Do 335 by Randy Asplund 
Dornier Do 335 Pfeil (Arrow)

by
© Randy Asplund

Lindberg Models 1/72 scale

The Do 335 was one of the fastest piston engined fighters of the second world war. Only 37 were ever built though they were introduced in later 1944 and continued flying through the end of the war.  What made it so interesting is the push-pull configuration of the engines. There is a tractor engine up front, and another just behind the cockpit that drove a second propeller in the tail.  There is a cannon in the front spinner, and two machine guns on top of the nose.

The image above is a composite of a sky shot that I took with the model superimposed over it.

The model itself was a vintage kit made by the Lindberg company. It has a lot of inaccuracies that had to be dealt with, but I expect this from a Lindberg kit. These really have to be seen as child's toys rather than serious models, unless you really love to accurize a model, and then the better modeler can consider it to be "a challenge." The instructions are lazy. You won't get instructions for how to paint it, and your decals will be too small and incomplete,  The scoops aren't round, so you may want to remove and build new ones.  One nice thing is they give recessed panel lines for the main panels (raised for details) but they also give raised rivets, and they are way high. They should be flush. It looks best with the gear built in the up position because the bays were also lazily designed. Lindberg tries to get away with as few parts as possible. That's why the shapes are wrong.

Did I like anything about it?
Well, I liked the challenge.... and the pilot. Although he was not bent to a seated position enough, he was amazingly well detailed. Facial features are one thing, but the straps on his belts are textured and the buckles are even on there!

Fortunately, despite there being so few made, the Do 335 has a lot of documentation. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum even has the only extant aircraft on display. I was able to take some nice photo reference of it.  I chose to build mine as the #107 aircraft, using the color scheme and patterngiven in Michael Ulman's book Luftwaffe Colours. I painted it in RLM 81 Olivbraun/ 82 Hellgrun/ 65 Hellblau (post 1941). The spinners and propellers are all RLM 70 Schwarzgrun.

Here are a couple more shots of the model-

Dornier Do 335

Dornier Do 335