**** DONE: GB-45 1/72 Dornier Do 18 - BoB/Foreign Service

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Well the sage continues. After waiting near six weeks for the frisket paper to show up from E Bay I said screw it and looked for another solution. Remember those 36 pictures of your kid crying on Santa Clauses lap you couldn't wait to get home and load in your photo album ? Voila ! Those plastic pages with the envelopes in them are perfect, Right thickness, easy to cut through, no adhesive but a bit of rubber cement on the back of them is tacky enough to hold it down. Onward, stencils made, paint sprayed, happy with how it turned out. Next, decals. I swear the decals are made out of neoprene rubber, I tried two different setting solutions and both just beaded right off the decals like scared rabbits. added a little dot of dish soap to each and it was easy then to coat the decals. Hour later after a couple of apps, nada. I mixed up a little bit of leveling thinner and isophropyl alcohol and that did the trick, decals sucked own nice and tight. Forward to yesterday morning. Guess what shows up in the mail. So yesterday I start making the making stencils for the fuselage and I notice the wing decals look kind of crappy, bunch of lint and cat hair stuck under them. Not a problem, mash some masking tape down on them and rip them up. I have decal sheets with balkenkreuzes but none big enough so I figure I'll make stencils with the frisket paper and spray them as well. Masking tape, duct tape, BMF, carpet tape, hockey tape, managed to pull a few little bits off. Spent most of this morning poking and proding them off with more isophropyl alcohol which did the trick. Tomorrow, back to making stencils and so it goes !

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Well we're having some fun now ! The only decals I ended up using are the Halkenkreuz and Balkenkreuze on the fuselage and they are aftermarket ones. The lettering and other crosses were painted. Next in order is vacuforming a rear turret. The one in the kit is laughable ! Also, fix up the propellers as well, they just don't look right, too paddle looking. None of the spare props I have are suitable either.

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What I have found in searching out this aircraft is a lot of conflicting information and pictures. As much as I would like to keep it looking as accurate as possible I've yet to find credible accurate information. For example. The two pictures below. One has the logo on the bow, also this same picture shows entirely different lettering under the wing than the fuselage, the other picture claims the logo should be on the engine nacelle ?? I printed up a logo with my crappy pull start printer and it looks kind of spotty so it's going on the bow because if anything, it looks more weather beaten than it would be on the nacelle. The turret is a whole different matter so I'm just going to wing it !

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And finally, a little diversion.......took me two and a half years but I finally tackled this bad boy !

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For example. The two pictures below. One has the logo on the bow, also this same picture shows entirely different lettering under the wing than the fuselage, the other picture claims the logo should be on the engine nacelle ??

Just looking at my copy of Classic Colours' monograph on Aufklarer, Luftwaffe Reconnaissance Aircraft and Units 1935 to 1941, there are pictures and a profile drawing on pages 75 and 76 showing the unit marking on either the nose under the front gunner's position or on the forward engine cowl. Dffierent photos show these locations each on different aircraft. so your decision to put it on the nose for that aircraft would at least fit, even though you want to model that exact aircraft, mate. The model looks great, by the way.
 

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