Hasegawa 1/32 FW190D-9 Oskar Romm IV/JG3, Prenzlau, March 1945 **Finished**

[Retired Bob]

8 hours ago, 81-er said:

I've been told that the AK Xtreme Metals range are tougher than Alclad (which I've found to be a little fragile, but the finishes are worth it). I've used their aluminium on my P-38 build and it goes on really nicely, but I haven't yet tried any heavy duty masking directly onto it to confirm if it's actually more durable or not.

I've masked on AK Xtreme aluminium using Tamiya tape and it was fine, tried some aggressive 'ordinary' masking tape and it removed big chunks of paint so only use tape that's got a lighter tack, Tamiya or Frog tape. 

[Ngantek]

This is looking fantastic Stew. I'm very envious of how neat and sharp you're able to keep everything. Kit looks pretty good too, no? Always a headscratcher though, when kit manufacturers get so carried away adding detail and extras that they ignore the option to pose them in a 'normal' fashion. Hope the Alclad works out okay, I'm interested in your finding (I too prefer the finish, but generally chicken out and use Gunze or Tamiya lacquer for stuff that I think will get some abuse)

 

Andy

 

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks gents  I've ordered some of the AK Black Primer and Microfiller, purely on the grounds that it can be had in 100ml bottles rather than the 30ml of the HR Hobbies one, I am almost comically uncomfortable with the idea of running out of stuff halfway through a build.

 

I got the tail section attached:

 

 

Once again the tape was not actually necessary but it's recycled from the same tape that I used on the fuselage halves so isn't as wasteful as it might at first appear  

 

While I left that to set, I assembled and painted the wheels:

 

 

The instructions advise you to fit the tailwheel when closing up the two halves of the tail section, but I had a test and the tailwheel can be added after the halves are joined which will make painting a bit easier and remove one tricky masking problem  

 

I put some Mr Surfacer 500 around the join line where the tail section meets the fuselage - there is a join here on the real aircraft so I don't need to eliminate the join completely, I just wanted to tone it down a bit:

 

 

While I had the Mr Surfacer out, I filled in a couple of panel lines as called out in the kit instructions - the instructions don't mention that for an early gun cover the bump at the lower part of the cover needs to be removed as well. At least I hope it does, that's what I read and I went ahead and did it  I also removed the corresponding bump on the fuselage that matches up with it.  Unfortunately I did this before I took the photo's so there's no 'before' and 'after' shots, but you can see the semi-circular patch awaiting sanding on the first fuselage picture above.

 

 

The shape of the gun-cover seems to be one of the bigger bugbears mentioned by those who know about these things, it being a bit too 'buxom' at the back end. There are resin replacements available and I've seen several builds where the modeller re-shaped the part with filler and sanding etc. but sometimes ignorance is bliss and I am sufficiently ignorant for the shape issues to be acceptable for me  

 

So that's where I am, I've gone a bit off-piste with the construction sequence so I'll have to have a study of the instructions to establish where I am and what I do next  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[Retired Bob]

19 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Once again the tape was not actually necessary but it's recycled from the same tape that I used on the fuselage halves so isn't as wasteful as it might at first appear  

The words of a true Scotsman. 

The look of that gun cover looked like a Mimetall late type, well it did before you removed that bump.  Now it looks like a Fieseler one.

Did you not have to fit the engine block and the exhaust stacks before joining the fuselage?  You have to with the Eduard 1/48th D-9.

[Stew Dapple]

6 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

The words of a true Scotsman.

 

High praise from a Yorkshireman  

 

6 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

The look of that gun cover looked like a Mimetall late type, well it did before you removed that bump.  Now it looks like a Fieseler one.

 

Ah, and that is a good thing, yes?  

 

6 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

Did you not have to fit the engine block and the exhaust stacks before joining the fuselage?  You have to with the Eduard 1/48th D-9.

 

The compartment for the back end of the engine is installed when the fuselage halves are joined, but Hasegawa provide two little box-like structures - which I neglected to photograph - to fit inside, behind the exhaust openings. You then fit the 3 exhaust pieces per side from the outside into the boxes before you get to the end of assembly, but anyone with a bit of modelling nous will paint the exhausts separately and add them at the end so as not to have to mask them  

 

While you're here Bob I'd like to ask your advice on a couple of things, I'll PM you later, hope that's okay  

 

On 2/1/2023 at 11:42 AM, Ngantek said:

Always a headscratcher though, when kit manufacturers get so carried away adding detail and extras that they ignore the option to pose them in a 'normal' fashion.

