Hasegawa 1/32 Fw 190D-9 Late "Brown 4"

[Thunnus]

Thank you for the comments guys!

 

After the base coat of RLM02 on the landing gear, some details were brush painted and then a dark brown pastel wash was applied.

 

[John Stambaugh]

Very nice.

[Thunnus]

Thank you John!

 

The wheels have been painted.  The hubs were painted black and very lightly dry-brushed with silver.  The tires were painted a dark brown/grey with lighter gradations towards the middle of the tires.  The weathering was topped by applying drops of tan pastel wash onto a flat finish. This causes the drops to spread out and create tide marks.  These are then lightly wiped off leaving faint stains.  

 

 

Time to fold up some brass flaps!  First, I need to remove some material from the wings to accommodate the Eduard brass flaps.

 

 

After the ribs have been snipped and scraped away from the wing tops, an oscillating sander like this David-Union D400 is very helpful in sanding down to a uniform flat surface.

 

 

The wing bottoms require a little more work as a whole area needs to "lowered" to a thinner level. The Eduard instructions are very detailed and let you know exactly what needs to be removed.

 

 

Here are the flaps.  I'm going to do the parts that sit in the wing tops first.

 

 

A PE bending tool is very helpful in getting uniform bends.  This one is from 5.5 inch Hold and Fold from The Small Shops, which is big enough to fold long pieces like this flap.

 

 

Once the flap spars are generally oriented, I used the capillary action of thin CA glue to secure each spar individually as it was held in place with my fingers.

 

 

Any obvious blobs of CA glue are wiped off using CA debonder.

 

 

A quick check to see how the brass fits into the wings.

 

[scvrobeson]

You're always able to do such precise work, and it's always a pleasure to watch.  

 

What photo editing software do you use for your posts? The photography is almost as good as the model building.

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work as always, John!

 

Kev

[Thunnus]

12 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

You're always able to do such precise work, and it's always a pleasure to watch.  

 

What photo editing software do you use for your posts? The photography is almost as good as the model building.

 

 

Matt 

Thank you Matt!  Photography is another hobby of mine so positive comments on the photos always make me happy!  For in-progress photos, I am using a Canon S120 point-n-shoot camera.  It has the ability to shoot in RAW format and this gives me much more leeway in making adjustments in the post-process phase.  The RAW photos are processed in Adobe Lightroom and exported to JPG at a reduced size (2000x1333).  The Canon 5D Mark IV comes out for finished photos only as I find it too cumbersome to use on a daily basis.

 

 

11 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent work as always, John!

 

Kev

Thank you Kevin! 

[Thunnus]

Now that the flap bays are folded, I can do the same for the moving lower flap parts. I had to tackle the lower flap in stages as there are multiple folds and bends that need to be done.  And fold carefully as the brass naturally wants to bend where there is the least material and those do not correspond to a fold edge.

 

 

The back edge of the flaps needs to curve so a piece of circular plastic rod is used as a template. The back edge is secured with thin CA glue.

 

 

Here are the flap parts before the mounting hardware is attached.

 

 

The mounting tabs on the movable flaps fit into slots so the position is established.  Small reinforcement plates are curved using the same plastic rod.

 

 

The attachment hangers in the flap bays must be positioned carefully to match the tabs.  

 

The movable flaps look identical but they are not as the mounting tab positions are slightly asymmetrical.  You can match the movable flaps to the correct flap bay by positioning them together... the mounting tabs on the moving flaps will line up with empty space on the flap bay, which will accommodate the attachment hangers.  If any of the mounting tabs line up directly with a spar, the two parts are mismatched.  So use the mounting tabs as a location guide when gluing in the attachment hangers.

 

 

The movable lower flaps are now done.

 

 

Attachment of the lower flaps into the flap bays is not 100% secure due to the flimsiness of the attachment hangers.  

 

 

The brass flaps are always more impressive unpainted than painted, don't you think?

[scvrobeson]

They sure do look great, but that's not surprising with your skills.  Those Eduard flaps are always super fiddly, but it looks like you've tamed them.

 

 

Matt 

[John Stambaugh]

1 hour ago, Thunnus said:

Now that the flap bays are folded, I can do the same for the moving lower flap parts. I had to tackle the lower flap in stages as there are multiple folds and bends that need to be done.  And fold carefully as the brass naturally wants to bend where there is the least material and those do not correspond to a fold edge.

 

 

The back edge of the flaps needs to curve so a piece of circular plastic rod is used as a template. The back edge is secured with thin CA glue.

