1/32 Revell Fw 190 F-8 & A-8: Working on the wheel wells!

[airscale]

On 11/24/2018 at 9:29 PM, VintageEagle said:

 

Next step is to sand the fuselages to get a smooth surface and then go over the rivets again to open them up. If I had known how much work that is I may have decided not to add the rivets...

 

Cheers,

Roger

 

 

I know it doesn't help now, but the one way I found for hassle free scribing and riveting is to do it on a primered surface

 

I used Mr Surfacer 1200 and the key here is that under both scribing and riveting conditions what happens is the paint layer gives way. This means when scribing you are not ploughing a furrow with edges each side, and with riveting you are not displacing plastic leaving mushrooms around each hole

 

all you need to do afterwards is a quick wipe with fine micromesh or wire wool

 

the effect is like this on a Sea Fury...

 

 

I am almost evangelical about spreading the word on this method as once I tried it all the pain went away

 

Peter

[Wegener]

Coincidentally I’ve just been watching Paul Budzik’s videos and he favours scribing either the primer or the paint itself too.

 

I did consider investing in a riveting wheel at the IPMS Nats earlier this month but after studying photos concluded that aircraft rivets often didn’t resemble holes and were, even on the same airframe, often of widely varying sizes and spacing.  I continue to admire those who do apply them, particularly where they worry about whether they have the spacing correct though!

[VintageEagle]

Long time since my last update. I had focused more on my next book “Captured Eagles Vol.2”, but have continued here and there with the build. 

 

I have almost finished riveting the port fuselage side. I noticed that a few access hatches on the kit are wrong. I found at leat one of them on the Flugwerk replica fuselages, but not on wartime aircraft. 

 

Now, there is a hatch just behind the exhaust on the kit. The spare parts list of the 190 shows also a (round) hatch, but I haven’t been able to find it on wartime photos or the NASM 190. What do 190 experts think? Is the hatch necessary or should I fill it? By the way, I have already filled the hatch underneath the canopy on the kit. I could not find any photographic proof nor is it shown in the spare parts list.

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

 

 

[MikeMaben]

6 hours ago, VintageEagle said:

Now, there is a hatch just behind the exhaust on the kit. The spare parts list of the 190 shows also a (round) hatch, but I haven’t been able to find it on wartime photos or the NASM 190. What do 190 experts think? Is the hatch necessary or should I fill it? By the way, I have already filled the hatch underneath the canopy on the kit. I could not find any photographic proof nor is it shown in the spare parts list.

 

 

2 hatches show up starting with the -7 here :  http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/modellers-guide-to-focke-wulf-fw-190-variants-part-i/

I haven't seen them in photos either.

 

 

[VintageEagle]

Thank you Mike for that link. I don't trust these drawings as the fuel filler hatch just behind the cockpit is not shown and that one was 100% present on the actual fuselage.

 

The only photo I could find that shows a circular hatch (not oval like on the model) just behind the exhaust is from the replica at Hannover Laatzen (a Flugwerk fuselage; see 1st photo below). The NASM Fw 190 doesn't have any hatch at that location (see second photo) and I couldn't find any wartime photo that would show one. Therefore, I am going to fill that hatch like I also filled the 2nd one underneath the canopy. The 3rd photo shows a D-9 fuselage that also doesn't show the two hatches.  

 

Hope to be able to show both finished (i.e. riveted) fuselage sides soon. 

 

 

 

[Thunnus]

Great work on the Focke-Wulfs!  I usually sand down the rivets to get rid of the raised plastic around each hole.  But now that I see Airscale's recommendation of riveting/scribing on top of a primer coat of Mr Surfacer 1200, I may have to try that technique!

[D.B. Andrus]

+1

[VintageEagle]

Thank you. On a test fuselage, I also sanded the surface and then slightly re-riveted. The advantage was that you can polish the paint so that the rivets become slightly more visible because paint on the edges around the holes wears off a bit. But it is a lot of work. 

 

I'll have to try the method suggested by Peter as well. My worry is that I am not as good at riveting as I like to be and I sometimes had to fill holes. I think it could be more difficult to repair a primed surface as you would have to remove the primer and then carefully apply primer again in a way that it merges with the rest of the primed fuselage. 

