Fw190 D9 JV44 Hasegawa 1/32

[LSP_Kevin]

Love it, Paolo!

 

Kev

[Greif8]

Brilliant weathering Paolo!  This build is excellent in every way.

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

Nice!  Very dirty!

[mc65]

thank you all!

about modeling jazz, I think I have good news, tonight. 

 

we're almost there... now I'm at the final details and a general check to find and, if possible, correct the glitches that always come out at the end of the work.

but let's proceed in order. for starters, the air intake. you will remember how I set aside the resin one preferring the one in the kit. well, it was a good choice. only now, with the camo completed and uncorking the masking, can I say that the fan can be glimpsed. here you can see also, in addition to the excess sanding powder to wash off, the micro-scratches made on the cowling. from other camera angles they are not so evident, but overall they help to make the surface feel lived in.

 

other very good news, I think I have discovered a new technique to highlight the rivets.

when I engraved them I didn't sand the surfaces to a mirror finish, thinking of helping me in the weathering with the three-dimensional effect due to the deformation of the material. the idea backfired on the lower surfaces, where the too many layers of paint created full-bodied lumps in correspondence with the irregularities.

the upper surfaces however turned out as I expected: pleasantly wavy rivets that capture the oil and brush weathering. However the overall finish seemed too matt and dull to me.

 

so

 

before giving a coat of satin I thought of trying to polish with ultrafine nail pads (4000) and here is the result:

 

well, stroke of luck! planing the asperities these are more shiny than the bottom.

insisting too much everything becomes uniformly gloss, obviously, but by dosing the steps you get this result which I honestly don't mind at all.

 

here we see perhaps a little better how also the background surface in the walking area is no longer uniformly opaque.

 

while the back part of the flaps is still in slight relief. for the flap indicator this is the best I could do, unfortunately the decals I had identified were not decals, but just printed on a decal sheet without the adhesive part. in hindsight I could have provided with some microscale liquid, but by now I no longer have those microscopic numbers, so I gave a coat of black and engraved a couple of improbable "30s" freehand with a tip.

 

I hope I have proposed an interesting idea, and that I haven't discovered something already known, which happens to me often, I must admit!

what else... I took the writing "nicht betreten" on the air intake in white, it was invisible in black. pity about the patch on the left, to be touched up.

 

then, I added some 02 on the elevators line normally hidden from view, it adds some movement to this part and highlights the elevators in rest position.

 

while assembling the landing gear's legs I broke without even realizing it one of the resin bolts that I had installed before painting them. replaced, here still to be retouched in color.

 

the Morane antenna I decided to paint it in natural wood, as it often was, not having certainties of how it looked on the Red 1.

for solid placement I inserted a piece of guitar string in place of the (tiny, actually) kit's plastic pin. the "live" end of the antenna is also guitar string.

 

the pitot of the kit was a bit poor (and fragile) so I preferred to remake it in Albion Alloy aluminum tubes.

 

finally, I opted for the open cockpit canopy.

the Hasegawa one was better made, but designed to be in the closed position, therefore with a width at the base greater than that required in the open position.

rather than forcing it to an eternal tension through gluing, I tried to bring it to the right width by placing it on a template with a wooden shape and intervening with hot water. well...it worked, even too much: the width got smaller, but it also warped at the rear.

RIP, plan B: the Revell one will do just fine, with a few minor tweaks.

 

the open canopy implies, in this aircraft, the floppy antenna wire, which I honestly don't know how to make: in nylon I'm afraid it would be too soft, in metal too stiff... any suggestions will be welcome, come on with ideas!

 

TIA, cheers, Paolo

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by mc65

[Uncarina]

Believe it or not I’ve used horsehair to simulate this in the past!otherwise I’ve used soft fine wire. In any case, I love the rivet work you’ve applied and highlighted with the fine sanding. Which riveting tool are you using?

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Greif8]

This build is a real stunner Paolo, superb work my friend!

 

Ernest

[Sasha As]

Wonderful job!

[Scale32]

Stellar work Paolo, love it.

 

Cheers Bevan 

[mc65]

thank you all, pals!

 

Tom, the horsehair it's a good idea, I have used them in the past without much satisfaction, being sensitive to humidity the tension changed according to the weather! but in this case, since the antenna has to remain limp, it could work... only that in these days it pours here, and I don't really want to go and comb the tails of the horses in the surroundings, let's see what I can do with what I have in home?

 

ah, the tool I use to rivet is a classic RB set, nothing exotic:

 

without going around too much, I tried with copper wire and plastic ceramic insulators:

 

mmmmmmhyes, but I'm not convinced, the metal has too much memory and doesn't fall as soft as I would like. the insulator, which should be the heaviest point, actually "floats" supported by the resistance of the two wire segments. I could try to convince it, but there are three segments in question one of which, the central one, is connected to the fuselage with another thinner cable... a mess.

 

so I got down to it and tried different routes: 0.14 and 0.18 nylon fishing lines; ez-line; elastic sewing thread and more plasticard insulators; in aluminum tube; combinations of these... one way or the other, nothing seemed right.

 

in the end the least worst solution was the following: 0.14 nylon thread passing through Albion Alloy tube segments. to simulate the ligatures of the individual wire segments I drilled the tubes and made the ligatures with copper wire, again 0.14. to be able to do this I used an acupuncture needle as a temporary support, anything else would have deformed. let it be known: punk's not dead!

 

and here the curve takes a softer turn, like this. the photo sucks, sorry, but I hope you see the difference with the metal one. I liked the plastic insulators better, but there's no way to make nylon loops that small without creating unwanted tension in the wire, even worse than metal.

 

in parallel I built a series of tensioners to pull, instead of compressing like the ones seen so far on the various Bf109s. here the question was to get the fit right to make them compatible with the insulators. I ended up making four, the winner is not in this photo.

 

but this:

 

the insulators (to be retouched in color) even though they are false as they pass through, give the sensation of interrupting the three segments of wire, I hope.

 

and the attachment to the hood.

 

here, and at the end of the tensioner, to solve the problem of the nylon loop, I used a little trick: I made the loop in copper of the same diameter as the wire. once I put this in position in the support of the hood, I insert it in the aluminum tube section, in which there is already the nylon thread whose top I rounded and widened with a lighter. now pulling the thread, the ball at the top acts as a wedge and blocks everything by pressure. I'll put a drop of glue anyway, but the joint would already be enough to hold everything together.

 

eeeew voilà. looks better than metal to me. while floating a bit on the fuselage, at least it doesn't make strange folds.

 

I could force it into place with two dots of glue if I wanted to, but I don't know if that's the case. while I'm thinking about it, I'll leave it in place with two pieces of tape.

 

would say that at this point I just need to lock the flaps in place and then I can declare it finished!

See you soon, cheers, Paolo

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeMaben]

Turned out great Paolo 

[Greif8]

Brilliant solution and work on the insulators and antenna wire overall man!  I think your solution looks quite convincing.

 

Ernest

 

 

[Uncarina]

I echo Ernest: brilliant work! I really like your attention to detail.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Thunnus]

That slack aerial is a tricky item to portray and you've done a great job!  The fasteners and springs just add to the authenticity!  Great work!

 

[John Stambaugh]

Excellent work sir! Look forward to the RFI.

[Madmax]

This is great entertainment Paolo - you certainly have an artist's touch!