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1/48 Focke Wulf Fw-190 Anton


One-Two

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Hi Guys.

After a long period of inactivity, due to lack of spare time, I couldn’t resist any more to the plastic call and here I am with a new project.

Although I have several other ongoing projects in various stages of completion, I decided to start a new one anyway.

This time I will also try a new approach – building 2 kits at the same time.

So it looks like is Focke-Wulf 190 time for me. I will start with a Fw190A4 from Hasegawa and a Fw190A5 from Eduard.

 

The Hase A4 looks like the simplicity in itself. Small number of parts, conventional approach, I plan the make it with canopy closed, in the guise of the airplane flown by Hannes Trautloft/StabJG54, winter 1942-1943, Russian front. One of the most highly regarded Luftwaffe unit leaders, praised for his outstanding leadership abilities and the care for his men.

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The Eduard A5 is the complete opposite of the Hasegawa. It is the old tool Eduard 190 Anton, the over-engineered one. Indeed much more detailed than the Hasegawa, but with high number of parts, a much complicated design, a model which should be posed with engine cowlings and armament panels opened for display.  My intention is to have everything shut, except the canopy.

Most probably, I will go for the markings of Walter Kohne from 3/JG1 during summer 1943. I like it because of the nose which is completely yellow. It also looks like this is one of the first 190’s armed with the heavy Nebelwerfer rockets under the wings, which in theory should have been fired in the middle of the closely packed bomber formations. In reality, they were difficult to aim precisely and they were transforming the 190’s in some kind of flying trucks.

I read that Walter Kohne, who survived the war, hated the times when he had to fly such an armament configuration, but apparently managed to shot down at least 2 heavy bombers in this way.

 

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Ok that’s all for now. Hope to be back soon with some progress.

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope that Santa will bring you all the kits you wish for.

 

Edited by One-Two
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Much luck on your build. I'm too building a Hase 190 in 48, but it's an A-6, and the full engine made it almost impossible to place the cowl without forcing it, I guess the engine design on the A-4 will make the fit better.

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Ok so I started with the Eduard A5 wing.

Given the complexity of this kit I read some build reviews first and I can confirm that indeed it is very important at this stage to install first part K20 on the lower part of the wing, before anything else.

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This part ensures that the wing spar will be properly positioned in vertical position, because any misalignment here will negatively affect the wing-to-fuselage fit and also the entire in the engine compartment, between the engine itself and the cockpit/firewall.

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After installing the K20 the wing spar was next and then all the small bits and pieces composing the wheel wells.  

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Everything fits very well in this initial stage and the kit feels like very precisely engineered…but permanent dry fitting is critical anyway.

 

Regards,

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I started some preparation work for the Eduard A5 fuselage parts.

They are molded with the engine back-end venting grills in closed position.

I thought that it would be nice to have them in open position, so I just cut them off.

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However at this stage I noticed the grotesque thickness on the plastic in that area…leaving things like they are would mean that this armor-belt like thickness would be highly visible on the completed model...and this is not an option.

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So I started to thin down the walls on the inside of the fuselage in that area, thus reducing the thickness of the plastic to an acceptable level.

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I think it's better like this.

 

Thanks for looking guys and have a nice w/e.

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Time for some cockpit work.

On Eduard A5 I will naturally use the dedicated PE set. My hope is that the color difference between the RLM66 base color and the strange blueish grey that Eduard guys had used for the pre-painted PE will not be too obvious in the end (for now, it is quite noticeable, damn).

The only added some vertical bars which were part of the rudder pedals system.

On Hasegawa A4 I scratched various details using plastic bits, the throttle lever being the most important of them. I used the Eduard plastic for the rudder pedals, because the Hasegawa ones are much chunkier.

Both pilot seats were pretty much sanded (on the exterior) in order to reduce their thickness.

I sprayed all parts with Gunze RLM 66, then some Tamiya Clear gloss as a preparation for further detail painting. 

 

There are significant shape/dimension differences between the two cockpits. The Hasegawa one seems to be longer and also deeper that the Eduard one. In my opinion, the Eduard cockpit is better both in dimensions and shape.

