Master Model is a Polish company. The owner is Piotr Czerkasow who is a mechanical engineer by trade. Piotr is also a scale modeler. Master model has a broad range of accessories for aircraft, military vehicles, and ships in several of the popular scales. In addition, they also offer a blackening agent until their Tools and Supplies tab.

Background

The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow") was a World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The two-seater trainer version was called Ameisenbär ("anteater"). The Pfeil's performance was much better than other twin-engine designs due to its unique push-pull configuration and the lower aerodynamic drag of the in-line alignment of the two engines. It was Germany's fastest piston-engined aircraft of World War II. The Luftwaffe was desperate to get the design into operational use, but delays in engine deliveries meant that only a handful was delivered before the war ended.

The design of the Do-335 was nothing less than remarkable, providing a very high speed for interception of Allied bomber fleets. This design required a higher level of pilot skills than other German fighters, especially during takeoffs and landings. Often time the cross-shaped tail and rear propeller would collide with the runway during takeoffs and landings. For that reason, the two-seat A-12 trainer version was developed from the A-1 single seater. Only two or three of the A-12 versions were actually completed before the end of the war. At least one of these aircraft were captured and brought to the UK for testing and evaluation.

Contents Description

This accessory set includes the spinner-mounted 30mm cannon barrel, the two nose mounted 20mm cannon barrels, the pitot tube, and an under-wing FuG 25A radio antenna.

The Tamiya Do 335 series has been around for several years and is of the typical high-quality Tamiya is known for. The Do-335 kits are noted as "discontinued" on the Tamiya USA website.

The spinner-mounted cannon is shown in construction step 14 and noted as removed. This plastic barrel is molded as part of the front propeller and is easily modified for the installation of the brass gun barrel. The kit's nose-mounted cannons are replaced by the two brass parts.

The pitot tube replaces the kit part and adds much greater realism to this details.

The under-wing FuG 25A antenna is located under the right wing. The kit has no provision for this antenna.

Instructions

The instructions for the detail set are included on a single page with mounting directions clearly noted, along with dimensions as appropriate.

Conclusion

The brass and resin parts in this set contain some unbelievable detail and are well worth the expense to add to this model. I highly recommend the Master-Model set AM-48-146 for dressing up the already great Tamiya kit.

I wish to thank Master-Model and IPMS USA for the opportunity to build and review this set. Thank you Master-Model! Thank you IPMS USA.

Thank you to Wikipedia for background and historical information on the Dornier Do-335.