1/32 Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 - Dortenmann's Black 1

[Scale32]

Love the D9 one of my faves. Following along cockpit and engine plug look suitably busy, great work so far.

 

Cheers Bevan 

[Thunnus]

Wonderful progress and the engine plug looks great!  I painted the false bulkheads on my first D-9 build RLM02 per the instructions and then I figured out, as you did, that they don't exist and simply serve to accommodate the rear engine detail.

 

Thank you for the compliment!  There are so many different ways to build the same model and I make no claim that my way is better than any other but I'm glad that you've found my past builds useful!  And I'm sure that you'll have your own unique take on how to approach things so I'm looking forward to Hoss's version of this iconic Dora!

[Hoss FL]

Thanks again for the comments. Progress continues. The main construction of the fuselage and wings is mostly complete. 

 

Here's the radiator painted black with an Aluminum dry brush. The flap actuators from the Eduard detail kit are installed and the trailing edges of the flaps have been thinned down. The Henri Daehne prop hub is also glued to the back of the radiator assembly. 

 

 

 

The cowling pieces were attached with superglue for the most part. The MGs are from Master and the PE strip on the front cowling is from the Eduard detail kit. 

 

 

 

The "Thunnus method" was used for reshaping the gun cover (thanks John). I had purchased both the Eagle and Quickboost covers thinking I may get lucky and get one that fits. No dice. So I used Milliput and Mr. Surfacer as Thunnus explains step by step to achieve a reasonable approximation of the correct shape. The bumps were added to the rear side panels and bulges were sanded off the front side panels. I kept my fingers crossed during rescribing the panel lines and only needed a little touch up. 

 

 

 

The coaming was also corrected buy lengthening the gunsight port and adding some stretched sprue. It's always nice to get this section cleaned up. 

 

 

The Eduard flap bays are installed in the wings. No major drama. 

 

 

And the landing gear bays are complete. The Eduard detail upgrade adds some zip to the sidewalls. For the cannons, I used the quickboost base, but cut off the gun barrel, drilled a hole in the base and installed the Master brass blast tubes. I like the look of the Master gun barrels and will simply install them (noting the appropriate distance from the wing leading edge to barrel tip) after the main painting is complete. 

 

 

Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques always welcome. 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Hoss FL

[duke_]

22 hours ago, Hoss FL said:

Thanks again for the comments. Progress continues. The main construction of the fuselage and wings is mostly complete. 

 

Here's the radiator painted black with an Aluminum dry brush. The flap actuators from the Eduard detail kit are installed and the trailing edges of the flaps have been thinned down. The Henri Daehne prop hub is also glued to the back of the radiator assembly. 

 

 

 

The cowling pieces were attached with superglue for the most part. The MGs are from Master and the PE strip on the front cowling is from the Eduard detail kit. 

 

 

 

The "Thunnus method" was used for reshaping the gun cover (thanks John). I had purchased both the Eagle and Quickboost covers thinking I may get lucky and get one that fits. No dice. So I used Milliput and Mr. Surfacer as Thunnus explains step by step to achieve a reasonable approximation of the correct shape. The bumps were added to the rear side panels and bulges were sanded off the front side panels. I kept my fingers crossed during rescribing the panel lines and only needed a little touch up. 

 

 

 

The coaming was also corrected buy lengthening the gunsight port and adding some stretched sprue. It's always nice to get this section cleaned up. 

 

 

The Eduard flap bays are installed in the wings. No major drama. 

 

 

And the landing gear bays are complete. The Eduard detail upgrade adds some zip to the sidewalls. For the cannons, I used the quickboost base, but cut off the gun barrel, drilled a hole in the base and installed the Master brass blast tubes. I like the look of the Master gun barrels and will simply install them (noting the appropriate distance from the wing leading edge to barrel tip) after the main painting is complete. 

 

 

Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques always welcome. 

 

amazing work !

you have already closed the fuselage?  you go too fast!!

 

i like how you dealt with the cowling modification.. 

(i have the quickboost cowlings. too.. same here.. i have contacted aires and they sent me 4 (!!!) extra cowlings.. no luck . all under-sized )

 

looking forward to the next steps of your build!

 

 

 

[Hoss FL]

The main build is now complete and I'm getting her ready for painting. The wing roots, bottom engine panel and the join where the wing meets the fuselage aft of the wings all required a little filling and cleaning up. I used Milliput and Mr Surfacer for the clean up. 

 

 

Here's the beast primed with Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500. A little clean up on scribe lines and some goober removal here and there was needed. 

 

 

 

I'm happy with how the wing root join came out. There's still a little bit of clean up required. 

 

 

I've removed all of the kit detail on the fabric control surfaces in preparation for the HGW decals, which are coming up soon. 

 

 

Based on input from Duke and some testing, I'm going to preshade panel lines and surfaces then apply the HGW control surface and rivet decals. There's a first time for everything. I'm interested to see how the rivets and fabric surfaces come out.

 

My usual painting technique for Luftwaffe subjects is prime, main camo, post-fade, post-shade, thin base color blend layer, then gloss coat, with micro mesh sanding (8,000) in between each step. I usually don't preshade but this subject has an interesting paint history and I think some additional panel shading variation will add some depth to the paintwork.  