That’s all for now.  I hope to come back soon with more progress.

A Happy New Year for all of you Guys!

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Just a little bit of detail painting in the cockpits...then some oil wash followed by Tamiya flat.

For Eduard A5 I'm using the dedicated PE set, on Hasegawa A4 I'm using a generic Luftwaffe seatbelts set also from Eduard.

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Cockpits almost ready.

 

For Hasegawa A4 I’m using the replacement IP from Yahu Models, together with some leftovers from the Eduard kit. The Yahu replacing IP is pre-painted, very nice and simple to install (single piece, it not the sandwich type), but the problem is that once the canopy is closed (As I’m planning for Hase A4), almost nothing will be visible,

So if you have Hasegawa Wurgers and plan to make them with closed cockpits, then the plastic in the box is more than adequate.

 

For Eduard A5 I used the provided PE pre-painted instrument panel (sandwich-type). I modified the stick in order to put it in a more dynamic position…of course later on I have to install the aerodynamic surfaces accordingly.

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Both Eduard and Hasegawa assembly instructions are telling that in order to close the fuselage sides you first have to install first the tail wheel, the cockpit and the firewall (for Eduard) or tailwheel and cockpit (Hase).

However following some dry fitting I discovered that the cockpits/firewall can be installed at a later stage with no problem.

So I deviated a little bit from the assembly instructions from this point of view.

One of the very few (I think) accuracy problems for the old-tool Eduard 190A kit is the thickness of the vertical stabilizer. To my eye, the tail is too chunky if left as it is…so I fixed the problem by sanding material form the both “lips” of the vertical stabilizer’s leading edge. The resulting gap, once closed/glued, solved the chunkiness problem just ok.

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I also modified a little bit the position for both of the tail wheels, because they seem to me too tall.

 

The opening for the gunsight on the Hasegawa fuselage is too small…so I enlarged it in order to accommodate the gunsight. The gunsight provided by Hasegawa is ridiculous, so I have to find a replacement.

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The ventilation grills from behind the engine are molded in open position on Hasegawa A4, which is nice, but I had to thin them on the inside, because they are far too thick.

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That’s it for the moment.

Thanks for looking and cheers to all,   

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Not much of a progress, I only managed to install the cockpit in the fuselage of the Eduard A5. 

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Nothing special to report, only that I had to adjust (sand it a little bit) the front-end of the cockpit floor, in order to get a perfect fit.

If left as it was, the cockpit would have fit just ok inside the fuselage, but it would have pushed a little bit on its sides, enough to affect the fit of the firewall and of the wing root.

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Hi there.

Some progress on the Eduard A5.

 

I installed the front bulkhead and I must say that this seems to be one of the most important stages of assembling this kit.

The Eduard assembly instructions say that we should first glue together the 3 components of the engine compartment bulkhead (I4+L16+I21) then, after these 3 are forming a single sub-assembly, they should be sandwiched between the fuselage sides, together with the tail wheel and the cockpit.

I already deviated from the eduard instructions, because I glued the fuselage sides first (only with the tail wheel) an added the cockpit later on, and I think that it is better like this with assembling the firewall also.

After much dry-fitting I found that all the attempts in grafting the entire assembly formed by I4+L16+I21 (as a single sub-assembly) to the fuselage are most likely to cause later problems in fitting the wing and the rest of the parts from the engine compartment.

The angle between the 3 pieces composing the firewall is not so simple to obtain (I think it is something like 95 degrees) and even if one gets it right, the fitting is a nightmare.

Therefore the best solution I have found and which worked out almost perfectly for me was:

- first dry fit with parts I4 and L16 on their intended places on the fuselage. Check which is the proper angle for them, in order not to interfere with all other parts like cockpit, fuselage sides, wing fit, etc;

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- once this position was established, I glued together I4 with L16 and let them to dry hard on this position. At this stage, I4+L16 are not yet glued on their final position on the fuselage, but they form a sub-assembly together, at the best possible angle;

- then again some dry fit and apply glue in order to glue the I4+L16 assembly in its intended place;

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- then dry fit again to see the best angle for part I21 (check fit for all parts which will come in contact with I21, like fuselage sides, I4+L16 assembly, instrument panel coaming, windshield, etc.);

- glued I21 in this position, once the best angle was determined.

