1/32nd Hasegawa Focke-Wulf Fw-190D-9 - FINISHED ON 01 Sept 2014!!

Mississippi, Tex, Trey, Duke, Greg, BrandonK, & Buckeye,

Thanks to all of you for the kind words and suggestions on my Dora. I will certainly give them all a try to see if she can look a little better.

As far as all Future being clear gloss acrylic - well, it used to be, but not anymore. There are now different formulas for it, depending upon what type of surface you have (wood, linoleum, etc.). Gotta pay close attention to the bottle to make sure that you get whatcher thinkin' yer gettin'. Think I'll start using the Testor's Gloss Coat Lacquer from now on, just to make sure that I'm spraying the right stuff......

Very nice work!  Love the colors on this one.

Mike

I love it. I will have to add this version to my stash. I really love the red and white belly. Nice job, it looks fantastic.

Very nicely done, indeed! She's a beaut.

On the cowling barrels, I'd do what Trey said. Or another option might be aftermarket brass barrels. I used them on my last 190, and gluing them on was one of my last steps.

Very nicely done Dawg! I also use Trey's technique of poking the decals with a very sharp/new No. 11 blade and adding either decals solvent or Future to them to allow it all to bleed under the decal and seal it down better. This is a most impressive model, especially given the scale and complexity of it. Well done!

Been a long time coming but worth the wait,it looks really sharp Dawg! I too have forgotten the cannon barrels before,was able to cut them short and with some thin foam safe c/a(it wo'nt fog) was able to sneak them in without hurting my build,hope that helps. As for the decal silvering sometimes I use the point of a fresh #11 blade and poke holes gently in the decals and then saturate them with decal solv, sometimes it does the trick. The paint work you've done looks nice and crisp ,no bleed thru's or creep,very nicely done Sir!!!

Yeah, I think so too "Dawg. 

Gary

btw- As far as I know, Future is clear gloss acrylic.

Looks great!

Well, Dora is finished, as per my definition of "finished", anyways. Lots of problems with this one, especially with the decals silvering, and then disintegrating once I hit it with Alclad II Lacquer Flat Coat. I wonder if the lacquer flat coat ate away the decals? Anyways, below are the pictures. The only thing I still need to add is the antenna wire that runs from the canopy to the aerial on the top of the vertical stabilizer.

In this shot, you can see the silvering on the fuselage "3", and on the swastika on the vertical stabilizer. I used Future Floor Wax (or Pledge FloorCare Multi-Surface Finish, as it's called now), and I think it has acrylic in it, but I'm not too sure about that. If it doesn't, that would explain the severe silvering that occurred with the decals. I know alot has been talked about on the forums about Johnson & Johnson's newest packaging of this product. Makes it hard to know what you're getting nowadays.

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Frontal shot. If you'll notice, I mistakingly left the two cannon barrels out of the cowling. They both have to be attached from the inside, and by the time that I discovered my error, it was too late to fix it. If anyone that has built this kit in the past can give me some pointers on how to attach the cannon barrels without destroying the plane, I'm open to any suggestions. You can also see some silvering on the cross on the right wing, too.

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She doesn't look too bad from this angle. Depending upon how the light is shining on her, the silvering may or may not be noticeable. 

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From this angle, you can definitely see the silvering on the decal just below the cockpit, on the wing crosses, and on the swastika, plus the various stencils. This will definitely be a 6-foot model....... 

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Bottom view that shows the two crosses coming apart/disintegrating. Not sure why this happened. After applying decals last night, I waited about three hours for them to dry, then shot a couple of coats of Alclad II Lacquer Flat Coat to seal up everything, hoping that this would take care of the silvering as well (it didn't). I examined it all, and didn't notice anything odd with the decals, so I figured I'd let her sit overnight, and finish her up today. When I looked at her again around noon today, I noticed that the decals on the bottom had started to come apart, and I couldn't find the missing pieces of the decals at all, as though they had just "disintegrated". Anybody have this happen before? And it's only the crosses on the wing bottoms that did this - all the others are ok, other than the aforementioned silvering decals. And, if you'll look even closer, you'll see that I masked the flaps incorrectly (masked them for the wrong sides), and accordingly, the white stripes don't line up - AT ALL!!! I discovered this as I was gluing them in-place this afternoon.

You know what? I'm glad this one is finished. The paint job came out very well, but all the other little problems, including the self-inflicted ones, made it a slight pain to build. Hopefully, my next one will be a lot easer and relaxing. 

