Official Black Horse 1724mm Dornier DO335 Pfeil ("Arrow") Thread

[Twowingtj]

With a little effort, it's likely repairable. Did open a ticket anyway for tracking.

Both build benches have current projects going on, so this will have to wait for a little while.

[MANFRED]

Would be awesome if someone would do a 3d print of the wing gun fairings and guns. Slight mods on the scheme and of course airfare with 2 inducers, one in the front and one in the middle.

[WAYNE888]

Bummer, that the ventral vertical stab was busted. Is it repairable, or will you ask MRC to send you a replacement fuselage? The dorsal and ventral stabs seem really strong on mine.

I would be looking for a new Fuse I think.....I prefer to make my own cracks, tears, and holes. They even say it is not made tear away....it is part of the structure.

[MrSmoothie]

After talking myself out of buying this model, I spent last night rationalizing myself into buying this model. Ordered. It was my birthday last week, after all, and it was a "zero" birthday. So there.

When I ordered this morning, there were 4 left. Just checked, only one left.

Also, the three pack of retracts was out of stock earlier, but they show as available right now, so I ordered those as well. Did I miss something or do they not actually say one of them is a steerable nose gear?

Also started doing some full-scale research. The main gear doors are interesting. From my preliminary research, it appears there were at least three variations. At first, there was a rectangular part over the strut, then a full-circle that slide down the strut to cover the wheel entirely. Next, a more conventional half-circle over the wheel. But clearly there was a time when only the strut was covered and the main wheel totally exposed.

The wheels look much too small, and that's certainly something I intend to explore, knowing the wing wheel wells would have to be changed.

I'm thinking my 3D printer is going to come in handy on this -- spinners, wing cannon housings, and especially a correctly scaled pilot. This was a huge aircraft -- the furnished pilot is like twice the size it should be.

I sure hope mine arrives without rudder damage! I'm pretty sure I'd be making a claim on that, repairable or not. My recent T-33 came with one wrinkled wingtip. I opted for store credit, which I applied to this Do-335 purchase.

[Terminater007]

These retracts fit straight in

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/servoles...ount-2pcs.html

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/servoles...3mm-mount.html

[MrSmoothie]

Wheels are hard rubber with plastic hubs. Can’t really tell how well they’ll hold up. Mains measured to be about 3.25” dia. Nosewheel, 2.5”. Wheel diameters seem kinda small for a plane of this size. Not sure if the wheel diameters will be a problem on grass fields, but don’t think so.

I just scaled up a good 3-view and came up with the following wheel sizes: Mains: 5.0" Nose: 3.5"

Some 3-views show a larger nose gear, but I will look into this more. At any rate it's unlikely that we can reach true scale diameter. But I agree that the provided wheels look way too small. Went through the same thing with the beautiful and well-done Flightline 1600mm F4U-1 Corsair. Any increase in diameter is visually worthwhile, as you increase the visible area of the wheels a lot with what may seem to be a small increase in diameter.

[Oxotnik]

After ordering the 3-piece XWave RM400-90 retract set yesterday, I realized that I already had 2 of the XWave retracts, which I'd bought for use in my Graupner He-111. Anyway, I grabbed and put a stock main oleo strut, axle, and wheel into the XWave and set it in one of the Do-335 wheel wells. The XWave RM400-90 works perfectly for the Mains. I don't think that the NG will work in this retract though, since the strut post has to go all of the way through the trunion and out the back, so that a C-clip can be placed on the post, so that the NG can be steered.

[edit] I’m modifying this post, to correct what I’d incorrectly said about the NG struct not working with the XWave RM400. When you actually read the manual, which I hadn’t, it’s clear how the NG structure should be mounted in the retract unit. No E-clip needed; the spring holds the strut in the retract trunion. [/edit]

[handyman220]

These retracts fit straight in

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/servoles...ount-2pcs.html

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/servoles...3mm-mount.html

Thanks for posting the link Terminator. Mains are ordered, nose gear is out of stock. I did register for stock alert when back in stock. Do you know any other nose gear retracts that are a drop in fit?

[Terminater007]

some on ebay

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Electric...-/161855363519

PZ-15096SN is the part number

[Rosytime]

As far as the nose gear, it mounts the same way as the OV-10 Bronco when using a retract. A spring is used to keep the strut in the trunion of the X-Wave retract and a pull-pull system is used for steering. In that way they don't have to produce a steerable retract. If you look at the manual you can see how it's done. A bit unconventional but it seems to work. I'm going to set up my Bronco like that.

[Oxotnik]

Rosytime
Thanks. I’d glanced through the manual and glanced at the NG strut. It sounds like I connected some dots incorrectly.

[edit] Figured out how the NG strut attaches. It is unconventional... and clever! Replace the grub screw with a 4mm screw, and attach the spring to it. Very clever. I hate E Clips; so, I’m liking this retention method!!

