Fw-190D9 Oblt. Gerhard Michaiski, Jan 1945 - 15/7 update

[trickyrich]

Gosh I had trouble figuring out what to build for this GB, it's safe to say I have changed my mind many times, right up to the stage where I had almost finished this starting thread.

I had been already to build an Hs-129B-3 (75mm version) and full AM bits and pieces including vector resin engines! But I was doing some final research as I was writing up the thread when everything changed.

For some reason I was never quite sure if the Fw-190D’s were used against the Soviets and to what level and thought it would be a bit hard on the research side…..but I was wrong (there were actually even some of the big wing Ta-152H’s were used as well!).

So with this new info at hand I can happily go back to what I had really wanted to build, a Dora!

So the base will be Tamiya’s lovely Fw-190 D9, excluding the Su-7, this will be my third Tamiya fighter in a row, I love these models.

I normally like to throw lots of AM stuff at my builds but this time I’ll only use just one…..

…and what an AM kit it is! Full engine, cockpit and gun bay detail kit…that should keep me busy for a while.

The for the scheme I’ll probably do “White 12” from JG301 using the Cutting Edge decal sheet........

....................though I am very tempted to build one flown by one of the following Russian front aces;

Oberleutnant Oskar Romm IV/JG3 – 92 kills

Oberleutnant Gerhard Michalski Geschwaderkommodore JG4 – 14 kills (73 in total)

Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel Geschwaderkommodore SG2 (Legendary Ju87 pilot) - 9 kills

Major Gerhard Barkhorn Geschwaderkommodore JG6 – 301 kills

[Basilisk]

Some great AM stuff - but no wheelbay

Looking forward to see your build progressing. Why have you chosen the Tamiya kit over the Eduard or Hobby Boss rendition of the Dora?

Cheers, Peter

[trickyrich]

Some great AM stuff - but no wheelbay

Looking forward to see your build progressing. Why have you chosen the Tamiya kit over the Eduard or Hobby Boss rendition of the Dora?

Cheers, Peter

cause it was nice and cheap!

I know about the wheel well issue, so additional AM stuff may be used or I custom do that section myself. One of these days I'll actually build something straight from the box......and I may win Lotto too!

Actually I had the AM detail set first and it's made for the Tamiya model, so that was the main reason for going with it.

edit....

Well I have decided not to do the correction work myself as my favourite AM company Model Design Construction has a correction kit for the Tamiya model....sorted!

Oh and I'm probably going to change the scheme to one of the Aces as well.

[mick]

great choice

[Sgt.Squarehead]

That's a lot of bits!

[trickyrich]

thanks, now I have to wait till: a, the new bits arrive from MDC & b, I've finished one of the SU-7s!

That said I cut out a few bit's of resin today as starting to remove the front engine covers. I won't end up using the PE update bits as I have a completely new resin one coming as part of the MDC correction kit. I've mentioned before I much prefer resin cockpits to PE ones, the detail is generally so much better.

I'm pretty sure now I'll be doing Oberleutnant Gerhard Michalski's D9 as it has an interesting colour scheme.

[Alan P]

You certainly are busy on these GB pages Rich!

[trickyrich]

You certainly are busy on these GB pages Rich!

Haha, some would say I don't have a life outside of here! But at least it keeps me out of too much mischief. My problem is once I start a build and if it's one I like then I can't help myself and I just keep adding or modifying things. Can't remember the last time I did an OOB build!

[trickyrich]

Ok I wasn’t going to actually start this until I had finished or almost finish the Sukhoi’s….but I could just help myself and I wanted to have a break from them. So I thought I’d at least start to do some of the basic cut outs for the modifications.

But first my lovely young Post Lady delivered some goodies today for me, my decals and correction bits arrived.

The decals are awesome and I have plenty of options if I want to build another one!

I’ve pretty much decided to build Oblt. Michaiski’s Fw-190D, it’s an interesting colour scheme and should look good.

The second pressie was the MDC correction set. These guy’s turn out some of the best resin in the business, the moulding is just about perfect (I have a 1/32^nd Ki61 Hien from them and the is easily the equal of a Fisher Model & Pattern resin model…which are some of the best resin money can buy!!!)and the set is very thorough.

So with these goodies I just had to have a little play! I actually started a few minor cuts before I headed off to work last week, but today I spent most of the time just cutting up/out bits and doing lots of test fitting!

This build is very much take a perfectly good model, chop it up and throw away most of the bits! The fuselage has had the nose chopped off as well as opening up a panel in the tail, the brass bit is part of the new interior.

Next up the wings were chopped up…sort of. There will be details gun bays as well as dropped flaps.

