French a/c group build 2012-13

taxtp

I thought you would never ask Vance. I am very keen for a part deux as  I want to model a lot of the German aircraft that carried French markings at some time. Hmmm, He 162, Do 335, FW 190, Ju 88, Ju 188, Ju 52, Storch/Criquet, He 111.

Cheers

Tony

I likely will post up before too much longer Tony, likely holding off until the summer though knowing what I already have lined up.

Might be worth posting a feeler thread Vance, I don't know how many people are still reading this one.

Cheers

Tony

I thought you would never ask Vance. I am very keen for a part deux as  I want to model a lot of the German aircraft that carried French markings at some time. Hmmm, He 162, Do 335, FW 190, Ju 88, Ju 188, Ju 52, Storch/Criquet, He 111.

Cheers

Tony

Parte deux?? Anyone??

Hmmm , on those French FWs....

In the immediate post-war period, the French Armee de l'Air operated FW 190 fighters (French designation NC.900). 65 FW 190s were built in 1945 and 1946 by the Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautiques du Centre (S.N.C.A.C) at Cravant. Between 600 and 900 people worked at Cravant, and the facility was also known as camp 918. Cravant had been a Luftwaffe repair facility, and 127 FW 190 fuselages and 162 wings of FW 190 A-4s, A-5s, and A-8s were captured there by the Allies in October 1944. About 100 BMW 801s were found at Dordogne, and the French planned to assemble 125, under the designation AACr-6, or NC.900. The first NC.900 was flown on 1 March 1945, but there were many problems with the new aircraft. Sabotaged airframe parts and the use of hastily recycled metals meant many aircraft were of poor quality. Armee de l'Air FW 190s only saw service for a few years, before more modern fighters were acquired. The principal operator of the NC.900 was GC 111/5 Normandie Niemen, which received just fourteen NC.900s. They flew with the unit for 18 months. A majority of the remaining 51 NC.900s were used by the CEV (centre d'essais en vol) at Brétigny. The final flight by a French NC.900 was on 22 June 1949.

Haven't really solved it Vance. I'm a bit keen to get back to it though.

Cheers

Tony

Tony!!! How did you make out tracking down colours for that FW190 ???

It may take a little digging, and possibly some help with translation, but there may be information to be had here: http://fighters.forumactif.com/

Overall light blue? Surely it came from French "stock" paint. If it is "light-light", it must be the colour they used on the underside of the aircraft, as the topside blue was a fairly dark blue-gray.  (But, as usual, I defer to anyone with proper evidence!)

This seems like a good place to ask  this question.

I'm going to build an FW 190A-5 as used by the French AF in 1946. It was painted overall light Blue. Any ideas as to an accurate colour match, or even what the colour actually was ?

Cheers

Tony

Thanks Bsyamato!

VanceCrozier

et voila!

And my traditional pose, with my little buddy Fuji:


I see some spots that apparently had too much dust-weathering added. Need to do a couple of touchups today, always seems to be the case now that I'm photographing this stuff.










She's not quite square... :(


A little propeller blade work..


Kinda surprised at how LARGE the main wing is on this beast, had to have been a little awkward to deal with on the ground.

The previous comments to finished biplane was lost in the emptyness of the net..  then really great work Vance  

Thanks Sub!!

Vance that is really cool! Looks great!

Thanks Tony! Yep, a challenging little build. All kinds of resin/PE for the cockpit, small parts count for the basic structure, then allllll that alignment fun with the wings & support structure! Certainly some things I'd do differently a second time, but I've learned a little along the way.

Congratulations on an excellent and interesting model Vance. I know that thing was a challenging build, and once again you've turned it into a little masterpiece.

I'm looking forward to your next GB, whatever that is.

Cheers

Tony

et voila!

And my traditional pose, with my little buddy Fuji:


I see some spots that apparently had too much dust-weathering added. Need to do a couple of touchups today, always seems to be the case now that I'm photographing this stuff.










She's not quite square... :(


A little propeller blade work..


