was thinking on the colour ref and with the war closing in on the luftwaffe wouldn't it be fair to say that not all Pfiells were painted the same ( lack of paint/ equipment etc.


It's just a theory but I remember the He162 Salamander I'm sure I read somewhere that these were sometimes not painted in RLM colours?


Your definatly creating a true masterpiece with this


Cheers


Robert

A good point, but here's my take on it.


An experimental aircraft like mine was much more likely to have been finished in the approved colours and scheme. All the parts came essentially from Dornier themselves and the camouflage was all part of the testing and development program. This was all under the immediate control of the relevant RLM offices and the Luftwaffe. That's not to say things didn't go awry. On my example the wing tips are unpainted and on other examples everything from unpainted wing undersides to odd panels can be seen. There's no evidence for anything apart from the unpainted wing tips on mine.


When an aircraft went into production, or continued production in the last months of the war, it was being produced in a widely dispersed and sometimes seemingly chaotic system. State of the art fighters were being assembled in strange places, wood mills, sometimes little more than barns. The components came, many already painted, from numerous sub-contractors. This made the system much more difficult to supply, control and regulate. It was not unusual to see mis-matched schemes on many late war fighters.


As for the He 162, the official scheme was not a splinter but had been simplified as a production expedient. Basically one wing, most of the fuselage and horizontal stabiliser was to be one colour the other wing and stabiliser side another. Even this did not always happen and variations can be seen. However, I've never seen it suggested that the aircraft were not painted in RLM lacquers. These had been developed for use on aircraft and had properties appropriate to use on aircraft.


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

Very nice painting on the splinter camo.

[stona]

I've spent the few hours available to me today on the wing tips. I've sprayed various shades of Alclad, you wouldn't want monotone silver wing tips. The new wing tips look quite striking on the model!






Here's a close up of one of the wing tips on the underside.






The variations are subtle, I don't want it to look like a patchwork quilt.


Next up will be the putty visible on the joins. This I will simulate with paint, but what colour? Nobody seems to be sure what colour the various fillers used were. It shows up as a dark colour on B+W photos. I am going to use a red brown colour similar to the dope used on fabric surfaces which should look good. There is good evidence for this colour in putties used on other aircraft.


Cheers


Steve

[stona]

I managed a bit more today, granted an unexpected reprieve by SWMBO


I used the time to start masking and spraying the markings. So far I've managed the underside markings.






I'm using the masks from Maketar for this kit. They have behaved very well. Painted markings will always look better than decals because they are....errrr....painted on. Also, you can control the colour of the markings. My white is very, very slightly grey and the black is a little grey too, not that you can tell in the photo! It's a bit gloomy here and I'm no photographer


I like these subtle effects, I'm not a fan of radical fading and high lighting etc. but each to their own.


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

Beautiful quality to this build Steve. Your painting skills are really top notch.