 

Sorry Andy, I meant to reply to this earlier - yes a couple of the big Hasegawa kits of a certain age have that issue, the other I can think of off the top of my head is the Ki-84 which similarly limits you in terms of flap options. I think it's a similar thing the earlier releases of the Eduard FW190 suffer from; the assumption that since they have provided that detail, you will want to display it with flaps deployed and gun bays open etc. In fairness to Hasegawa their newer large scale kits (i.e. post 2000 or thereabouts) do give you the choice, even if it sometimes means cutting some attachment tabs of the standard kit part and in fairness to Eduard they do seem to have retooled their FW190 to be a bit more user-friendly for those who prefer the aesthetics of a closed-up aircraft.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[mick]

looking good

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Mick

 

I did a lot of fiddly stuff yesterday but nothing major. I fitted the little intake to the gun cover, this is moulded as a solid part, I drilled it out enough that there is a recess but it was too small a part to really get to grips with:

 

 

I painted up the annular radiator; I'm not at all sure that the middle part should be RLM02 but I'm not at all sure that is important since it will be covered by the prop assembly:

 

 

I gave the landing gear bay a weak black wash just to dirty it up a little, as I really liked the effect @Retired Bob got in his D-9 build. I also painted the cabling in the gear bay black. You can barely see it in real life, so it's probably completely invisible in the photo:

 

 

I did the detail painting on the mainwheels and painted up the gear legs, adding a bit of Aluminium tape for the Oleos which was about as successful as usual; Alu tape isn't really meant to conform to such tight curvatures and requires a bit of superglue to keep it from unwinding and as usual that resulted in a superglue fingerprint on one of them. However these will be almost entirely hidden by the wheels:

 

 

Finally I made up and painted the gunsight. The rear glass plate got a coat of Tamiya clear blue-green round the edges, the forward sun-visor plate got a couple of coats of Tamiya clear 'Smoke':

 

 

 

I'm pleased with how that turned out, hence the two photo's  

 

Don't think I'll be getting a lot done today, I'm out for lunch with a mate and that usually descends into an afternoon/evening pub-crawl of as many of Dundee's dog-friendly pubs as we can manage  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[IanC]

Love that gunsight, Stew.

 

Happy 🍻 later. 🙂

[spitfire]

Going great guns, lots of very useful information in this thread especially as I know nearly nowt about Luftwaffe stuff

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Retired Bob]

On 03/02/2023 at 03:50, Stew Dapple said:

High praise from a Yorkshireman  

I'm only here in Yorkshire because it's where I was living when I left the RAF. 

 

[Mukund SB]

Thanks a lot for taking your time and posting many detail photos. It is good learning for people like me who are new and not familiar with . The model turning out great 👍

[CedB]

Lovely work Stew, as always.

 

That gunsight is amazing, as are those wheels; are you still using German Grey for the tyres?

[Ray_W]

On 2/4/2023 at 6:00 PM, Stew Dapple said:

The rear glass plate got a coat of Tamiya clear blue-green round the edges,

 

Looks excellent. Great tip. I'll have to remember this one.

[gingerbob]

On 2/4/2023 at 2:00 AM, Stew Dapple said:

The rear glass plate got a coat of Tamiya clear blue-green round the edges

 

Great "little touch".

[Thom216]

Great little bit of progress. For the oleos, you could try a Molotow liquor chrome marker.

[stevej60]

Shaping up nicely Stew and that pilot figure is superb and a great addition to gauging the size of this beast.Good luck with the rest of the build.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks very much gents  

 

On 2/4/2023 at 10:56 PM, Retired Bob said:

I'm only here in Yorkshire because it's where I was living when I left the RAF. 

 

 

Ah a similar situation to mine then Bob, I moved to Dundee 8 years ago after my first (and hopefully last) redundancy, I was born and raised daan saaf  It worked out well for me, Dundee is a great place to live, I've made some good friends and I hope Yorkshire has been as good a move for you.

 

23 hours ago, Mukund SB said:

Thanks a lot for taking your time and posting many detail photos. It is good learning for people like me who are new and not familiar with . The model turning out great 👍

 

Thanks Mukund, the internet is a great resource for little details if - like me - you are a bit short on references for a specific aircraft; I googled FW190D wheels and got some nice pictures that way, and the same with 'Revi16' for the gunsight details  

 

16 hours ago, CedB said:

Lovely work Stew, as always.

 

That gunsight is amazing, as are those wheels; are you still using German Grey for the tyres?

 

Well remembered Ced, it is indeed Vallejo German Grey with a coat of Citadel Agrax Earthshade brown wash on the tyres. I have given them another brown wash since the picture was taken as it looked a bit patchy, I probably need to get a new pot of that as the one I have is about 6 years old  

 

13 hours ago, Ray_W said:

 

Looks excellent. Great tip. I'll have to remember this one.

