Thunnus

Time to inspect a new aftermarket item. This is the Aires Wheel Well set for the 190D. Aires casts some of the most intricate resin bits that I've run across and this one is no exception. The wiring detail is almost TOO fine. Since the Hasegawa wheel wells are separate inserts, it should be a plug-n-play replacement and there shouldn't be any messy removals to deal with besides removing some hefty casting bases. Note that the Hasegawa wheel wells has almost all of the details as the Aires parts but they are not as finely rendered. So the deficiency is not one of omission but execution, which may be relevant. The kit wheel well insert is integral to a spar that helps maintain the correct spacing between the upper and lower wing parts. Grafting the spar into place with the Aires wheel well parts should not be an issue. When I place one of the Aires wheel wells into place, I start to notice some issues. With the skinny end of the Aires part butted up directly against the landing gear base, the holes for the wing guns do not line up correctly. And the wide end of the part doesn't reach the end of the wing part like the kit piece does. As if the Aires part is undersized. The three major components of the Aires set fit positively with one another so I temporarily glued them together using CA glue. And then took measurements using a Micrometer. Centering the Aires wheel well onto the wing bottom reveals the gap caused by the undersized wheel well, which is actually not a huge issue in my book. I'm more worried about the alignment of the wing gun holes. The Aires wheel well parts are definitely undersized. I COULD get them to work, if I wanted to. But I'm thinking that the enhancement in detail is not worth the effort. I also have this... which could be used to spice up the Hasegawa wheel well a little. I'll think about it. The first step to establish the fuselage bulge has been taken. Instead of randomly slathering some putty, I want to use sheet styrene as a form to help establish some consistency.

Very nice work on the 262 kit! I've done the Trumpy kit and had some issues with the nose panels. I was hoping that a new tool Revell kit would improve that situation but it looks like it has similar problems in this area.

That's beautiful! I really like how the cockpit turned out. And I like the flare rack... gives the seat some nice hard-edged detail.

No Kais... you did not miss anything. That project is temporarily on hold as I try to figure out how to replicate the small fasteners on the access panel on the wing bottom. Something is in the works but I'll have to wait and see. Thank you for the support Martin! I appreciate it! Walleye! I've never caught one but I'd love to some day. When it comes to fishing, I'll take whatever the body of water offers me! Whether it's a lake... Or Ocean... North.... Or South... It's a wonderful set Miloslav! I'll be re-creating the bulge much like you did on your wonderful build. Thank you Wacky! This should be a fun one! And I'm lucky to have some great reference builds available. That's always helpful! Thanks Roger! When I got home yesterday, I found that JaPo 190D Part II includes an analysis of 401381. Thank you Vincent! I'll have to do a little research. But I'm not one who is going to get every little detail correct! I'll try to be as accurate as possible but I also like to keep my builds moving.

Yes, that is correct... 401381 is a D-9, not D-13.... sorry for the confusion! The link that Roger posted showed a photo of a D-13 with the Werknumber below the swastika. It mentioned D-9 401381 as being built in the same factory as the D-13, having the Werknumber in the same position and similar rear fuselage camo pattern as the D-13 in the photo. I did not have my references available at the time so I asked Roger if he knew if there were any photos available of D-9 401381. It may have nothing to do with Yellow 10 but I thought it would be helpful to know what the scheme of another D-13 might look like. And it turns out that JaPo 190D Part 2 has multiple photos of this aircraft. Just something I'd like to consider before embarking on what promises to be an interesting painting process.

Another view of the radiator cowling to try and show the re-shaping effort. Doesn't the kit part on the right look boxier? The supercharger base has been eradicated. I don't know why I'm filling in the surface pits since they will most likely be covered by the supercharger. That fuel fill port will be filled in and slightly lowered per my references. Almost ready to start mapping out the "bulge".

Thank you! Based on a visual comparison, I would say that the Real Model supercharger intake was based directly from the Z-M Ta152H kit. The Grey Matter intake is different and I'm not sure from where it was derived.

Fishing opportunities will always be given a certain priority! Finally broke quarantine and found a private pond to fish a couple of days ago... Thanks Roger! I was not aware of this D-13 so this is new information for me. Do you know if there are available photos of D-9 W. Nr. 401381? I have both the JaPo and Crandall Dora references.

Great work on the D-13! I love the black look! Will you be doing the positive rivets?

