DO-24T: The forgotten planes

[Rata]

Top effort Draco. Your ability to reproduce the shapes and general feel of the subject aircraft are second to none.

[Draco]

Thanks, Rata!

I'm finishing the lower side of the fuselage, including the keels. So far I just have placed the forward keel, and curiosly, the base of the keel has became a slightly difficult part to make, needing four small reinforcements. But nothing serious, and it's already included with the instructions.

I started to paint the lower side of the wing, having applied just the first, very spread layer of paint. I guestimate I'll need three layers to finish it. Of course, your model will come prepainted, you won't need to touch a brush!

An important detail: the rear keel has two tabs that will go out, not hidden as usual. You can see them in the third picture.

[gomidefilho]

Great progress my friend!

[Draco]

Thanks, gomidefilho!

Well, I made the pontoons. But when testing them, I found that the frontal fuel tank (the rounded frisbee-like thing between the dark and light sections) was flat, not humped.
Sooo... I checked the pictures, and the 3 view drawings, and found that while all the drawings show the pontoons with a winged profile, the real plane had pontoons with a romboid profile. You can see it comparing the black and the blue lines of the F2 part.
It mean changes in the F1 and F2 parts, and some milimetric adjustements in the pontoons skin. Your plane will have the right section.
But I don't like it.
Anyway, the alpha model is pretty near of the right shape, and I'll make a partial section to verify that everything fits good fot you. So I'm a bit upset but really happy that the plane is going beatifully?

By the way, I'm trying to guess what it says under the cockpit. Any help?

[Siwi]

I think the first word is 'Seenot'. My guess is that rest is the unit name and serial number. Not all aircraft in photos have this or a badge.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Siwi

I think the first word is 'Seenot'. My guess is that rest is the unit name and serial number. Not all aircraft in photos have this or a badge.

I was told it could be Seenot-Rettungsstaffel, meaning "Rescue Squadron"

The insign is the one of Seenostaffel 7 and was carried by some or all of their planes, but DJ+ZM is the only one that has something written. The serial number of this plane was Werk Nr. 159 (Aviolanda) / 0087 (RLM), so there are still parts missing.

[Draco]

The pontoons have the right profile, and the lower hull is finished (except the rear keel, of course)

The lower wing has the first layer of paint, and yes, it needs a second.

Now... now there are a lot of options... maybe the rear turret?

[scon10]

Draco, if I look at the 4th picture of 19 oct, it seems as if the pontons have a normal wing profile. What has lead you to using an sharp fold in the pontons? They served as a lifting airfoil, so a sharp fold would only lead to additional drag in subsonic condition.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by scon10

Draco, if I look at the 4th picture of 19 oct, it seems as if the pontons have a normal wing profile. What has lead you to using an sharp fold in the pontons? They served as a lifting airfoil, so a sharp fold would only lead to additional drag in subsonic condition.

scon10. It HAS a laminal profile, but not a slow wing profile. In all this pictures, you can see that the frontal top side is almost flat, and the leading edge is not rounded but almost military jet thin. Or at least very similar to the P-51 mustang wing, a Naca 66 profile instead of the Davis B-24 used in the wing.

I think it has two reasons: first, to prevent water resistance when taking off. And second, to prevent that the crew could fall.

[Siwi]

It might also be just to simplify construction. This isn't a super manouverable high-performance aircraft, so it was worth compromising some small percentage of airfoil efficiency to make the thing easier and cheaper to construct and repair. Either that or because the fuel tanks inside these needed to be a certain size and shape.