1/48 Focke Wulf Fw-190 Anton

[One-Two]

21 hours ago, Kitchen Modeller said:

...I have to ask why you opted to paint the cowling first as surely there's a greater chance of issues when you paint the fuselage? It won't be a simple masking job... 

Hi there,

 

I'm actually hoping that painting the cowling first will make things easier with the subsequent painting and masking.

The upper part of the cowling is actually very easy to mask once painted, because the edges are quite straight.

The lower part has more complex curves and it will be more difficult to mask, but I'll be using the lower cowling parts from another Eduard 190 that I have as a template in order to cut very precise masks.

Hope that this plan will work

 

Thanks for looking and for your comments Guys!

Edited March 9, 2019 by One-Two

[One-Two]

Ok not so much hobby time over the weekend, I only managed to airbrush the RLM 75 on the Eduard A5.

This is how it looks now:

 

Cheers,

[Christer A]

Superb tatty-looking RLM76! (surely?)

[Kitchen Modeller]

Paint is looking great. Very nice variation. Looking forward to seeing the upper side!

[One-Two]

Thank you Guys, glad you like it.

 

Back to the Hasegawa A4, I sprayed the top standard camouflage of RLM 75/74.

I deliberately didn't use any color variation technique, because this machine was completely covered with a white winter camouflage, so the RLM 75/74 combination will be covered with a layer of white paint under which, I hope, the RLM 75/54 will still be faintly visible.

So, this is how it looks now:

This was a JG54 machine (actually it was the Kommodore's airplane) employed on the Eastern front. It is known that JG 54 was using non-standard camouflage schemes in Russia, generally consisting of green combinations of RLM 70/71 or something like this.

However since the Hasegawa original painting instructions are a joke (they say just paint the damn thing solid white), I'm using the painting instructions provided by Eduard in their new-tooled Fw190A4 (profipack line), which is offering exactly this airplane as one of their marking variants.

And Eduard is saying that under the white camouflage paint was a standard scheme of RLM 75/74, visible especially in the area of the crosses on the upper side of the wings and on the left side of the cowling engine, which apparently was a spare part taken from another aircraft and left without white camouflage. 

At first, knowing that JG54 was using non-standard green camouflages as a general rule, I was tempted to disregard Eduard instructions also and to go for a 70/71 combination under the white camouflage, but then I remembered that JG 54 stared the conversion to Fw190 sometime during autumn 1942 - winter 1942-43, and if a fighter was received during winter, then it didn't had any sense to repaint it 70/71 if  it was to be entirely covered with white winter camouflage anyway.

 

Hope to be back soon with the top white coat.

[heloman1]

Just found your double build thread. Probably my most favoutite aircraft from WWII, so very interested in the way you have gone about the build.

 

You got me hooked...

 

Colin

[Kitchen Modeller]

Looking forward to seeing the final coats!

[One-Two]

Ok I managed to put on the Hasegawa A4 the top winter coat and the yellow quick ID bands.

It is the first time I'm attempting a winter cammo and I'm not sure if it's very realistic...but I'm ok with it.

 

My primary target was to be able to still see the original RLM 74/75/76 under the winter coat and  the secondary was to give the white a somehow patchy look.  

I achieved the first one (the  standard RLM cammo is still visible under the white coat), and I think that also the second one is ok, although it could have been even better.

 

Interesting about this airframe is that sometime during its operational life it received a part of the engine cowling (left side) as a spare part from another airplane, which was not white camouflaged, and for a time frame it remained like this. 

Also it seems that the national markings  (the German crosses) from the upper side of the wings were masked before painting the white camouflage on the real thing also, leaving the original RLM74/75 very visible in that area. In order to replicate this, I masked the area with Tamiya tape, cut to the approximate dimensions of the related decals.

 

That's it for now, next is a protective gloss coat and still I have to paint some details in the exhaust area and on fuselage markings area...

Thanks for looking and cheers,

[RadMax8]

Great work to tackle the engineering challenges with the Eduard kit! I feel like this takes a lot of the apprehension of working with these early kits away. Also, seeing the challenges with the Hasegawa kit is interesting, especially considering that I’ve got a couple of those in my stash!

 

Thanks for sharing!

[One-Two]

On ‎3‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 11:26 AM, RadMax8 said:

Great work to tackle the engineering challenges with the Eduard kit! I feel like this takes a lot of the apprehension of working with these early kits away. Also, seeing the challenges with the Hasegawa kit is interesting, especially considering that I’ve got a couple of those in my stash!

 

Thanks for sharing!

Apprehension is the right word describing what I felt when I started the Eduard kit. The old tooled Eduard 190’s clearly are not easy to build, but this is only because they are over-engineered.

But treated with care and patience, they are really great kits. Out of the two, Hasegawa and old-tool Eduard, in my opinion the Eduard 190 is clearly superior, in almost every aspect, and I really enjoyed building it, despite its unnecessary complexity.     

 

Not much progress to report on the Hasegawa A4, I only managed to paint with black the lateral exhaust areas and with some solid white the area of the tactical markings.

