VintageEagle

It looks so easy when you do your magic, but I know it is not. Excellent and clean work.

Hello all, thanks a lot for your help and Tolga for his e-mail address! Much appreciated. I’ll try to contact him. Cheers, Roger

Hello, I have been trying to find a Fw 190 A/F propeller from Henri Daehne. Does anybody know how and where to order one? Thanks, Roger

John, yes, here is a photo of this plane (I believe that I even bought the original at eBay, but would have to check my collection first to be sure):

Great subject! I’ve seen the original last fall. There are three D-13 documented by photos, not just two. I published a photo of a wreck at Gardelegen in my book. Later another photo appeared, which I have published here: https://vintageeagle.com/2017/12/11/addendum-ce-vol-i-photo-46-fw-190-d-13/ However, as most if the fuselage was burnt out, no details of its markings are known. There was a AB canister attached, so I assume it was already assigned to an operational unit. Just as a side info. Looking forward to your build! Cheers, Roger

PS: Found this one from a French supplier and ordered it: https://www.decals-virages.com/en/decalcomanie/139-virgin.html?search_query=bmw&results=1 Thanks for the advice Mark. I am sure it will look great. Cheers, Roger

Mark, thank you. Can you tell me what sheet the second one is that you showed? Is it available separately? Cheers, Roger

Here is one with the correct emblem. I wonder where he got it from.

Hi Mark, It was slightly different and had a gold circle and text. Please have a look at the BMW page: https://www.bmw.com/de/automotive-life/bmw-logo-bedeutung-geschichte1.html OK, maybe I find one on a vintage car decal sheet, but I would then have to buy the whole kit for just the tiny decal. I'll probably just try to spray the white / blue parts and leave the BMW letters as they would be so tiny anyways and less visible compared to the white / blue portions. Cheers, Roger

I am waiting for some copper wires to arrive to finish the wheel well. Meanwhile, I started to work on the BMW 801. Most will be hidden, so no detailing and not even removing all seam lines except for on the front. What will be visible is the BMW logothat can be seen in e.g. the photos below (the second is a modern BMW emblem and is not the original one that was attached). Unfortunately, I don't have such a decal. Hence my questions: 1) Does anybody have a close-up of the BMW emblem on a BMW 801 (ideally even a wartime photo)? I am not 100% sure if these emblems were always attached. 2) Does anybody know where to get either existing decals? If not, I'll try to cut it from blue and white decals as good as I can. Cheers, Roger

That’s the best looking Me 262 nightfighter I have seen so far. Outstanding paint work. How did you do the scratches and the different shades of green on the upper wings? They look very realistic.

Hi Damian, Thanks to your mini tutorial I managed to recreate the cover. I used a plastic tube, but followed your process after I removed the raised panel that Revell provided and rescribed the panel lines of the cover. I'll tested it first on a replacement wing and just completed the installation on the riveted wing. I'll have to sand and enlarge the hole diameter after the top of the wing is installed, but that will be easy. I am quite happy with the result. Below are some photos of the parts and result. The last photo (from my personal collection and hence the watermark) shows the cover on a real aircraft. The hole was actually quite big (almost as big as the wing root MG 151 hole in the wing's leading edge). Cheers, Roger

Hi Damian, Thank you very much for this mini-tutorial. I tried the same with a plastic tube, but failed. An aluminium tube seem to be the better option as it is stronger. I'll give it another try, but will have to order a tube online first (all shops are still closed over here due to Covid) and I am not sure if I manage to align it so well as you did on your build. Cheers, Roger

Thank you all for your encouraging comments. nmayhew, I first remembered the same discussion that you mentioned, but could not find it anymore when I looked for it recently. Instead, I found the discussion posted by Damian, which basically states that the kit gear length is correct while Eduard got it wrong. I just compared wartime photos with the Eduard and Revell and Synthetic Ordnance Works legs, and I can definitely say that the Eduard legs (or oleo struts) are too short while the Revell/SOW legs look about right. I haven't taken any measurements, however. Below is a comparison (the scissor links are only loosely placed next to the SOW leg for comparison): Cheers, Roger

