Aghis Barberopoulos
Beautiful aircraft. Interesting project to see.

Kelly Wellington
Yeah...I bought the kit on the basis of the interest in the craft construction. I thought it a very interesting craft. It was only once I'd pulled it out to start, and began looking around at the information on it that I was even more impressed. First, although it is usually shown in Third Reich colors, it was actually commissioned by the MDL (the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service) as a replacement for their earlier Dornier seaplane. The design and production was done for MDL and they took possession of them after the inception of the war and divided them between home country stations and Netherlands East Indies assignments. The Wermacht was not particularly interested at the time, as they had committed to the BV-138 as the primary seaplane for the Wermacht. The subsequent history generated a goodly number of possible liveries...The Dutch rigs were inducted into the Wermacht after the 1940 invasion of the Netherlands and subsequently served in every theater of the war. One was sequestered in Sweden and reassigned to the Swedish air force. The rigs assigned to the Dutch East Indies were either destroyed by the Japanese advance, or retreated to Australia, where they were either repatriated to the Aussies or served as a Dutch air force in exile. Evidently, in 1944, the Germans gifted twelve to the Spanish government for the explicit use as search and rescue aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterrenean Sea around Spain. Then, after the war, the French Navy used them.

Not only that, but the grandson of the founder of Dornier has renovated one with entirely new engines and regularly provides it for UNICEF work in the South China Sea area.

A really cool rig with a fascinating history and many good works to its name.