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Dragon & Cutting Edge Fw 190 A-4/U8 - captured - finished


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Ok so here is what I like to throw in: An old Dragon kit of the Fw 190 A-4 with PE parts (from Dragon) and a resin cowling from Cutting Edge:

IMG_1742_zpsrftpyfae.jpg

I bought this kit without box for chips because I wanted to have an A-4 to replicate the plane from Otto Bechtold (# 47155) as it appeared at West Malling after it landed there on 17th of April 1943. "DO NOT TOUCH" was written all over this plane which had a worn black distemper scheme applied to the underside and lower sides of the fuselage - even the fuselage crosses and the swastika on the fin were painted over (good thing - not only because there are no decals for the swastika included in my kit). Here are some pics of the real thing which I printed out for my reference:

IMG_1743_zpsymhkwb6l.jpg

I will use the kit decals as there is very little specific which was left when the distemper was applied. Only the yellow "H" and this is easy to paint for me, so no extra decals needed. I will try to paint the "DO NOT TOUCH" with a white crayon. Guess this should work.

One thing which is makeing me some head aches are the fairings for The drop tanks which are still in place. There are resin sets available which include these but I do not want to buy an expensive set for just two small parts. So maybe I will not add these fairings while this GB lasts (if I manage to finish it at all...).

More next week.

René

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks guys.

I did already start the build this week but due to having holidays I am a bit lazy about updates here. So far the cockpit is done, thefuselage closed and thewing partly assembled. With a bit of luck I will get theresin pieces for the drop tank monut soon.

I am currently wondering about the Cutting Edge cowling as this is shpaewise the same asthekit supplied one. Only at the bottom kt is a bit longer, so it does not fit the kit as it is. Either the plastic or the resin needs to be trimmed. I still need to find out.

Pics will follow thenext days.

René

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Thanks. I am sitting in Rothenburg with my family having a beer and enjoy the nice weather (at last).

Managed to get the Verlinden Set so all parts for this build are complete now :-)

Rene

Thanks. I am sitting in Rothenburg with my family having a beer and enjoy the nice weather (at last).

Managed to get the Verlinden Set so all parts for this build are complete now :-)

Rene

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Thanks - finally I managed to upload a few pics but not much. I will get back to this build in about a week.

The kit was a state of the art kit back in the days it was released but is a bit dated by todays standards. The sprue attachments are quite thick and good cutters are a must. I happened to have got my hands on "Godhand" cutters and must say they are amazing. They are so sharp that they remove the Fw 190 parts without any damage. If you can get some for a fair price they are a real investment. I payed about 30 GBP for mine (in China...):

A5-U8%204_zpsn7f9cblk.jpg

Once finished the canopy will be closed so the interior was kept a bit basic as not much of it will be visible in the end.

A5-U8%205_zps6i6cbowo.jpg

As said the fuselage is now closed. More in a week.

Rene

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I love these markings and i must say if you weren't doing this aircraft i would change my plans and give it a go .

looking forward to seeing yours finished more than my own .

Alistair

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks guys - not much has happened in the last weeks but this is showing where the build currently is:

A5-U8%206_zpsk2zdlofv.jpg

I also prepared the resin cowl but need to fill the recesses for the guns there (only the guns in the wings were installed on this plane). Some filling and sanding will be needed as well and then it can go to the spray booth. Maybe this weekend.

Thanks for looking.

René

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Time to post a pic of the Verlinden Set which someone was so kind to offer on e-bay Germany recently:

A5-U8%207_zpsvcje9pxv.jpg

But as you see the part shows a very differnet interior with a rectangle cut where there should be nothing but two bulkheads and the side fairings and a half round recess where there is a completely round cut out in the real thing. I have some ideas how to improove but fear I am too lazy to do so...

The "corrected" Cutting Edge cowling (it has better/sharper panellines and slightly better detail but is clearly based on the kit item with the same size and shape) has the resessed things (what ever they are called) in front of the guns so the bullets can fly happily without hitting the own cowling. However - on the machine I build there were no guns in this position and so the cowling was smooth.

I filled the recessed things as below:

A5-U8%208_zpsi9cy0jy0.jpg

Not a lot of progress but my spare time is short this week :-(

Rene

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks!

