Fw190D-9 - Hasegawa 1/32

[ChrisS]

Looks great.

 

That technique really captures that rusty look well. When will she be done?

[BlackDog]

Looks great.

 

That technique really captures that rusty look well. When will she be done?

If all goes well, (or at least nothing else goes bad ) all should be done at end of weekend...

 

To do list :

 

- adding some more wiring inside wheels wells.

- scratch-building internal side of large door opened in fuselage + painting/weathering

- adding a few opening struts for engine cooler flaps

- finishing canopy sliding part

- painting and attaching mobile part of wing flaps

- adding antenna aerial wire

- adding/painting gun tubes (in wings and nose)

- underside (fuselage and wings) antennas, retractable footstep, pitot tube

 

Should not take more than a few hours...

 

Also, additional work will be needed but will take more delay :

 

- cigar-shaped fuel tank (need to receive part from Jerry Rutman)

- grass/mud display base with a pilot and 2 crew members + some added stuff (need to receive the figures)

[BlackDog]

Hi all,

 

here are some small parts that still need to be added on the Dora...

 

 

We can see : mobile parts of flaps (Eduard PE), canopy part, retracting footstep, lowered gear indicators, several antennas (including Morane antenna with thin part rebuilt with wire), and fuselage trap door (scratch).

 

Next (and last!) step later today.

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Oh... can´t wait any longer...

[BlackDog]

Thanks Chris, and here is another pic from work in progress... In fact I probably need one more day to completely finish the model...

 

Working on aerial wiring, first with closed canopy to get the correct length (the aerial will rest lower once canopy is opened).

 

 

Once this work is done, I still need to attach the mobile parts of flaps under the wings and the small fuel plug above the large door on the left fuselage flank.

 

Chris

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Looks very good Chris!

That´s a thing i hate on the planes, if the antenna wire goes through the canopy...

 

Cheers

[BlackDog]

Looks very good Chris!

That´s a thing i hate on the planes, if the antenna wire goes through the canopy...

 

Cheers

Chris,

 

this one is still more tricky, as the wire is going on top of canopy but not through...

 

In fact, I drilled a very small hole on the canopy top metal bar, and the wire is going through (but for less than 1mm), sharply bent and glued with epoxy glue (very small drop just inside the canopy).

[BlackDog]

Ok, stopping for today, and the beast still need 2 or 3 more hours of work... Will be tomorrow.

 

To wait till then, two more pics :

 

First, zoom on work around aerial system near tail attachment. I still need to work a bit on it to get a nice finish... However I am quite happy about my ability to make a small hole in the topmost part of tail : it's really narrow...

 

Zoomed view on open door inside fuselage, showing additional fuel tank, covered with rubber (self-sealing). Also isible : some wires, inside fuselage.

The small id plate is visible below the large nationality cross (Eagle Cals decal from EC#60). I did paintbrush the small writings on it.

And yes, loop antenna is too thick :-/ Maybe too late to replace it now, I will think about it tomorrow...

This iview is really zoomed in, easy to see lot of small flaws !

 

[BlackDog]

Pheeww... I still need one more hour of work on this Dora

 

Since last post, list of things added/modified :

 

- nose guns (kit ones, brush painted with Metal Cote Gun Metal)

- wing guns (rebuilt with metal tubing, painted with Metal Cote)

- aerial wire (thin nylon thread)

- lowered gear indicators (Eagle Parts PE, seems a bit too long, no ???)

- loop antenna rebuilt with thin metal sheet, coated with a clear dark blue protective paint. Antenna base repainted with bakelite (dark brown-red) color.

- fuselage area between the two rods of retractable footstep has been painted in black to simulate a hole.

- mobile parts of flaps has been added under wings.

 

I still need to add the small door hiding the fuel tank plug above the large open trap on left flank, and to add stains and leaks of oil and various fluids under engine and belly.

 

I noticed a few more problems or mistakes, too late to correct those however.

 

 

 

 

[The Mango Kid]

Hello BlackDog...!

 

I must say that your model is deeply impressive...

I wonder, what's your next a/c going to be...?

 

All the best,

Kris from Sweden

[Koala]

Astounding!

[BlackDog]

That's it, my Dora is D.O.N.E Should be good news for some of you, as it is the last time I am posting a thread on this subject

 

Before posting the pictures, and for all those interested in details of build, here are some info about this work :

 

- FW190D-9 1/32 Hasegawa

 

- Eagle Cals EC#60 decal sheet (1st profile, but see more info about exact deco scheme below) http://www.eagle-editions.com/decal60.htm

- Eagle Parts cockpit EP#40-32 ( http://www.eagle-editions.com/eagleparts40.htm )

- Eagle Parts nose guns cowling EP#41-32 ( http://www.eagle-editions.com/ep41.htm ) : corrected, less bulbous shape

- Eagle Parts front radiator cowling EP#43-32 ( http://www.eagle-editions.com/ep43.htm ) : correct airfoil shape

- Eagle Parts Tail wheel assembly EP#44-32 ( http://www.eagle-editions.com/ep44.htm ) : better details and separate wheel.