[Oxotnik]

Re: Mounting struts in the XWave RM400-90 Retract unit.
There are flats ground into the strut posts, but they (the flats) don’t go down quite far enough for the outmost grub screw to find the flat. So, the flats will have to ground a little longer. 2-minute job, including setup. LOL

RE: XWave RM400 vs. HK retract (referenced a few posts earlier). I have not laid hands on the HK retract units, but I obviously have the XWave retracts in hand. I’m impressed with the XWave RM-400. It’s all metal construction and locks in in the deployed and retracted positions. The XWave costs more than the HK units. Having seen the XWave units in operation and seen they quality construction, even if I hadn’t already bought them, I personally would buy them over the HK units.

Again, I haven’t actually held the referenced HK retracts, but I really like the XWave units! For me, as a general rule, HK components are at the lower end of my reliability scale. HK Retracts have been hit or miss for me. With that said, though, I got a set of HK large-scale retracts for my 91” A-26 late last year, and I have been incredibly impressed with them.

Anyway, my two cents worth on the topic of retracts. :-)

[MrSmoothie]

I've found that some of the larger size HobbyKing retracts are very good and surprisingly inexpensive -- that's what I replaced the stock retracts with in my 1600mm HobbyKing FW-190 (also with 5mm strut pin). That said, I think Oxo is 100% right that this Do-335 rates something heavier duty -- according to the MRC page, flight weight is on the order of 13 lbs, which is a lot more than large foamies.

I'm glad to hear Oxo's positive report on the quality, and glad that I ordered my XWave 3-pack yesterday. I'm intrigued by the idea of a 105 degree nose retract (who knew such a thing existed?) -- but I fear that a front-canted strut would be particularly susceptible to damage, like when my plane rolls past the end of the Geotex into the not-so-smooth grass.

The bigger problem with HK retracts (or any of their component parts) is that they are just as likely to be backordered as in-stock. If I *was* going the HK route, I'd order twice as many as I needed to have spares. You know how it goes -- if you have spares, you'll never need 'em!

Just noticed on the MRC site that, at least for now, the Do-335 is sold out.

[Oxotnik]

RE: Sold out Do-335s.

I'm glad to see that MRC sold what they'd bought into their warehouse, and I'm glad to see everyone carrying through on their promises to buy a 335, if Motion brought them in house.. Hopefully, this will continue to encourage Motion to continue to bring us new and exciting warbirds! After all, if we wanted Mustangs and Cubs, we could go to Horizon, as that seems to be all that they're putting out, in addition to Timbers, of course.

[Twowingtj]

When I had to replace the retracts in the 15lb BV-141B, I used the XWave RM400s and found them to be well made and worth the price, Very smooth and positive lock at end travels.

I'll follow everyone elses 335 builds for a little bit longer, as the Black Horse Gilmore is on one bench and my wife's VQ Twin Otter is on the other. Both have about a week's worth of work to go.

[MrSmoothie]

You mean the Wedell-Williams? I'd sure like to see how that turns out! Good luck with it -- love those Thompson Trophy racers.

Glad to have +1 on the XWave retracts. I'm feeling much better about having spent the money than I did last night.

[Twowingtj]

You mean the Wedell-Williams? I'd sure like to see how that turns out! Good luck with it -- love those Thompson Trophy racers.

I'm doing the build on the Official Gilmore thread here. Black Horse did a great job on this one.


Back to the Do335.....

[WAYNE888]

due Thursday

[Oxotnik]

Wings fully assembled (less push rods). Installed the XWave RM400-90 retracts and a landing light. Picked up two 80A FMS ESCs and MAS 16x10x3 props (pusher and puller) at my LHS today. All I have left to buy are the 5055 motors.

I'm going to set up my control system on an 8.4v bus. 2S lipo feeding directly into the RX (which will be a pair of FrSky X8Rs, which will give me 16 total channels). My servos are HiTec D485MWs, except for the NG steering servo, which will be a D645MW for the higher torque rating. Servos, RX, and retracts are all compatible with a 2S power bus.

Anyway, that's where I'm at in the assembly process.

[edit... 2 hours later]
Purchased two Flightline 1.6m Spitty 5055-390kv motors, and a WarbirdPilots.com 1/8 scale Luftwaffe pilot. I think that I now have everything onhand or ordered to complete the assembly. I think that the full-body pilot is going to look great piloting the Pfeil. I'll have to do a little cutting of the cockpit floor for his legs, but it should be a really easy mod.

[handyman220]

some on ebay

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Electric...-/161855363519

PZ-15096SN is the part number

Thanks again for the linkTerminator, NG ordered. I'll still play with the eflite 105 degree retract for the nose gear to see how much fiddling to make it work. Probably be a month before the nose gear comes from China anyway. The wave retracts are interesting in the way the mains are used for the nose gear, who would have thunk that, not me! Mine is landing 3/12, just got the shipping notice.