Eduard Fw190D9 'Red 18' I/Erg.KG(J) - Completed

[Duncan B]

This is something I've been working on for almost a month but is nearly completed now so this isn't a traditional WIP but I though I'd show some of the build photos anyway.

This is the Eduard Weekend edition of the Fw190D9 which I was originally going to build right out of the box however when I saw a profile for Red 18 I was hooked. It turned out that I found 4 or more different profiles for Red 18 so this is a bit of a pick'n'mix of them all.

I had originally started building this while away on holiday a few years ago but it soon became obvious that I should have taken something a lot simpler with me so after completing the first stage I stopped and put it back in the box which is where it had stayed for the last 3 years.

So this is roughly where I set off from three weeks ago.

The instructions would have me glue the rear of the engine, the supports and the firewall together as one piece before joining the fuselage halves. I just couldn't see how I was going to get that to work so I fitted the firewall to one fuselage half then fitted the supports and the rear of the engine to the firewall once it was set. This also helped align the fuselage halves which were slightly warped on my kit, possibly due to them having been stored off the sprue. I knew most of the detail of the rear engine was going to disappear once closed up so took another photo of it as completed, I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

And the cockpit, I hate detailing cockpits but didn't have any after-market bits for it other than a set of fabric seatbelt that will be fitted at the end of the build.

The firewall and rear of engine in place

From underneath...

...and it starts to disappear

About this time I noticed that there was something a bit odd to my eye with regards the supercharger air intake. To me it looked like it had been moulded upside down or as a mirror image. In all the photos and drawings I've seen the shorter side is on top.

Here's the mirror image, I think that looks better

Anyhow there is nothing available to replace it that I could find so I had to go with it. (I've only ever seen this problem mentioned in one review of the kit so it's something that either isn't a problem or hasn't been picked up by many people)

I don't normally build my kits with anything open but I'd heard a lot about closing up the gun bay doors on the Eduard Fw190s. I decided I'd give it a go on one of the gun bays anyway and have the rest open. After some dry fitting I thought it would be easy enough to fit the wing root gun cover to the top half of the wing before fitting the whole wing to the fuselage. The cover needed some sanding to get the fuselage side of it to fit snuggly into the fuselage but I had no problems cutting out the upper wing part and gluing the cover in place, I didn't even need any filler on it.

The rest of the build went smoothly enough although I did have to sand the back of the wing spar to get one of the upper wing halves to fit, ironically it was the wing that I left the gun bay open. Other than the fit of the wing to fuselage I had no problems worth mentioning. I've read that the front of the fin is too wide but it looks fine to me so I left it alone.

As I mentioned earlier while looking for information on which type of canopy to fit I found that there were at least 4 different colour profiles in the various books and decal options I had seen. I knew which colours that the production batch it came from used so at least I could confirm that the profiles were all variations of those colours. After some assistance from a couple of BMers (and an expensive purchase of the JaPo books ) I decided to go with (mostly) the EagleCals version of the colour scheme, I painted the flaps RLM76 whereas EagleCals leave them in bare metal. From the only photo of the underside I've seen it looked like the flaps were missing anyway.

I painted the underside of the wing with AK Interactive's Extreme Metal Aluminium which went on beautifully smooth and shiny, too shiny for what I wanted in fact so I toned it down with matt varnish sprayed onto various panels in varying densities to get some variation. This worked really well however I didn't get a photo before I moved onto the next stage of weathering the NMF.

To give the NMF a weathered look I sprayed a very thinned down version of the RLM76 I'd been using onto the various panels to give them an oxidised look, I might have taken it a bit too far but I was aiming for a worn look. I then sprayed some very thinned down smoke over the panel joins.

Here is the underside as it is now with the painting and oil wash completed

In the various profiles they all agreed that the front of the fuselage and power egg was painted in RLM 83 Dark Green, some then went with RLM 83 over all the fuselage and others with RLM75 or 82, I decided to go with the RLM75. The profiles showed the wings to be either RLM83/75 or RLM83/82, again I went with the RLM 83/75 version as per EagleCals, this version seemed logical to me as this aircraft was built early in the mid production run at FW Marienburg according to various references which also stated that the colour schemes changed from 83/75 to 83/82 during this production batch, ok, it's a guess!

The paints used were Mr Paint (from Slovakia) over their grey primer. I wanted a really worn looking effect as the photos showed it to be far from pristine so I sprayed some of the AK Interactive aluminium over the leading edges, along the wing roots and up to the cockpit and then used the salt technique to mask it off before commencing the top coats. I also painted the hatch on the port side of the fuselage with RLM75 as some photos appear to show it darker than the RLM76, it adds visual interest even if it might not be factual.

The National and unit markings were sprayed on using Montex Masks, very fiddly and a bit nerve wracking but worth the effort, the red 18 was left slightly 'chipped' intentionally to fit in with the other 'chipping'. I didn't use their serial number mask on the fin though as it appeared to be too big compared to the photos. The stencils and serial numbers came from the EagleCals decal sheet. I didn't add the wing walkways as none of the profiles showed them and I couldn't see them on the photos (and also because they are a PITA to do).

An oil wash was applied using various shades of AK Interactive and MIG washes and has been left to dry which is where I am at now.

The next stage will be to seal all that in with a clear coat then do the detailed painting and weathering followed by the final assembly. So I'm hopeful that I'll have this finished before the Aberdeen Modeller's Society club meeting next week.

