Doras Galoras - Unofficial GB

[rochie]

Howdy, All,
Well, I got a little time on the bench this evening. Andy, you are so very correct about the decisions that need to be made during assembly. I am still not sure if I am going to leave the MG13 bay open or not yet. I do know I will leave one of the cannon bays open, but not both. I decided I would still utilize two of the pieces from the MG bay that are supposed to be left off if closing the bay. I'll need to check what needs to be cut out if I close the bay. I wanted to keep these pieces as they have the ejector chutes molded into them. I did decide to drill these out and shape the final cut outs with an xacto blade. You can this work here:
View attachment 222875



I got most of the engine "plug" assembly done tonight. I still need to verify the fit and finish of a couple of pieces and do final weathering and staining. I may add some additional wiring if I can find a reference I can trust of the wheel bay. The pics below are with a dry fit in one fuse side. I just wanted to do a sanity check. You can just make out the ejector chutes now that I managed to get some flat black into them in the final picture. Here is the work so far:
View attachment 222876View attachment 222878

Not sure how much I will get done this weekend on the Dora as the superscale decal set for the P-51B arrived late this evening. I do want to get that bird done so I can check one decent construction project off.

Dale

good stuff Dale, be sure you check the position of that engine plug !
that is a great kit but i found it a little over engineered when i built mine and care has to be taken that you get parts in exactly the correct place or it can cause a few frustrations later on.
but with care it is a fantastic kit to put together

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's some progress on mine so I can catch up to Dale

These moulded in wires in the gun bay got removed before I painted this area. These will be replaced with sprue or copper wire.

The tank surrounding the engine bearer strut has been painted and hose clamps were added at the seals. These were made with thin strips of aluminum foil tape. I left on the excess plastic mould lines around the edge of the tank as there was a weld seam in the same place on the real tank.

The major parts have been painted and the engine plug has been assembled to the firewall. Note that the wires in the gun bay are gone.

The hose eminating from the center of the firewall to the top and front of the engine is made of a length of copper wire. There is a kit part for this but I replaced it with the wire as the kit part is too thin according to a reference pic I have of Black 12 details.

This assembly will now get some additional plumbing and wiring before it's installed in the fuselage. May get that done tomorrow.

 

[dneid]

Hey, Andy,
That looks damned good. I am looking forward to seeing how you finish the "plug". I left the molded in lines in place and picked them out with a black artist's pencil. I am learning to love those more and more each day. I still need to finish the final assembly on the plug. However, I am getting back on the '51 now that the decals are in hand. I hope to get back to the Dora within the next few days.

BTW, did you figure out what to do with the ejector chutes? I am ok with how mine turned out once I was able to get a couple of drops of black into them with a dubbing needle (see fly tying for what a dubbing needle is).

Dale

 

[Lucky13]

Well, when I did my 1/48 JV44 D-9 'Red 13', the EE decals showed her with white stripes all the way to the tail, but, when I bought the their later 1/32 scale decals for the same JV44 Doras, doing 'Red 13' again, it says...

Colors: Undersurfaces, RLM 76 Light Blue fuselage sides, Red with unevenly spaced White stripes which wary in width, Whites stripes seem to be absent on the bottom of the rear fuselage from the wheel wells to the tail...

They've also changed the top colours from the 1/48 set to the 1/32 one!

It says: Uppersurfaces, originally thought to be RLM 75/RLM 83, now, because of the W. Nr. 210240 realized it's more likely the upper combination would be RLM 82/RLM 83....

So, any thoughts?

 

[Wayne Little]

I read that too. If you look at he pic of Red 1 on the top of page 59 you can make out one white band on the rear fuselage. On page 92, a white stripe can be seen near the centerline of Red 13 running well behind the wheel wells.

Well Andy I thought the same at first but that mark looks more likely to be a scratch on the picture, it angles down too far and should have a slight curve to it as it disappears, if you look to the right in that pic you can see another scratch from the 'rear' of the guy standing on the wheel which looks to be parallel to what i think is the first scratch.....my observation of course!

Well, when I did my 1/48 JV44 D-9 'Red 13', the EE decals showed her with white stripes all the way to the tail, but, when I bought the their later 1/32 scale decals for the same JV44 Doras, doing 'Red 13' again, it says...

Colors: Undersurfaces, RLM 76 Light Blue fuselage sides, Red with unevenly spaced White stripes which wary in width, Whites stripes seem to be absent on the bottom of the rear fuselage from the wheel wells to the tail...