As an additional resource, I went ahead and purchased the Real Model D-13 conversion. In terms of components, it is similar to the GM conversion minus the fuselage. Resin casting is very nice and clean. The top cowling seem to be very similar to the GM version. So it looks like I have at least two choices when it comes to this area. I could even attempt to sculpt my own! The Real Model D-13 conversion set comes with a set of instructions that illustrate the type of corrections that I planning. The only difficulty I see is that removal of the existing supercharger intake base on the starboard side and re-implementation of a larger base for the new supercharger. A few steps more complicated than the port side but I'm hoping I can handle it. Comparatively, the Grey Matter D-13 conversion comes with no instructions but just an informational sheet, which claims "no cutting is required". Obviously aimed at the more experienced modeler. I sawed off the RM cowling from its casting block, cleaned it up and mounted it on the Hasegawa D-9 fuselage. It took some extra trimming on the cowling ends to get it to fit, length-wise. It appears that the bottom rear edge of the cowling is narrower than the fuselage, resulting in a slight step that would need to be corrected. The GM cowling, although not perfect, fits better than the RM cowling. Dimensions seem to correspond more accurately to the Hasegawa fuselage and will require less remedial work. The two D-13 supercharger intakes are slightly different in shape. The RM intake has a leaner look with a thinner lip around the intake opening. It also has some recessed panel line details missing from the GM intake and, maybe significantly, it includes more of the flare at the base. I am leaning on utilizing the RM intake as it would take less work to mount.

Here is a comparison of the Grey Matter components compared to the same Hasegawa parts. The resin fuselage features the same internals as the kit plastic, down to the sidewall details, tabs and locating pins, which make fitting the pieces a little easier. But even so, it takes a bit of effort to tape the resin halves together due to the warping. I'm guessing that the masters for the resin mold were the Hasegawa fuselage parts with the D-13 modifications grafted onto them. The Hasegawa-derived details seem to be molded much more uniformly than the added details. There are some exceptions to this including some messiness around the exhaust openings and notably the bottom engine cowling seam. Here is an example of resin warping at the tail joint. Looking at the interior side of the cowling parts, you can see the filler used to beef up the part prior to sculpting of the Hasegawa part. If I have a choice, I'll usually pick working with styrene plastic over resin. Based on my overall discomfort with resin and adding the warping issues, the messy resin areas, and the lack of any added detail to the resin over the kit plastic, I am planning on avoiding use of the resin parts as much as possible. I'm planning on following in the steps of the resin maker and make my own modifications to the kit parts, using this set and other references as a guide. This is not to say that the Grey Matters resin is not good or is not usable. This is just a personal preference and there are some great examples of this conversion set being used very successfully. If you need proof, take a look at Big Timm's D-13! The port side bulge seems to be fairly simple to sculpt as it is pretty uniform and there is nothing in the way. The starboard side is a different matter. I'd have to contend with the base of the supercharger intake, which is larger than found on the D-9. To get a different perspective on the proposed changes, I can place the kit cowling onto the resin fuselage to see the contours and approximately thickness of the material I'll need to add.

Let's take a look at the Grey Matter D-13 conversion kit. It is a resin conversion comprised of two fuselage halves, the engine cowling, supercharger intake scoop, spinner, prop blades, center fuselage section and the engine bulkhead minus ammo chutes. The parts are molded in light grey resin and upon first inspection, it is a mixed bag in terms of quality. The fuselage pieces are quite thin and flexible. The thickness of the parts seem to be similar to the kit parts, which is probably an attempt by the maker to reduce the amount of work it would take to accommodate the internal kit parts. The loss of rigidity may introduce alignment/strength issues but perhaps the joining of the fuselage pieces to one another would achieve an acceptable level of strength. The top cowling has been modified to reflect the absence of guns above the engine. The Jumo 213F engine of the D-13 required larger support arms that necessitated bulges in the frontal fuselage as well as a larger supercharger intake. The D-13 utilized wide paddle-shaped propeller blades (VS9) and a MG 151/20mm cannon firing through the spinner. You can see a bit of the inconsistent molding quality in the Grey Matter spinner. The single engine-mounted gun used one central chute for expended ammo casings and the resin kit provides the necessary modification. The fuselage parts are not perfectly square with one another and there is some warpage but with a few adjustments, I could probably get them to fit. All of the D-13 modifications occur forward of the cockpit. The major mod being the addition of a subtle longitudinal bulge on either side, above the exhausts and below the hinge line, designed to clear the larger engine support arms. Comparing the kit fuselage on the left with the resin fuselage on the right, you can see that the thickness of the resin is comparable to the kit plastic. You can also see some of the inconsistencies of the resin mold... the plug for the exhaust stubs will not be able to seat properly without some major cleanup. A general observation of the molding quality of the resin kit... the components that are unaltered from the Hasegawa kit are clean and molded about as finely as you would find on the kit part. The areas of modification, however, varies in refinement as evidenced by this circular fuel port, which is mounted slightly higher on the D-13 than the D-9. And I thought I was bad at centering concentric circles!