Duncan B

[mick]

looking good

[Collin]

Nice Duncan....very nice.

Once you hit it with a flat or semi-gloss coat...it's going to look terrific.

Cheers

Collin

[marvin20]

Very nice work Duncan!

[usetherudders]

Looks great, very nice work.

[Duncan B]

Thanks Folks, the semi matt coat is on and drying so tomorrow I'll get some oil stains and exhaust stains on.

Duncan B

[colin]

Really nice finishes there Duncan, love the tonal variations on all the paintwork

[Duncan B]

Last night I sealed all the previous work in with a coat of Mr Paint's Super Semi Matt. Today I added some exhaust staining and random streaks with a very thin red brown/black mix gradually increasing the black towards the centre of the exhaust stains.

The semi matt finish was still too glossy for a worn finish in my opinion so I went over it again this time with some Mr Color Matt clear and I'm happier with the finish now, it's also helped to lighten the colours slightly too.

I've removed the masks from the canopy parts and there is a little clean up to do, hopefully just a clean and polish should do. Tomorrow I'll start the final construction, I'm not looking forward to attaching the undercarriage as the attachment points for the main legs are not exactly the most positive of attachment points as you can see in the last photo above. I've got to make the fabric seatbelt too, that could be fun. I've also cut off the plastic blobs that were the nav lights so I've got a bold and cunning plan for replacing them.

Duncan B

[Duncan B]

Tonight my Fw190 is standing on it's own legs and another couple of hours should see it completed tomorrow. I wasn't convinced about the undercarriage leg locating points before but I have to say that they went together quite well and with the aid of Tamiya thin liquid poly they seem to have set well enough.

I have a small list of items needing to be done for completion including the nav lights and various aerials but the guns are fitted and I used brass rod for the outer part of the cannon barrels and for the pitot tube with guitar string for the actual probe. I also added brake lines down the U/C legs using 0.2mm lead line although it doesn't really show very well in the pictures.

Some oil stains have been added but I'll add some more tomorrow along with some pigments for the dust and crud, oh and I've still to make those fabric seatbelts.

Duncan B

[Jerry Crandall]

Looks great Duncan, congratulations.

Cheers, Jerry

[dazdot]

Lovely looking Dora nice work

[Duncan B]

Looking at the photos I'm thinking the wear on the starboard wing root is a bit over the top so might tone it down a little.

Duncan B

[batcode]

looks fantastic so far, great job on the paint....

[lyn]

that is a fantastic job you have done well done

[Duncan B]

Fabric seat-belts are the work of the Devil!! All afternoon so far to make half of one belt. I hate etched seat-belts but I've looked out a set from an Fw190 A kit just in case I launch the fabric ones out the window.

Duncan B

[Duncan B]

Here are the culprits, I've taken all day to build them up but hopefully they'll be worth it (wish I'd done more detail in the cockpit).

The instructions have you feed the individual parts of the fabric through teeny tiny buckles just like the real things. Trouble is I have fingers like Cumberland sausages, anyhow I got there in the end and was amazed to find that the seat belts actually could be adjusted! I'll fit them tomorrow.

I also managed to make the DF loop out of lead foil and the other aerials out of guitar string and stretched sprue, not easy to see but they are there.

Oh and I got the prop fitted too.

Almost finished now, only a couple of hours work I guess (said that yesterday but hadn't accounted for the seat belts).

Duncan B

[Stew Dapple]

That looks incredible Duncan

Oh, and the seatbelts? Absolutely worth all the time you spent on them.

Cheers,

Stew

[Duncan B]

They drove me nuts doing them, hopefully they will be easy enough to fit into the cockpit and look natural (unlike any etched ones I've used previously which never look quite right).

Duncan `B

[Stew Dapple]

I know what you mean, I've avoided etched belts like the plague since the arrival of the (cruelly expensive but wonderful) Eduard micro-fabric belts.

Any particular reason why you didn't fit yours before closing the fuselage up? Just postponing the inevitable? *whistles innocently*

Cheers,

Stew

[Duncan B]

I had stalled and wasn't making any progress because I kept putting it off so decided to plod on and do them at the end so yes, postponing the inevitable and making it more difficult at the same time.

DB

[Stew Dapple]

I'm sure they'll go in there fine - fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Stew

[Scooby]

Fantastic build! I was just fondling my kit the other day and after seeing this build I have the extra motivation to build.

[amblypygid]

That's a very good looking 190 (well, within the capability of any 190 to look beautiful, which in this beholder's eye is decidedly limited). I'm building up the courage to tackle some 1/72 fabric belts; at least they might be more resistant than etch to my clumsiness.

[Duncan B]

That's a very good looking 190 (well, within the capability of any 190 to look beautiful, which in this beholder's eye is decidedly limited). I'm building up the courage to tackle some 1/72 fabric belts; at least they might be more resistant than etch to my clumsiness.

Good luck with the 1/72 belts, I have a few in the stash but haven't tried them yet in fact this was the first use of any fabric belts for me.

Duncan B

[Duncan B]

The Lap straps are in although it must have been a pilot with a similar girth to me that last flew it as they are perhaps a little too long.

I've attached the top end of the shoulder straps (not in this picture) but I've had to take a break as my hands were shaking too much. Nervous stuff this!

Duncan B