This
is Tamiya’s excellent 1/48 scale Dornier Do-335B2 kit, which I modified by
adding two pager motors to make the propellers spin. I didn’t want to
have any cables or switches coming out of the model, so I had to find a way to
fit the power supply and on-off switch inside the fuselage. To power
up the motors I used a 1.5V watch battery. I made a battery holder by
wrapping a thin styrene strip around a battery and gluing the ends together, and
then gluing the resulting ring to a styrene disc. The terminals are made
of brass. I also added a small piece of string to the bottom of the
battery holder for easy battery removal.
Instead
of the kit’s pilot figure I used a better detailed Hasegawa Luftwaffe pilot,
which I slightly modified to give him an oxygen mask and hose. I also
added a seat harness made with lead foil, and detailed the back of the
instrument panel.
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images below to see larger images
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This
kit has plenty of space behind the cockpit for the two seater version, which I
instead used to install the switch. I added a length of brass tubing
to the shaft of the motor of the front propeller, to make it reach pass the
engine cowl. This motor was glued to the firewall, and the joint
reinforced with string. Using a contour gauge, I made a hull fitting
bulkhead for the rear motor, and attached it to the fuselage with blue tack.
The
battery holder fits nicely inside the right wing’s wheel well, with the wires
running inside the wing to the fuselage. Thanks to Tamiya’s
amazing fit, the landing gear covers just snap into place, allowing for easy
access to the battery. The same can be said of the fuselage piece behind
the canopy that can be easily removed to access the switch. In preparation
for painting, I masked the canopy with Bare Metal Foil and glued it in place.
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images below to see larger images
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Finally,
I used silly putty to mask off the camouflage stripes, and added a combination
of the kit’s decals and some from my spares box.
You
can see a cool movie of the spinning props in action here:
http://home.comcast.net/~ponch001//Terminado_088.avi
Hope
you like it
J
Alfonso
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images below to see larger images
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