Speaking of the wings, one part of the MDC set addresses the issues with the main wheel wells. The problem with this model is that Tamiya based the model on and actual aircraft in a museum in the States. The problem is though it appears the wings and the fuselage came from two different aircraft and may have been mixed up either during shipping or during reassembling. The fuselage is a Fw-190D9 but the wings are from a Fw-190D13, what this means is on a D9 you can see the rear engine and fuselage gun magazines from the wheel wells, on the D13 this is cover up as in the Tamiya model. The MDC Correction set corrects this as well as upgrading quite a few other parts.

Unfortunately for me the FM Super detail set ignores the original errors with the model, so I’ll have to mix-n-match the bits as I go along………who wanted a simple build anyway!

So here most of the bits to fix the above issue.

The new firewall shows what I have to do, the yellowy parts are from the FM Super Detail set, the Lt. Grey from the MDC set. I’ll need to either extend the magazines or make up new feeders, I think extending the magazines will be the easiest.

I started to chop up the new MDC top engine cover until I figured out I only the front section of the kit one was ok (the rear half is the wrong shape).

A nice new resin cockpit tub instead of fixing up the kit one with PE….much nicer this way!

And the engine, it’s going to be a small model in itself!

Well after a full day of chopping and scraping and lots of test fitting I have a good idea of how it’s all going to go together. Pretty much all of the prelim work is now done and it should come together pretty quick once I get started……once the Sukhoi’s are out of the way or at least the detailed one is!

[CliffB]

Another mind blowing build Rich!

Cliff

[Basilisk]

Good to see that your " Resin Fix" arrived too and that you decided to replace the wheel bay. Will be an interesting build to watch.

Cheers, Peter

[mick]

good progress

[Arniec]

Hi Rich,

Nice progress. I just noticed that you have made the holes for the wing roots gun bays to big. I have seen that on more builds.

Take a look here for how it should be. http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=29639

Sorry for that. I still like what you are doing with the kit.

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

Hi Rich,

Nice progress. I just noticed that you have made the holes for the wing roots gun bays to big. I have seen that on more builds.

Take a look here for how it should be. http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=29639

Sorry for that. I still like what you are doing with the kit.

Cheers,

it's ok Arnold, I haven't made a mistake there. The FM detail kit tells you to do it that way, they supply the bits to fix the cutouts but they're not that great and will be replaced. It appears they do it this way to keep the rim of the of the gun bay the same thickness all the way around. Cutting it exactly to shape leaves that rear section really thin. I'm not going to use the bits they supply to fix the shape, instead I'll replace them with plastic card and strip. I'm going to redo the entire edge around the gun bay that way I can get the size (it's actually quite a bit over-sized at the moment) and thickness right all the way around and also have a nice finish.

I have also found quite a few other bits that will need some additional work, the FM kit is a good base to work from but you are required to do some extra work to get it all right. The supercharger to engine fit is one plus the main firewall as well.

I pretty much have a good idea in my head of what's required but I just need to get one of the Sukhoi's out of the way so I can start properly.......very frustrating as I'm dying to start this project!!

[Arniec]

it's ok Arnold, I haven't made a mistake there. The FM detail kit tells you to do it that way, they supply the bits to fix the cutouts but they're not that great and will be replaced. It appears they do it this way to keep the rim of the of the gun bay the same thickness all the way around. Cutting it exactly to shape leaves that rear section really thin. I'm not going to use the bits they supply to fix the shape, instead I'll replace them with plastic card and strip. I'm going to redo the entire edge around the gun bay that way I can get the size (it's actually quite a bit over-sized at the moment) and thickness right all the way around and also have a nice finish.

I have also found quite a few other bits that will need some additional work, the FM kit is a good base to work from but you are required to do some extra work to get it all right. The supercharger to engine fit is one plus the main firewall as well.

I pretty much have a good idea in my head of what's required but I just need to get one of the Sukhoi's out of the way so I can start properly.......very frustrating as I'm dying to start this project!!

ah, than that is ok. I know what you mean with the Sukhoi. I am trying to get the Draken out of the way and also the Yak 3 before the Fw-190 GB starts in a few weeks. I also need to move on with the Ju-88's.

Good luck with this build. It's quite involving.

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

oppps I forgot about the Fw-190 GB!!!!

[trickyrich]

Well I spent around 4 hours today trying to sort out the engine on this build but I just can't get it all to sit/fit right. The main issue is the supercharger and rear section of the motor won't line up at all with the main engine block, the supercharger just won't fit. To get it to fit on the engine it sticks out too far to one side and looks silly (and completely wrong) or for it to sit in the right place I'd have to carve out either part of the engine or the supercharger! Not a good idea since the engine is fully exposed!

