Revell Dornier 335 In Progress

[Allan]

Hi fellows,
Here she is in the beginning stage.

Have knocked up some sort of cockpit floor with plastic card and will next spray it and other small pieces light grey and black-grey.

Not much of the pit will be visible through the rather thick canopies, so I won't go to town here--not that I'd be capable of doing that anyway.

I think she'll be Japanese and I quite like the idea of the white surrender crosses. Unless things dramatically change, I think that's how she'll turn out to be.

Maybe green upper/light grey lower with yellow wing leading edges and a red stripe along the side. What about red tailplanes a la Kobayashi? The piece of orange felt is for the seat cushions.

Allan in Canberra

[Brian da Basher]

Looks like you're off to a nice start there, Allan. I like the idea of the red tailplanes.

Here's something I found on Google regarding the Japanese surrender markings:

Surrender Markings: As specified by the Allied authorities, the dark paintwork had been covered with white (washoff?) paint. Surrender crosses in green appeared in place of the Hinomarus.

Looking forward to seeing your next update!

Brian da Basher

[Allan]

Hi Brian

thanks for the useful info.

Green crosses--that's easy to understand, any sort of dark green would do roughly sprayed, but I'm a little confused about whether they just were painted over the hinomarus or whether the hinomarus were first blotted out with some other color.

I can knock up some kind of simple template for the green crosses or even spray them freehand as I don't suppose the Japanese at war's end were very enthusiastic about making the green crosses real neat and tidy.

That's much further down the track of course and it will become clearer later on, I'm sure.

Got any more info on the subject?

Allan in Canberra

[Brian da Basher]

Glad to be of service, Allan!

Japanese capitulation aircraft that were not painted all over white had their hinomorus painted over with white and then the green crosses applied over top. I've seen photos of Bettys and Kawanishi flying boats with these markings. The green crosses were often not very exact and a little sloppily painted.

I hope this helps!

Brian da Basher

[Allan]

thank you Brian

All is clear now

Allan in Canberra

[GTX]

Allan,

You might be able to do some bright orange with a white overspray (or only over the markings) with green crosses.  My reasonning is that I believe that Japanese aircraft under evaluation (or similar) were often painted orange such as this Aichi M6A1 :




If the Germans/Japanese had somehow smuggled a Do-335 to Japan it would most likely have been trialed extensively first.  Say it was then part of some surrender delegation or simply flown to an allied base to surrender, it would then have required the white/green cross treatment as shown in the following:





You can see more here,  here and here.

BTW, my offer of a backstory is still open - PM me if you'd like to discuss further.

Regards,

Greg

[GTX]

Of course, if you are brave (or at least braver than I), you could go the NMF route like this by Frank Loch:


 

See more here.

Regards,

Greg

[Allan]

Thanks for the imput fellows

I've spent some time in the garage spraypainting and will have some snaps to show you in a day or two.

Allan in Canberra

[John Howling Mouse]

Coming along nicely....and I love your dual clamp/tweezer technique (never thought of that before, will come in handy).

 

[Allan]

Hi fellows,
Thanks Baz and others for your kind comments. It's sometimes the simplest techniques that are the most effective.
Here're some pretty self-explanatory photos for you to have a look at. I've got tonnes of those little 20 mm cannon bulges from an old Hasegawa kit so can possibly festoon the Dornier's wings with them.







Allan in Canberra

[Allan]

Hi fellows
Pretty amateurish I know but this is what I've done to the cockpit so far.
I've used the digital cam in a mode that permits close-ups.
A little more work to do before I can close up the two halves of the fuselage.
Luckily for me the distorting effect of the two thick canopies will hide the slapdash natural of my so-called detail work and make all this look fairly realistic.
I've also white glued some shotgun pellets to the nose, but that'll wait for another photo.
Allan in Canberra

[Brian da Basher]

Love the detailing, Allan! I agree, it will look pretty convincing once the canopies are on. I'm always impressed by cockpit detailing, even though my own efforts at it are miniscule. And the few times I really try to get it together, you can never see it anyway.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this all turns out!

Brian da Basher

[Eddie M.]

Good looking project you got going here. I especially like the clothes pin on the tweezers trick. I've never seen that before. Great idea. B)
  Eddie  

[Gary]

Just a response regarding aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy during the surrender.

I wish I could find my reference but I do recall reading that aircraft were to have their propellers removed and in some cases also had their tires removed, depending on local magistraites and the ability to enforce the stipulations. The aircraft were left otherwise servicable. The only aircraft painted with the green crosses were ones that were directly involved in surrender proceedings such as the delegation as shown as well as when officers or politicians had to fly to specified places for internment and or war crimes trials.  Anything flying with a red circle was prone to being shotdown otherwise. (an officer on MacArthur's staff wrote a book and he commented on the massive number of aircraft available to the Japanese, just no worthwhile pilots left to fly all the airplanes)

In as far as aircraft that were eventually captured and in some cases studied by the allies, they only had to have their props reinstalled, tires refilled and in some, but not all cases had allied marking painted over their red circles. (can't spell honuimuria) Usually this was a set of stars and bars, however I've seen pics of Japanese aircraft with RAF roundels and even Soviet stars. There is a big 4 engined bomber the Japanese were trialing in orange that ended up NMF with Stars and Bars and some flying boat, a really big one, has a similar treatment.

[Allan]

thanks Gary,
Let's say that some important documents or even an important official had to be delivered from Kyushu to Okinawa urgently during the surrender talks.
In that case it would be okay for a Dornier 335 in Japanse service to have had the hinomarus oversprayed roughly with white and then some green crosses hastily applied, wouldn't you think?
More photos in a day or two and thank you all for your kinds comments so far.
Allan in Canberra