Fw190 D-9 "Red 18" I./Erg. KG (J) Plzeň, Czechoslovakia

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice work on those elevators Nick! They really look the part.

 

Kev

[Tudor Gh]

OMG.

 

I noticed you cut the flaps, too!! And added the Eagle Editions wheel!

 

I'm gonna "borrow" your idea and add some hinges to my flaps, too...gotta figure out how to end this project by the end of this weekend or mid next week.

 

Excellent, amazing work so far!

 

Tudor

[nmayhew]

hey guys

 

progress has been kind of slow mainly due to work commitments (had to go to Berlin at the weekend on business)

 

basically over the past week or so it's been prepping the airframe for paint, which sadly is not particularly exciting, but obviously very important or you end up with a crappy finish when you come to spraying on the camo

 

first up was some general sanding, concentrating on a few places where i got sloppy and ended up splatting glue everywhere

 

 

i masked off the wheel wells prior to priming - this was actually much more tedious than i had thought

what do you guys use to mask of wheel wells etc?

 

 

the first coat of primer was alclad grey primer

i have found alclad to airbrush very smoothly indeed when priming the wheel wells and landing gear oleos

 

 

 

more in a moment...

[nmayhew]

one thing priming does is show up all your little (or so you think!) errors and mistakes in finishing

 

many of these errors came as a result of my first efforts at scribing panel lines

it was nothing major, but i did get carried away once or twice, especially with tamiya's scribing tool - this can cut quite a deep and wide groove, whereas radu's tool is a much more delicate piece

 

i filled the cuts where the scribing went wrong with a dab of superglue applied with a toothpick

 

 

i decided i was not happy with the circular panel underneath the engine cowl, even after i had "enhanced" the original kit panel line (the line was not clear enough originally, which was why i tried to improve it)

 

 

i then used hasegawa's scribing template, taped down as tightly as i could to the cowling

 

 

however, i was reluctant to use either radu's or tamiya's scriber because they are "directional" ie they are designed as far as i can tell to be dragged in one direction, in a relatively straight line (this is particularly pronounced the with tamiya tool)

in the end, i went for a reserve airbrush needle as it provided the right balance of size and precision (do NOT use a needle you need for your brush!!!!)

 

i am not sure whether it comes out in the piccy, but i am quite pleased with the result:

 

 

more again soon...

[mywifehatesmodels]

Looking great!

 

For the wheel wells on 190s, I usually use paper towel or tissue and just stuff it into place with a toothpick or similar tool. The underside panels overlap the wheel well enough to hold it in place (on most modern kits, anyway). If there's any overspray, it's usually not much and is easy to touch up, as it's normally only the top edges, if any.

 

 

Your Dora is shaping up nicely. I can't wait to see more!

 

Cheers,

 

John

[nmayhew]

the circle i scribed in the previous post should have a rivet mark / something of that ilk in the middle, so tried out my new beeding tool, which basically punches a small circle in the plastic

 

it cost me less than £15 and i think is excellent value (thank you to the recommendations here on LSP)

 

 

in this next shot you can see the tips quite clearly, and also the wide variety of sizes you get in the set

 

 

i was so happy with this tool that i was almost tempted to rivet the whole aircraft - NOT!!!!

seriously, i am not quite there yet, but i was extremely pleased with the tool, and went over most of the kits existing rivets to pleasant effect (if only i had had this tool on my previous 109 build - hey ho)

 

a couple of quick notes while i remember:

1. using superglue to fill miscribed panel lines etc has the advantage of being very precise, but the problem is that it is much harder than the surrounding plastic; as a result, when you come to sand the "blob" away, you have to be very careful not to sand too much off the plastic off in the process, otherwise you end up creating a dip around the glued / filled area.

 

2. i actually had a second round of this filling and sanding, basically because i missed a couple in the first place; these were filled not with glue but with either mr surfacer 500 or mr dissolved putty (both applied with toothpick)

i then primed again, but this time with Mr Surfacer 1200 from a rattlecan (on recommendation from JamesH - cheers matey ) - i was sceptical at first, but found it VERY forgiving, even if you think you have sprayed WAY too much on a particular spot - it settles down wonderfully and does not pool or show any signs of running or dripping

 

anyway, back to the build

 

disappointingly, the G-Factor brass landing gear oleos do not match up in length with the kit gear covers

 

 

 

i was not aware of any issues in length with the hassy gear or the gear cover, so what gives?

i am sure i lined up the pieces correctly, so i don't really know what to do about this - any ideas??

