Old Dog
Well-known member
I started this build back in January, I was getting burned out on two kits that just seemed to have one issue after another and needed to build something that didn't require me to use every skill in my tool box so I turned to one of my favorite Tamiya kits the Do-335, this time choosing the heavily armed fighter version. The kit was built mostly out of box, I did use some PE levers and seat belts in the cockpit and replaced the kit wing guns with ones from Master. I had it mostly done when I shifted from planes to trains back in the spring and it has been waiting for me to finish it since then.
I decided to go down a different path on painting. Most of these I see built use the late war colors of brown violet and bright green. I'm not convinced Dornier every used these colors. When the 81and 82 colors were released, the manufacturers were told to use up existing stocks of 70 an 71 first and that these older colors could be used in conjunction with the newer colors. Since Dornier had build mostly bombers I suspect they had a lot of the older colors in stock when bomber production was ordered halted. Since no color chips were ever issued for these colors, manufacturers were left to decide what they were. If you look at the painting diagram below that Dornier issued for the 335 you will see they referred to both 81 and 82 as dark green.
That and the fact that many photos show the colors being rather low contrast to each other made me decide to do something different. My choice was to use 70 and my own mix for 82 which I matched to one of the paint chips supplied in one of my Luftwaffe Colors books (there are actually several all different shades of green) At least it provides some variety from my other 335s. OK enough verbiage, I didn't take any in progress shots only those of the completed kit and I did very little weathering, only some light exhaust stains and minimal panel line wash, neither of which show up all that well in the photos.
I still have one variant to finish, the 335B-8 night fighter version that I started back in 2009 and is waiting for me to get proficient at doing night fighter camo and the 335A-12 trainer which I have yet to start. As always, thanks for looking !
I decided to go down a different path on painting. Most of these I see built use the late war colors of brown violet and bright green. I'm not convinced Dornier every used these colors. When the 81and 82 colors were released, the manufacturers were told to use up existing stocks of 70 an 71 first and that these older colors could be used in conjunction with the newer colors. Since Dornier had build mostly bombers I suspect they had a lot of the older colors in stock when bomber production was ordered halted. Since no color chips were ever issued for these colors, manufacturers were left to decide what they were. If you look at the painting diagram below that Dornier issued for the 335 you will see they referred to both 81 and 82 as dark green.
That and the fact that many photos show the colors being rather low contrast to each other made me decide to do something different. My choice was to use 70 and my own mix for 82 which I matched to one of the paint chips supplied in one of my Luftwaffe Colors books (there are actually several all different shades of green) At least it provides some variety from my other 335s. OK enough verbiage, I didn't take any in progress shots only those of the completed kit and I did very little weathering, only some light exhaust stains and minimal panel line wash, neither of which show up all that well in the photos.
I still have one variant to finish, the 335B-8 night fighter version that I started back in 2009 and is waiting for me to get proficient at doing night fighter camo and the 335A-12 trainer which I have yet to start. As always, thanks for looking !
