1/72 Hobby Boss DO 335 Pfeil

Gallery Article by Gerd Wilcken on Jan 25 2018

 

      

The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow") was a late World War II German heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The two-seater trainer version was also called Ameisenbär ("anteater"). Great power and performance due to its unique "push-pull" layout and the much lower drag of the in-line alignment of the two engines. The Luftwaffe was desperate to get the planes into operational use, but only a handful were delivered before the war ended. Most of them are captured on the German airfield of Oberpfaffenhofen.

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This is one of the newer kits in the Easy Assembly line from Hobby Boss. As usual with Hobby Boss Kits the wing is a single piece with the lower fuselage incorporated into it. The upper fuselage is a single piece as well. There is a small cockpit that has a seat, stick and floor. The instrument panel is a decal that fits into the upper fuselage section. Since you can see very well in the cockpit through the single clear canopy after assembly, I made some changes here. To simulate the original ejection seat with arm- and headrest I added a modified seat from the "spare Box" - I think it's from an old F-100 Kit - and put some PE seatbelts from the very recommended Lion Roar set WWII Luftwaffe Seatbelts on it. Scoops and exhausts are separate. The rear fit insertion is also separate and is molded along panel lines and without the huge mounting tabs we've seen on earlier kits. I know I appreciate that.

Landing gear is very nicely done with the main gear having separate oleo scissors, retraction struts and wheels. The front strut has the wheel molded in place with separate struts. Hobby Boss seems to make "a bug" in nearly each of its kits and in this one it is the props. Basically the props are turning the wrong way. You can`t switch the front and the rear prop and mount them backwards because the spinners are different in form and size. Adding to this is the deal that the blades are actually airfoil shaped so would have the flat part at the 'front'. But honestly.I did not change the blades!

Instructions are well done with Gunze paint references. There are markings for two aircraft. The 102, the famous lone surviving Do-335 that is shown by the Smithsonian in their collection at the Udvar Hazy center at Dulles airport, Washington D.C.

Luckily I once admired her myself. It was  completely rebuilt by Dornier in Germany and allowed to be displayed in Germany for ten years before being returned to the US. In addition to these markings, separate number 113 are provided in case you wished to do that one, though it is not shown in the instructions. 

DO 335 - as far as I could see on old WW II photos - are all wearing the typical German late war camouflage of RLM 82 or 83 and the Braunviolett RLM 81 on top and 76 (!) undersides. Referring to the book by Micheal Ullmann about the painting on WW II German Aircraft for example RLM 81 used by Messerschmitt was called Braunviolett and by Dornier it was called Dunkelgrün. The camouflage of the Dornier rebuilt DO 335 of course is in RLM 81/82/65. So what's right, what's wrong?

Many of the finished and unfinished DO 335`s are unpainted in large parts of the fuselage and the wings. They had to go to war, paint was second-rate.

I don`t have a photo proof of the original 113, so I created an "what-if-scene" on a unknown captured German airfield, where US pilots meets German Luftwaffen pilots.

Airbrushed with Vallejo acrylics from the "Luftwaffe Color Set 1941 to end-war". The Jeep is from Academy, the German pilots from Preisser and the US are from CMK. Only soft weathering, because all DO 335 are not older than a few months at the ending of the WW II.

Highly recommended.

Gerd Wilcken

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Photos and text © by Gerd Wilcken