The Dornier DO 335. The revolutionary German aircraft that marked the end of World War two. Whilst never placed into full production, roughly 12 were made. Incredibly hard to fly and with frequent take-off errors, the DO 335 was never placed into full production. With only two versions, a single-seater and a two-seater trainer version, I chose to build the latter as I had already built the other one before.

Dornier DO335 Box Art Official

This is a full skill-level kit (level five) with only 81 parts. The full model is 291mm x 290mm, and is in scale 1:48.

Model details as specified by Revell:

- Contains parts for the single seat version A-1 or the two-seat version A-12
- Structural details on surface
- Inside engine compartment visible with simulated engine
- Detailed cockpit
- Separate flaps on wings
- Movable propeller
- Detailed undercarriage
- One pilot figure and 2 mechanics
- Decals for 2 German Luftwaffe versions

Model's still soaking... but check out phase 1 moulding of camo netting

What struck me was how little parts there were for a skill level 5 model. I prefer having less parts, mind you! Yet this is still rather abnormal. The wings, except for the separate flaps, are very large single pieces with a mirrored base. The landing gear, contrary to my predictions, was not a nightmare! Nothing about this kit surprised me enough NOT to finish building it, which is a good thing.

Strands of woven cloth hanging off... only 1 done so far, just a test.

The paint schemes are “splinter camouflage”. These are so much easier to do, as it’s just straight lines. There’s no need for all the putty or blu-tac to mask out the lines: just simply apply masking tape or Revell Airbrush Film to cover the basecoated areas, and then apply your other coat of paint over this.

I’ve added a small covering over the wing to give it a nice airfield look. It might look really nice on an airfield diorama.

I only had one small concern — the cockpits were prone to sinking because of the all-famous cross-sectional design. A clamp was necessary to hold the canopy floor, seat and pilot from falling whilst the glue was still wet. This was a bit annoying, because I couldn’t progress to gluing the other half of the fuselage until this was dried.

The burs were also very difficult to remove from the pilot because that sprue it was mounted on was very thick. You should consider the use of long-nosed cutting pliers as opposed to a file or knife to remove this.

However these minor flaws were not significant enough to ruin this model. With a few extra tools to use this model was a very enjoyable build. I hope to see Revell’s 1/48 scale expand a lot more – truth be told they’ve really done this series well. I hope to show a step-by step instructional video of the new 1:48 B-17 Memphis Belle this summer!

Now remember, Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For
further information visit www.revell.eu or email ukbranch@revell.de

Some wargamers just don’t have time to be building a whole army. You’ve seen our take on professional painting services. But unfortunately most likely they won’t assemble the miniatures for you. Thankfully GW have made it really simple to assemble their most popular army, the Space Marines, as well as a few other common squads for their other armies, such as Chaos Daemons.

Space Marine Snap-Fit range kindly supplied by Total Wargamer, supplier of many wargaming brands.

The Snap-Fit range involves a really simple to construct set of figures which you can easily snap together. Whilst glue isn’t even required it’s recommended. The models come in a few parts – the body, the jump-packs, and the weapons, which in this case are boltguns (rifles).

As far as details on the miniature are concerned, the snap-fit range lacks decent moulding. Only the obvious details are present, such as slots for eyes and a few armour contours — but that really is about it. For those who care about consistency between their squads, they might find it irritating when they have a distinct differentiation between the Snap-Fits and the ordinary marines. However, this is hard to recognise once the figures are painted up, considering a lot of this detail is hidden by painting over these details, and also the fact that most of the attention to the figure is the painting, and not the moulding. If you’re more of a gamer, then consider these kits a nice addition. If you think you want to have a much more serious approach to building your army – then perhaps this isn’t the set for you. It’s definitely worth considering this before purchase.

I personally had another concern as well. My main issue is this. Within the snap-fit range each blister pack contains only 3 figures. With a regular Space Marine Tactical Squad the set consists of 10 figures. This means even if you bought 3 boxes, you’d have 9 Snap-Fit miniatures, being one figure short. If you purchase 4 Snap-Fit sets, that’s 12 figures, being 2 figures over where you would have nothing to do with those extra figures unless you bought more sets to fill additional squads! By then you could be spending a very large amount of cash on these sets. VERY daunting.

In all honesty, building the full Space Marines isn’t very hard. There’s less than 15 parts per figure — and besides, with quick-drying superglue and parts which are well moulded, you could dry assemble them in seconds yet alone full assemble. It really is a decision which depends on how much time you have available – but is it much of a gain to save 10-20 minutes per figure whilst sacrificing significant detail and having an oddly-numbered squad? I’ll leave that for you to decide.