Jump to content

FW190 D9 - Eduard 1/48. At last!


Recommended Posts

Hi All,

After quite a battle (mainly with the gun covers - anyone building this will know what I mean!) that left me with a mojo shortfall I took advantage of my wife being away for a few days to finally get to grips with it. It's a pretty challenging build but I think the outcome is something that looks like a Dora. The Eduard kit I chose had markings for quite a few aircraft and I chose this one as it was based near Celle - a special place for me as that's where I did my PO's visit so many years ago. All OOB (it was the Profi kit so it came with some nice PE anyway) and finished with a variety of paints - Tamiya, Humbrol and Vallejo Model Air. I couldn't find an explanation of the patches of underwing NMF anywhere. I read plausible explanations of full wing or half wing NMF but the colour call-out for this particular aircraft had this strange scheme that doesn't even follow panel lines. By this time I was happy to throw in the towel and hope that Eduard's researchers could be trusted! Weathering was with a selection of washes, silver pencil, Tamiya Smoke and pastels. I'm still not totally convinced about the RLM 81 on this model (I used Humbrol 251) but, again, I was happy to have the mojo sparking from my fingertips at this point in the build! I used Winsor & Newton's matt varnish for the first time and love it. I find it gives a nice control of the depth of matt-ness all the way from quite a shiny satin through to proper, powdery matt.

Enough chat and on to the pictures. I hope you enjoy them and please do feel free to pass comment and constructive criticism.

Fw190D9%20forum%20shots%20043.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20041.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20038.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20036.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20032.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20026.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20025.jpgFw190D9%20forum%20shots%20012.jpg

Up next - a break with Dragon's 1/144 X-15. Something that small has to be easy, right?!

Cheers all,

Roger

  • Like 18
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Liking that Dora very much, beautifully done! As you said though, the colour scheme on the underside is an odd one...

Adam

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful!I don't know if the oddly finished underside is painted correctly but I definitely love it,after all nobody could prove you (or the Eduard guys,for that matters!) wrong!
A few patrches in Red primer wouldn't have looked out of place either!
Absolutely great!
Cheers
Manu

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great job! I love the dulling effects on the bright colours.

J

Thanks for that. The decals, although they settled extremely well and needed very little Microsol, were very bright so after they were applied I scribbled over various panels and decals with a very thinned solution of white paint to tone the whole thing down.

Cheers,

Roger

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have one in my stash (which I hope will turn out as well as yours) so I wonder what the build issues are so I can look out for them?

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

The 190 D9 doesn't have internal wheel well fairings so a lot of plumbing - ejector chutes, engine ancillaries, etc. will be on show if you build a wheels down model and these items are all very fiddly to get in place. You'll also need to decide whether you're building a model with inspection and gun covers open or closed - you have the option. If you decide on open covers then I think a lot of fit issues just go away as the real pain is trying to fit the wing top gun covers in the closed position. Lots and lots of whittling, test fitting and filling in tight locations. It's easy to file away too much of the gun covers so if you do, prop them up from the inside with blutack/similar to make sure the edges of the covers are flush with the wing. The gun covers go up the fuselage sides and there may well be filling required there too. Most of the filling needed on this kit is in awkward places and the method I used was to tape close to the edges of the area to be filled and then use a slurry of Milliput and celluose thinners. Time consuming but I needed to minimize the amount of sanding required due to tight angles and not wishing to ruin adjacent detail.

Wing to fuse fit - I've had worse but it did need a fair bit of filler fore and aft.

Ailerons - these will need some trimming for a good fit

Engine - I needed to file away a fair bit around the edges of these pieces to get them to fit far enough up into the cowling. I also needed to put some shims of plastic sheet on the back of the prop spinner to get enough clearance from the edges of the cowling and the backs of the prop blades. There are two options for the radiator fins at the back of the cowling - open or closed. I found the open part was far too thick and by that time I had to ration my enthusiasm so I went for the closed option rather than go through the rigmarole of thinning out the other part.

One really nice aspect of this kit is that you get different canopy options so after I'd finished the cockpit I just tacked on spare clear parts to cover/protect/mask for priming.

Doesn't sound so bad now - dunno what I was making such a meal of!

Cheers,

Roger

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cracking looking Dora Roger. Eduard have got the wing under surfaces correct according to both the Eagle-Editions and JaPo books so fear not, they have however got the RLM76 shade wrong on the fuselage again both books agree in that this was painted in the Sky type colour.

As far as I know JG 26 never used their Doras in the Jabo role, JG 6 certainly did, so your choice of slinging a bomb under her is a strange one.

Like I said though, its a nice looking Dora you have built there.

Tim.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cracking looking Dora Roger. Eduard have got the wing under surfaces correct according to both the Eagle-Editions and JaPo books so fear not, they have however got the RLM76 shade wrong on the fuselage again both books agree in that this was painted in the Sky type colour.

As far as I know JG 26 never used their Doras in the Jabo role, JG 6 certainly did, so your choice of slinging a bomb under her is a strange one.

Like I said though, its a nice looking Dora you have built there.

Tim.

Thanks Tim - very useful info there. The bomb was shown as an option in the kit but seeing as the aircraft's main role was probably airfield protection for Me 262s then yes, it does make the choice of the bomb strange!

Cheers.

Roger

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Tim - very useful info there. The bomb was shown as an option in the kit but seeing as the aircraft's main role was probably airfield protection for Me 262s then yes, it does make the choice of the bomb strange!

Cheers.

Roger

No problem Roger, I've got the very same kit lurking in the stash. You can only follow the kit instructions painting wise, if you don't have various reference books to hand and like you say the kit, as do all Eduard Fw190s gives you the option of using a bomb.

If you decide to build another Eduard 190, Quickboost do some replacement wing root gun bay covers, I used them on both of my 190 builds and they cut out a fair bit of work in that area.

Tim.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tim, do the Quickboost covers sort out the fit for the closed option?

Duncan B

If my memory serves me correct there is no need for any cutting of the plastic on the wings like you do if you use the kits covers, you still need to juggle the Quickboost ones around a bit though. Those covers are the worse thing about these Eduard 190's

Tim.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...