Folks, let me know whatcha think. Thanks for giving her a look.

Chanter

Gary that looks great!  Really really sharp paint work.

I love the look of those JV44 birds.

Allen

Thanks for the kind words, Allen. I like the paint scheme, too, which is why I chose it. Quite pleased with the results.

TREYZX10R

Looks great Gary,nice job on the mottle!

Thanks, Trey! My first-ever attempt at a mottle camouflage paint scheme. I'm decently pleased with it, although I know it could've been better. Looking forward to getting her finished soon.

sanderson_91

Hey Gary, sweet 190!!  I just finished this same aircraft except it was the Tamiya 1/48 kit.  I hope to post some photos tomorrow.

Steve

Thanks for the compliment, Steve. I haven't built a Tamiya 190 yet. Actually, this 1/32nd Hasegawa kit is my first-ever Fw-190 of any kind. Hope yours comes out great!

Texgunner

Gary, I think she looks great!  Very well-done indeed.

Gary

Thanks, Tex! Greatly appreciated!

Gary that looks great!  Really really sharp paint work.

I love the look of those JV44 birds.

Allen

Looks great Gary,nice job on the mottle!

Hey Gary, sweet 190!!  I just finished this same aircraft except it was the Tamiya 1/48 kit.  I hope to post some photos tomorrow.

Steve

Gary, I think she looks great!  Very well-done indeed.

Gary

Well, folks, it's about two months since I last updated this post (probably longer than that). Work has kept me away from the bench for way too long. Finally got the decals on my Dora today (Sunday 31 August 2014), and I think she looks decent. I'm showing some silvering on the larger decals' clear areas, but, hopefully, a good dull coat layer will take care of that. Once the dull coat dries, I'll be attaching all the landing gear, antennae, etc., and I'm hoping to have her done by tomorrow.

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You can see where the decals on the bottom were translucent enough to allow the white stripes to show through, which is why I painted the stripes instead of using the kit's decal stripes. I should've painted the crosses, too, but I didn't think about that. Another lesson learned!

Let me know whatcha think.......

Gary Mason

lawdog114

Nice Dora Dawg.  Sorry I missed it the first time.  Alclad is the best clear coat on the market.  You should have no trouble with it on either.  

Joe

Thanks for the compliment, Joe. I've never used Alclad before, and the local HobbyTownUSA had some on sale a few months ago, so I thought I'd give it a try. Was kinda concerned about it, though, not having any experience with it.

panzerpilot

You should be safe using the alclad clear coat. I've even heard of people using it on acrylic, but built up, not in thick coats.

Thanks for the info, panzerpilot. I wasn't sure at all about it. Always better to ask first.....

Nice Dora Dawg.  Sorry I missed it the first time.  Alclad is the best clear coat on the market.  You should have no trouble with it on either.  

Joe

You should be safe using the alclad clear coat. I've even heard of people using it on acrylic, but built up, not in thick coats.

Got paint on her today, specifically RLM82 & RLM83. Also painted the propeller hub RLM04, and the propeller RLM70. All painting is done, except for maybe some small areas that might need touching up after I let it all dry for a day.

This is just after painting her, and the masking on the bottom is still in place. All done free-hand, which is another first for me. Kinda scary painting with no masking, but, it came out ok. I painted the entire model RLM76 (lichtblau) first, let it dry, then painted a couple of coats of RLM83 (lichtgrun) in the appropriate places based on the instruction sheet. After I let that dry for about 30 minutes, it was time for the RLM82 (dunkelgrun). I managed to get the mottled spots a little too heavy with that color. But, I think it'll look ok once the decals are in place.

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Another view before the bottom masking comes off. The canopy is just under the fuselage.

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Top view. I started to mask the fuselage once I was done painting it, then paint the wings, but the paint was going exactly where I wanted with the #1 needle & nozzle that I was using with 10psi, so I just went ahead and painted the wings with no masking as well. I think it came out ok, too.

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The prop & it's hub. It's almost impossible to mess up painting those two........

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After the bottom masking is removed. Good contrast in colors. I wonder who (in the squadron) came up with this scheme? 

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Another view. Here you can see where I got the dunkelgrun (dark green) way too heavy, and had to make the spots a little larger than normal to get the paint flaw looking decent..

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Another angle of the same view. I guess the dark spots don't look so bad in this view......

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This is how I wanted the other side to look. Oh well. It was a good learning experience.

