HASEGAWA FW190 D-9 with a few extras..and extras for the extras!

[Guest Ta152H1]

Hi lot,

here's one of my "freezed" WIPs which I've recently "unearthed" to get the best out of my time while the paint on the Mustang cures.

It’s a Hase Focke Wulf 190 D-9 with a lot of AM and scratch-built extras (and weight!) added!At first I

wanted to scratchbuild the area behind the pilot’s seat when I discovered that it was available in the Aires detailing set (item #2031) for this kit.This resin and PE set it’s like the proverbial curate’s egg…good in places but not so good in others.I don’t want to say by any means that it’s not good,on the contrary it gives the modeler a nice base to push the level of detail his Dora further, but in my opinion there are parts that badly need a good dose of added details on behalf of the modeler or a little more research and retooling on Aires’ behalf,especially considering the plethora of beautifully made sets they have recently released.

The set includes the gun bays at the wings’ roots (nice but in need of added detail),UC bays(ditto),a complete cockpit (quite nice but not in the same league as Jerry Crandall’s which is a little work of art),a fairly complete engine compartment and fuselage-mounted MG151s (needing reworking in places and a lot of added detail in others),a nice fret of PE details and a few other bits and bobs.

The Hasegawa Dora comes with a nice engine module, but since a complete JUMO 213 is included in the Aires set I thought that it would have looked better than the styrene parts when seen thru the UC bays,therefore I started assembling it hoping and praying that it would have fitted inside the kit’s fuselage;it was meant by the Aires folks to be installed on the airframe with the cowling removed, but much to my relief it fitted nice and snugly inside the kit’s fuse after a little (well…so to speak!) scraping and cutting inside the cowling area and a few hours spent fiddling about with the exhausts and their scratchbuilt shrouds…being the latter not included in the Aires set.

When I felt reasonably happy with the results I tackled Jerry’s cockpit.It’s a little gem and it only cries for a good painting,needing a few hydraulic lines but in conjunction with it I'll use quite a few parts from the Extratech’s PE detailing set,which in my opinion are better rendered in brass than in resin.One of them is the decking behind the pilot’s seat,which in Jerry’s set consists of a PE part mated to a resin one,followed by the Extratech IP,which is a kit in its own right.The Extratech set treats the modeler to a beautiful seat as well.Jerry’s set includes two seats;one with the harness beautifully molded on and a “bare”,regardless of the seat I’ll use I’ll fit Jan Bobek’s gorgeous seat belts.

The instructions that come wit Jerry’s cockpit set wants you to thin the sides of the fuselage to a 0.40” thickness before fitting the beautiful sidewalls,but I’ll skip this step and either add the detail straight onto the kit’s walls or use the ultra-thin walls found on the Extratech PE fret includes gorgeous.ultra-thin sidewalls but since this fret is the 1/48 one for the Trimaster kit up-scaled to 1/32 they won’t fit,and trimming them is out of the question..Eagle Edition’s “tub” is a drop fit and with a little sanding here and there I’ve been able to successfully mate it to the Aires’ rear compartment,which comes with a beautifully cast FuG16Zy a 115 liters tank,a radio-compass and which also fits without major efforts inside the right half of the fuselage.

Ciao by now

Lou

Edited September 17, 2012 by Ta152H1

[Guest Ta152H1]

More:

 

[Guest Ta152H1]

After a good dose of carving..grinding..cursing..sweat..more grinding..scraping..even more cursing the fit of the various parts has turned out very good,but care is needed when mating sets that sure weren't meant by the designers to rub shoulders with each other.

The front ring comes from the Aires set,and it's reasonably accurate,but even if it wasn't that wouldn't mean too much,since it will be hidden by the Eagle Parts front cowling and the annular radiator,another Aires part with added scratchbuilt details.

The most tedious (albeit not impossible by any means) part of this first phase of the detailing job is to see to that that all parts will be purrrfectly aligned....a prop pointing E-N-E and downwards while the rest of the airframe is as straight as a harrow is not a nice sight,is it?

Cheers

Lou

Edited September 17, 2012 by Ta152H1

[Guest Ta152H1]

This is my first build on which I've used one of the beautiful HGW rivets sets.These rivets are slightly proud and after years of riveting wheels and jeweler's grainers and a general "let's-stamp-out-the-raised-rivets-out-of-the-modeling-world" campaign that may sound odd,but they DO work and look the part.Once they've been put on the model sort of like you'd do with regular decals (the whole job's a tad trickier though!) the whole thing start to look very convincing.In my cr##py picts they stand out like a forest of sore thumbs but they're actually more subtle than that.I've put them on over a base of Alclad gray primer followed by a once-over of Alclad aluminum.You don't want to be too concerned about how this first finish will look like...it'll tone-down and blend the rivets,and then it'll be the "key of success" with the latter,since once the model will be painted,weathered,sealed and stuff the HGW rivets will be less and less prominent and a few light passes with 6000 micromesh will reveal the NMF and make them subtly stand out.Unfortunately these 1/32 sets are now OOP,but if you happen to have a set or two,well...they're worth both the money and time....at least IMHO!