This is just a proof of life. I am still working on this but had not much time for this lately. I only attached the cowling, the windscreen and some other small parts and assembled the construction which holds the canopy. I must say the PE parts are areal pain as they are very hard and can only be bend after using a lighter to make them red-hot. Even then they are hard to bend (I used a PE bending jig) and you can see in the lousy pictures that I bend more than I wanted to.

I seem to remember that I had a spare Squadron canopy from another build somewhere but cannot find it. So I used te kit canopy which is a bit... well not so nice as the Squadron one. So the kit canopy was polished which usually does the trick but this time I was not happy with the result. Therfore I diped it in Humbrol Clear - maybe it is me but I still wish I would remember where the vac canopy is.

A5-U8%209_zpsmzyetgwr.jpg

René

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Not sure about the hard part Alistair. First I knocked the "fiddly assembly" over yesterday and it shattered to pieces so I had some extra time to invest here. But the main part will be the painting I guess. It will be basically a standard scheme first and then (as for the real thing) painted over with flat black (will be a dark grey) that wil be partly removed again then to simulate the scratches etc. For this I plan to use True Earth chipping medium - a first for me. I will try it on a scrap piece first... So not sure if the hard part is still ahead :-)

René

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Some more work done. Not much text today as I think all is said in the pictures below. Paint is Revell Aqua with a dark Vallejo wash in some places:

A5-U8%2010_zps7odscher.jpg

A5-U8%2011_zpswfougelq.jpg

The canopy is removable - while I wanted to fix it close. As you can see I would need to adjust the fitting to glue it shut.

A5-U8%2012_zpsi2lkfn7x.jpg

The solution will be shown next time.

Here are two pics of the Verlinden parts in place. I wanted to rework the drop tank fairings but decided to ignore the wrong details and get ahead with this build instead:

A5-U8%2013_zpswurniz9b.jpg

My plan for the last weekend was to start spraying this kit - I hope to start this one of the next evenings.

Thanks for looking.

René

René

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  • 3 weeks later...

So time for an long overdue update. I am in the final painting stage with this one. First I started with preshading - also for the underside which is of limited use as this will be 99% covered in black. Still I sticked to prepaining both as a training and as I was not sure how the paint build up will turn out. I just wanted to be on the save side:

A5-U8%2014_zps7zsj1o6d.jpg

Next I applied the camouflage. Again also those areas which will be covered in black temporary paint:

A5-U8%2015_zpsmepain9x.jpg

The yellow side rudder, "H" and the upper wing crosses were painted on. First I planned to do all crosses and stencils but abandoned this idea for lazyness (crosses) and fear that the decals might show more than I want when the black is applied, as the Dragon decals appear quite thick.

A5-U8%2016_zpsljok52uz.jpg

All paints so far are Gunze colours which were airbrushed (except the yellow). Now I came to the black temporary paint which makes this plane so special to me. To achieve the look of the real plane I tried something new to me. I mixed Revell Aqua black with True Earh "Run Off Effect" which is a chipping medium that can be either applied as a base coat or - what I did - mixed directly with arcylic paint. When the paint starts to dry you can partly remove the paint again by scraping with a toothpick (for chipping) and/or with a water moist brush (gradually removing the paint as if it was washed off). I applied my Revell True Earth mix with a brush to mimick the hand brushed uneven effect on the real thing. I am quite happy with how it turned out:

A5-U8%2017_zpsde2bk0ke.jpg

A5-U8%2018_zpsisnpzdak.jpg

Thanks for looking.

René

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The build goes ahead quite quickly. Over the weekend I did the following:

1. All subassemblies were painted and I started to attach them:

A5-U8%2020_zpsc5k5bpul.jpg

2. When I just thought I will finish this build in the next hour I realized that I dull coated the entire kit but did not attach the stencils on the upper wings... While I was staring at the instructions I noticed that there was something else which I did not:

A5-U8%2021_zpsp9v3jhjp.jpg

It turned out less a disaster than I feared as the blotchy paintwork makes touching up easy.

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Barrels and pitot tube will be made of micro tube (already cut). I should be able to finish this tonight if everything goes OK. A bit frightening for me to have another GB finished so much ahead of time. I must have forgotten something :hmmm:

René

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