 

Fuselage halves are almost complete now with the last few rivets to be added. Then sanding and re-riveting. I may then try to apply a black wash like Chuck does in his builds to better see the quality of the rivets and panel lines before I paint the cockpit walls and then join the fuselage halves.

 

I am looking forward to finally continue and apply some paint again. 

[VintageEagle]

So, riveting of both fuselage halves done for 2 fuselages. Now sanding and re-riveting before the halves can finally be joined. I filled the two hatches on the port side and also changed the height of the main foot rest as it was too tall. I will most likely also apply a thin primer layer to better see the surface quality once done with sanding & re-riveting. 

 

Cheers, Roger

 

 

 

[VintageEagle]

Time flies. I cannot believe that I started this build in 2017. Anyways, the fuselage halves are finally complete. I have summarized below all the changes I made. One thing that took me a while to figure out was the correct position of the tail wheel. Built out of the box, it extends too far out of the fuselage. On 90%+ photos I have seen of wartime Fw 190 the tail wheel does not extend as much and therefore I have decided to reposition it. I finally decided to add a new pin-hole to have the required strength of the assembly. Also, on the Revell kit the fuselage near the tail wheel has a fictitious shape that I filled with CA and sanded smooth. But now everything is ready to add paint to the inside to then finally add the cockpit and close the fuselage halves. 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by VintageEagle

[VintageEagle]

OK, the cockpit side walls are painted, but I am struggling a bit with the tail wheel. I studied different wartime b/w and color photos and found that there were tail wheel forks painted in RLM 02, lightgrey and a very dark looking color, which may not have been paint but the surface of the cast metal. Here’s an example of the fork of the Fw 190 D-9 that was recovered from lake Schwerin: 

 

http://www.daedalus-berlin.de/Fw190D9_fahrwerk.htm

 

White 48 at Lippstadt had such a dark fork and I am not sure what color I should use. Is there a Fw 190 expert who knows the answer?

 

Also, I believe the inside of the fuselage at the tail wheel was left bare metal, but it us very hard to find good wartime reference material. 

 

Can anyone help?

 

Roger

 

[VintageEagle]

Here are some more photos.

 

First, a photo of the tail wheel of 'White 48' when it was at Namur. You can see the very dark  color. Compare it to the black boots of the solider. (Source: Hideki Noro, LO+ST).:

 

 

Another example of this dark tail wheel fork can be found on Fw 190 A-8 Yellow 8 captured at Ansbach (Source: http://www.354thpmfg.com/galleries_wwlouie_pt5.html):

 

 

Then the photo of the recovered Fw 190 D-9 tail wheel fork from lake Schwerin (Source: http://www.daedalus-berlin.de/Fw190D9_fahrwerk.htm):

 

 

And another example of such a dark brownish finish can be found on the Fw 190 at the Belgrad museum (unfortunately, I could only find a low quality shot; Source: http://axis.classicwings.com):

 

 

I tend to believe that these dark looking forks were not painted, but had this dark brown metallic surface finish. I assume that it was some kind of protective layer that was electrochemically created, but I am not an expert on surface treatment technologies in WWII. 

 

Any thoughts?

[VintageEagle]

I found another photo of Yellow 8 at Ansbach, this time in color. Even though it is not very sharp, the color of the fork appears to be RLM 02 in this shot. So maybe it only looked dark in the b/w photo as it was in the shadow underneath the fuselage. (Source:criticalpast.com) 

 

[D.B. Andrus]

Roger

 

The third photo from the top appears to ma as having been painted RLM 66, at the beginning of the fork, with rust showing through at the bottom of the forks. I know of no steel parts left unpainted on Luftwaffe aircraft, but never say never!

 

HTH,

 

D.B.

 

[VintageEagle]

D.B. 

 

Thank you. I am not sure that I have seen a landing gear painted RLM 66 before, but it may well be. I

 

I checked photos of the NASM's Ta 152 and it too seems to have a fork that has a dark brown metallic finish (it may be rust, but I don't think so):

 

 

Here is photo of Fw 190 F-8 Green 5 at Ansbach (Source: private collection). It too had a very dark fork. It looks almost black. It was definately not RLM 02 nor lightgrey as found on other aircraft. I have yet to see a fork in RLM 66. Jerry Crandall wrote me today that he once owned an original fork that had no signs of paint, but had a dark bronze metal finish. I therefore tend to believe that the fork of 'White 48' was most likely also dark brown.