Hasegawa Fw 190S Conversion

[dodgem37]

Kevin,

I'm no expert, but in following the Hartmann G-14 build scheme, which is an Eastern Front scheme, tho may be later dated than your aircraft, the Eastern Front at the timeframe you're doing, is/would be 74/75/76, with yellow 04: lower cowl; lower wing tips; & fuselage band.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks Mark, that gels with my limited understanding of the topic. Neither profile shows yellow cowl or wing tips, and I don't know enough about the vagaries of Eastern Front Luftwaffe camouflage and markings to make a judgement about it. The photo obviously leaves you to guess. In the absence of any firm data, I'll probably add them for a splash of colour anyway, since they're as likely to be correct as not.

 

Kev

[Ripaman]

Chaps, a quick question if I may. I've decided that I don't feel up to scratch-building new wheel bays for this one, but I figured I'd check with you guys whether anyone ever did an aftermarket set for it. I don't mind hacking the old ones out and replacing them with something ready-made, but I don't want to do them from scratch.

 

Kev

 

Hi Kevin,

With what I have seen here on this WIP I think you could scratch build the wheel set, pit etc, you should give it a try I think you will like it. Very Nice job sofar.

 

Regards

Richard

[LSP_Kevin]

Hi Kevin,

With what I have seen here on this WIP I think you could scratch build the wheel set, pit etc, you should give it a try I think you will like it. Very Nice job sofar.

 

Regards

Richard

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence Richard. I've scratch-built these kinds of things before, but just didn't want to get that bogged down with this build. I think I'll have to scratch-build the rear cockpit station anyway, as the UMI one doesn't fit the old-tool fuselage at all well, and is inaccurate to boot. And making the wheel bays from the new-tool kit fit this old bird won't be a piece of cake either, so I'm likely to get bogged down either way!

 

Thanks once again to Steve (Wumm) for the generous donation of the spare parts from his new-tool kit.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Here's hoping the parts can be made to fit without too much trouble.

 

Yeah, I'm getting the Dremel out tomorrow. I actually have Hasegawa's 'high grade' hybrid kit too, so I'm planning to take the wheel bays out of that one at the same time.

 

Kev

[Derek B]

Looking good so far Kev. I think that you have done a fine job so far

 

Derek

[LSP_Kevin]

Looking good so far Kev. I think that you have done a fine job so far

 

Derek

 

Thanks Derek. Much appreciated.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, it's probably about time I got some real modelling done on this thing, rather than a whole bunch of faffing about. Couldn't quite get there, so here's some more faffing about. With Steve's wheel bay parts to hand, it was time to see if I could make them fit the old-tool wing. So, out came the Dremel, nippers, files and whatever else I thought might get the job done.

Before:



After:





It's a bit of a mess on the inside, but that'll be mostly hidden away.

Now for the test fit:





Hmm, not so good. At first I thought the problem was mainly that the new and old wheel bays were different (and incompatible) shapes. This is true to a small extent, but this next photo gives away the real problem:



The old-tool wheel bays are much closer together than the newer versions, as evidenced by the middle insert part from the newer kit. So, I'm going to remove the centre section from the wheel bay part and narrow the gap between the two sides to match the old wing. The alternative would be to cut out and physically shift the openings on the old wing to match the new-tool part, but that's a bucket-load of messy work that may end up destroying the wing (but it would be more accurate).

Let's see how I go!

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, here's the result of my chop job:



Much better! But not without its problems. Stupidly, and in typical fashion for me, I just reached for the razor saw and started cutting. I made two cuts to remove a piece from the centre...without measuring it or being sure how much needed removing. Hence:





Quite the gap in the middle! What I should have done was make one cut dead centre, and then gradually filed down each end until it looked reasonable. Now I've got this gap to deal with. Hindsight, eh?

Kev

[dodgem37]

No worries, Kevin. Align the parts, bridge it from the back to stabilize it, infill the gap, and sand smooth. You'll be finished in no time!

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[LSP_Kevin]

No worries, Kevin. Align the parts, bridge it from the back to stabilize it, infill the gap, and sand smooth. You'll be finished in no time!

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Thanks Mark. That's pretty much what I'm doing. It's working out fairly well so far. I should have pics tomorrow.

 

Kev

[Christian]

Hi Kev,

Have just discovery your thread and finished reading it.

Very impressive work; on doing the conversion.

You're using lots of different kit parts. Nice to see the blending of all those different parts, into one seam less fuselage.

Keep up the great work, mate.

Look forward to more updates.

Christian

PS, If I may ask a question. Is the fuselage halves now glued together?

If so, how do you indeed to install the cockpit?

[LSP_Kevin]

PS, If I may ask a question. Is the fuselage halves now glued together?

 

If so, how do you indeed to install the cockpit?

 

Thanks for checking in Christian. I haven't glued the fuselage together yet, as I've been bending my noggin around how best to tackle the cockpit stations. I think I've finally figured out a way to handle it. The main sticking point is the rear bulkhead, which is such a poor fit that it will need extensive filling and blending. I can't really do this if the cockpit is installed, but it needs to be done after the fuselage halves are glued together! Anyway, I'll be tackling it a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, and I'm pretty confident I'll get there.

 

Kev

[Christian]

 

 

Thanks for checking in Christian. I haven't glued the fuselage together yet, as I've been bending my noggin around how best to tackle the cockpit stations. I think I've finally figured out a way to handle it. The main sticking point is the rear bulkhead, which is such a poor fit that it will need extensive filling and blending. I can't really do this if the cockpit is installed, but it needs to be done after the fuselage halves are glued together! Anyway, I'll be tackling it a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, and I'm pretty confident I'll get there.

Kev

Dear Kevin,
I think I understand what you are saying about the rear bulk head wall.
Looks like you have a plan in place to get there.
Building these unique projects is always FUN! Personally I love the challenge of such builds and the problem solving.
You're doing a fantastic job, your motivation levels must be high, this project has been going a while now.
Regards,
Christian

[LSP_Kevin]

I think I understand what you are saying about the rear bulk head wall.

Let me show you my friend:

 

 

The resin has broken and crumbled away near the cockpit sidewall extension, and there's a difficult gap/step where the plastic card bulkhead meets the resin fuselage hump. The starboard side is the worse of the two, so I decided to glue the bulkhead to this side first and deal with the gap at the cockpit wall prior to doing any further cockpit work. I think I can get away with dealing the the gaps at the top and other side after the fuselage halves are joined. We shall see!

 

Another thing I thought I'd better do before joining the fuselage halves is deal with the tail wheel. I had already decided to use the tail wheel from the new-tool kit, courtesy Wumm, but I needed to make it fit the old-tool fuselage. Here's what I came up with:

 

 

 

Quite simple in the end! This will allow me to install the completed tail wheel assembly at the end.

 

In the next update, we'll see how I fared with the main wheel bays...

 

Kev