Interesting thing this one with the over painted old tactical markings. It seems that the personal mount of Trautloft was not a brand-new airframe, but rather a second–hand machine, which was allocated to him after it was used by another pilot.

If that’s the truth, this is saying something about this guy, I guess.

At the end of 1942, Johannes Trautloft was CO of JG54 for a long time. He was on the same generation of very young commanders promoted by the Fat Man (Goering) at the head of big fighters units, during 1940…..Galland, Molders, Oesau, Trautloft.

These guys were indeed very experienced fighters….Trautloft for example came with 5 confirmed victories from Spain and was instrumental in developing the fighting tactics for the new Bf109 there.

As a consequence, they were much respected commanders and sometimes they could enjoy special privileges very easily….like getting brand-new special machines and stuff. For example, I read that some of them were ordering special editions of improved 109’s directly from the Messerschmitt factory. The “special” Bf109 F’s ordered by Galland when he was CO JG26 are maybe the best example.

In the same time, it seems that Trautloft was not making any favors to himself in choosing his personal mount.  Apparently, he was flying a second-hand machine. I don’t know if this is the historical truth, but the fact that in order to paint the tactical markings of Hannes Trautloft, they first had to over paint some older ones, seems to point in that direction.

 

I also have been working on Eduard A5, but I only managed to spray the RLM 75 and prepare it for RLM 74.

This is how it looks now:

Thanks for looking and cheers,

[Christer A]

Magnificient painting there!

[mick]

great work

[RadMax8]

Great paintwork. Interesting about the second hand aircraft, and also about “special” 109s... do you have a link or anything about that? I’d like to learn more. 

 

Thanks for sharing. 

[One-Two]

13 hours ago, RadMax8 said:

Great paintwork. Interesting about the second hand aircraft, and also about “special” 109s... do you have a link or anything about that? I’d like to learn more. 

 

Thanks for sharing. 

Hello RadMax8...there is something about Galland's "special" Bf109F's on the FalkeEins blog...please see these links:

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2013/09/galland-bf-109-f-2-special.html?m=1

...and also this one, courtesy of FalkeEins again:

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2012/04/der-reichsmarschall-bei-oberst-galland.html?m=1

 

Hope the links will work, they contain photos of these unique machines.

 

Regards,

Edited March 19, 2019 by One-Two

[RadMax8]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. 

[One-Two]

Ok now back to the Eduard A5 which is fresh out of the panting shop. 

Leaving aside the solid yellow nose, it seems that Walter Kohne's rocket-armed Fw190A5 was painted standard RLM 74/75/76.

The Eduard painting instructions are saying that the previous tactical markings were covered with a patch of RLM 70 on both sides of the fuselage...I don't know for sure if this is true but I liked the idea and I tried to replicate this also.

The lateral exhaust area of the forward fuselage, where the exhaust tubes ends were located, was painted black (I used Nato black), which was a common thing to 190's, because of heavy exhaust generated by the BMW801 radial engine.

That's all for now, thanks for looking Guys and cheers to all.

[One-Two]

Finished with the decals on Hasegawa A4.

The decals were ok...not great but ok. Good adherence and response to decal solutions, but kind of too thick.

I used only a part of the stencils...I assumed that since the aircraft was covered with a temporary wither camouflage, at least a part of the stencils should have been covered by it (especially the walkways and stuff like this would have been difficult to mask, I guess).

However I saw some pictures of JG54 machines in wither camouflage attesting that some of the smaller stencils were still present, nevertheless... 

[One-Two]

Decaling stage completed for the Eduard A5 also.

 

While not perfect, I liked more the Eduard decals, comparing with the Hasegawa ones. The eduard decals are much more thinner, although they seemed to be pretty stiff...they were not very happy to conform with all the panel lines and rivet lines...I succeeded only after repeated applications of Mr. Mark Softer.

Anyway, this is how it looks now.

And in the end a couple of pictures with both these bad boys together:

 

That's it for now.

Thanks for looking and cheers,

[One-Two]

Next step is some weathering, I started with the Hasegawa A4.

For the first time I used this solution for panel lines from Flory Models...

After using it, I am not very happy with this kind of approach consisting of spreading the solution over the entire model and then wiping it out. It is too dirty and brutal, I think for the future builds I'll stick with the old good classic technique.

 

Anyway, after some oils and stuff, this is how the Hasegawa A4 looks now:

 

The exhaust stain is made from some thinned-down red-brown covered with successive layers of thinned Tamiya smoke and some pigments.

The contrast of the exhaust and white paint is quite big...but as far as I know the BMW801's were considered as "dirty" radials, especially for the heavy exhaust gas deposits.

This was especially visible on the Eastern Front, where the machines were used under very precarious technical conditions some times (temporary and  some times even improper airstrips, close to the front lines) and in severe meteo conditions (winters in Russia were very tuff business).

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by One-Two

[Rogue.]

19 minutes ago, One-Two said:

 

For the first time I used this solution for panel lines from Flory Models...

 

After using it, I am not very happy with this kind of approach consisting of spreading the solution over the entire model and then wiping it out. It is too dirty and brutal, I think for the future builds I'll stick with the old good classic technique.

