J.D.

Can't remember where I read it but somewhere in the plethora of books I have, there is something which says that they didn't use that bombsight because it was too hard to hold steady in any kind of turbulence. Most opted for a system using a piece of string tied to the securing nuts for the perspex bubble and with a small tab (not sure if it was metal or wood or whatever) attached to the middle of the string which the bomb aimer held against his cheek under his preferred eye. The sighting marks for the towers were drawn on the flat perspex plate with a chinagraph pencil. Keeping the string line taught - and God knows how they could see the pencil marks - they were able to drop their weapons more reliably than with the Y-shaped thingy. I have seen at least one photograph of this system but it gets no attention. I think this was mainly due to the film and the RAF not wanting to let too much detail out. I shall keep look for it for you.

At a very rough guess, they look like vortex generators to me.

Just had a look at that one very nice. They'd look good side-by-side. Don't want the Foxhound to turn into a stashound...

An updates on this fascinating build?

Nearly there! Latest problem is with the canopy. I masked it off but I seem to have done it in slightly the wrong places, leaving paint where I don't need it. If anyone has any good ideas about how to remove this, I'd be appreciative of them. Still waiting on gear doors from Airfix. Still need to install gun barrels and antenna wire. Still need to do a bit more weathering too. By the way, those are resin wheels, not the kit ones. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it. Cheers, JD

Okay, that clear it up pretty well. I was going to wait a week and I think that is what I'll do anyway. It'll be that long before I get another chance to do anything. Cheers.

I know it can undo pastel weathering but I'm going to wait until I do the final dull coat before I do that. I don't think there's anything wrong with the paint I used. It came from a proper art supply shop. I guess the real question is how long they usually take to dry. The vast majority of it is turpenoid anyway, so I imagine it won't be that long. I'm just seeing what everyone elses experience is 'cause I don't have any.

Hi all, I have just finished doing some streaking (paint, not naked) with artist's oils and I still have more to do. I want to do some final weathering with pencils, pastels, etc. The question is how long do you need to wait before applying a top coat? The coat I have been paining over is gloss. The terpenoid thinner I have been using has dulled a lot of it but I am not finished yet and need to apply a final dull/matte coat.

Wow! That's simply amazing! Well done that man.

I understand there are also problems with the Tamiya windscreen and canopy shapes. The link to the comparative build I posted above goes into this and other aspects quite well. I have also discovered that the A8 wing would need to be backdated to A7 (sorry Biggles) by shaving off some bulges on the upper surface. It seems that there are so many variations on the Wurger and so many kit variations that mix and match could end up being the likely outcome.

This is good news. The Hasegawa A7 wouldn't need a lot of work done, from what I can gather and it's a pretty accurate kit by all accounts. Here's a thread from another forum where someone did a four-way comparative build: http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=194430 I'm not much of a rivet counter but I'd like it accurate out of the box. The upside of that old Hasegawa kit is that I believe it has Major Bär's markings included in it. The only problem with that is that it is a deleted kit and now becoming quite rare.

I know of a couple of panel lines which need to be filled on an A8, like the circular hatch under the fuselage and I know about the pitot but that's about it. The rack would be dependent on the kit. Some have both types of rack and some don't. I haven't seen any aftermarket ones. Major Bär also removed the outboard guns, which wouldn't be difficult to fix. News on the Eduard kits is promising. Any idea of a time frame?

Thought it looked familiar.

Thanks for that Jack. That's a good starting point. Dragon also make an A-7 which seems to be accurate. Now it's probably just a matter of finding appropriate decals. The problem with something like this is that there was a bewildering number of variations just in the A series itself. That is further compounded by the fact that decal manufacturers, for good reasons, don't always have the ones you want. This is especially true when there have already been kit releases in the past. They can't hold all of them! So they come and go. Then there is the variation in the interpretation of what colours were involved. Hard when they are looking at photographs which are anything up to 70 years old, in B&W and not necessarily complete pictures of any one aircraft. The hunt goes on...

FWIW: the prices I'm seeing for the Eduard are pretty compelling, especially when the markings I want are included. It seems to be a question of trade offs.