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This way I have obtained very good fit, although initial dry fit testing according to steps shown in the assembly instructions was indicating terrible/very poor fit.

This stage is crucial, because any mistake here, no matter how small, will ruin the entire kit. The tolerances are very small and any error with the firewall will cause even worse problems all around it (wing to fuselage join, entire engine compartment, etc.).

Dry fit, dry fit and again dry fit seems to be the key word for this kit.

However, I must say that once I understood the best way to solve the problem, I was amazed to see how well is the kit coming together.

Once you get it, the fit is very precise, despite the complexity of the kit.

 

Thanks for looking guys and have a nice w/e.

Edited by One-Two
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I was not happy with the way in which both Eduard and Hasegawa choice for representing the ejection ports tor the nose-mounted MG17’s spent cartridges.

Of course, Eduard’s part is much more complete represented, but both of them failed to properly represent the ejection ports, which are molded as solid plastic.

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The ejection ports are fully visible through the wheel wells and they should look some kind of rectangular ports, not like a solid piece of plastic, as shown in the picture.

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Therefore I modified both of them and now I think they look more realistic.

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Thanks for looking and regards,

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Gunsights.

For the eduard A5 I'm using the resin gunsight from Quickboost (Revi 12 C/D). So much better than any standard plastic part!

I also assembled the upper part of the IP with the IP coamning and with the gunsight.

For the Hasegawa A4 I'm using the spare gunsight from the Eduard A5. Although not great, the eduard part is better than Hasegawa one...and since the A4 will be canopy-closed, I figured that it won't be so visible anyway.

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Small update...for Hasegawa A4 I installed the gunsight and the upper part of the instrument panel on the fuselage.

The IP is barely visible even if the cockpit and canopy are not yet in place...so when finished with canopy closed, most probably the IP will not be visible at all.

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For Eduard A5 similar stuff...I installed the upper part of IP+gusight+coaming on the fuselage.

In this case the whole cockpit is already in place and the IP is more visible.

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That's it for now, cheers to all.

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Time for assembly the main subassemblies…fuselages+wings.

For Hasegawa A4, the fit was not as good as I expected. On the underside of the wing/fuselage the fit it was very good (no putty or anything else required), but on the upper side I had gaps between the fuselage and both wings.

After installing some spreaders underneath the cockpit the gap was completely eliminated for both upper part of the wings, but for the leading edge of the wing root I had some gaps which were solved with small bits of plastic.

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For Eduard A5 I expected a lot of problems in fuselage-to-wing fit, due to the complexity of the kit, but they were actually smaller than anticipated.

Underside and upper-side right hand the fit was really perfect (no gaps, no steps, no putty), I only had some minor gaps which I had to fill-in with plastic bits, on the upper-side of the left wing.

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I also started to work on the Eduard A5 engine covers, because the kit allows them to be installed on the fuselage as separate sub-assembly, at later stages (which is not the case for Hasegawa, btw).

The fit is very good, but again great care is required in aligning the components and of course dry fitting before and after each component is installed.

For the lateral covers I preferred not to glue them completely (they are glued only on the upper part, the lower ends are still free to move a little bit), in order to be able to perform small adjustments when the entire subassembly will be installed on the fuselage.     

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That’s all for now.

Thanks for looking and regards,

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Marking you Eduard WIP since I plan to build the A-6 version later this year. Your build is quite good graphically speaking, and your craft seems to make this otherwise dreaded kit almost easy to build. Good work and thanks for sharing

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Thank you Holzhamer. Despite its bad fame, I’m starting to like this kit.

My only hope is that I’ll not be regretting these words later on during the build :):)

 

I installed the windshield on Eduard A5 - it's a perfect fit.

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Also I glued the ammo boxes for the MG17’s on their place on the firewall. Minus their upper arms, which were removed since they were preventing the MG covers to be posed in closed position (the kit is designed for open MG17’s cover).

