Scale Plastic & Rail

1/144 Dornier Do X

1/144 Dornier Do X
Revell of Germany
Catalogue # 04066
RRP: £14.99

It is good to see the very interesting subject of a fairly well known pre-war German flying boat. Not often we get those, if at all. Revell have presented this kit in their all too familiar side opening box with a lovely piece of art work of the subject. Full marks so far. So what’s inside the box?

As soon as I saw the 5 silver sprues and 1 clear sprues containing a total of 121 parts, something was niggling away at me, then it struck home; this is a re-box of the venerable Matchbox kit from around 20 years ago. Ironically, this was a subject I wanted to tackle at the time of its original boxing, but never got the chance.

Being a later Matchbox kit, this Revell product suffers very little from earlier Matchbox kits in terms of trench panel lines or the other nasties we can all remember. In all, this is a very nicely moulded product with just a few traces of flash around the twelve propellors. These items are pretty fragile in 1/144 and will need some care to clean them up. Ejector pin marks do exist, but they are minor and mostly occur within the fuselage and wings, and are therefore of no consequence. I wish this was the case with some models I could mention of a more recent pedigree.

The Do X was a VERY large aircraft, with a wingspan of almost 160ft. This means that even in 1/144, you will end up with a model of quite a substantial size. You get a reasonable amount of plastic for your money too.

Panel line detail is a mixture of both raised and engraved, with the majority being neatly engraved, and looking quite realistic. The small amount of raised panelling lies on the fuselage, but I suspect that this would be correct on the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, as the vertical adjoining panel lines are engraved (recessed).

The wing surfaces have a proportion of their finish in a corrugated style, as per some Junkers aircraft. Getting your decals to set on here shouldn’t be as difficult as it would be in 1/72 or larger scale, but you will need decal setting solution. To be fair, the instructions do state this, so be warned!

The transparencies contain the ‘portholes’ of the fuselage in strips instead of individual parts, which is pretty common for this application, and the forward bridge area is a single curved piece. This will need some care when removing from the sprue as the gate is quite thick and short where it meets the part.

Assembly of the model is straightforward despite Revell making it stretch over 35 constructional sequences. Instructions are done in typical Revell style using outline drawings which are easy enough to follow and should present no issue.

A small decal sheet containing mostly the large serial codes is included. These are printed in perfect register and look to be of quality, despite them looking perhaps a little thicker than normal. The sheet does say that they are printed in Italy for Revell, so Cartograf perhaps?

This release comes with a display stand. I’m not too sure if this was included in the initial release, but its 1920’s style makes it a complimentary addition.

So what do we think?

This is a very nice model of an iconic aircraft indeed, and represents a welcome return for the old Matchbox kit. I would say that despite there being quite a few smaller parts, and six engines, this is a model suitable for everyone a seasoned modeller, down to a relative newcomer. Well done Revell for yet another kit presenting excellent value for money. Recommended.

Overall: 7.5/10


Our sincere thanks to Revell of Germany for the review sample used here. This kit can be purchased from Wonderland Models for a reduced price of £13.49