 

Thanks Ray, I stole the gunsight glass tip so long ago I can't even remember from whom I stole it, but I thank him in my head each time I use it  

 

12 hours ago, gingerbob said:

 

Great "little touch".

 

Aw thanks mate  

 

6 hours ago, Thom216 said:

Great little bit of progress. For the oleos, you could try a Molotow liquor chrome marker.

 

Thanks Thom, I've got a Molotow Chrome pen and it worked well enough for a while, then the contents seemed to separate and I've never got it back to its original state, no amount of shaking seems to make a difference  

 

6 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Shaping up nicely Stew and that pilot figure is superb and a great addition to gauging the size of this beast.Good luck with the rest of the build.

 

Thanks very much Steve, it's been a really nice build so far, everything just clicking in where it should and no grief  Hope I didn't just jinx myself  

 

So for some reason (which absolutely was not connected to Saturday's gluttonous bacchanalia) I was feeling a bit peely-wally* yesterday so a little light tinkering was the best I could manage. I broke out the Master Brass gun barrels, here they are compared to the kit parts:

 

 

It's not an entirely fair comparison as I simply clipped the kit parts from the sprue and photographed them, if I was using them for real I would have tidied them up a bit and attempted drilling out the barrel openings and so on, but I still would not have ended up with parts that look as good as the Master replacements, I think. The gun barrels got a spray of Alclad Steel straight onto the metal:

 

 

Aye that should do  I gave the gun cover a coat of black primer/microfiller just to make sure the bumps and removed panel lines were invisible. I wasn't going to bother priming anything else as it's not really necessary to use a primer for enamels, which I'll be doing the main body of the aircraft with, but anyway... it worked  

 

 

And really, all the foregoing was displacement activity to avoid doing two jobs that I really didn't feel like doing: masking clear parts, and masking the metal panels on the wing undersides, I did eventually get the second done, at first glance it appears a nice straightforward two-pieces-of-tape-maybe masking job, but it isn't, there's curvature and all sorts of little bits that need attention.

 

 

The wheelbay isn't fixed in yet, I just clipped it in to add a bit of stability to the wing while I was applying the tape. What this picture also reveals is that the odd feature on the flaps, which I had somehow convinced myself was just swirls in the plastic moulding, are actually a series of sink-marks along the base of the flaps. It could be that it just looks exaggerated because of the silver overspray, as it wasn't obvious when I was fitting the flaps, and perhaps won't be an issue once the RLM76 is applied, but it may need some further work 

 

Anyway, that's where I am now, hopefully will be able to squeeze a little benchtime in today  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* Peely-wally is supposedly a Scottish phrase meaning, roughly, 'pale and sickly' I've never heard a Scot use the phrase, but it might be a West Coast thing  In any case, that was me, yesterday.

 

[Retired Bob]

7 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

What this picture also reveals is that the odd feature on the flaps, which I had somehow convinced myself was just swirls in the plastic moulding, are actually a series of sink-marks along the base of the flaps. It could be that it just looks exaggerated because of the silver overspray, as it wasn't obvious when I was fitting the flaps, and perhaps won't be an issue once the RLM76 is applied, but it may need some further work 

Yes I can see it on the starboard flap, definitely sink marks from the raised detail.  As you say, a matt finish may hide it. 

[81-er]

Some very nice work there, Stew. Those replacement guns are definitely a leap ahead compared to the plastic, even allowing for clean-up. I'm another convert to those Citadel washes as well, they do the job very nicely.

 

Out of curiosity, what part of "daan Saaf" are you originally from?

 

James

[Stew Dapple]

15 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

Yes I can see it on the starboard flap, definitely sink marks from the raised detail.  As you say, a matt finish may hide it. 

 

Thanks Bob, as can be seen below I bit the bullet and blobbed on some Mr Surfacer; a realistic appraisal of my past errors reminded me that when I count on some issue disappearing under paint, I am inevitably disappointed when it doesn't  

 

14 hours ago, 81-er said:

Some very nice work there, Stew. Those replacement guns are definitely a leap ahead compared to the plastic, even allowing for clean-up. I'm another convert to those Citadel washes as well, they do the job very nicely.

 

Out of curiosity, what part of "daan Saaf" are you originally from?

 

James

 

Thanks James, yes I'm not bad at drilling out gun barrels and stuff but there are limits to what you can achieve, to be frank, for me at least, the Master barrels do a better job than I could without me having to do it  I was born in 'that London' but grew up in Suffolk, but I did live in Essex for a fair chunk of my adult life, in Southend.