I think it's time to start another build post. I've got two on-going builds that are having to be paused for the time being. I am waiting for some aftermarket parts for the G-14 that are generously being donated by an LSP member but they seem to stuck in transit. No tracking update since April 25! Hopefully, it is just a pandemic-related delay and not a lost package. The Tank is in the initial stages of weathering. I have access panels on the bottom of the wings that I scribed but didn't have the skill/dexterity to add the small latches. I was going to just leave them blank but I'm now working with someone who's willing to try and make up some small latch decals to try. Don't want to go much further on the weathering until I get those latches squared away. So... I need something else to work on. The Fw 190D-13 has been on my list for a while now. I realize that Milsolav is in the process of applying his magic on Yellow 10 and that BigTimm just finished his amazing rendition. I am inspired by their work and am hesitant to step on any toes of these modelers whom I greatly respect. Apologies for the redundancy! The D-13 is an interesting machine in that it is relatively rare (only two operational machines that have been photographically recorded). However, the one machine (Yellow 10) is very well documented since it was captured by the Allies at the end of the war, brought to the US and ultimately fully restored. It's well documented photographically but difficult to interpret since the wartime photos are in black and white and the scheme was an unusual, one-off type of field application. I have two reputable resources available (Jerry Crandall's Dora Volume Two and JaPo's 190D Volume Two) but both have different interpretations as to what the color scheme actually looked like. Given the room for interpretation, I'm guessing that Miloslav's D-13 is going to look different than BigTimm's and that mine will look different than either. The Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 kit, which is excellent by the way, will be used as the base. I've collected quite an arsenal of aftermarket items for the Dora since it is my favorite aircraft, some of which are overlapping and won't be utilized. Here is a list... 1. 1/32 Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 model kit 2. Grey Matter (Jerry Rutman) 190D-13 conversion set 3. Real Models 190D-13 conversion set 4. Henri Daehne VS9 190D-13 prop 5. Eagle Editions 190D cockpit set 6. Eagle Editions 190D wooden flaps 7. Eagle Editions 190D-9, D-11, D-13 tail wheel 8. Aires 190D wheel wells 9. Synthetic Ordnance Works 190D landing gear legs 10. Quickboost 190D exhausts 11. Quickboost 190A-7/A-9 gun barrels 12. Barracuda 190D wheels 13. Eduard 190D exterior details 14. Eduard 190D instrument panel 15. Eagle Cal Yellow 10 decals Like I said, some of these items overlap and may not be used. For example, if I use the Aires wheel wells, the Quickboost A-7/A-9 gun barrels will not be necessary since Aires correctly represents the metal (not fabric) boots for the wing-mounted guns. The wheel well details from the Eduard photoetch would also not be necessary. I won't go into the Hasegawa kit parts since I've done that on my previous D-9 builds. Next, I'll talk a little bit about the conversion from D-9 to D-13 and how I am going to attempt the modification.

Awesome update! I love the additional details that you are putting on your Corsair. Do you like the AK Real paints? I like em very much! Watch out for the Sea Blue... look in the bottle to see if there are some unmixed dots of white. One of my bottles had this and it would intermittently spit out a tiny pixel of white now and then. Easy to address but weird. Since it was this build that inspired me to start my Corsair, I'm happy that I could return the favor!

I haven't tried but I believe its too small. I had some trouble getting the 0007 to print and the text/detail for that stencil is a fraction of that size. I looked through my decal stash and couldn't find any empty black triangles.

This will be a great project! I especially like the OD/Neutral Grey finish on this P-15D... not very common!

Not confusing, Matsu! I am aware of that stencil. When I was doing internet research, I stumbled onto a French discussion board which discussed this subject. The artist, Herbert Kruse, did a profile and close-up of this side of 150007 based on the photo from the LO+ST book that you've referenced. I don't think I have such a decal but I'll take a look at my spares box to see if there is something similar. Otherwise, I'll have to do without. After I sealed the decals with a thin gloss coat, I did a pastel wash. Usual homemade mix using scrapings from pastel chalks. Dark brown for the bottom and almost black brown for the topside. I did the bottom of the wing halfway so that you can see the difference between the washed and unwashed sections. I do sections at a time so that I don't forget to leave a section unwiped. I focus alot on this center bottom area because of how much work I had to put in to clean it up. Some of the areas that didn't hold the wash will be rescribed to get a uniform result. Back into the light box for a better look at the first stage of weathering.