 

The plane was delivered new in September 1944 with RLM 76, 75, and 83(81). Then in February 1945, it was refitted with a new canopy and repainted to a 76, 82 and 83(81) scheme. It's not clear whether : (1) all three camo colors were reapplied, (2) just the RLM 75 was painted over with RLM 82, or (3) if only the upper surface RLM 82 and 83(81) combination was applied during the February refit. Given the resource and logistics issues at the time, one would think a complete repaint would be unlikely, but why in the heck would they repaint just one color and leave all the others original? If they decided to repaint over one color, why not freshen up the whole aircraft and repaint the entire camo scheme, including the yellow tail? Who knows? 

 

My intent is to represent the aircraft the day after the refit was complete. I'm thinking that the 76 was original and that the 82 and 83(81) were freshly painted, along with some touch ups to the yellow tail. So the RLM 76 areas would be 5 months old through a cold winter, and the upper surfaces would be showroom new. Over five months, Dortenmann probably logged less than 50 hrs of flight time (he recorded 98 hours total through May 1945), especially from November through February, so I'm going to assume the wear and weathering was pretty light. Besides, I have a bunch of Dora models that look like they've been pulled off the scrap heap, so a reasonably clean one would be nice for a change. I'll weather it appropriately, but it won't look like it was in a tank battle. At least that's the plan for now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[duke_]

perfect! she's ready for the paint-shop!!

[Thunnus]

Wow, Hoss... that finish on the wing root is commendable!  That's what I'm going to try and achieve! Looking forward to the paint!  I was curious about the resin gun cowlings and thought maybe I was just unlucky.  Apparently not!

[scvrobeson]

Very clean work that you've done here.  Looking forward to paint.

 

 

Matt 

[Troy Molitor]

Super clean work and a pleasure seeing multiple Dora's in the process.  Looking forward to the paint process.  

[Hoss FL]

On 8/26/2022 at 9:14 PM, Thunnus said:

Wow, Hoss... that finish on the wing root is commendable!  That's what I'm going to try and achieve! Looking forward to the paint!  I was curious about the resin gun cowlings and thought maybe I was just unlucky.  Apparently not!

Thanks for the comments, John! I used Milliput and Mr Surfacer 1000 for the wing roots. I'm always looking for an easier and faster way. I've experimented with Tamiya putty, super glue, Perfect Plastic Putty, etc., but each has its tradeoffs for me. I'm gravitating to Milliput and Surfacer more frequently these days. 

[Hoss FL]

The riveting using the HGW rivet set is now complete. The label says you can rivet the entire plane in just THREE HOURS. Triple it for me. At least. Well, there's a learning curve, just like anything. 

 

Actually, I'm happy with how they came out. As you can see, I kept things simple and decided not to pre-shade before adding the rivets. I was concerned about being able to see and align them properly with the panel lines and other features. I'll focus on post-fading and shading for this one.

 

 

 

The rivets went down with no real issues once I got the hang of it. I started on the bottom of course. 

 

The method is like any of the other HGW transfers.

 

I used Mr. Mark Softer to make the rivet strips and panels conform to the various surfaces. 

 

The fabric panel sections are applied the same way. 

 

I thought HGW did a decent job with these. 

 

Toward the end of the riveting exercise, it struck me how devoid of surface detail the Hasegawa kit is, especially compared to more recent kits from Eduard and Tamiya. 

 

Painting is next. The key area of attention will be to keep the paint thickness over the rivets to a minimum, so I'm planning out the layers and mask steps with that in mind. Progress continues. Thanks for looking. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Hoss FL

[Rockie Yarwood]

Really nice.

[scvrobeson]

Hasegawa kits always seem to go the route of a bare surface under the guise of giving the builder a blank canvas. Just seems to be their philosophy.

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work with those rivets, Hoss!

 

Kev

[Hoss FL]

Got a good chunk of painting done this weekend.

 

RLM 76 was first. 

 

Here are the flaps, wheel covers and drop tank with post-fading and shading applied. A blending layer softened the effect after this photo was taken. 

 

 

I highlighted various panels and shaded panel lines and random areas. RLM 04 has already been applied to the chin area and the white fuselage band has been painted and masked. 

 

 

Applied some additional contrast to the base RLM 76 to the fuselage sides and engine area. 

 

Also added some random dark and light areas. Darker for areas with fuel stains. 

 

 

Here's the fuselage with the contrast reduced after the blending layer. I've also masked the areas on the tail where markings will be applied in preparation for the RLM 04 paint on the tail. 

 

Underside post-blending. I'll paint the flap bays RLM02 toward the end of the painting process. 

 

Next, the tail was painted RLM 04 with a modest amount of fading and shading. The HGW fabric decals really look great - just the perfect amount of color contrast. 

 

RLM 82 on the wings was next. The base layer was applied unevenly, followed by a lighter version for highlights and then a darker version for shaded areas. 

 

Since the RLM 82 was a fresh coat of paint over the RLM 75, I moderated the fading and shading to make it just noticeable and more subtle rather than overpowering. The photo below doesn't bring out the full depth of the tone variation, but it's there.  

 

Progress will continue shortly with RLM 83 on the wings. Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are always welcome.