Hi Jack, Thanks for your reply. The Eduard kit has been criticised for the profile of the cowl and the windscreen. The cockpit tub is also very shallow and while the detail is good, I have read that it is not really to scale. I understand that it's a good choice if you want it "all hatches open" but I lack the skill and patience to do that. I would prefer Hasegawa if possible but that involves a fair amount of filling in of panel lines and a fair bit of research. I understand the Dragon kit is quite good if it can be found. I also have read that the Italieri is a re-box of the Dragon. Can anyone confirm this please?

Hi guys, Looking to build a 1/48 FW190 A7 in the markings of Heinz Bär, preferably his usual Red 13. There seem to be many problems. First of all, there seem to be no accurate kits around in that scale of the A7, the Hasegawa apparently being nothing more than an A8 with Bär's markings on it. The alternative is to find an accurate A7 and some after market decals but both seem to be in short supply. Filling engraved panel lines is a possibility for me but changing any profiles - cowls or intakes etc. - is not. I'm not up to that. I have tried to find some alternate decals with no success. Any suggestions?

@Wee Beastie: Nice build. Looking forward to seeing this progress. Umm... that clamp you're using to support it. You're perchance a watchmaker, are you?

Thanks Neil. Good tools can help. Yeah, trust me: there are days when I cannot write my own name, so this has been something of a triumph for me so far. But I always have a cotton bud for those "oh, man-vegetables" moments... The small decals have proved incredibly difficult and perserverance is the only way to get through. I still have another 50 or so decals to do, some of which are so small they will be barely visible when it's finished!

It's amazing how much a few decals and some panel line wash will do to bring it to life. At the moment, I'm itching to take the tape off the canopy but there's still quite a way to go yet. I've made a lot of mistakes. I think I have actually used the wrong canopy, which is quite easy to fix if necessary. I have also made a booboo on the port side horizontal tail surface. I don't remember ever spraying Luftwaffe splinter camouflage before. Chalk it up to experience... Airfix are going to replace the missing gear bay doors. Cheers, JD

Here are some better shots, taken with an off camera flash. I did a bit of post shading. Unfortunately, it doesn't come up that well in these shots. The dark bits look overdone and the light bits under. It looks better in the flesh. Honest...! I've also given it a coat of Tamiya X22A. Very tough stuff and excellent for weathering with oils and other nasty stuff. Don't know what happened to the starboard wing leading edge. Looks like a prime candidate for some chipping methinks... Next job is some decaling .

Hi, This is the first time I've seriously attempted an aircraft kit in I don't know how long. Last time I tried, I just couldn't do it. My hands are just too shaky these days. As this was an experiment, I wasn't interested in spending up big on a kit I might not get very far with but so far things have been okay. I don't like saying this but the quality control at Airfix seems not to have changed much in the last 30 years and I have at least a dozen short shot or missing parts, so I've had to do a bit of scratch building to make up the difference. This kit was - to use British parlance - pants. Right now the biggest problem is the complete lack of undercarriage doors. They were barely formed at all. Sorry Airfix but this isn't what I'm used to. I'm interested in the new Hurricane but it had better be an improvement on this... Anyhow, apart from that, the plastic was very easy to work and it didn't take long to build. The cockpit is okay, even without any extra detailing. As I was going to pose it with the canopy closed, I didn't bother with photo etched seat belts but it would be the first thing to replace if I did it again. Anyhow, I put down a layer of Tamiya liquid surface primer, sprayed through a cheap Chinese airbrush at about 65% thinner and it came up very well. Then I did the pre-shade with an Iwata Neo TRN1. Any of you who have shaky hands should look at one of these. It's a whole different ball game: Next was the top coats of Gunze acrylic through the Iwata and it's starting to look pretty reasonable. The photos make it look pretty naff but it's good in the flesh. I have replaced a few parts with the Pavla resin bits, including the exhausts, which came up quite well. The decals are by Techmod and this will be in the markings of Staffel Kapitan Gerhard Schȍpfel on the 18th of August, 1940. Those of you who have read Alfred Price's "The Hardest Day" will be familiar with the story. A bit of weathering, some decals and a top coat and all should be well. Some gear bay doors would be good too! Cheers, JD

2000 grit paper got rid of it.

Will that wipe away the dust? If so, I might try kitchen paper since that is very lightly abrasive. How long should I leave it?

Thanks. I haven't got any 800. I have plenty of 1200. This is a multi-colour scheme, a late model 109.