If they're always too proud to your taste you can use a piece of well worn fine-grit wet 'n dry stuck to a flat object(an icecream stick perhaps) with double-sided tape and sand them a bit...that's what I've done after I had taken these pictures and it works a charm!I only want them to be "guessed",like on the real thing.

Cheers

Lou

 

Edited September 17, 2012 by Ta152H1

[Guest Peterpools]

Lou

Do you ever rest? Some R&R would allow the juices to return to normal. Love the details on the FW. I'm not sure I fully understand the rivet sets ; are they PE panels that need to be nursed and glued into place or rivet sets? Amazed how awesome they look.

Peter.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Peterpools

[Guest Ta152H1]

Hi Peter,

 

R&R for my juices????? Watchatalkinabout Willis!Rest&Research ????? :frantic:

 

 

 

 

 

I do rest sometimes,yes!

Thanks for your nice comment.Hope you like the Dora, mate....as much as I do!

These rivets are sold as pre-riveted sets drawn after the actual panel lines of a certain kit.They go on like regular decals and the results are what you can see by the pictures.Their use requires a minumum of time to get the hang of it but the results speak for themselves...once they're on and sealed/blended in.Some hate them because they cannot see the point of having proud rivets in the era of riveting wheels and embedding tools...but they are the same people who (very likely)haven't seen them in the flesh or else they'd have another opinion.Me...I was kinda sceptical when I first placed my order but now I quite like them!

Ciao

Lou

Edited September 17, 2012 by Ta152H1

[Guest Ta152H1]

The WIP's been going on (and off) for the past fifteen months...here you go a small appetizer...and if you think it's interesting enough I'll post moret!

Cheers

Lou

Edited September 17, 2012 by Ta152H1

[Guest Ta152H1]

[D.B. Andrus]

Lou

 

Very nice work. Please post many more photos!

 

Cheers,

 

D.B.

[jeroenpeters]

Wow! lovely work. Had to look twice to check whether I was looking at model pics or reference material.

Very nice...

[Guest Peterpools]

Lou

No question where I stand on wanting to see more. Great photo of Arnold and great comeback.

Thanks for the info as well.

Peter

[Guest Ta152H1]

DB.Jeroen and Peter,

thank you very much for chiming in with your kind words gentlemen.It's great to be part of LSP and enjoy each other's builds,like Jeroen's beautiful "million €" hyper-detailed works (love them all Jeroen,and I'm eagerly following the Henschel but the PMC Hurry is one of the best I've seen so far!),Peter's stunning and well researched P-51 and D.B.'s....1/1 Big Boy(!!!)...now you need a 1/1 Superfort...a SCRATCHBUILT one mate...not a REAL one...that would be waaaaaay too easy!

Cheers

Lou

[Guest Ta152H1]

To better appreciate these rivets after they're on and subtly blended in with a little sanding IMHO the panel lines oughta be filled in and smoothed....what do you guys think?

Lou

[Guest Peterpools]

Lou

It's hard to tell when the photograph's are macro and larger then one 1:1. For my money, they look great.

Peter

[Guest Ta152H1]

Thanks for your comment Peter...much appreciated!

The work goes on even because I've lost a few pieces of my P-51's starboard wheel well and I'm waiting for a bud's sprue to arrive to cast resin copies of he missing parts.No carpet monster striking this time around...I've thrown tham away by mistake!

Here's the seat or,rather,the seats....on the left is Jerry Crandall's resin seat while on the right you can see the Extratech PE seat.It's a real PITA to put together,since it's either soldering it or soldering it to make it solid enough to withstand repeated handlings.I've opted for another solution...I've recurred to "chemical soldering",using industrial grade,ultra-thin CA glue and silica dust.It's not as good a bond as solder but it's close enough.I've made the rounded edge on the "pan" out of 0.6mm solder and smoothed the inner side of the seat with a VERY WET coat of automotive primer,then turned it around to evenly spread the gray goo!

The seat and back rest cushions,made of Tamiya 2-part epoxy putty will add strenght and HGW,Radu's or even scratchbuilt seatbelts will wrap the whole thing up!

The whitish stuff on the PE seat is talcum powder,liberally spread on the seat to prevent it to stick to it.

There are things I like on the Eagle Parts seat and things I don't and the same goes for the Extratech seat...I think I'll use the latter though!

Cheers

Lou

The cockpit is nearly finished...I only have to add shadows and washes,a few wires and those bits that could have easily been knocked off not to be seen again,like the knob and spring that go into the blue oxygen regulator

Edited September 17, 2012 by Ta152H1