discussion Quickie: 1:72 Dewoitine D-520

[Guest]

Following the rather involved models I’ve been building of late, it’s time for something quick and simple I’ve always liked the look of the Dewoitine D-520, and RS Models do what seems to be a pretty good kit of it in 1:72:

View attachment 436819

This is what you get inside the box:

View attachment 436820

Plus instructions, which you can view on Scalemates. Here are the painting instructions, on the back of the box:

View attachment 436821

Not sure yet which one I’ll build, but I have a bit of a preference for the ones with the bright colours on top of the camouflage. I haven’t decided yet if I want to mask all those red stripes, though. In any case, for painting it I also bought this set:

View attachment 436822

 

[Dave Ward]

Following the rather involved models I’ve been building of late, it’s time for something quick and simple :smiling3: I’ve always liked the look of the Dewoitine D-520, and RS Models do what seems to be a pretty good kit of it in 1:72:



This is what you get inside the box:



Plus instructions, which you can view on Scalemates. Here are the painting instructions, on the back of the box:



Not sure yet which one I’ll build, but I have a bit of a preference for the ones with the bright colours on top of the camouflage. I haven’t decided yet if I want to mask all those red stripes, though. In any case, for painting it I also bought this set:

Jakko,
the Vichy stripes have always interested me, but painting red over yellow or vice versa has always put me off - I have a HobbyBoss easy assembly D.520 in the stash, waiting for me to attempt this!
Dave

 

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting, not seen a French aircraft built that I can remember…..got to be Mr stripey though…..bring it on….

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Something different to what you usually build. As Tim says not many models of French planes built. I would like to see how you cope with the stripes but it's your choice.
Jim

 

[yak face]

Nice one jakko , ill be watching . Looks a nice straightforward build ,no need to worry about cockpit details too much , due to the closed canopy , the yellow tailed no29 would be my choice of scheme although the captured American scheme is very interesting too . Cheers tony

 

[Guest]

Like a few above as well, I’m kind of partial to the red-and-yellow version, but it’ll require a lot of fiddly masking, which doesn’t go together well with a quick build …

For that matter, neither does this kit in general I’ve started building the cockpit, and found there are hardly any locating pins anywhere on the whole model, plus with the cockpit in place, the fuselage haves don’t seem to close underneath … Will have to file some bits down, I suppose.

 

[Guest]

I never much like cockpits, they always take a lot of work relative to how much of the model they actually comprise, and seem to slow down building the rest of the plane a lot. But it’s now painted:

View attachment 436994

Just a medium grey base coat, dark grey wash and light grey drybrush, plus some other colours for the details, like dark grey plus a black wash for the instrument panel and dark brown for the seat pad.

 

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Jakko. Know what you mean about cockpits, especially at this scale when you barely are anything inside

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Guest]

Not worth sitting down in a comfortable chair for this like your other builds, as this looks like it might be finished in a week !

 

[Guest]

I indeed intend to finish this model sooner rather than later. I do far too many models that take ages to complete, I almost need to do an occasional quick in-between one

 

[papa 695]

Looking good so far.

 

[Dave Ward]

Just had a look at my HobbyBoss version the colour options are slightly different

Colour call outs are a bit suspect - but those stripes! why couldn't thay supply decals???
Dave

 

[Guest]

My kit, as you can see earlier in this thread, just has fairly generic colour references that include what seems like the official French names but only approximations in Czech and English. This is why I also bought the Hataka set, so I wouldn’t have to try and match them myself My main problem is whether to use Vert or Kaki Français for the green — the text on the back of the Hataka box says the latter was more common, but the kit’s painting instructions say Vert foncé, “Dark Green” — which neither of the two colours in the paint set seems to be.

I think I’ll turn to the only reference I have on the subject and see what that says:

I’m still pondering whether to do the striped version or the yellow tail, though. The stripes shouldn’t be too difficult to mask by cutting strips of tape to the right width; if I do do them, I’ll post pictures to show how. My main worry is how to do the curved lower edges to the red-yellow areas neatly.

 

[Tim Marlow]

You could scan and copy the instruction sheet diagram to the models size. Once you have that you can print it out then cut out the curve from the print to use as a template for marking out on wide masking tape Jakko.

 

[Guest]

Good idea, most likely better than mine, of cutting it freehand Stripes it probably will be …

Fuselage built:

View attachment 437068

That required taping the front and rear together, on top and bottom, because the cockpit seems to be a little too wide. I had already filed it down a bit, but not quite enough, I think. I also had to fill some gaps on the underside, and after trying to smooth out the joints, I added the wings:

View attachment 437069

First, I glued the fuselage onto the lower wing (which is in one piece), and then added the upper halves. Those needed filing at the roots, else the tips of the upper halves stuck out about a millimetre beyond the lower ones, and the panel lines didn’t match up either. The wingtips still do, but not as much, and the panels now seem to line up.

All of this without any locating pins, by the way. I haven’t been able to find any of those at all on this model, so if you’ve never built an aircraft but would like a D-520 on your shelf, the Hobby Boss kit Dave posted is probably your better choice

The horizontal tailplanes did have locating ridges, but they were too long, too thick and too tall to fit inside the slots in the fuselage … Cutting, scraping and filing were needed to get them to mate up properly with the tail fin.

 

[Guest]

Construction done:

View attachment 437206View attachment 437207

Well, other than the wheels, which will go on after painting. I think there are no parts to this kit that didn’t need fettling to some degree or other, so building it took rather longer than I had expected at the start, but it looks good.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looks good, now bring on the stripes….

 

[adt70hk]

You could scan and copy the instruction sheet diagram to the models size. Once you have that you can print it out then cut out the curve from the print to use as a template for marking out on wide masking tape Jakko.

I did something similar last year with my Spitfire except I traced the scanned instruction outline onto a sheet of acetate and then used that to create the template from masking tape.... That way if I ever do the same/similar version I don't have to redo the mask.

 

[David Lovell]

Good stuff Jakko I like following the wingy thing builds (well some of them)don't ask but I've quite a few in the stash get them out look at all the messing about with the cockpit and put it back where it came from ,suffer the same with SPGs loads in the stash but hey all that faff ,perhaps I'll man up one day looking forward to some paint . Dave

 

[Guest]

Looks good, now bring on the stripes….

Now why do I feel like I’m being forced into a certain direction …?

But yeah, the stripes look too distinctive to not paint, I think. And probably the tricolour on the rudder as well, rather than using the decals supplied for that, because my experiences with decals that fill most of a tail fin aren’t that great.