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Tamiya 1/48 Dornier Do 335A-12 in an Alclad II Finish

By Greg Goheen

Overview

Having seen several period photographs of various Dornier Do 335s in the early stages of construction and only revealing their natural metal skin, I was inspired for this build. The kit, of course, is Tamiya's fine offering of the Do 335A-12 in 1/48 scale.  As usual the moldings are first class, free of ejector pin marks and features finely recessed panel lines. With the exception of some pre-colored PE seatbelts from Eduard this was kept as an out of the box build.  The dual cockpit assemblies were painted Gunze RLM66 before being lightly dry-brushed to accentuate the detailing within each.  The instrument panel decals were quite realistic and settled down into place with a few light applications of Solvaset.

The real emphasis, however, wasn't any over-detailing of the cockpit or spending a small fortune on after-market accessories as much as simply on the paint.  This, at times, causes fellow modelers to shake with fear and steer clear of attempting a bare metal finished aircraft.  The truth is that doing an Alclad II scheme is much easier than one might think, as it's really two necessary elements to achieve a realistic finish: preparation and patience.

Preparation (with Patience)

For the preparation aspect, it's vital to achieve a surface that is as blemish free as possible.  This is achieved with the second element touched on... patience.  In other words, take your time and don't be in a hurry to put paint on your model before making sure each seam is sanded down and blended properly.  Luckily with this being yet another of Tamiya's finely engineered models, most of the work is already done for you after you have cemented the wing and fuselage halves together. A little bit of Gunze Mr. White Putty was used on these spots before being sanded down smooth.

With the airframe completed it was now a matter of further preparation, namely with two light coats of Alclad Gray Primer & Microfiller being airbrushed.  Alclad Micromesh sanding cloths were then used, starting with 3000-grit and working my way up to 8000-grit. This will leave the primed surface very shiny and have you easily spot any blemishes that may have been missed earlier. No worries, however, as you can fill them in and wet sand with Micromesh again to blend back to a smooth airframe. Again, this would fall under the patience element...making sure you take your time during this process to carefully check for any blemishes that will surely be seen once you begin putting some paint down.

Painting

As Alclad High Polished Aluminum was to be used as the base coat on the airframe, I mixed a small batch of 2 parts Model Master Gloss Black to 1 part Model Master Flat Black.  I suppose I could try using something like Model Master Satin Black to achieve this, as essentially that is what I wind up with.  The point here, however, is critical to understand in that while Gloss Black enamel is recommended as the base coat of high sheen colors by Alclad my experience with Model Master, at least, is that Gloss Black never fully cures properly.  This, unfortunately, leads to a less than desired Alclad finish. So, for me, since Gloss Black doesn't cure well enough and Flat Black doesn't provide the smooth surface necessary for Alclad, I have settled in between with a smooth, silky black that cures in less than 12 hours.  Patience is asked of the modeler once again as you repeat the process of using Micromesh on this now black surface to finally....yes finally...ready yourself for paint.

Once shimmering in a pearl black tone from sanding I applied two light coats of Alclad High Polished Aluminum to the airframe.  There...wasn't so bad, now was it? The remainder of tones applied was a matter of checking some reference photographs again, masking panels off and applying different colors including Duraluminum, White Aluminum, Dark Aluminum and some shades that were custom tinted with a drop or two of black enamel.

Other Colors

Many of these period photographs clearly show that the rudder, elevators and ailerons were painted, despite the aircraft being in an unpainted, bare metal finished state and listed this dark color as being RLM70 or possibly RLM81.  I'd suggest, however, that either of these is incorrect for two main reasons.  As modelers, we all know that when airbrushing a scheme of various tones that one starts with the lightest of colors and works towards the darkest.

For example, when we do a classic Luftwaffe scheme we usually start with RLM76 for the undersides and lower section of the fuselage, followed by RLM75 and finally RLM74.  With this in mind, if the finished scheme for this aircraft was RLM76/81/82, being a late war paint scheme it would not make sense in the least for  these color portions to be painted the darkest of tones first.  Yes, I realize all too well that many components were subcontracted throughout Germany to various companies and pre-finished before delivery to the factories for final assembly but the argument that the darkest of tones was used still does not make sense.

The second reason I'd suggest that either RLM70 or RLM81 is incorrectly identified for these surfaces is that fabric/wood surfaces were called to be painted with red oxide dope prior to painting.  This, of course, makes much more sense that the first suggestion of either of these two colors and is what I believe is truly most accurate.  I achieved this color, with of all choices out there, using Model Master British Crimson.  Crazy, huh? It seems the closest shade to 7137 Herboloid red oxide priming dope as called out in LDv 521/1 so I'm sticking with it.  These parts, the rudder, elevators and ailerons were masked after the Alclad tones had been applied and were airbrushed accordingly.

Finishing Touches

The nose gear was cut off and repositioned to provide a more interesting look while sitting on the tarmac and the kit DF loop was replaced by a PE one from the spares box to achieve a more realistic appearance by being much thinner than the kit part.  Finally, the few decals used were mostly from the spares box and the interesting numbering on the tail section has the last two digits of the Werknummer in smaller case followed by the model number of production below in larger case. Do enjoy and I hope this explanation of how to effectively use Alclad II products inspires you to build a bare metal aircraft soon.