- Eduard photo-etch 32101 : flaps ( http://www.eduard.cz/./products/card.php?i...=&page_start=65 )

- Eduard photo-etch 32100 : Exterior Set ( http://www.eduard.cz/./products/card.php?i...=&page_start=65 ) : détails for wheels wells and gear struts, etc...

- Aires : Open wing gun bay

- MDC : Wheels and flexible braided brake hose ( http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/place/gf...gfb78/c3228.jpg )

- HobbyDecal - Dry transfers FW190D stencils ( http://www.hobbydecal.com/index.htm )

- Montex - Masks ( http://www.montex-mask.com/indexE.htm ) : masks for painting insignias and masking clear parts

 

My opinion about Hasegawa kit and extra detail sets :

 

Hasegawa Dora kit is a very good and safe kit with no huge flaw or problems. For those not willing to invest in several extra-detail kits (because of price or skill required), it is entirely possible to build a real nice D9 "Out Of the Box". Most obvious problems with the kit are, IMHO :

- too bulbous shape of nose gun cowl between guns. Real part is almost flat here.

- tail wheel molded with fork.

- no rivets ! even if you can make a very nice plane without them, rivets were quite obvious on the whole skin of the Dora...

 

Regarding ease of build, it is a standard Hasegawa quality, with almost no fit problem, except maybe the wing/fuselage fit that need a bit of care and method (but here I did choose the hard path by including a big resin cockpit, gun bay, PE flaps, ...).

 

Eagle, Aires and MDC extra detail sets are very good and do not show big problems. Eagle cockpit is amazing about amount of details but you need to sand and thin inner sides of fuselage halves a lot to get a good fit (this is normal and documented in Eagle doc).

 

Eduard Photo-Etched sheets are very thin and nice, and Flaps set is really nice to have. However the External Detail set is really not useful in my opinion : only parts done for details inside wheels bays are worthy, other parts are almost not necessary or even unrealistic given the flat shape of photo-etched parts.

 

EagleCals EC#60 decal sheet is very good, all stencils are inside and many infos about aircrafts are given, including wartime pictures.

 

HobbyDecal dry transfers (190D stencils) are also very thin and clearly printed and all stencils you could need are available (or maybe more)... only possible problem : when you rub the transfer sheet onto the model surface, you can possibly damage the paint layer if you are not carful : you need to apply some amount of pressure on the transfer to remove it from the carier sheet and it is sometimes difficult to avoid scratches and chips on the paint, at least it occured to me several times. But I must confess that as I did not use any protective clear coat and did have a very smooth silver base underneath, camo paint was REALLY fragile...

 

Last, Montex masks are a very good asset to avoid making yourself of masks for canopy clear parts, and to paint the national insignias instead of using decals... This way, I almost did not use decals : only the '~' symbol on RV bands, and the swastikas on the tail, are decals. Other markings are painted, and stencils are dry transfers.

 

Scratch work :

 

- fuselage opening giving access to extra fuel/MW50 tank and master compass (including also all wiring, internal reinforcing struts, starter crank, ...)

- refueling plug and trap door for fuel/MW50 tank behind cockpit

- rudder cut from tail

- drilled exhausts

- drilled nose guns

- wing guns rebuilt with metal tubes

- wires and brake lines in wheel bays and gear struts

- additional hoses and wires on engine assembly, visible from wheel bays openings

- riveting of the whole airframe, done with pin-wise tool and Rosie the Riveter tool ( http://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/No...ter/riveter.htm )

- aerial wire

 

Docs :

 

- AeroDetail 2

- Squadron Walkaround

- Kagero 6

- "Green Hearts - First in combat with Dora 9" by Axel Urbanke

 

Paints and tools :

 

- base coat : silver Tamiya bomb spray TS-30 "Silver Leaf" synthetic paint

- RLM76 : Aircraft Colors acrylic

- RLM 02, 04, 66, 82, 83 : Gunze Sangyo acrylics

- flat clear : Aircraft Colors and Prince August Air

- NO gloss clear varnish used (decals and weathering were directly applied on paint, first rubbed to a smooth, glossy state with MicroMesh)

 

- Evolution airbrush (Haarder & Steinbeck)

 

190D-9 210003 :

 

Summary of info about operational life of this aircraft :

 

Focke-Wulf 190D-9 werknummer 210003 was build in August, 1944 and delivered at start of September, 44 to 12./JG54, pilot Hans Dortenmann (StaffelKapitan).