 

finally, there were some large sink marks on the flaps, so i "blobbed" on some mr surfacer 500 then sanded - all pretty regulation

 

 

that's it for updates for the time being

 

thanks for looking

 

Nick

[JRutman]

Really shaping up nicely Mr Nik!

J

[LSP_Kevin]

i masked off the wheel wells prior to priming - this was actually much more tedious than i had thought

what do you guys use to mask of wheel wells etc?

 

Nick, whenever possible, I paint them last. That way, all I have to do is cover the entire opening with tape, and then carefully cut away the opening. It's not hard to do if you use Tamiya tape, which is slightly translucent, and allows you to see the outline of the opening quite easily. It's also friendlier on any delicate detail you might have in the wheel bay, but of course it makes it slightly more difficult to paint said detail after the fact. I've just never had any real success with painting and masking them prior to the main paint going on.

 

Kev

[Kahunaminor]

Nick,

 

She is coming along well.

 

For the wheel wells I normally do the same as John but use damp tissue paper to fill the area. I tear a small strip off the tissue, dip it and then squeeze the majority of the water out and work to fill in the area, building up layers of tissue to fill the area as needed or not as the case may be. I find that using damp will allow you mold it slightly around shapes and it will even adhere to walls and edges. Paint away and then carefully remove piece by piece. Tempting as using large pieces can be it should be avoided as they can damage detail when being removed or dry and be a bugger to extract!

 

Please keep up the good work and the postings!

 

Regards

[nmayhew]

cheers guys

 

i did think about painting afterwards, but there were some detailed bits which i really didn't think i would be able to access if it was closed up by the wings etc

 

there is a school of armour painting which says glue everything, including stowage etc etc and then paint it all afterwards - works fine for smaller scale armour (1/48) but has its limitations as you increase the detail level, and you can forget it if you are doing anything with rubber wheels and interleaved suspension eg Early / Mid Panthers and Tigers

 

i do like the soggy tissue idea though, and might give that a whirl next time

 

as for this build, i think a fair bit of paint will have crept underneath, but i am braced for that, and the touch ups required...

 

i fiddled with the undercarriage oleos / covers btw, and will post on that later today

 

cheers for you interest

 

Nick

[PhilB]

Lovely work Nick!

I also use the damp paper towel method but I top it off with Maskol

which you can "wick" up to the edge of the wheel wells.

 

Great stuff, looking forward to seeing more!

 

Phil

[LSP_Ron]

If possible I paint after as Kevin explains. Another great method is to tag with your wife next time she goes to the drug store to buy make-up and get some make-up application sponges. These can be cut to size and wedged into the wheel wells and cockpit for a perfect mask every time. You can see an example in my Hurri build in the cockpit area. Here is a link...

 

LINK

[LSP_Kevin]

Another great method is to tag with your wife next time she goes to the drug store to buy make-up and get some make-up application sponges. These can be cut to size and wedged into the wheel wells and cockpit for a perfect mask every time.

 

That's a fantastic idea Ron! Thanks for putting up.

 

Kev

[Tudor Gh]

Been closely following your progress. Absolutely fantastic! The sheer amount of detail work is...breath-taking!

 

Tudor

[nmayhew]

hi guys,

 

thanks again for your suggestions and comments; i really think my skills are stunningly mediocre compared to some of the master pieces on this site, but as they say "it's all good"!

 

anyway, i did some pre-shading, using Alclad Gloss Black; they suggest you use this when finishing in their some of their ultra-metallic paint, and it is meant to be spayed direct, with no thinner.

although i admit my airbrush could have been a little cleaner at the time, i was still disappointed by how it sprayed, as it seemed to clog up on the needle tip, and required intermittent cleaning / wiping, even at 15-20psi.

this problem is exactly the same i had when using Lifecolor acrylics (although Alclad is lacquer).

 

anyway, here is what i finished up with - note i forgot to spray the insides of the lower flap surfaces (don't you just hate it when you only notice things like this AFTER you have packed everything away?! )

 

landing gear:

 

 

undersides:

 

 

side...

 

 

and top...

 

 

as i have said before, i think preshading looks cool but is a bit useless once you involve more than one colour applied over it, so we'll see what i turns out like; either way, the final finish (on top of decals and dullcoat) will be pigments...

 

thanks for looking

 

Nick