1/32 Hasegawa Fw190D-13 Yellow 10

[Hartmann52]

8 hours ago, Thunnus said:

 

The three major components of the Aires set fit positively with one another so I temporarily glued them together using CA glue.

 

And then took measurements using a Micrometer.

 

 

Aires is always full of surprises

[Guest Vincent]

Well, it's the resin shrinkage that was not properly taken into account. I bet the master was spot on but once you duplicated the master part into several sub masters and run the production from molds made with the sub masters, you have double shrinkage. On a very long part like that it ends up pretty bad.

 

I would plit it in the middle where the seam will be hidden because of the center point reinforcement. Otherwise your canons and lg will be off. Or you can cheat, leave it as it is, ignore the lg position (2,5mm off if i read your measure correctly), blank off the kit canon ports and redrill them to match the resin

[BiggTim]

29 minutes ago, Vincent said:

Well, it's the resin shrinkage that was not properly taken into account. I bet the master was spot on but once you duplicated the master part into several sub masters and run the production from molds made with the sub masters, you have double shrinkage. On a very long part like that it ends up pretty bad.

 

I would plit it in the middle where the seam will be hidden because of the center point reinforcement. Otherwise your canons and lg will be off. Or you can cheat, leave it as it is, ignore the lg position (2,5mm off if i read your measure correctly), blank off the kit canon ports and redrill them to match the resin

Option 2 is what I did. I added aluminum blast tubes anyway, so reaming out the holes and fairing in the tubes worked out fine, and I got good alignment. At least to my eye. Might be something to consider.

[Thunnus]

9 hours ago, Miloslav1956 said:

GM cover is very bad, here is photo of real D-13 cover

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the photograph, Milsoslav!  That is a great view of the cowling.  I can see some of the differences between the photo and the Grey Matter part.  Not a game changer for me but I can see your point.  I'll compare the Real Model cowling to the photo when I get home.

 

[Thunnus]

With LSP down for a few days, I'll have to fast forward some of the progress on the D-13 build that I've accomplished during that time.

I was comparing the kit exhausts with the Quickboost resin versions.  I started cleaning the sprue attachments and one thing led to another... I ended up hollowing out all of the kit exhausts.  The hollowed ends are noticeably deeper than the dimples on the Quickboost set, which will be put back in the aftermarket box for a future build.

I took another look at the Aires wheel wells.  Some people here threw out some options and I thought I should give them consideration before giving up .  For me, keeping the long bulkhead in correct relation to the wheel well was important so that the cannon mount on the bulkhead lined up with the hole for the gun barrel in the wheel well.  So using that as a constant, the only other way to effectively increase the width of the wheel assembly was to cut it, which was one of Vincent's suggestions.  I chose to cut it in half.  The kit gun barrels are standing in for what will ultimately be brass tubing.

The wheel wells are then placed into the lower wing using the gun barrel as the datum.  This results in three small gaps but they really shouldn't be noticeable.  The biggest effort about going in this direction was removing the wide casting block on the wheel wells... whatta pain.

With the Blue Tack holding the wheel wells in place, I tape the upper wing halves into place.  The gun barrels are correctly positioned.

The gap in the center is the most noticeable but remember... there is a central exterior piece yet to be added.

The Grey Matter part, with the single ammo chute fits very nicely (surprise!) and blocks the view into the wheel well.  Now the gap is hardly noticeable.

I think this is a good compromise to get the Aires wheel well to work.  My only concern is the landing gear actuating arm.  Since the distance between the landing gear mounting location and the wheel well has been increased, there is a good chance that the actuator will be too short.  But that shouldn't be too hard to correct.

Oh... and the sculpting process has started.

[Thunnus]

On 5/22/2020 at 12:19 AM, Miloslav1956 said:

GM cover is very bad, here is photo of real D-13 cover

 

 

I did take another look at both the GM and Real Model D-13 cowlings.

 

Most notably, the top flat section near the rear edge flares out more drastically on the GM cowling.  Looking at the cowlings in profile...

 

 

The Real Model cowling has a very noticeable curvature, while the GM profile is flatter.  Looking at reference photos of the D-13, I can't see evidence of this pronounced curvature.

 

 

It looks like each of the cowlings has its good points and bad points.  The GM cowling fits better in my particular case, so I'm going with it.

[Thunnus]

The foundation for this conversion is the "bulge" and that is what I have been working on yesterday and today.  Because it takes so long for Milliput to harden, progress has been slow but I've finally reached a rough approximation of the what bulges will look like.