I even ended up trying to mix and match the MDC and FM bits to see how that would go, but to no avail. It's almost as if the main engine block ( a solid piece of resin) is too wide out a complete section is missing (the instructions don't show this or anything wrong with the bit I have)! I've got the Ta-152 to look at as a sort of reference so I might have to take a few measurements to see where the issue is. I've also looked at a master build someone has done using the exact same set and model, and the rear of that engine is quite different from mine and everything fitted without issues! I was careful when removing the resin blocks and didn't cut off anything I shouldn't have had, so I'm baffled. Hopefully they haven't messed up a part and put the wrong one in the set!!

I have some ideas for what I might be able to do to get around all this, but for the moment I'm unfortunately going to put this one aside for now. I'll probably sort of the wings and the main fuselage, but she'll be on the back burner for the moment.

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Rich

Nice choice mate

Couple of questions, with all the extra bits do you still need the original Tamiya kit ?

And secondly, is this a crafty way of carrying over this GB into the FW190 GB just starting ?

Off to a flyer already, look forward to seeing this one progress.

Cheers Pat

[trickyrich]

Hi Rich

Nice choice mate

Couple of questions, with all the extra bits do you still need the original Tamiya kit ?

And secondly, is this a crafty way of carrying over this GB into the FW190 GB just starting ?

Off to a flyer already, look forward to seeing this one progress.

Cheers Pat

Hi Pat,

Haven't heard from you for ages.....

Arr I'm actually putting this build on hold for now or stop it completely as there are serious issues with the engine.....I was even up until the we hours this morning on it!

Yeap you pretty much throw away most of a perfectly good kit with this mod kit!

But to the engine issues, I pulled out the engine for the Zoukei Ta-152 and compared the two (the ZM engine is also a perfect replica of a Jumo 213) and yes there supercharger and drive box etc are in the wrong position on the FM engine! The supercharger on the Jumo 213 sits very snuggly against and behind the main engine block, to do this i'll need to add about 3mm to the back of the engine!!! So i'm going to have to dig up some actual photos of the engine and figure out what I need to do.

I'll post some photos later to show the issues I'm having.

But again I'm going to put this one on hold as I really want to put all me time and effort into the ZM Ta-152 beast. I may even drag this project into the 190 GB yet if the 152 build goes smoothly.

[Troy Smith]

HI Rich

a word of caution on the markings/decals, a lot more research has been done on Dora schemes since the profiles and decals were done, both by Jerry Crandall and JaPo. Jerry Crandall is a member here.

I'll check my JaPo books and see if there are pics/details of this scheme, the mottled cowl looks familiar, in short they tried to pin down camo schemes to specific batches and factories, D-9 were built by several firms, and these result in specific quirks.

HTH

T

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Gutted to hear this one won't make the finish, hope you can correct the problems and finish the model in due course.

[trickyrich]

Gutted to hear this one won't make the finish, hope you can correct the problems and finish the model in due course.

Yeah I'm a bit disappointed as well, I was looking forward to it. But I'm not saying I've completely abandoned it, I'll try and do bits and pieces in between other projects.

But I do need to get the engine right as it's so exposed else as we all know there's always someone who just has to comment!!!

[Troy Smith]

HI Rich

a word of caution on the markings/decals, a lot more research has been done on Dora schemes since the profiles and decals were done, both by Jerry Crandall and JaPo. Jerry Crandall is a member here.

I'll check my JaPo books and see if there are pics/details of this scheme, the mottled cowl looks familiar, in short they tried to pin down camo schemes to specific batches and factories, D-9 were built by several firms, and these result in specific quirks.

HTH

T

several pages and 4 photos of this scheme in JaPo, says Jerry Crandall has a colour photo of it too.

The decal suggested colours look off, but it has the 'trim' lines on the JG4 band

[Arniec]

But I do need to get the engine right as it's so exposed else as we all know there's always someone who just has to comment!!!

Me, me, me!!! Hehehehe

Just kidding. It's sorry to hear that you've stopped this one, but understandable.

You have to pick your fight to do all the GB's.

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

Well I haven’t quite called it quits with this wee beasty even though I tempted. I had even contemplated other builds for this GB as well. But the engine issues were just so annoying me I had to sort it out.

Using the Ta-152’s engine as a reference I could see I needed to add some extra to the supercharger gearbox. I really don’t know how accurate I am with this but various photos of the real thing seem to show I’m on the right track. The superchargers position is nice and tight just behind the RH cylinder block that is were it should be!

So that done I added a couple of other small bits and painted her. She looks much better with a coat of paint. I’ll put a sealing coat on her and then some washes, that should tone down the shininess a bit. Plus I have to paint the black valve covers/crank case cover and supercharger, I’d love to be able to airbrush them but the masking will be a nightmare!

He she is with her larger brother, the engines are actually quite a bit different, a 213A compared to the 213E.

I may get on to the wings next as they are in a million pieces at the moment!