WIP 1/48 FW189 Night Fighter- GWH

Well;

 I have to say this is some very nice work.Thank You!

Excellent work.

Looking great so far. 

Great attention to detail. That pit looks amazing! 

Thanks for everyone's comments, appreciate it.

So closing up the fuselage, man this thing has some major gaps that needs fillling. Maybe it's just my poor execution, I dont know.  In anycase, time to work on the front windscreen.  

There are 2 metal gratings that are not in the kit, I think they are meant for the crew to step on.  So I figure I can replicate using strip styrene.  The catch is that one of them has a curve to it, and I figure I can use a screw driver warmed up from a candle to bend it. Eh... nope, a little too hot, the thing immediated started to melt.  So try # 2 will just use come Tamiya thing cement to soften it.  Here'a picture of the melted one vs the 2nd try.

I then added some depth to the overhead instrument panel by punching out round disks of different sizes.  I will add some soldering as wiring to these in the back of the panel.

The front got individual instrument decals

And here's the front piece with the pieces installed

The kit was masked with Eduard masks, I started with Montex, but they just didn't stay stuck on any of the compound curves.  So they are cheaper, but I guess I will stick with Eduard in the future except for flat pieces.

Looking good so far. I agree with you 100% on Montex canopy masks. The vinyl is too rigid and adhesive not strong enough to keep them stuck on anything other than a flat surface. Also, the last time I used them I found that adhesive residue stuck to the canopy clear surfaces and was hard to remove. I'd rather cut out the Tamiya kit masks or get Eduard. No more Montex canopy masks for me. 

Thanks for your comments Hoss, yeah, I was penny wise but pound foolish with the Montex.  Still have 2 other sets though :(

Ok, so making good progress.  Finished up the engine by adding a few more details based on reference pictures.  Didn't do too much back behind except adding the yellow oil container (?) - as test fitting showed that you can't see too much, but if you left it alone, it looks too open.

After masking and the engine, it was time to close it up with paint and decal.  I use vallejo black primer, then gave it a coat of Hellbleu, followed by Gray violet to create th e pattern.  If ind that i better control over that then trying to do the 'random' patterns over the darker color - even though that's how it was applied in real life.

So almost there.

Well, this thing is almost wrapped up.

Starting add the small details:

Engine mounted and added the flames suppressors, don't know if they rusted, but couldn't resist - still trying that technique out.

I did drill out the flame suppressors, used pigment and paint for the rust, and a oil wash.

Got some nice PE ammunition belts to add to the rear machine gun

The kit comes with a nice set of service ladders and wheel chocks - very, VERY delicate and I think I broke half the parts putting them together.  I took an ICM luftwaffe figure from their set, and will create a small vignette for the display.  Still practicing my figure painting.

That really is a nice kit supplied service ladder!