Subject: Re: Tamiya 1/48 DO-335
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 18:52:18 EDT

Introduction
Being an avid 1/72 modeller I don't usually build 1/48, except for the 
following conditions. Condition one: it is one of my favorite aircraft and 
condition two:
Uncle Rick Chin of Uncle Bill's Hobbies challenges me to build it in two 
weeks or less. With these conditions met, it was time to cut plastic.

Assembly
Overall the Tamiya 1/48 Do-335 has no hidden surprises, and construction was 
straight forward. I started with the cockpit, there is a trim wheel missing 
for the left side of the cockpit, otherwise it is complete. The cockpit was 
painted Tamiya panzer grey , the wheel wells, bomb bay painted Tamiya RLM 02,
and the inner surface of wheel well doors painted Polly-scale oxidized 
aluminum. I didn't like the decal harness provided so I made my own from 
paper.
The rest of the construction went smooth, virtually no putty was needed 
except for the tailplanes but that may have been my own fault. Of special 
note 
was the way the wings are attached, a section of the main spar is provided 
which allow the wings to lock in without the use of cement. A word of caution 
when dry fitting the wings, because of this wing lock you should dry fit each 
wing half seperately, but you will find that the fit is perfect.

Painting and Decalling
I primed the model to check for surface imperfections and unfilled seams, but 
found very little problems. With these little problems fixed, it was time to 
paint.
I painted the underside gunze RLM 65 and the uppersurface gunze RLM 81. I 
used masking templates provided and then applied a mixture of gunze flat
black and RLM 82 to complete the upper camouflage colors. I conferred with 
Dave Wadman of Experten Decals, I examined his paint chips and color photos
of the proper RLM 82 and came to the conclusion that RLM 82 bright green 
doesn't mean light green so that is why I darkened gunze's RLM 82 until it 
matched. The arrow got a gloss coat and then the decals were applied, it was 
difficult to get the decals to lie down using the micro set/sol system but 
after
a few tries they settled down(kind of). I gave the whole surface a wash of 
charcol grey mixed with burnt umber water colors, then did the paint chipping 
by
lightly dabbing specs of Polly-scale flat aluminum. Exhaust stains were done 
by mixing Tamiya panzer grey and red brown with a touch of white all heavily
thinned and sprayed on at the finest setting I could get on my airbrush. To 
finish I sprayed aeromaster flat.

Conclusion
I enjoyed building this DO-335 It was also the first Tamiya kit I've built. 
If Tamiya's new releases in my scale(1/72) are half as nice I will be a happy 
man.

Hello Steve 
Hope this blurb is what you wanted, feel free to edit it.
thanks 
Dan Mackay