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

[Hoss FL]

Yes! I'm following along with this one closely, John. I have a Hasegawa 1/32 Dora in the stash and haven't decided on the scheme yet. Your builds are awesome and inspirational. 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

The ejector pin marks in the wheel well have been addressed.  At one point, I tried to get fancy and chucked the toothpick into my rotary tool but the higher speed ended up separating the sanding surface from the backing paper.

 

 

Here is the gun cowling after puttying around the starter hole crank.

 

 

After the sanding, I put a coat of Mr Primer Surfacer on the cowling to check my work.

 

It needs a bit more refinement to get rid of some barely perceptible edges but I think it is a big improvement from the original kit part.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific work, John!

 

Kev

[Kaeone57]

And again, Here Goes Another One...Broo, I hate you... LoL

 

Not in context, for those that don't understand, I just mean...Phuck, I'm struggling to get back on the bench and this guy's crushing it, at Mach 100 with 700 builds at the same time! Monster!!...Damn, I'm Super Jealous! Nevermind.... Rock It Thunnus, you're Killing It, Gorgeous Beginning I see..LoL

[Thunnus]

Thank you Kevin and Alfonso!  I'm a motivated modeler at the moment but I also know what it is like to take long absences from the bench!  The desire comes and goes and while I have it, I'm going to take advantage of it and be as productive as I can.  Hopefully, you'll get that motivation back too, Alfonso!

 

Let's take a look at the Eagle Editions resin cockpit for the 190D.  I think it is the best cockpit upgrade on the market but it is not without its faults. It's a comprehensive set of resin and brass components. Note the difference in the resin colors.  There is inconsistency in the casting quality and from conversations with Judy Crandall, I think they stem from different people doing the castings, hence the different colors.

 

 

The cockpit tub is cast in a bluish grey color and casting quality if great on this piece.  Nice and crisp with no visible warping or air bubbles.

 

 

In the past, I've requested replacement of broken or shortcast resin parts from Eagle Editions and Judy has always been very responsive.  Because of that, I have multiple copies of certain components such as the sidewalls.  None of them are perfect.  The grey sidewall below has some warping and the yellow one, while much straighter, has very prevalent cracking in its surface texture.  I elected to use the grey part, which is easily straightened following a dip in hot water.

 

 

Two seats are provided, one with seatbelts and one without.  I'd be tempted to use the seatbelted version if it were cast better.  The details are just too soft for my tastes. Also the thickness of the seat itself is bothersome.  

 

 

I gave the seat back a good scraping and sanding to get at least the edges sharper.

 

 

The Revi 16B reflector sight is nicely molded.

 

 

But the control stick is not.  It looks lumpy and to top it off, the grip is skewed to one side.

 

 

The rear decking had multiple issues.  First of all, it must've shrunk because it was way undersized and would not catch on the rails on the inside of the fuselage, even with a thin section of casting block still attached to one side.  There was also a congregation of bubbles in the front of the deck resulting in a jagged hole.  The hole was plugged with black CA glue and I added width to the sides using strips of sheet plastic.

 

 

Now it fits the way it is supposed to.

 

 

All of the parts have been detached from their casting blocks.  This is not a plug-n-play set and I'll need to perform some surgery on the fuselage to make this cockpit fit.

 

[dodgem37]

Good show, John.  Revell's edition is also Brown 4.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[scvrobeson]

Shouldn't even be surprised at the cleanliness of the work you do by now, but I still am every time.

 

Great start on this one, can't wait to see it through.

 

 

Matt 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys! I have great reference bookS (plural emphasized)!  I'm fortunate to have these four essential Dora references:

 

 

 

 

Lots of little things to work on before heavy construction begins.  I frankensteined the control stick by gluing the resin hand grip to the kit control stalk.  I added a wire and a strap of aluminum tape to finish it off.

 

 

Small holes were drilled into the back deck.

 

 

Semi-circles of copper wire were glued into the bottom holes.  After the seat is painted, I can hang the HGW shoulder harnesses into the into the open end and then close the loop.

 

 

I salvaged the connectors from the kit drop tank plumbing tubes and glued them into two existing holes in the cigar drop tank.  I'm totally guessing that this is where the fuel connection is.  I shaped a couple of copper wires, loosely based on the kit part, and glued them into the connectors.

 

 

The wires terminate where the kit plumbing terminates so unless someone can point out otherwise, I think I'm good with the drop tank plumbing.

 

 

The inserts for the bottom of the wings are glued into place at this point.  The outline of the inserts do not correspond to panel lines so some filling and sanding will need to be done before I start the riveting process.

