After a nasty bout with the flu (my first 104.7 temperature......loads of fun), I mustered up some strength to get back to the bench. I believe I left off at fuselage assembly. It went together nicely without issue. I added the gunsight then the top IP coaming. I figured I'd mask then add the windscreen now for ease of painting. Of course their instructions were vague on the coaming's placement, so it was a guess as to where this actually went. I ended up supergluing it down.
I then located the windscreen loose in the bottom of the sprue bag only to find a hairline crack where it broke of the sprue
. Of course it's one of the only parts they don't provide 5 extras of, so this pissed me off. Just another gripe I have with Eduard. They have too many small pieces and they tend to be overly brittle and fragile. I masked then attached the windscreen only to find it was too narrow where it met the fuselage. I haven't seen anyone else complain about this, so it must be something I did. Anyways, I pulled it apart slightly and used solvent glue to hold it in place. I then puttied the joint to something respectable. Truthfully, I'm afraid to look when I remove the masks.
The main gear bay parts were assembled without issue. These were nicely detailed. I sprayed them in my own concoction of RLM 02.
In 1943, the Luftwaffe still enjoyed air superiority so the fighter units were proud and flamboyant, JG 1 in particular with their interesting noses. They sported distinctive black and white stripes on the cowl (and checkers at one point). I sought to replicate this with paint. I painted the nose black then taped off the stripes. After some trial and error in getting the width and curve right, I eventually came up with this.
Next I pulled out the Montex and added the insignias and such as needed. Once done, out came the XF-2 white I cut down a bit with XF-19 Sky Grey. I use this to tone down the brightness of th white.
I taped off the cowl, landing gear bay, then I broke out the AK Real Colors RLM 76. Again, this stuff goes down smooth as glass.
A little bit of fading with some XF-2 white added. I didn't go nuts with it.
Next I fired down the AK RLM 75. Smooth as silk.
Blue Tac makes short work of the camo pattern. The 190 is fairly easy compared to say a Spitfire.
I fired down the RLM 74. I added some XF-57 Buff to fade it out a bit. This looked about right to me. I also added some minor mottling. Again, this paint sprays like a dream.
Masking removed. These Montex masks performed perfectly. It's still a mystery why there are issues sometimes with adhesive residue. I went ahead and painted the prop too.
I'm pretty happy with the nose stripes.
I did some postshading with a diluted XF-69 NATO Black and XF-64 Red Brown. I did most of the dirt streaking on the underside as I will do some oil streaking top side later.
Time for a clear coat and decals.