Thanks guys! Thank you Kais for posting that excellent tutorial on the modifications you performed on your Ta152H build. I hope it helps others avoid the fit issues that I ran into. Let us know how it works out! I know it's a lot of work to absorb in such a short time but strike when the fire is hot, right? With the major markings being painted, the amount of decals to applied is lessened. Mostly stencils from the Eagle Cals decal sheet. She's all shiny... nice and purdy but we'll start throwing some dirt on her soon!

Thanks Kevin! I pretty much spent the whole day at the work bench and have finished all of the masked markings with this update. The CW+CG codes are provided as rough-edged decals on the Eagle Cals decal sheet. I just roughly traced them in AutoCAD and produced masks. For some reason, Eagle Cal provided two sets of "CW" and "C" but no "CG" so I made one. I didn't want a totally hard edge on these so I used little balls of Blue Tack to suspend them slightly off the model's surface. Didn't really care for uniform spacing... some edges were closer and even touching... sloppy spacing should equal a more natural result. I used the Mr Hobby Aqueous version of RLM 76 with a dash of RLM 75 for the painted-out markings. The result is subtle but doesn't stand out too much. After that, the white 7's get added. I'm gonna reinforce the "G" on the port side and also take of our that dark spot aft of the red/yellow band. That is a scratchmark that I pre-treated with Neutral Grey. With the last of the painted markings, I removed the masks around the exhausts. The paint stage is over and I'll be moving on to the decals after I seal her up with a gloss coat. Here is what the Tank fighter looks like before the decals are applied.

Seems as though I've had a lot of free time today. So I've spent most of the time on the modeling bench. I started on the fuselage markings. This is the tail end of the red and yellow unit ID band of JG301 with the green Gruppe bar. Pulling off all of the masking shows the finished band. Note that I've left the horizontal stablizers detachable so it's easier to paint around the tail. Very small WNr codes for the tail printed from the Silhouette Portrait... The fusleage crosses, tail swastika and WNr codes are done. I'll let this dry and then I'll try the painted out CW+CG codes.

Awesome Kirby! Your weathering techniques are very effective and convincing. Oils are something that I've only dabbled in but you've really illustrated how effective this technique is in establishing wear through tonal variation. The only thing slightly bugging me is the translucence of the Yellow 15. Did you shoot it straight on the RLM 65? For some primary colors like red, blue or yellow, I like to undercoat those with white or grey.

It's a pain to go back and re-do but sometimes that voice in the back of my head won't shut up! I got a couple of things done... the upper wing crosses were redone. They were re-sized to 900mm instead of the 1000mm crosses that my references state. Seems to fit the wing better. Also, I got the fuselage mottling done. This is actually my second attempt as the first was way too heavy. Light wisps of paint seemed to work best. Most of the mottling was done with the darker RLM 83 color but a few RLM 82 spots were added randomly.

Thanks so much guys! I very much appreciate the comments and positive vibes! Oh man... this is awesome! If you have a blueprint to fix some of the fit issues that I experienced, I am thoroughly impressed! I hope that others can take your hints and make their builds turn out better! Thank you so much for sharing that! The port cross is still a bit wonky. I use this repair as an opportunity to replace with a slightly smaller cross. I wasn't quite happy with the upper fuselage camo pattern. I had a difficult time correlating what I was seeing in photos of White 7 to known color profiles and schematics. I was using a drawing in Hitchcock's Ta152H book as a basic painting guide. It is representative of the Ta152H-0 and seemed to be based on the photos of 150003. However, it did not seem to correspond to this recent photo of 150007... My initial painting efforts were an attempt to marry the two images and resulted in some awkward transitions. As I looked closer, I realized that the fuselage pattern of 150007 could be an inverse of the Hitchcock drawing. This made some sort of sense to me and so I went with that idea.

I appreciate any and all comments, Pete! Just to show that the Silhouette Portrait is not infallible... The upper wing cross was a simple fix... The sawtooth correction was a little more involved. First, I had to re-establish the RLM 76 base. In order to equalize the new RLM 76 with the old, I put down a base of neutral grey underneath. After the RLM 76 was applied over the neutral grey, the new masks with a smaller and tighter pattern of triangles was used. The result is a little less dramatic than the first attempt, which was the goal here. In preparation of the re-painting, I brilliantly thought to use the mask leftovers to protect the crosses. So that saved me a step or two! The sawtooth redux is complete. As you can see, I've lowered the camo demarcation on the front end but have not started on the mottling yet.

Thanks guys! Hi Peter, The sawtooth pattern was purposefully made to be triangular in shape to match the references that I have. There is a photo of the underside wing tip of 150007 in Crandall's Dora Volume 1 which shows the shape as roughly triangular... I'm actually re-doing the sawtooth right now. It will retain the triangular shape but I wanted to make the triangles smaller and extend onto the lower wings a little bit less.