Kinda surprised at how LARGE the main wing is on this beast, had to have been a little awkward to deal with on the ground.

The home stretch. Hoping a little weathering will blend in the not-so-perfect silver. That stuff was STILL tacky to the touch when I applied the Future? 2 weeks later???

All decals on now. Not surprisingly the decals on the curved fuselage were a little more troublesome than those on the wing surfaces. I still can't get over how freakin' thin these things are, and ZERO decal solution. (to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if solvents would simply melt these things) The only problem I couldn't fix up was the 11 on the starboard side, got a little fold-under that I couldn't fix without risking the rest of the decal. Did a little touchup with a paintbrush. Some weathering next. Shot it with about 2 seconds worth of rattle-can dullcoat... then it crapped out on me.

Agent 001 approves of the tail markings.

Cat looks hungry. I think that thing better take off soon.

Le Meouw !  Love the Agent Pics.. ! and cool builds !

taxtp

I can't say it's good looking Vance, but it's looking good.

cheers

Tony

HA!! Don't you know it, I doubt this machine won any beauty contests!

Pre-inspection, inspection. (Canadian beurocracy at work)



Wheels on, boarding step on, propeller dry-fitted, still need to trim the acetate for the windscreen, touchups tonight, hopefully.

I can't say it's good looking Vance, but it's looking good.

cheers

Tony

taxtp

Hi Vance,

As always I've really enjoyed your GB. If there is a French #2, count me in already. I'm in the RCAF one too if I can just find that Chippy I want to build.

Cheers

Tony

Good to know Tony - #2 is very likely at some point as I have another 1/2 dozen French machines in my stash!

Alright, finally contracted one of those 3-armed Rhesus monkeys to help me with the assembly of the wings etc. Shallow attachment points, lots of "glue, hold, brace, let it set, back it up with CA later" going on here. Makes for slow going, but here we are.

I attached the lower mini-wing to the fuselage with two braces. Then I attached the "winglets" to the sides of the fuselage, butt-joins that are so thin I decided that using brass rod to reinforce... could cause more problems than they solved. THEN I ran those angled supports down thru the winglets & attached to the mini-wing.




As that was setting, I drilled out the upper wing attachment points so I could get a decent plastic-to-plastic join. Then I crossed my fingers, hoping that these will actually line up with the angled supports....


ANNNNND they did! (Thank you AZUR!!!) And again, lots of glue, rest, reinforce going on here. I actually laid the fuselage structure upside-down on the wing, lined up the attachment points & hit it with Tamiya Extra Thin cement, ran right in & made a great join. Then I added the weight of one "toonie" to help it settle into place. I would have preferred a little more, but everything else kept sliding off.




Annnnd just before packing up last night:

Hi Vance,

As always I've really enjoyed your GB. If there is a French #2, count me in already. I'm in the RCAF one too if I can just find that Chippy I want to build.

Cheers

Tony

Cross your fingers folks, I'll be assembling the wings on my NiD52 tonight.

Well I can't hold others to a standard higher than my own, can I??  Looking forward to the H34s

Thank you kindly Vance ;

You truly are the most awesome "Benevolent FSM Dictator" on these forum pages , along with Stikpusher of course ....

I'll endeavour to finish my Sud Est H-34's .

John

Helo H-34

Sorry Vance ,

I failed again to finish my builds for yet another GB .

I'm starting to give myself a bad image by not completing things , lucky for me everyone is quite mellow about who finishes and who doesn't . Other wise I probably would be excluded from joining in and tied to the fence post and whipped .

I better try a lot harder to finish my builds !

John .

Good thing I can't find my flogging stick!!! ;)  The benefit of being the benevolent dictator of a group build is.... deadlines can be moved, including mine! I've got that Nieuport of mine ready for wings-to-fuselage assembly now, but still need to find some time WHEN I'M WIDE AWAKE to do it!

Go ahead & finish up that kit of yours, beyond the listed timeframe or not, would still love to see it.