 

 

A check of the tail wheel placed into the tail unit.  Based on photos, I think this is overextended for an operational aircraft and I'd like to have it poking out less.  But with two connection points, I can't get my head around the math to do this without weakening the connection.  I think I'll just order the Eagle Editions 190D tail wheel.  Height is easier to adjust and since the wheel is separate, it will be easier to paint and orient the flat spot.

 

 

The tail unit fits pretty well into the fuselage.  Like my other Dora builds, I am going to glue the fuselage and tail together before joining the halves. This will ensure better fit and simplify the riveting process.

 

 

The gun cowling re-sculpting is finished and the it fits perfectly.

 

[Scale32]

Nice update. I've used the EE D9 resin cockpit and was blown away by the details had a blast with it. I have to say though I can't recall any of the issues as in your post. It was a loooong time ago now so maybe that is the difference.

 

I go a bit weak at the knees with the D9 as well and have the above mentioned books. Japo have enough info for a Vol 3 but since one of the main contributors passed away I don't think it will see the light of day......

 

Cheers Bevan 

[StefanGebhardt]

12 minutes ago, Scale32 said:

Nice update. I've used the EE D9 resin cockpit and was blown away by the details had a blast with it. I have to say though I can't recall any of the issues as in your post. It was a loooong time ago now so maybe that is the difference.

 

I go a bit weak at the knees with the D9 as well and have the above mentioned books. Japo have enough info for a Vol 3 but since one of the main contributors passed away I don't think it will see the light of day......

 

Cheers Bevan 

 

Tomáš Poruba from JaPo released a statement in July last year:

 

We apologize for a long term of our answer. We want to react to your information about "not publishing" of Part III of our Fw 190D Camouflage and Marking study.
The info doesn´t came from JaPo. We (JaPo) are sure about a finishing of the study by Part III.
We know, the term of making the Part III is long and a lot of our readers doubt about the title. We can only apologize for such long time of work, but again, we plan to finish it.
All the time from issuing the Part II (we know, it was in 2007 year...) we are collecting next documents and material to the topic. The phase finished now, we are starting a real work on the Part III.
Please, be patient.
JaPo

 

It's a long time since the release of the previous volumes but there seems to be still hope... 

[dodgem37]

Good show, John.  Nice update.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Kaeone57]

Thanks for the well wishes John, Motivation is here, now time the real factor... that's a coming! Great work Bro, Love what you do all around, other modelers works as well. Enjoy Bro!

 

Alfonso

[Thunnus]

16 hours ago, Scale32 said:

Nice update. I've used the EE D9 resin cockpit and was blown away by the details had a blast with it. I have to say though I can't recall any of the issues as in your post. It was a loooong time ago now so maybe that is the difference.

 

I go a bit weak at the knees with the D9 as well and have the above mentioned books. Japo have enough info for a Vol 3 but since one of the main contributors passed away I don't think it will see the light of day......

 

Cheers Bevan 

Thanks Bevan!  This is the third time I am using the Eagle Editions cockpit.  Taken as a whole, I consider it the best D-9 cockpit upgrade available but it irks me to see things that could be so easily improved upon like the control stick.  Surface texture also seems to be all over the place.  Good on some parts and horrible on others. While I was waiting for replacement parts, Judy did mention difficulty in finding a good resin caster so hopefully that issue has been resolved.

 

 

16 hours ago, StefanGebhardt said:

 

Tomáš Poruba from JaPo released a statement in July last year:

 

We apologize for a long term of our answer. We want to react to your information about "not publishing" of Part III of our Fw 190D Camouflage and Marking study.
The info doesn´t came from JaPo. We (JaPo) are sure about a finishing of the study by Part III.
We know, the term of making the Part III is long and a lot of our readers doubt about the title. We can only apologize for such long time of work, but again, we plan to finish it.
All the time from issuing the Part II (we know, it was in 2007 year...) we are collecting next documents and material to the topic. The phase finished now, we are starting a real work on the Part III.
Please, be patient.
JaPo

 

It's a long time since the release of the previous volumes but there seems to be still hope... 

That's great news Stefan!  It'd be great if JaPo were to release a 190D Volume III!

 

 

14 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

Good show, John.  Nice update.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

Thanks Mark!  Appreciate it!

[Thunnus]

2 minutes ago, Kaeone57 said:

Thanks for the well wishes John, Motivation is here, now time the real factor... that's a coming! Great work Bro, Love what you do all around, other modelers works as well. Enjoy Bro!

 

Alfonso

You're welcome Alfonso!  I'll try to keep you entertained in the mean time!

[adameliclem]

Great work on the cowl re-sculpting. It looks like you’ve set up an explanation for your theory of the 4, too.

 

Adam