 

As mentioned above I applied some Mr Surfacer 500 to the flaps:

 

 

... and here's the other frog that I was reluctant to swallow: masking inside and outside the clear parts:

 

 

I also assembled the internal headrest/armour. This was the first time (as far as I remember at least) that I've used the New Ware canopy masks. Plus points were that they are nice quality Kabuki tape, like Tamiya masking tape, and they were well-cut so that the various masks all came cleanly away from the backing sheet. A couple of minus points were scored though, as some of the masks didn't fit very well - I had to add an extension to the side panels of the windscreen, on both sides, inside and out. The masks for the sliding hood are produced as one part per side, I cut them into sections as a) it's pretty difficult to apply a very long thin mask along the framing anyway, like threading a noodle through a needle, and b) they were also a little short in some sections which required a bridging piece of tape after I had cut between the sections in question. Those points aside, they still did a better job than I could have done just with masking tape.

 

I sanded the Mr Surfacer on the flaps, I think I will get away with it now:

 

 

The masked canopy parts got a spray of RLM66 on both sides (it's a good idea to do this as it will hide any slight mask mis-match between inside and outside):

 

 

... and that's where I am now. Got a busy work day today and tomorrow but I'm hoping to squeeze a bit of work in, I'm very much enjoying this kit and it's hard not to start fiddling with some part of it  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[81-er]

Nicely done, Stew. Totally agree with you on spraying the internal colour on both sides of the canopy when using two-sded masks. It's just asking for trouble if you don't.

 

Southend you say? Never heard of it 

 

James

(Resident of Saaafend)

[Retired Bob]

7 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Thanks Bob, as can be seen below I bit the bullet and blobbed on some Mr Surfacer; a realistic appraisal of my past errors reminded me that when I count on some issue disappearing under paint, I am inevitably disappointed when it doesn't  

Very true Stew, I check for things like this at the initial plastic fondling stage, with Tamiya it's ejector pin marks, Airfix it's sink marks and these days short shot parts!

As for origins, I was born in Birmingham, at 17 I joined the RAF and spent the next 30 years mostly in Norfolk or in North Scotland with a couple of forays to Germany.  I came back from Germany and had my last tour on 11(F) Sqn (Tornado F.3's) at RAF Leeming hence my present location. 

[Stew Dapple]

17 hours ago, 81-er said:

Southend you say? Never heard of it 

 

James

(Resident of Saaafend)

 

Haha yes mate, was in Southend about 16 years, lived in Shoebury, Southend itself, Westcliff and Prittlewell in that time. I've still got friends there, but I haven't physically been back for about seven years now, it's a bit of a trek from Dundee  

 

@Retired Bob you must have liked Yorkshire to stop there though? As long as you like where you are, that's the main thing  

 

I didn't get much done yesterday, my working day seemingly having been organised, arranged and supervised by those dark forces that hate modelling and seek to impede me at every turn in my efforts in that direction. On the plus side, I did get the headrest painted and the little transfer applied:

 

 

Yes, sorry about the fuzzy. The camera was convinced I wanted a picture of a clothes peg in sharp detailed focus. I've no idea what the transfer on the headrest says, it is almost readable in real life and is clearly a warning of some sort,, presumably a pre-take of reminder to do (or not to do) something, as once you are in the seat the warning is directly behind your head and not therefore ideal as an in-flight reminder  

 

And I got the headrest framework installed in the canopy hood. I know I don't need to remind you that if you are masking inside and out, remove the interior masking before you do this  

 

 

For the curious, or the observant, the unpainted disc on the windscreen is where a toothpick was held with a blob of Blu-Tack for ease of painting the framing  

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[Ray_W]

2 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

For the curious, or the observant, the unpainted disc on the windscreen is where a toothpick was held with a blob of Blu-Tack for ease of painting the framing

 

Ah huh! Now I get it! The RAF had a huge ball of Blu-tac and a telegraph pole to hold the armoured head rest when painting on a Lancaster and Mosquito.

[81-er]

4 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

I've no idea what the transfer on the headrest says, it is almost readable in real life and is clearly a warning of some sort,, presumably a pre-take of reminder to do (or not to do) something, as once you are in the seat the warning is directly behind your head and not therefore ideal as an in-flight reminder

 

To paraphrase the great Edmund Blackadder, "Congratulations on choosing the Focke Wulf FW 190D-9. Please read the instructions carefully and it should give years of trouble free maiming"

 

James

 

p.s. If you ever do find yourself down this way, give me a prod