1/48 Pro Modeller Dornier Do335-A1

Gallery Article by Michael Johnson on Oct 14 2003

 

To late to see service in large numbers, the Do335 -A1"Pfeil" (Arrow) was the fastest piston engine fighter of it's era. The Do335 was modified into a number of variants; day fighter, heavy fighter, night fighter and bomber. Unfortunately it was another case of too little too late.

I built this model a few years ago, just after I bought my first airbrush. Starting easy, I thought the Splinter pattern offered by the Pro Modeller re-release of the old Do335-A1 "Pfeil" would be a good introduction into the use of my new (then) uber tool.

The kit offers two versions of the Do335, with alternative parts to complete either version. I elected to built the standard heavy fighter version, as I had read that the scheme for the twin seat version was incorrect.

Pro-Modeller provides a PE set with the kit which I only used some parts from. The etched fret even contains a crew ladder and mud scrapers for the main gear tyres!

 

Click on images below to see larger images

Construction
Construction was pretty straight forward. I elected to close up the fore and aft engine covers, this resulted in the need to fill gaps caused by closing the covers.  The amount of sanding needed to smooth over any filler resulted in the loss of some of the fine panel lines around each engine bay. I minimized the loss as best I could using masking tape to protect surrounding areas.  Cockpit detail is very good and was enhanced by the use of an Eduard PE harness set. I gave up trying to made harnesses from the supplied PE buckles.

Painting and Decaling
Splinter pattern of RLM81/82 over RLM65 was sprayed using Aeromaster and Tamiya acrylic paints suitably thinned with Tamiya acrylic thinner with Tamiya masking tape to mask the splinter camouflage. To avoid paint build up against the masking, I sprayed several thin coats, building up the paint slowly. This worked a treat and resulted in no discernable paint edge lines.

Kit supplied decals were from the invisiclear range by Scalemaster and went on to the Future gloss coat with no silvering at all. I sourced a swastika from my spares box as none is provided in the kit. I used Aeromaster Flat to impart a nice even flat final coat.

The pre-painted undercarriage was then added, canopy posed open and finally some minor exhaust and cannon smoke staining was added with chalks of the appropriate colour. Done!

Overall
This kit has since been well and truly superseded by the superb Tamiya release, however a great result can still result straight out of the box. My "Anteater" (Luftwaffe pilots nicknamed the Do335 the anteater because of its long nose) looks great parked next to my Me109's.

I also got some valuable practice with the airbrush!

Highly recommended

Madmike

      

Photos and text © by Michael Johnson