Eduard 1/48 Focke Wulf Fw190A5

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

FAO @Stew Dapple here are the photos discussed earlier.

 

I'm not very interested in making models of German stuff. I've nothing against Germans - I'm just not a rabid fan of anything with a black cross painted on like some, but I wanted to make one Fw190 to go with my Black Friday theme. In particular I wanted Rudi Linz's blue 4.

 

 

Unfortunately due to my general disinterest in the basic subject matter and lack of attentiveness, I bought the wrong version of Fw190A and had started before realising it was useless. Ultimately, it sat in a mostly-assembled state on the Shelf of Doom for perhaps 2 years.

 

 

 

This kit had so many fans that I was rather surprised to discover how poor a kit it truthfully is, and it seems that Eduard knew it was poor as well since they retooled what was not a very old tooling. I had, sadly, already bought the correct A-8 version in Weekend Edition form before getting too far in to this and I have to say I'm not looking forward to building it.

 

The cockpit went together ok. I didn't use all of the Profipack photoetch because a) I'm not interested in Focke Wulfs and didn't want to add effort and b) much of it adds little value once it's all built up. The side consoles in particular are very nicely printed, but are flat slabs and a reasonably well painted plastic cockpit looks far superior, so that's what I did. The seat belts and instrument panels are all that's really needed IMHO.

 

(note I followed the instructions above, but did realise they were back-to-front with the radio hatch and removed it to put the hinge at the back after this photo)

 

 

 

Next confession - I really don't care for models showing everything open, and unfortunately that's the only way this kit is suitable to be built. I'd been forewarned, but the cannon bay hatches were a truely awful piece of model kit engineering. A lot of careful work was required to close them, and various braces and shims were added to prevent it all buckling out of shape when the wing complete-with glued in hatches was offered up to the fuselage later. The braces proved entirely necessary and were the results of many test fits. We Scots pride ourselves on having the best vocabulary of swear words and insults on Earth, and I needed to invent new ones for this kit...

 

 

 

 

I cut away various bits of the kit to aide getting the wing and fuselage together.

 

 

The wheel wells likewise were a swine to get together and let the wing halves close up. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the design here, but the mould halves were slightly misaligned so all of the riblets inside the wheel wells were moulded askew and too deep without fettling. Not difficult, but again, for a subject that holds little interest it became tedious fairly quickly.

 

 

Coming back to this photo, another part of the kit I absolutely hated was all this clutter inside the nose. As the supporting structure and ammunition chutes for the MG17 machine guns and engine mounts are all integrated and entirely designed to be displayed with all its guts hanging out, it was an utter pig to get it all to close up to look like an aircraft. Again, the moulding quality of the parts didn't match Eduard's ambitions for the kit. I ended up hacking away lots of that gun junk to allow the cover to fit. Unforunately that would still bite me later as the machine guns don't fit under the cover - so I would later have to saw the barrels off short.

 

 

Anyway, I prevailed over the damn thing until it was assembled, fitted, filled, and ready to paint - then I put it in its box and forgot about it for 2 years.

 

We've had a tidy up over the Christmas holiday, and I wanted to clear off some of this half-built stuff, so this thing was chosen to clear space for something that interests me better.

 

2 Days ago I sprayed it gloss black using our prototype solvent-thinned acrylic, then masked off for the white stripes on the cowlings. I didn't fancy decals for this.

 

Colourcoats white enamel was sprayed on, then unmasked.

 

 

Same for the yellow bit, then we went out for lunch.

 

Using the black base I then sprayed the RLM 75 using Colourcoats ACLW14, then masked using Blutac and Tamiya tape, then the RLM 74 (ACLW13), then masked the wing fillets with Tamiya tape and sprayed the RLM 76 (ACLW15) otherwise freehand. I went back with the RLM 75 for mottling, freehand of course.

 

 

This got me to the end of the first afternoon since retrieval from the SoD.

 

Yesterday morning we had to go out, but at lunchtime I sprayed it clear gloss enamel then applied the kit decals. The decals were good and settled well with Microset and Microsol. Last night around 7ish I sprayed a clear matt enamel to seal them in.

 

 

 

This morning I gave the matt clear coat a gentle polish with Infini Model's 2500 grit and 4000 grit polishing sponges to bring the matt back to a gentle satin, then stuck on the wheels, guns etc. The antenna is Infini Model lycra rigging line (40 denier / 0.068mm) in black. Exhaust stains are Tamiya weathering powders make-up sets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit of a half-baked effort, but as mentioned several times it's a subject I couldn't care less about frankly, and it's good enough to go on the shelf. And it's finished, and that's important.

 

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Jamie,

 

It might have been a cow to put together but the end result was a success  

 

I'm guessing the A-8 version will be providing poor-quality loft insulation for some time yet...  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Luiz]

Very nice job!...this is not a easy kit to build...congratulations!

 

Luiz.

[Abandoned Project]

I'm not a massive fan of WW2 fighters but the black undercoat does interest me. Looks like a viable option for toning colours down.

Well done on the perseverance to create a great model.

[RMCS]

Niiiice 

[Troy Smith]

5 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

I had, sadly, already bought the correct A-8 version in Weekend Edition form before getting too far in to this and I have to say I'm not looking forward to building it.

 

Hi Jamie

Very interesting build thread here on some ways to deal with the old tool Eduard Fw190

In particular post #11.   Sure, a kit shouldn't be like this,  and having head scratch and faff about is pain,  note the actual angle the chap talk about was in an Eduard news letter (not the flipping instructions I bet) and is IIRC,  93 degrees. 

Alternately, flog the old tool kit and get a new tool weekend A-8

 

Anyway, it's done and of the SOD, and looks good

 

cheers

T

[Parabat]

That is a super job on a kit that is very hard to build. Great job, just needs the antenna wire tightening up (there was a tensioned roller in the hood) and it's a stunner. 

[Spitfire31]

Wouldn't this post fit better in WIP or even Reviews?

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Stew Dapple]

40 minutes ago, Spitfire31 said:

Wouldn't this post fit better in WIP or even Reviews?

 

Why would it be? It's not a work in progress, it's finished, and its not a review, he's detailed some of the issues he had finishing it and how he dealt with them.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Wow, what a great result Jamie - I wish I could do half as good a job on something I didn't care about!  

Nice one, even if it isn't a favourite…

[mick]

great work