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On the underside I installed also the main part for the auxiliary fuel tank rack.

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As per Eduard instructions, apparently the A5 belonging to Walter Kohne (the one that I intend to represent) was fitted with the belly tank rack. They claim that this configuration (WGr21+belly tank) was available in July 1943 at Deelen AFB/Netherlands.

After I consulted my available documentation on the subject (JG1 Defenders of the Reich/Mombeek), I started to doubt that the JG1 A5’s were fitted with aux belly tanks while operating from Deelen. I think that most probably while at Deelen this A5 was only fitted with the WGr21 grenade launchers, but without the belly tank rack.

The belly rack was probably installed a little bit later, when they were relocated in Germany…but at that time apparently they were already making the transition to A6’s.

However, since I cannot rule out such a configuration for an A5, and especially because the necessary locating holes (for the belly tank) were already in place since before assembling the wing parts together, I decided to go ahead with the belly rack also.

 

Thanks for looking and cheers,

Edited by One-Two
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So inevitably I came to this stage when the major problem of this kit becomes obvious.

Just look at the photos bellow to see what kind of horrible fit one gets for the MG151 cannons.

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This is the first point in building this kit where the fit was disappointing.

I mean the kit is clearly over-engineered, but the fit was very good to excellent until this step.

The problem resides, I think, in the way in which Eduard designed the kit. They assumed that in general, the modelers want to build Focke-Wulfs and to display them with all the covers opened. So they designed this kit accordingly.  As a consequence, if you want to display an old-tooled Focke-Wulf from Eduard with the covers closed, then you really have to invest some additional work.

In my opinion, this was a mistake which was corrected by Eduard with the new line of 1/48 Focke-Wulfs. Most probably this is one of the main reasons why Eduard decided to launch a second line of short-nosed 190’s a relatively short time after the original offering.

 

Nevertheless, I corrected the problem with a combination of plastic insertions on some edges and careful sanding on other edges. I applied these corrections only on the walls/edges of the cannon bays, not on the covers themselves. It is time consuming and permanent dry-fitting is necessary, because any overdone is rapidly worsening the initial problem.

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And this is the final result and now I can move on with the build.

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Cheers to all,

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Small progress today.

On Hasegawa A4 I installed the windshield and the horizontal stabilizers in their place.

Nothing special to report, good fit.... the panel lines from the wing root area must be modified in order to correspond with the shape of the real skin panels.

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On Eduard A5 I separated the elevators from and installed the horizontal stabilizers on the airframe.

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These puppies are beginning to come to shape:))

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Thanks for looking and regards,

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4 hours ago, Christer A said:

I think I've read somewhere that the trick of closely fitting wing root cannon covers was to remove all traces of stringers and reinforcements on the cover itself?

Anyway, It's a very good effort this far!

Hi Christer.

As far as I remember, the stringers/reinforcements from the inside face of the covers do not interfere with any other part...I think the cause of the misalignment is rather caused by the slight differences in dimensions between the covers themselves and the afferent wing bays (because they designed the MG151 covers to be posed in open position only).

However, I will try this on my next Focke-Wulf subject, since I have several of these old-tooled short-noses from eduard:)

 

In the meantime only small progress with the Eduard A5:

- I installed the MG 17 stands from the nose. They are useless, since I will not install the MG17's themselves, because they are not allowing to close the cover - but the stands are not causing any problem so I just put them there;

- I installed the engine bearers. This step is important because this assembly will accommodate the entire engine later on. The engine ventilation fan and the propeller itself are also depending on the good alignment of the engine and the engine bearers. There are 4 different parts that had to be carefully aligned, but once solved (dry-fit and some planning is required, for a trouble-free alignment), the assembly is quite solid.

The fit of the components is very good if they are placed in their intended positions and in the right sequence/angle.

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Thanks for looking and cheers, 

Edited by One-Two
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Lots of detail but also fiddly to the max. Yes, Eduard of 10-15 years ago was a different company compared to today that's for sure.

I have a stalled BF110 where the cockpit is just filled with so many tiny details that it's almost too much to handle....

 

You're doing a great job on this one though, and I eager look forward to the next installment!

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