 

The first individual marking was 'Red 1' wearing classical grey/green camo scheme, RLM 76 belly and undersurfaces and RLM04 (Dark Yellow) markings on the engine belly cowls and whole tail (see decal sheet EC#21 : http://www.eagle-editions.com/decal21.htm first profile).

 

Before end of 1944 (I do not know exact date), this plane is partially repainted in green tones RLM82/83 on upper surfaces to get a more effective camouflage while parked in woods.

 

At end of February, 1945, remnants of JG54 are moved to JG26 (Hans Dortenmann and its plane goes to 4./JG26). At this time, 210003 is partly repainted : Reich Defense bands of JG26 (black/white), individual marking becoming 'Black 1'. It is believed first that the non-moving part of tail (fin) is painted again in RLM82/83, leaving only the moving rudder in Yellow RLM 04 : http://www.eagle-editions.com/decal60.htm first profile.

 

On 29 March, 1945, Dortenmann and its plane takes the lead of 3./JG26, and plane individual number is now 'Yellow 1' (http://www.eagle-editions.com/decal21.htm second profile), all other markings staying untouched.

 

Plane will be volontarily destroyed on ground by Dortenmann on May 5, 1945 to avoid capture by enemy (english) troops.

 

I am building the plane as it was in March 45, during 4./JG26 era. Its profile is then theorically the one shown on first profile of decal sheet EC#60.

However, Jerry Crandall (author of those decal sheets and of several others add-ons and docs about Doras) wrote to me a few weeks ago to warn me about one thing :

 

After studying new data about JG26 planes and pilots, he is now thinking that 210003 tail was never repainted, so stayed yellow as a whole until end of war. As the tail was left as it was in end of 1944, the HackenKreuz is also an 'old style', being a 480mm cross with white outline, linke those on 190A-8 tails.

Moreover, Jerry thinks that the space between each Hackenkreuz 'arm' is left unpainted (not yellow), so the initial camo (RLM76/83...) should be visible between HackenKreuz arms, the mechanics did probably use a square mask to protect the cross from yellow paint...

 

Those proposals have NO final proof, as there is no known picture of whole 210003 plane at any date. The profile described above fits with the many datas gathered by Jerry about JG54/JG26 and planes...

 

I did choose after getting those infos to recreate thisd plane with a full yellow tail. First camo scheme is still visible between arms of swastikas, that was not painted over. Jerry thinks that werknummer (serial number) on top part of tail was also masked and not painted over. However I did receive this info too late, and already slightly painted over the werknummers which are still visible.

 

Plane look :

 

My model recreates the 210003 plane during March 45, at this time the plane was already flown since more than 6 months, and was parked outdoors, hidden among trees, with a cold climate, snowy weather and wet conditions (1944 winter was notoriously bad). All this are for me a proof that an average weathering could be done... This plane was not brand new like most short-lived Doras... National insignias (black crosses) are also faded, however the '~' sign and white-black Rech Defense (RV) bands are NOT weathered : they were painted a few days before... That explains the color difference between crosses and RV bands.

 

One of the 3 pics known of 210003 with pilot hans Dortenmann, taken in March, 1945. No whole picture of aircraft seems to exist. Picture extracted from http://www.rlm.at website.

 

Mistakes and flaws :

 

 

Any model is not perfect and mine is no exception of course. Here are the more obvious mistakes/oversights/flaws that could be seen :

 

- some parts of the top/bottom wing seams on leading edge are still visible

- I forgot to fill and sand the seam separating big air intake and right fuselage flank (no seam here on real plane)

- I forgot to fill and sand the seam on curved part of right side canon bay door, which is an assembly seam between wing and fuselage but does not exist on real plane (not a problem for left bay door as it is the Aires resin part).

- several other problems

 

Note :

 

I still need to put some more work on the model :

 

- rebuilding of belly loop antenna which is not 100% right (shape, paint)

- adding a cigar-shaped late war tank undr belly (I need to order it from J. Rutman)

- adding a full outdoor diorama with some figures (crew, pilot, starter or oil cart) : I need to find 1945 Luftwaffe pilot and cart

 

THANKS :

 

- Vincent "Doc 109" Kermorgan

- Jerry Crandall

- FredCC

- Alan Troi

- Petr Dousek

- Klaus Herold

- Chris Hannover

- several others from modeler web sites: Master194, Check-Six, Modelismo/AmayMC, ARC, HyperScale, LSP

(if I ever forgot to answer requests or questions from some of you, I deeply apologize, I am receiving lot of emails each day, please send your message again, thanks :-)

[BlackDog]

 

 

 

[BlackDog]

 

 

 

[BlackDog]