 

Using the pieces of styrene as a guide and base, I've applied Milliput to build up the bulge and transition it back to the fuselage.  The pieces of sheet plastic created some issues for me. I thought they were thin enough so they would conform to the curvature of the fuselage.  I even took extra care of securing the top joint firmly with Tamiya Extra Thin cement, waiting that to cure and then gluing down the bottom joint.  Still, the plastic sheet ended up being too flat and I've had to add a bead of putty down the middle of the white plastic to create a more uniformly curved surface.

 

This took multiple applications of Milliput, with each of them allowing to cure at least 4-6 hours before sanding.  In the down time, I ended up painting the seat from the Eagle Editions cockpit, which comes with two versions: one with belts and one without.  I'll probably end up using HGW harnesses but I thought I'd see what the other seat would like like with a quick paint job.

 

After a few iterations of puttying and sanding, I've gotten to a point where the bulge has been established and curvature of the sides of the fuselage have been restored.  Unlike the GM resin fuselage, I've elected to transition the bottom edge of the raised area cleanly into the fuselage, creating a single "ridge" along the top edge and not a bulge with an upper and lower edge.  This is based on the cross-sections of the D-13 in my Dora Volume 2 book.

 

Time to shoot this sculpting exercise with the some primer to check my work.  I used Mr Surfacer 1200 cut with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner.

 

Hey, where did the bulge go?  That's what I thought after I sprayed the primer on.  My result is much more subtle than the GM conversion.  I can definitely see it in person and also feel it when I run my fingers over the model but it doesn't show up very dramatically in the photos.  Is this a good thing or bad thing?

 

The lack of panel lines or other details adds to the disappearing act and I think the rivet lines will accentuate the curvature. But the disruption camo pattern will do the opposite and help hide the surface curvature.  I'm going to set this aside and think about it.  There are some edges and transitions that need to be cleaned up... maybe during that process I'll end up liking my result a little more.

[turbo]

Nice work with the sculpting John, looks very clean! I'm sure the addition of some surface detail will help define the bulges. You could even modulate them come painting time if you're still not happy.

 

Even though the gap in the Aires wheel well spar is not too visible, you could fill that with a bit of PE or detailed plastic card?

[Troy Molitor]

Hey John,  

 

I certainly can see the subtle side cowling bulges in your photos and think it looks great. Moreover, spot on in my opinion.  You know they’re there, we see it and it’s just like the picture on the real aircraft.  I’m sure the original engineers were tasked with make it happen, make is as aerodynamic as possible make it happen now.  You on the other hand have taken a bit of both resin offerings and made them work with your own awesome skill set.  Now, can we get a copy of this new resin nose section please?  Ha!  

 

Love the update after a long weekend absences.   

 

Troy 

[Alain Gadbois]

I think you have done a fantastic job with the fairings. Very convincing result.

 

Alain

[MikeMaben]

Fine job on the bay John.  Shaping up nicely 

[Wackyracer]

Excellent work all round John. The bugles look spot on and actually the shape rather than added if that makes sense.

[Thunnus]

Thanks people!  The more I think about the bulge, the less I'm inclined to change it.  I'm thinking that it is probably more in line with what the actual aircraft designers did when trying to accommodate the larger engine bearers and is supported by the profile drawings.  It just doesn't jump out at first glance.

 

A few minor adjustments were performed per my references.  The fuel port on the starboard side is slightly LOWER on the D-13 than the D-9...

 

And the primer fuel port on the port sides is slightly HIGHER on the D-13 than the D-9...

 

After some slight touch-up putty was applied, the fuselage was set aside and took out the Eagle Editions tail gear.

 

The parts go together rather well but I'm going to strengthen the connection between the parts using brass tubing.

 

I made an axle for the tail wheel.

 

A larger diameter brass tube was used for the connection between the wheel yoke and gear strut.

 

The "sit" of the tail gear can be adjusted by shortening the strut.  Without modification, you can see that the gear sticks out a little too much, based on reference photos.

 

So I cut down the strut for a more naturally weighted position of an aircraft in service.

[Thunnus]

Just for reference, here are the cross-sections of the D-13 that indicate that the bulge was only evident along the top edge and not the bottom as depicted in the GM resin conversion...

 

I thinned the edges of the cowling flaps.  Again, the D-13 is slightly different than the D-9 in that ALL of the cowling flaps are extendable.  On the D-9, there is a fixed cowling flap on the starboard side.

 

I cut the fixed flap off and replaced it with a piece of brass sheet.

 

I COULD replace ALL of the flaps with brass sheeting but I elected not to.  As long as the trailing edges are thinned, I think the plastic flaps look fine.

 

On my past D-9 builds, I erroneously assumed that the outline of the wing insert piece were along panel lines but this is incorrect.

 

So after I glued the insert pieces into place, I filled the non-panel line joints with black CA glue.

[BiggTim]

Top notch work, as usual!!