 

Dark dirt is probably an overkill on such a light paint scheme. Grime, thinly airbrushed on would not be as brutal. Also, Flory does a 'Light' wash that can be mixed in to tone it down more if required.

 

Two nice Fw 190's you have there 👍

[One-Two]

On ‎4‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 3:48 PM, Rogue. said:

Dark dirt is probably an overkill on such a light paint scheme. Grime, thinly airbrushed on would not be as brutal. Also, Flory does a 'Light' wash that can be mixed in to tone it down more if required.

 

Two nice Fw 190's you have there 👍

That's why for the other 190, the Eduard one, I have tried another approach.

 

This time I decided to use an AK Interactive panel liner dedicated for grey and blue models. It is an enamel-based product, applicable as it is (you don't have to dilute it or something like this) and it going very well along the panel lines.

Any excess can be easily removed with cotton buds.

Both methods are a fist for me (the one tried with Hasegawa A4 and this one on Eduard A5) and I have to say that this one is much more cleaner and subtle and therefore I prefer it.

Anyway, this is how the Eduard A5 looks now:

For the yellow cowling panel lines  I used burnt umber oil wash.

 

The looks  of the Eduard A5 is enhanced (when comparing it with the Hase A4) by the fact that the kit is partly riveted.

I don't even dare to think how cool the new-tooled 190's will look, since they are fully riveted!  

 

Thanks for looking and cheers.

[Kitchen Modeller]

21 hours ago, One-Two said:

This time I decided to use an AK Interactive panel liner dedicated for grey and blue models.

I gave these washes a go a while back but wasn't that pleased with the result - it might have been the gloss varnish I was using but couldn't remove it easily - ended up having to use odorless thinners to take it off completely and still left tide marks everywhere. I just use oils now for washes which work well for me. It worked well on yours though... But not sure if it was the AK or the oil wash that produced the result... it's a good result however you got there. I've never tried the flory washes but they don't look that appealing. 

 

21 hours ago, One-Two said:

I don't even dare to think how cool the new-tooled 190's will look, since they are fully riveted!  

Me too. I'm getting one when it lands

[fubar57]

Great job. I watched Flory Models tutorial on the wash and it seemed like a lot of work to achieve the same results as a standard wash. I just tried Tamiya Panel line thinner and the result was nice and subtle. I'll be posting pics tomorrow

[One-Two]

On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 7:49 AM, Kitchen Modeller said:

I gave these washes a go a while back but wasn't that pleased with the result - it might have been the gloss varnish I was using but couldn't remove it easily - ended up having to use odorless thinners to take it off completely and still left tide marks everywhere. I just use oils now for washes which work well for me. It worked well on yours though... But not sure if it was the AK or the oil wash that produced the result... it's a good result however you got there. I've never tried the flory washes but they don't look that appealing. 

 

Me too. I'm getting one when it lands

Sorry to hear about your problems.

I'm using Tamiya X22 diluted with Leveling thinner (Mr. Color) as a gloss coat and I had no problems whatsoever in removing the excess of the AK panel liner.

Until now I was also using only oils for enhancing panel lines...with oils you almost cannot make mistakes...but what I liked about AK panel-liner is that they are offering a dedicated panel-liner (color-wise) for this grey-blue cammo. They also have a different color for green-brown cammo combinations, I used it on the green area of the tactical markings, on the fuselage sides.

This color variation makes the difference and it is difficult (at least for me) to get it wright each time by combining different oils.

 

As a downside, indeed since is an enamel-based panel-liner, it has a quicker drying time (comparing with oils).

But since it can be applied with a small paint brush directly on the panel line, the tide marks should be limited...it is a much more "cleaner" method that the one tried on Hasegawa A4, for example.

On the Eduard A5 the result of the panel -lines washing was produced by these AK solutions, minus the yellow cowling, for which I used oil color (burnt umber wash).
 

On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 8:00 AM, fubar57 said:

Great job. I watched Flory Models tutorial on the wash and it seemed like a lot of work to achieve the same results as a standard wash. I just tried Tamiya Panel line thinner and the result was nice and subtle. I'll be posting pics tomorrow

Indeed with the Flory models wash you have a lot of cleaning work to do.

However, I heard from a fellow modeler that he is using the Flory models wash in the same way like the standard oil panel line wash: just applying it with a thin brush along the panel lines or rivet lines/other details, without spreading it all over the model. Apparently it works this way also and it is not producing such a mess.

Maybe I will give it a try some time, just to check the results of such an approach.

 

Thanks for your thoughts and comments guys, see ya

[One-Two]

Armed and looking for trouble:

 

I finally installed the gun barrels...they are a mix of elements from different sources:

- the mid/wing MG/FF's are coming from the de dedicated metal barrels set from Master which I'll be using on the Eduard A5 (which is in 2 cannon wing configuration, so the FF's are not needed);

- the MG 151's installed in the wing roots are made from Albion Alloys brass tubes...just love these products, they are simply great;

- the engine MG 17's are plastic from a new-tooled Eduard 190.

 

Now she's almost ready, I have to install only the landing gear and some other small details...