The Little World

I am going have a lot of fun with The German Pencil – the Dornier Do. 17E that was interned by the Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force. It is a kit from my friend Paul and I’m going to try a wholly new idea for my display. This one will not be parked – it’ll be flying.

The reason for this is twofold; I want to make a decided differentiation from the other Dornier Do.17Z in Swiss colours, and I have space in my display cabinet that can cope with larger 2 and 4-engine bombers and transports. That is provided they are prepared to bank to or away from the viewer. You’ll see what I mean as we go along.

The kit is an Airfix from 1975 and was presented unopened since then. The bag has no separate bags but the clear parts haven’t suffered in the waiting time. The rest of the light blue plastic seems reasonably free of flash and burrs but there is one short-shot hole in the fuselage. However, that’s what they make putty for…

The instructions show a more detailed part breakdown than the contemporary FROG kit and a few more external parts. It is a more delicate moulding, however, so I’ll need to be careful. They give me three crew members and fortunately they are Allied pilot mouldings. I’ll crew the ship with one and save the other two for bare aircraft.

The decals are showing their age – they wouldn’t be used in any case and even if I was modelling a Luftwaffe scheme I’d go buy an aftermarket set. Old brittle, yellow decals are a nightmare.