Finally a new update. After the tedious work of riveting the wings, I planned to build the landing gear wheel wells out of the box. But that plan was soon abandoned and I ended up investing (too) many hours again for upgrading the wheel wells. So far, so good. The Eduard P/E parts are fragile and I hope everything will hold together when installing and painting the wheel wells. I did a few modifications which I have summarized in the photo below. Meanwhile, I have also received the excellent landing gear legs from 'Synthetic Ordnance Works'. The oleo strut is not only metallic like the real strut, the whole leg is also much stronger due to the internal metal structure. I like that the outside (except the strut) is plastic as I can more easily work with this material than with bronze like Eduard's aftermarket legs. I first thought (wrongly!) that Eduard got the lenght right, but it was the opposite: the Eduard legs are too short (fully compressed oleo strut) and 'Synthetic Ordnance Works' got it right (see other photos). Next will be painting, then installing some pipes and wires in the whee wells. Then installing it into the wings/fuselage. Cheers, Roger

Hi Peter, Fantastic work! Regarding the suspected Ausgleichsgefäss an original installation guideline can be fond here: https://www.deutscheluftwaffe.com/archiv/Dokumente/ABC/a/Askania/Einbauvorschrift Variometer.pdf Note the similarity of the shapes. Cheers, Roger

That is the ‘Ausgleichsgefäss’ usually connected to a rate of climb indicator, but I don’t see any rate of climb indicator. It most likely was used for one of the additional test instruments.

Looks absolutely fantastic! I can almost see the fuel running through the transparent part of the fuel line.

Hi Miroslav, Outstanding work! I was wondering if you commission build your aircraft as you complete so many that you would need a large showcase for all if them. I build them at a much slower pace and they still don’t look as nearly as good as yours. Cheers, Roger

Thank you! I have tried to use a Evergreen plastic tube to fabricate the canon fairings, but was not that successful. I may order the EagleParts fairings and then see which solution looks best.

Hi Peter, many thanks for your kind comments! Cheers, Roger Hi John, thank you very much! I have been a close follower of your Bf 109 and Fw 190 builds. They are among the best I have ever seen. I used a RB riveter wheel (0.75mm) for most rivets, a riveter punch tool for the larger rivets on and around the wing main spar (I think it is a jeweler tool, most likely the one that you also use) and for individual rivets a scribing tool with a pointed metal tip. I'd say 60% of the work was studying photos and documents to figure out the pattern. Cheers, Roger

Finally! Riveting of the wing's upper and lower surfaces is complete. To get the rivet pattern as close to the original as possible, I used photos from actual aircraft, original spare parts manual and even original Focke Wulf riveting instructions. Most of the rivet pattern won't be visible well once the aircraft is painted, but it gives me peace of mind to know that the pattern is close to the original pattern. I added the landing flap indicator hole as well as the control link inspection holes on the upper surface. I still need to install the MG 151 covers on the upper surface, but the two pin holes are already drilled. I also added the rivets to the leading edge, which was a bit a challenge due to the bent surface. Next will be the landing gear bay where I will use a combination of Eduard P/E and Revell parts. I won't use all of Eduard's P/E parts as in my opinion some of them a) don't fit well and b) don't resemble the original parts. One other challenge I have is the cover of the outboard MG 151 canons. They are not moulded into the Revell kit parts, but Revell just asks you to drill a hole into the leading edge (as the wing was made for the original Fw 190 F-8 kit that didn't have these outboard canons). The original covers look like the one in the last photo below. EagleParts offers such covers in 1/32, but they need to be glued on top of the leading edge, while the original cover was flush with the leading edge. I'll therefore try to scribe the panel lines (difficult around a bent surface) and to build the parts myself using a plastic tube and some filler. If that won't give the results I hope for, I'll go with the EagleParts cover and will try to sand it a bit thinner. Still a lot to do, but finally a different task ahead than the hours of riveting and one big step closer to complete assembly to start painting. Cheers, Roger

I have almost completed riveting both wing upper and lower surfaces. Only some details to be done (pictures hopefully in a few days from now). One thing where I am stuck are the leading edges. I have seen photos and manual drawings that show inner ribs (see photo below, the leading edge is in the center in front of the wing). However, the rivets are hard to see on photos and most modelers who have riveted a Fw 190 have not added any rivets to the leading edges. I have added a photo where you can see the rivets below. Does anybody have a better picture of the leading edge (inside and outside where the rivets can be seen)?

Great choice! The 190 is one of my favorite planes and I have studied it in detail for my 1/32 build. I’ll help with information where I can.

Have you 3D printed these parts? Haven't seen any update since last summer. I hope these parts will become available.