They've also changed the top colours from the 1/48 set to the 1/32 one!

It says: Uppersurfaces, originally thought to be RLM 75/RLM 83, now, because of the W. Nr. 210240 realized it's more likely the upper combination would be RLM 82/RLM 83....

So, any thoughts? View attachment 222944

Jan, Jerry Crandall decided that the pics did not show the stripes so removed them from later updates, same with the camo once established the aircraft was a late 210xxx series aircraft the camo for that part of production was in fact 82/83 so again data was updated to reflect the new evidence.
The earliest decals for the Red 13's were also the same for both sides, then the starboard 13 was 'stretched' to a broader size when new pics were discovered that this was the case. Jerry Issued a small set of correction decals for this change then later changed the style on re-runs of the full decal sheet.

 

[lostinhull]

Thanks guys.

I don't have much reference material on Doras (although I have managed to snag both of the FW190 Smith Creek books fro Christmas, they're not up to the Dora yet ) so appreciate your help and extensive knowledge.

Got some pics of the two cockpit tubs to take and post up later (when I get hold of some new batteries for the camera).

 

[A4K]

Great work everyone!
just on quickly now, but will check out everyone's links and questions properly tomorrow night, and post any info I have that might help.

 

[lostinhull]

Quick update - checked out the Eduard JV44 box set and the profiles are as follows:

D9 Red 1 D9 Red 3 - with white stripes running from nose to tail

D11 Red 4, D9 Red 13 and D11 Red 2 - stripes run from nose to the wheel well

Just spotted there's different numbers of stripes too - smashing

 

[Crimea_River]

Well Andy I thought the same at first but that mark looks more likely to be a scratch on the picture, it angles down too far and should have a slight curve to it as it disappears, if you look to the right in that pic you can see another scratch from the 'rear' of the guy standing on the wheel which looks to be parallel to what i think is the first scratch.....my observation of course!

Yes, I think you are right about that scratch on the picture of Red 13 and so withdraw that observation. So I thought I'd look closer at the the many other pics of red 13 in Crandall's volume 2 book. None of them conclusively show the stripes to the tail but one, to me, suggests their presence. Take a close look at the pic on page 94. On the fuselage bottom, straight below the open hatch and just ahead of the base for the D/F loop, I can make out a very faint line. Thoughts?

 

[woody]

1/32 D-9 JV44 red 3 Doras-Galoras unofficial groupbuild.

username: woody
name: jerry
scale: 1/32
manufacturer: Hasegawa
aftermarket: just seatbelts other than that OOb.


Got agood start on the cockpit using pictures Glenn posted for color reference.

 

[T Bolt]

Question:
My Tamiya D9 has this tab above the left side exhaust. I don't really see it in any pictures. Should I take it off?

 

[Crimea_River]

No, it is there but it is very thin in reality. I replaced mine with card:

If you look closely at that colour pic of Blue 12 I sent you, you can see it. It's to prevent exhaust fumes from getting sucked into the supercharger intake.

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks Andy. I looked at that picture but couldn't quite make it out. I think I'll replace it with some aluminum from a beer can.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good plan. Make sure you drink the beer first.

 

[woody]

Nice work Andy,Glenn and Dale. Here are a few pics of the cockpit i also got started on the engine plug trying to catch up.

 

[T Bolt]

Some real nice detail painting there Jerry.

Put on the beer can exhaust deflector. Also drilled out the gun barrels and put on the supercharger intake.

 

[fubar57]

Nice office Jerry. How do you start your holes Glenn. Most of the time, even my smallest drill, #80, skips off.

Geo

 

[T Bolt]

Start with a sharp #11 blade, put the point at the middle of the barrel and spin it a few times to make an indent, then go to the drill.

 

[fubar57]

Merci, mon ami.

Geo

 

[Wayne Little]

Yes, I think you are right about that scratch on the picture of Red 13 and so withdraw that observation. So I thought I'd look closer at the the many other pics of red 13 in Crandall's volume 2 book. None of them conclusively show the stripes to the tail but one, to me, suggests their presence. Take a close look at the pic on page 94. On the fuselage bottom, straight below the open hatch and just ahead of the base for the D/F loop, I can make out a very faint line. Thoughts?

I think they should be there too, but I'm just not convinced...pic on page 91 should be the one that provides an answer....but nothing can be seen....