ICM Flying Pencil- the Dornier 17Z in 1/48

Started by Pedro L. Rocha · 25 · 2 years ago · 1/48, Do.17Z, ICM
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    Louis Gardner said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Pedro, @holzhamer
    OK, Here we go ! The ICM Dornier 17 box is now on the table... and I'm cracking open the lid as we speak. I don't have any aftermarket stuff for mine, other than the decal set for the devil holding the pistol that I described earlier. I have been thinking about scratching a few things on this one... like the cowling mounting brackets, and possibly doing something with the tail section that your resin parts will take care of on yours.

    Chuck, @uscusn
    About a year ago I started building the Hobbycraft Do-17 E/F which was boxed as the "First Kill" of WW2. It had a very sparse interior, and the fuselage had the "banana shape" that has been well documented. I ended up cutting a small pie shaped wedge from the fuselage just behind the rearmost bomb bay door. This allowed me to get rid of the bad profile shape...next I assembled the wings and tail, gluing them to the fuselage.

    Then other things happened, life got in the way, and I placed it all back in the box... where it still resides to this day.

    I made up my mind that if I was going to complete a 1/48 scale Dornier, it would be this ICM kit that was done first... then I can go back to the HC kit later. Someday...maybe, if I'm fortunate.

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    @lgardner
    Bring on that Devil(ish) Dornier of your Louis!
    The kit is very well attended overall but it does have its perks. Besides the lack of the hump originated by the moving mechanism of the tail’s angle - not an impossible fix from scratch- the pilots seat is truly undersized and vaguely resembling the initial unarmoured seat. So far I couldn’t find a way to replace the midget seat...

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Great entry, my friend @lgardner!
    Really looking forward to see this seemingly super kit coming along!

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    I'm really glad you are doing this, @holzhamer, because I have the Eduard edition of this kit and you're providing some excellent inspiration. Gotta go find that Vector resins tail.

    Just went and ordered it, got the order in before Linden Hill is out of the country the rest of the month. Good thing I read this build blog.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 3 months ago:

    Looking forward to this great model by you as well, Louis @lgardner
    This will be an interesting build.

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    Louis Gardner said 2 years, 2 months ago:

    Hello again everyone.

    It’s been a while since we had an update on this journal. About a month ago I finally got busy with assembly. I like to glue things together first and then paint them later. It makes a much stronger glue joint but it’s a lot harder to do the painting afterwards.


    I deviated from the instructions and fully assembled the wings.

    There are a few tricky spots that you need to watch out for. I made the mistake of cutting all of the parts (a total of 4, the main side pieces), for the engine nacelles from the trees at the same time. This removed the part number so I was flying blind.

    Here’s where I found out that you can glue the outer halves together. I accidentally glued the outer nacelle from the Starboard side to the outer nacelle from the Port. It can be done.

    I didn’t realize it until I attempted to install the nacelle on the wing. This is where I realized my mistake. The nacelle didn’t fit. Hmmm. That’s odd !

    Luckily I was able to take it apart because the glue was still wet and had not fully cured.

    The next thing look out for is the engine mounts. The instructions are not very clear and there are several places that do not have locating pins. Care must be taken here.

    The last thing to watch out for is the engine mounting ring. They are keyed and they determine the orientation of the engine as far as keeping it aligned and they also indicated which side is up.

    I’m still not sure if I have the ring installed correctly. Time will tell soon as I try to install the engines.

    I have a few more pictures but right now I’m having trouble loading them up. These were the photos of the assembled fuselage. It keeps coming up as "error" using both my cell phone and our home computer. I will try to take the pictures over again, just in case something was corrupted with the files.

    As always comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    Louis Gardner said 2 years, 2 months ago:

    Here’s my second attempt to load up the pictures I previously mentioned in my last post. This time they worked out just fine. These are simply copies I made of the originals by simply taking a picture of the picture. Sounds silly but I’m guessing that the original ones were somehow electronically or digitally defective.


    Here’s a picture of the assembled fuselage.

    I’m still not sure if I will do anything with the tail section. On the real Dornier 17, it was adjustable and it had varying degrees of incidence. Plus the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer had a little “kink” along the leading edge which is not depicted in the kit parts.

    These are then followed up with two more pictures showing the nice details in the cockpit. This part of the building goes well. It looks really good too but there’s one flaw that is definitely worth mentioning.

    The only thing I have heard negative about this part of the kit is that the pilots seat is way too small. Photos of the original item seem to agree.
    I have to come back later and carefully brush paint on some details in here and I’ll likely be adding some more stuff like a seat harness set. I’ll likely splash some RLM 66 on some of the radio boxes and such.


    This last picture shows the complete wing taken from another angle. Notice that I decided to install the Bomb racks onto the wing first, rather than into the fuselage as directed by the instructions.

    I have test fit the wing and it seems to be a good fit so far. The bomb racks fit in properly too, even though I have glued them in place differently from how the instructions called for. However I have yet to secure it permanently using glue. This will be the final test.

    I’m likely going to be painting the bomb load and installing it on the racks while I am still able to get to them.

    Time will tell if this Dornier will carry bombs on board or not.

    As always comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by and good night.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 2 months ago:

    Good to see this one back on the bench, Louis @lgardner
    Just in time to save the nacelles.
    Really like your approach and the interior looks already quite nice.
    I don't think there is something wrong with your pictures, some more people are having issues uploading them. It started after the server change.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 2 months ago:

    It has been some time since the last update, but what a comeback you made, my friend @lgardner!
    Looking superb!

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    Erik Gjørup said 2 years, 2 months ago:

    Nice progress after a long wait Louis!