TC`s build thread.

[tc2324]

Got a few `touch up`s` to do before the first coat of varnish goes on but I`m pretty happy with the choice of scheme so far.

[Tophe]

Very funny, thanks!

[ChernayaAkula]

What an ugly plane! But very nice work!

Looking at the pics of it in primer without the canopy, you might have made it into a scale-o-rama'd 1/48 fighter. Drop the wing mounted engines and keep the landing gear nacelles, fit a single- or two-seater cockpit, sling a torpedo or sizeable bomb load under the fuselage and it looks like a whiffed French ground pounder of the late 1930s.

[Taiidantomcat]

Great finish! Cool colors and pattern 

[tc2324]

Finished. Pretty awful kit to make being so old IMPO, but then again they say a bad workman always blames his tools........!

Just got the diorama shots and back story to complete this one.

[Tophe]

Good model, so different

[Taiidantomcat]

The colors look really different under that gloss coat.  Nice job! 

[hurricanemk1c]

Wow! That looks superb!

[GTX]

 

[Ed S]

Nicely done.  And a whole lot plausible the most of the Luft '46 stuff we usually see.



Ed

[tc2324]

Thanks chaps, glad you liked and hope the following story and pics will entertain.

Dornier 217 E Flying Testbed

The Amerika Bomber project was an initiative of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, the Nazi Germany Air Ministry, to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the continental United States from Germany, a range of about 5,800 km (c.3,600 mi.).
The Amerika Bomber Project plan was completed on April 27, 1942 and submitted to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring on May 12, 1942. Requests for designs were made to the major German aircraft manufacturers Messerschmitt, Junkers, Heinkel, Focke-Wulf and the Horten Brothers.

Heinkel contacted Daimler-Benz with regards to creating and developing a bigger and advanced power plant based on their successful DB 601 engine. Within the next 11 months Daimler had built the massive newly designated DB 701 engine ready for test flight. The DB 701 was nearly twice the size of the earlier BB 601 but with twice the power. Heinkel`s next problem was how they would test the engine in flight. Since war materials were getting scarce and time was as ever an issue, developing a new testbed aircraft was out of the question. Looking at all existing types to be modified, it was concluded that only one aircraft with the power and performance to test this new engine should be considered.
In a rare case of collaboration between two rival aircraft manufacturers Heinkel approached Dornier and asked if they could loan a Dornier 217 for the testing phase. In exchange Heinkel would sub contract out many of the parts that would need to be produced to Dornier if the new bomber aircraft was accepted by the Luftwaffe.

In May 1944 a heavily modified 217 was rolled out of a hanger and prepared for flight. Owing to the size of the new DB 701 engine the front compartment was lengthened by 7 feet. All armament was removed and added weight placed in the rear of the fuselage to compensate for the heavy engine at the front.

The DB 701 was never ground run as the tips of the blades were so long they would hit the ground. This also meant that when the aircraft was on the ground the propellers were fixed int an upside down `Y` position to avoid damage. Take off and landing was down to the Dorniers usual BMW 801 power plants but once in the air these were feathered and the DB 701 would then take over. At this time the Allies had gained air superiority over much of Europe and testing was confined to nights, hence the Dornier had a Black/Dark Green camouflage pattern.

In all by September 1944 this unusual aircraft had completed around 31 test flights at night with records stating that the DB 701 had performed perfectly in all aspects of the testing. Unfortunately with the Allies advancing across Europe time had run out for the `Amerika` bomber concept and it was shelved by October 1944.

It is not known what happened to the Dornier by the end of the war. Some historians have suggested that the Americans captured and returned it to the USA and it was a focus point for developing the power plants for the  Convair B-36 Peacemaker. Other suggest that it was destroyed in its hangar during an attack on the airfield in the latter stages of the war. What ever it`s fate the pictures below are the only ones known to exist of this unique aircraft.









And a couple of colour pics for those who prefer them.

[ChernayaAkula]

Whoa, what a cool backstory!

[Tophe]

I feel more than untertained, I feel thrilled
Well, the most genius thing in it is... I had not noticed that there was no ground clearance enough for the nose propeller to rotate! And your story explains it all: locked in inverted-Y for take-off and landing, operating only in flight...! That reminds me the French flying boat project Capra R.90 (see the pictures at http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3982.0.html for the ones registered at SecretProjects) taking off on catapult and locking its 2-blade propellers horizontal before "landing" (on water).
For the frightening USA attack you may have added a weird point: as it is twice more difficult to go back and forth safely, as it is "dangerous" to land locally after having mass-murdered people, the trip schedule was Germany to New York, bombing, going back a little over the ocean, bailing out near a friendly submarine, letting the airplane crash...

[tc2324]

Battle of the Philippine Sea.........

...........with a twist...!! Well.., come on, it is me. 

Had this Revell kit knocking around for some time now and while the idea of just building a German Stuka would sit well with others, it`s just not my style.

[Tophe]

Japanese Navy Ki-87 Stuki?