Jump to content

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


Hoss FL

Recommended Posts

Thanks all for the comments.

 

I've been searching for and reviewing photos of early Dora's produced at the Sorau plant to try to get a better sense of the original camo scheme and other details of Dortenmann's 210003. Although the aircraft was repainted, at least in part with the RLM 82, in Feb 1945, I figured photos of other planes produced at the same time could provide some clues, since there are no photos showing Dortenmann's entire plane. In Jerry Crandall's book and online, I found some good photos of 210008, 210015 and 210051, which were produced in September/October 1944.

 

Here's a photo of 210051 taken in October 1944 I found online. 

 

0gCYESW.jpg

 

I'm thinking 210003 was delivered looking something like this plane except with the early national markings (with white outlines). Key differences from some of the profiles available are:

  • Black painted exhaust panels, with the paint extended back behind the supercharger intake. 
  • Scalloped leading edges of the wings with a high demarcation line of RLM 76. 
  • No white stripe on the tailwheel tire.

Photos of 210008 and 210015 taken after delivery to JG 54 are consistent with 210051 in these aspects from what I can gather. 

 

This may not be a news flash for the Experten on this forum, but I thought it was pretty interesting.  I'm interested if anyone has any more Information or thoughts on this.  

 

Here's a photo of the main painting complete for the wings. I'm thinking that the refit shop painted RLM 82 over the RLM 75 in essentially the original pattern without deviating too much. 

 

bAeENng.jpg

 

Work continues. Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques always welcome. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

Very good paint work!  Were you able to mask over the HGW elevators without too much issue to paint the yellow tail?

 

 

 

Matt 

Thanks Matt! I actually painted the yellow tail first and then masked it off before painting the rest.  I thought that getting the yellow and white areas out of the way and masked would help minimize the layers of paint. I'm trying to keep them down because of the HGW rivets -- I want to be able to sand down to selectively reveal them after the main painting is complete. 

 

_ Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The main camo painting and markings are now complete. Good progress. Lots of rain here in Florida today so a good chunk of bench time. She's slowly starting to come to life. 

 

8I623Sb.jpg

 

I blended the photos of Dortenmann's plane as well as details from 210008, 210015 and 20051 into the paint scheme, as well as considering the fresh RLM 82 from the refit shop. 

 

8zOm47Z.jpg

 

Interestingly, Jerry Crandall's book reflects newer information vs. what was available when the decals for black 1 were published. For example, the underwing crosses, were the earlier type as well as the tail hakenkreuz, which both had the white outlines on Dortenmann's machine. 

ZBKzV1P.jpg

 

I micromeshed the areas with the "older" RLM 83 paint to reveal the rivets. Looks nice. I've also painted the the closure tabs red on the fuselage and wing access covers. The red fuselage tabs are clear in the reference photos. I also masked and painted the wing walk outlines RLM 77. The decals are susceptible to silvering and fouling panel lines and rivets and I think they look snappy painted on. 

yFMICxX.jpg

 

 

I've micromeshed the surface where "older" paint is located to reveal the rivets. An oil wash will bring these details out even more. The numeral "1" was freshly painted, so no weathering here. 

gj6gILU.jpg

 

The Hakenkreuz came out ok with the mask approach. I have yet to apply the wave decal over the JG 26 black and white RV band. The upper window on the yellow tail will receive the W. Nr. decal. I painted some RLM 75 mottles in the RLM  76 area on the tail before masking. I've also painted the trim tabs RLM  23. 

cjrtlzU.jpg

 

Work continues. Comments and critiques always welcome. Thanks for looking. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks all for the the comments. 

 

Well, that Henri Daehne spinner near my paint station has been staring at me for weeks. I finally tackled it today while the decals dried on the airframe. 

 

Attempt #1 - prime and paint spinner white, use thin strips of Tamiya yellow tape to mask the white stripe, apply Maskol in between tape strips, paint black. Result - Fail - paint edges showed kinks in the yellow tape and the white stripe was too narrow. Alcohol bath to strip paint. 

 

Attempt #2 - prime and paint spinner white, same approach as # 1 but with thinner strips of tape. Result - Fail - poor masking and crooked edges. Alcohol bath to strip paint. 

 

I then decided I would simply try the decal supplied in Eagle Editions #60. So I primed then painted the spinner gloss black and added a gloss clear coat. 

 

Attempt #3 - The decal would probably have worked fine on the kit spinner, but the HD spinner shape is slightly different so the decal did not want to conform. I probably could have made it work after a million tweaks with Microsol, but I decided it still would not look quite right. Result - Fail. 

 

I decided that Tamiya flexible tape could provide the answer. I've used this many times for spinner spirals by using as single piece of tape for masking the stripe. The new twist was to cut two wedges of the tape, each one to mask the boundary of the stripe, then apply Maskol in between. The little curl at the tip of the spinner can be rendered well with very thin slices of tape. And the tape provides very smooth curves. And I had already gloss coated the spinner -- even better. I was a little concerned painting white over black in that I'd need too many coats, but I used Mr Color GX1, which luckily resulted in excellent opacity with a few thin layers. 

 

Attempt #4 - Executed as described above and I'm happy with the result. Here are the photos. 

 

I followed the basic pattern from the decal with respect to thickness of the white and black areas. 

 

cH6bipX.jpg

 

 

Lots of trial and error when positioning the tape. I was able to nudge the tape into proper position after the Maskol had dried to get the curves exactly right. 

 

L2NLGsm.jpg

 

BAM!

sHwzbaf.jpg

 

 

There was a little bit of clean up required. I created a little ridge of white paint at a border in an area but it sanded out just fine. 

umpcYuR.jpg

 

It's nice to get that spinner ready for show time. Work continues.

 

Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques always welcome. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...