Italeri 1/72 Dornier Do 217 E3/4/5 By Dave Flitton

Introduction

For a proper introduction, look to this earlier installment of Internet Modeler for the First Look. If you peruse this article and notice the date, you will see the reason that Matt Bittner is rather upset at me. It has been over a year since I begged for, received and reviewed this kit. So here it is without further ado. [Ed. Note: Who am I to be mad? Take a look at my Amodel SPAD A.2 build...]

Cockpit

As with most aircraft models I started with the cockpit. This is the area that I mentioned in my previous article that was sorely lacking in detail. So I bought an Eduard detail kit that was created for the Do 217K and see how I can modify it to fit the E. I immediately ran into problems. Although similar in equipment to the E model the K model had a longer cockpit and it took me awhile to decide how to cut the photo-etch cockpit down to fit. Eventually I decided it didn’t have to be hyper accurate since you can’t see much of it once the canopy is glued on, which is a good thing. I won’t count the mistakes for you, it’s just too painful for me to contemplate. I did paint it RLM 66 and not the recommended RLM 02, this aircraft is too late war to have that early color in the driver’s seat. Also, if you decide to use the Eduard photo-etch set, the instructions are incorrect in how the ammunition belt connects to the lower machine gun. Eduard wants you to connect it from the left side, while all the photos I have seen connect it from the right. Did I catch this before I closed everything up? Are you kidding? Of course I didn’t. Maybe next time.

Wings and Engines

Construction of the wings and engines were unremarkable. I used the Eduard photo-etch to replace the engine fans. Although the original kit fans were adequate, I accidentally broke mine. I could have used those fans in other BMW powered model kits (read AMT Ju-88 G series and Italeri’s Ju-188s) but, alas, this was not to be. I kept the exhaust stacks off until after I painted the model, at least this is one part of the plan that actually worked.

Stuff That Hangs from the Wings

I wanted to build a Henschel Hs 293 carrier so I followed (or thought I followed) the instructions for the ETC racks. Actually, the instructions only show you how to build the rack for the drop tank and not for the missile. Just to clear things up, the smaller anti-sway bars are for the missile. Apparently the anti-sway bars for the drop tank have different shapes and I didn’t catch this until after I put things together, so my tank points down a bit. I will probably replace this from a second kit in the future. The Hs 293 missile does go together rather nicely but it’s a rather simplified shape compared to the real thing. The real missile has struts that connect the warhead and upper rocket assembly to the lower rocket body. Italeri only provides a simple pylon shape, I guess this is one of the compromises for the ease of manufacturing that we in the true and manly scale of 1/72nd have to live with, or not. It wouldn’t be too hard to cut off that solid shape and replace it with something more realistic. Maybe I will do this later. I fixed the racks onto the wings and left the other stuff off for painting. This will haunt me later in the construction.

Painting and Decals

Perhaps I should have subtitled this paragraph with “Or How to Follow the Instructions and Mess the Whole Thing Up!” I will catch up with that statement later. Painting model aircraft with a complicated canopy scares the heck out of me. Maybe that is why it took me so long to complete this kit, well, if you don’t count the self torture of the photo-etch cockpit of course. I broke down and bought some Tamiya masking tape and found a sharp knife to cut it with. Many hours later, I had a masked canopy that I could live with. Then I decided to cheap out and use standard masking tape to mask the camouflage, what a mistake. When I finished with the initial painting of RLM 72 and RLM 73 atop the wings and fuselage I took off the tape to complete the mottling on the side. As the tape came off it left nasty deep ridge marks on the dark paint. The glue from the tape had etched the paint surface. I hadn’t seen this before. I carefully light sanded the surface to get most of the ridges off. Never trust your paint job to cheap tape.

Once everything was dry I started with the decals. First on was the upper wing crosses. Somehow the left wing cross ended up crooked, and as I was trying to straighten it out, it folded up and shriveled into a pile of white goo. I don’t know, maybe it was the hot decal solution I use, ok, it was the hot decal solution I used. I tried to prevent silvering underneath the decal by sliding it onto a puddle of Solvaset. It worked fine until I tried to move it. I ended up painting the crosses using a homemade mask. It didn’t turn out half bad. Next up were the fuselage markings. DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!!! I have yet see asymmetrical German fuselage crosses on any historical photos, yet the instructions for Version B show that they are. With much cussing and gnashing of teeth I finally wrangled the decals into a position that almost pleases me. Then came the coup de gras, the lower wing crosses. Because I put the ETC racks on earlier in the construction I had to now rip these things off to put on the decals. Once off, I followed the instructions (I never learn) and lined the edge of the decal with a panel line shown in the drawing. Decal solution was applied, everything was smoothed out and I was proud of averting a disaster caused by inept instruction writers until… you guessed it… the wing crosses are in the wrong position. They are too far inward to allow for the second wing cross decal that is supposed to be on the ETC rack to conform correctly. Look on the kit box top and you will see what I mean. I decided I was not going to pour any more of my life into this project. I cleaned it up as best I could and left it.

Conclusions

If it hadn’t been for my insistence that I see something in the cockpit I think this would have been an ok build. The instructions left a lot to be desired, especially when it came to decal placement. But, I now have a Do 217 built, it looks fairly good despite the inaccuracies built into the kit and the ones I built into the kit due to poor references. Don’t let this review keep you from building one, just use this raving lunatics writing to side-step the pitfalls that I kept falling into. Would I build another one? Well, I did buy another kit from my local hobby store and I have plans on building an in-line engine version using a Do 217N-1 kit. We will see if this pans out or not.

My thanks to Testors and the DLV Company, and Internet Modeler for the review sample as well as Matt Bittner’s patience.