FW 190D-9

[pipthepilot]

 

23 hours ago, Howard Moon said:

I’ve always attached the upper wings first as I find it is a pretty foolproof way of getting a good join. Adding the lower wing is a bit of a ‘heart in mouth’ moment though, as it usually feels quite tight and there is a bit of resistance getting everything to come together. Working from wing tips inwards, so far, it has worked for me. 

 

I might give it a go, I am really concerned about the fit of the closed gun doors over the wing, they seem like they are going to need a lot of fettling and having the upper surfaces attached first could help. 

 

The fix to get the lower wing section in the correct alignment was very easy and in the end, I only had to shave a small amount away from the wing spar.

[Howard Moon]

Looking good 👍

[Azgaron]

Looks nice!

 

Håkan

 

[pipthepilot]

Closed up the fuselage, which wasn't the easiest job. There are no aligning pins so you have to keep an eye out for the alignment in different places. I made life even harder for myself by forgetting to install the tail wheel and then having to pull the rear fuselage apart again to install it.

 

There is a large gap at the rear of where the canopy sits but as this won't be seen when the canopy is in place I am not even going to attempt to fix it. 

 

There was actually very little filling needed, I used Mr Dissolved Putty to fill the tiny gaps and then Mr Surfacor to cover the faint lines before sand and polish.

 

 

Then I just had to re-scribe the lost panel lines and rivets. In the past, I have struggled with scribing panel lines but I recently bought a Mr Scriber (Narrow) http://www.hmhobbies.co.uk/mr-scriber-narrow.html and I can't highly recommend it enough. The lines below were scribed with Mr Scriber and Dymo tape as a guide, I have found the secret is to make several very very light passes then the tape can be removed and then make a few more passes to get the depth correct. Finally, I clean the lines with Mr Cement S.

  

[Howard Moon]

I hate re-scribing and have been eyeing up those tools. You’ve just made up my mind to order one. Nice progress on the Dora btw🙂

[pipthepilot]

I have just spent the last couple of hours getting the wings on using Howard's method of attaching the upper wing surfaces first. It is not easy but probably the only way you can get the gun doors in the correct place. The doors have to be attached after the wings are on but I found I needed to push them from below to get them to sit right. If I had attached the lower surface there would have been no way to move them. 

 

I found that I had to use a lot of clamping when joining the wing surfaces together, again there are no alignment pins so I found the best approach was to join one part then leave it to dry before moving to the next. 

 

The gun doors did need a lot of filling but the gaps weren't too big so Perfect Plastic Putty worked well.

 

Whilst I was waiting for parts of the wing to dry I also worked on the undercarriage. I quite like having all the extra bits, the ones that are attached last, to be fully finished and painted before I start painting the main body as I found I have more patience at that stage. If I wait until the painting is done I tend to rush those parts to get the thing finished. 🙄

[Azgaron]

Nice work with fuselage and wings!

 

Håkan

 

[Crimea River]

Excellent work going on here, especially around the wing root gun bays. A difficult fit.

 

I really like the White 11 scheme and modelled that one myself using the Tamiya kit. Keep up the great work.

 

Andy

[Biggles87]

A brave move with the wing to fuselage fitting. I've done it a couple of times but mostly I chicken out and opt for the conventional method.

 

John

[mick]

great work

[pipthepilot]

18 hours ago, Crimea River said:

Excellent work going on here, especially around the wing root gun bays. A difficult fit.

 

I really like the White 11 scheme and modelled that one myself using the Tamiya kit. Keep up the great work.

 

Andy

Thanks Andy,

 

Those gun doors gave me a real headache so I'm quite pleased how they came out.

 

The White 11 scheme is so interesting, I'm particularly looking forward to creating the bare metal finish on the gun cover and the underwing surfaces. 

[pipthepilot]

12 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

A brave move with the wing to fuselage fitting. I've done it a couple of times but mostly I chicken out and opt for the conventional method.

 

John

I came really close to chickening out! And then I thought I had really f-ed up when the wing tips were further forward on the upper surfaces but once the tips were glued in place everything else fell in place.  

[Crimea River]

On 6/11/2018 at 12:59 PM, pipthepilot said:

Thanks Andy,

 

Those gun doors gave me a real headache so I'm quite pleased how they came out.

 

The White 11 scheme is so interesting, I'm particularly looking forward to creating the bare metal finish on the gun cover and the underwing surfaces. 

Note that the wing root gun cover on the starboard side of White 11 appears to be bare metal as well (Japo referenced above, page 136). I painted both of mine as NMF.