Do-27 "Grzimek" Serengeti Version

Acki
I'm in.

Bernd Korte
Following

Roland Sachsenhofer
That´s a pleasure for me!

Acki
Ein paar Reste davon liegen bei uns im Berliner Technikmuseum.

Gordon Sørensen
I have an old Huma 1/72 Do27 in my stash to build some day.... Watching!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello mates! This project will take it´s time, a bundle of issues will have to be altered or completely build new. And, uff, I am not a master in scratching!
First step: I will rebuild the prop: what Revell is providing can´t fit and has nothing to do what I can see on photos of the real thing.
Alot of things have to be made new in the cockpit- especially the instrument panel.
Acki, allow me the question: does that mean you are a Berliner and a visitor of the Technikmuseum - or do you have some "backstage opportunities" to get pictures from the inside/cockpit of the crashed Do? 🙂 In those I would be very interested to get a estimation of the correct color for the cockpit area.

Acki
Hi Roland! Sorry I'm only a visitor of the museum. What about the film „Serengeti darf nicht sterben"? I have no idea of there is a look inside the cockpit.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Akki, splendid idea! Some of the film-stills found after a quick recherche show interesting views of their Zebra-Do. I will get the book and the Oscar winning movie! 🙂

Acki
Not the worst film to see!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Quite certain!

bughunter
I'm in!

Roland Sachsenhofer
That´s really nice, welcome!

Roland Sachsenhofer
The "Zebra" build starts with.... rebuilding the prop! Revells airscrew looks a little bit ridiculous to me. I have a second Do-27 kit in my stash, so I used the second prop to get a more fitting shape. I cut out a piece in the middle of each blade and glued this as the end pieces of the corrected future airscrew. This will now be sanded into a good optical approach of what was attached to the real thing.
On the other pictures you can see what is provided to get a Do-27´s interior. That will be enhanced a little bit.

bughunter
Really pitty - no wooden prop 🙂 But it looks nice!

Stefan Fraundorfer
I'm following with interest. Have much fun with the zebra Roland.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you both mates! Stefan, "Do-27 Projekt darf nicht sterben" ist die neue Überschrift 🙂
I have revived this project and am confident to tame this Zebra during first half of this summer.....

Stefan Fraundorfer
Das nenne ich eine Ansage. Ich wünsche dir gutes Gelingen.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Danke! 🙂
Just a very moderate update: The interior of Revells Do27 needs plenty of additions and alterations to get somewhat near to the appearance of the real thing. On of those items is the shape of the seats: I cut, fillered and sanded them to a more appropriate condition with rounded and headrestless 🙂 tops.

Roland Sachsenhofer
The interior has been finished. Seat belts, tailored from metal foil after pictures of the originals, have been attached to the reshaped seats. The front seats got a new shape and a additional substructure from spare etched parts, that shifts the appearance more towards the real thing.

David Funke
oh, a very hard kit. I´m following!

Roland Sachsenhofer
David, that´s true.... 🙂 Nice you will be following!

Roland Sachsenhofer
There is a certain amount of filling and sanding necessary to get a proper outcome. In special the connection of fuselage/cockpit and the wing was demanding- and still is 🙂
By the way: the Grzimek movie "Serengeti darf nicht sterben" has plenty of scenes of the Zebra-Do flying around or be used as a backdrop for scenes- that´s a useful source for the modeler!

Roland Sachsenhofer
From white to black in one step. After fixing several inaccuracies this black paint will be masked to represent the black stripes of the Zebra-outfit.
Well, a lot of work is put into this ancient kit, a lot of work is waiting... 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Correction have been done on several spots- two new pictures show the fixed and freshly sanded areas.
Now the fun can start: masking the Zebra! 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Best method in my opinion to get these stripes on the surface: cut out the pattern provided by Revell, position it on a masking tape, fix it with a masking tape and then cut it out with a sharp knife....

Roland Sachsenhofer
The masking has been finished- at last! Whatever the result will look like, I am proud of having mastered this task 🙂

Stefan Fraundorfer
Roland, du könntest die Maskierung so belassen, und das Modell als Tiger-Do präsentieren.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Ja, sozusagen eine "Tiger-meet Do".... 🙂

Claus
Saw your Do over on Hyperscale, it really looks good ! Am I right in suspecting the kit was tooled by Heljan, as were most if not all Bünde kits from the 80s and 90s ?

Roland Sachsenhofer
Claus, thank you a lot for your words and interest! Well.... I have to confess I have no idea who or what is "Heljan"! 🙂 Would you give me a hint? Sounds interesting!

Claus
Heljan is a Danish company mainly active in the model railroad accessory field. They provided Revell with some light plane/glider kits in the 80s (1/87, I think), and a lot of building kits. They also tooled the absolutely dreadful accessory sprue for the fossilic Draken, the original EFA kit, the Beluga (box also states/d "Moulded in Denmark" which is a dead giveaway), the 1/32 Alouette (I think, thoug hthis is a lot better), possibly the original Gripen proto, some car kits etc. A common feature is a somewhat rough texture, the mould of the EFA has grind marks on visible surfaces... The sprues also usually carry a large tab with the kit and sprue #.