 

 

Here are the flap parts before the mounting hardware is attached.

 

 

The mounting tabs on the movable flaps fit into slots so the position is established.  Small reinforcement plates are curved using the same plastic rod.

 

 

The attachment hangers in the flap bays must be positioned carefully to match the tabs.  

 

The movable flaps look identical but they are not as the mounting tab positions are slightly asymmetrical.  You can match the movable flaps to the correct flap bay by positioning them together... the mounting tabs on the moving flaps will line up with empty space on the flap bay, which will accommodate the attachment hangers.  If any of the mounting tabs line up directly with a spar, the two parts are mismatched.  So use the mounting tabs as a location guide when gluing in the attachment hangers.

 

 

The movable lower flaps are now done.

 

 

Attachment of the lower flaps into the flap bays is not 100% secure due to the flimsiness of the attachment hangers.  

 

 

The brass flaps are always more impressive unpainted than painted, don't you think?

Yes, quite striking naked. 

[Troy Molitor]

Looks great! 

[rafju]

And beautiful 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Appreciate the feedback!

 

Look at what I got in the mail!  Woody of Archer Fine Transfers was kind enough to send me a set of Fw190 Control Surface decals to try out. This is an improvement that I've not considered before but is meant to replace the simplified stitching detail on the kit part.  The resin pattern on decal film creates a subtle raised detail of a fabric-covered control surface.

 

 

First step is to remove the raised detail on the kit control surfaces.  I'm starting off with the horizontal stabilizers.

 

 

Since the decal film is continuous, each piece needs to cut and trimmed closely to eliminate excess film.  I used a sharp x-acto blade to trace the outline of the control surface shape.

 

 

I did not use any setting solution underneath the decal but Woody suggests Mr Mark Setter for better adhesion if masking is planned.  After the decal is placed, a soft brush is used to gently remove any excess water or bubbles from underneath the decal.  Micro Sol was applied as a final step.

 

 

I will seal the work with a primer after these dry thoroughly.

 

 

The rudder on the Ta152H tail seems to be ever so slightly different than the normal Fw190 rudder but appears close enough for the decal to work.  I'm going to save that for last as I get used to working with this material.

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by Thunnus

[Citadelgrad]

Interested to see what these look like under primer.  Great work, John!

 

Bill

[Brad-M]

Late to this party, but your cockpit and exterior detail is breath taking...thanks for sharing your build 

 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I've made some progress on this build that I'd like to share.  First of all, here is the first set of Archer control surface decals under a coat of primer.  It's a pretty subtle effect and I have to take care not to cover it with too much paint.

 

 

I'm jumping over to the fuselage now and will be attaching the Eagle Editions resin cockpit.

 

 

The cockpit tub slides into place from the opening in the fuselage bottom.  Since the contact surfaces are inaccessible, I like to use a two-part epoxy, which is nice and thick and will give me about five minutes to set the position of the cockpit correctly before the epoxy starts to harden.

 

 

The front edge of the cockpit butts up against the engine bulkhead, which gives solid reference point in the attachment.

 

 

Instead of the thin brass part that the Eagle Editions cockpit set provides, I like to use the rear deck, cut from the kit part as the fit is more positive.

 

 

Now that the cockpit is glued into place, I will now start attaching the front cowling pieces.  Before I do that, I've prepainted the interior ring on the fuselage front in RLM02.  The exhaust recesses have also been painted black.

 

 

The gun barrels above the engine are glued into place.  I'm using the kit parts here with the ends hollowed out.  When mounted, they are standing proud of the surrounding gun troughs so they'll be easy to paint afterwards.

 

 

The gun cowling is now glued into place using Tamiya Extra Thin cement.  Fit is excellent here.

 

 

The radiator flaps are glued in next.  Remember that the actuating rods were installed and interior of the flaps painted earlier.

 

 

The radiator face is glued onto the cowling flaps.

 

 

One thing that's always puzzled me is why Hasegawa chose to have this attachment via vinyl poly caps as if this part were meant to be removable.  I see no reason to detach the radiator cowling???  Also visible in the photo is the black mounting block for the Henri Daehne prop shaft that I mentioned previously.

 

 

Since the radiator face butts up directly against the cowling flap part, I've run a bead of Tamiya Extra Thin cement around the circumference to permanently attach the radiator face.

 

 

Here's a peak from underneath showing the installed Eagle Editions cockpit tub.

 

 

The radiator cowling is glued into place, finishing off the front end.  As you recall, one of the first things I did on this build was to re-shape this part.