Amodel 72036 Dornier Do X Flying Boat 1/72, thoughts, price, etc

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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I first saw photos of the Dornier Do X Flying Boat wayyy back when I was a kid. Seen many flying boats over the years but I find this one to be simply beautiful. So about 30 minutes ago, I decided I’d look to see what kits, if any, of this bird are out there and came across the Amodel 1/72 one {apparently from Ukraine} and since I hadn’t seen a thread on one here, thought I’d see if anyone has built this kit and if so, their thoughts on it. It seems to be pretty pricy going from anywhere between 299.00 and 350.00.

Thanks, Jon

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Just realized I put this in the military aircraft section instead of the civilian airliner section. If an admin could move it, I’d appreciate it.

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Lots of modeling horsepower is a requirement when building an Amodel kit. The big ones like the Dornier usually have fiberglass components like the fuselage, which are SUPER hard and require a motor tool with grinding bit to get through. The small parts are usually soft in detail. That being said, if you have great intestinal fortitude and are competent at scratchbuilding, a nice unique model will be the result. I have seen some stunning Amodel “monster” kits, but they all demanded a high degree of effort from their builders. Not to scare you off, just providing a frank assessment.

BTW, Hobbyterra offers free shipping for USA orders over $150 IIRC, and the package usually arrives inside 2 weeks. Yeah… I bought a lot of Amodel/Modelsvit/Avis/Sova kits from them. [:$]

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Hi;

Although I still have mine(A victim of more moves than believable) It’s Wood! I built it in sixth Grade wood shop. Our shop teacher selected what we built based on drawings he got from the art teacher. I drew a lot of large planes( Airliners, Pan Am Clippers, etc) so that’s what I got. She has a 18" wingspan and is now minus one wing float and all her props, but surprisingly she doesn’t look bad even for that!

I do NOT recommend the A-Model kit unless you have quite a few under your belt!

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What TB said. With this type of kit, you have to visualize how the parts are supposed to fit, then fettle them until the assembled parts resemble what they are supposed to look like. Asymmetrical and/or malformed parts are common. A world apart from a Tamiya "shake-n-bake kit.

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For about 1/10 that $$$, there’s the Otaki-Matchbox- Revell of Germany one in 1/144, if you are concerned about that rather high price.

It’s a great kit and builds up cleanly. I built mine up as Regia Aeronautica, the Italians had a couple.

A true flying boat, there are some nice photos online of the bridge, which in true fashion had wrap around windows and a ships wheel.

Down in the belly, there was an engineer station where the Chief ran the throttles at a big console as instructed from the bridge.

Bill

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There’s one on ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233827886246?hash=item36713a64a6:g:uv4AAOSwjQRf1Dqa

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I didn’t know Amodel stuff had so many issues. I had actually not ever heard of them before. Perhaps I’d be better off looking for the Revell kit of this awesome plane.

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Any 1/144 Do X, such as the one John pointed you towards, are all the same kit, same molds.

Which may mean that an original, like John’s Otaki; probably has much more crisp moldings.

Bill