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Tomorrow, after the paint has cured for a day, I plan on shooting some gloss coat on her, then apply some decals. I plan on using Alclad Gloss Coat, which is lacquer-based. Does anyone know if it will attack the enamel paint?

Give me your critiques!

Gary Mason

Brandon, Tom, & Josiah: Thanks for the encouraging words, guys. Greatly appreciated!

I'm now in the midst of spraying the mottled camouflage paint, so I'll hopefully be posting some more pictures of it's progress sometime today. Never done the German mottled camouflage scheme before, so this is gonna be a real learning experience for me. I'm using a #1 needle & nozzle on my Paasche VL airbrush, running at 10psi. Not used to that! I usually use a #3 needle & nozzle running at 25 - 30 psi for spraying my paints, and that's because I usually have masks on everything to keep the excess paint out & off the other painted areas. No masking on this cammo scheme, so the pressure has to be really low....Well, at least that's my reasonings, anyways.

Great looking job on the stripes, looks wonderful!

Looking Nice! The Dora is a nice bird!

As for the original post, I have had issues with Hasegawa wing root - fuselage gaps in the past. I try not to attach the cockpit into the fuselage as tightly (ie, just glue it in towards the upper fuselage, not glued flush on the inner fuselage). That helps.

That's looking real nice. I think I might add that version to me stash.

Ok, folks, after over a year's hiatus on this model, I got the gumption again to get her finished. Below are some photos of her most recent build & paint sessions.........

This is how she looked about two weeks ago, after I decided that I was as far as I could go without some paint on her........

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I masked off the clear parts so that I could use them to mask off the cockpit. After I had spent about 2 hours on them both, I looked to my right and what did I see, but an Eduard masking set staring back at me!!!!  AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I had forgotten that I had bought that set when I bought the kit a few years ago. Oh well. If I ever build another of these kits, at least I'll have a masking set for it (if I remember it.......).

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Another view of the masked clear parts........

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Here's the best picture I could take of the cockpit with the Eduard ColorZoom photo-etch instrument panel. I could not get my camera to focus correctly on this. It kept wanting to focus on the rear deck instead of what I wanted it to focus on. Gotta learn to use the manual mode on that thing.........

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Bottom view of her before stuffing all the wheel wells and other holes with paper towels in preparation for painting.....

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Top view showing the scoop and upper cowling. Doesn't look so bad from this angle.....

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In this view, I've already sprayed the bottom with Model Master Flat White, although it still looks gray. Not sure why that is. It looked gray to my eye as well. I decided to paint the white stripes on my Dora instead of using the kit decals, as all those stripes add up to a LOT of decals, and I don't like lining up lots of straight decals if I don't have to. So, I sprayed the entire bottom white first, then masked off where I want it to stay white with Tamiya masking tape (talk about a conflict of interest - Tamiya tape on a Hasegawa model). I used the kit decals as my reference. The stripes needed to be 3mm wide, so I laid out long strips of 1cm (10mm) tape, measured out 3mm-wide marks, then used a 12-inch metal ruler as a straight edge to cut the strips. I got three 3mm strips on each long strip of tape, with 1mm left over. Using the instruction sheet as my guide, I guesstimated the location of each stripe using a metric ruler. The stripes came out to be about 13mm apart. This was actually much easier than it sounds. It took me maybe an hour - at the most - to do. I figured trying to lay out all the decals for just these stripes would've taken much, much longer, and caused a lot of aggravation as well, and the decals probably would've been translucent enough to let a little of the red show through.

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Top view of my masking effort.......

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After three coats of RLM23 (Rot). I was kind of apprehensive about using the RLM23, as it looked pinkish in the bottle. But, once I got a couple of coats on the model, it started looking like the medium red that I expected.

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Got the landing gear doors & flaps, too. After masking the bottom of the plane, I simply laid the pieces in their respective holes, and lined up their masks with the ones already in the bottom of the plane....

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After laying down the red paint, waiting a day, then pulling off all the tape, this is what resulted. I must say, I was quite pleased with the results. This was much easier than using decals (have I mentioned that already?).

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Another bottom view. The two long stripes running the length of the fuselage were the easiest to lay down and get straight. Not sure why, other than where they started at the nose, and where they ended at the tail wheel well, were easy to ascertain, which made lining them up simple.

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Front view........

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Let me know whathca think so far, folks................

Like I mentioned before, I probably got a lemon kit. It can happen with any thing. This is the only Hasegawa I've ever had an issue with myself. Oh well. It's still gonna get built, regardless of the nit-picky issues I perceive...........