FW-190 Reich Defender III 5/10-2/11

Rob, looking really nice buddy, excellent job on the mottle

Had a break in the rain for a couple of hours last night so i took a chance a laid down the preshade...

pics look weird...oneday i'll learn to take decent ones...

Note to self, must get some montex masks.....

Hi Frank, Glad you like the progress! As far as I can tell, the addition of the clear has no impact on drying time at all, it simply becomes part of the mix. The only drawback I can see is that there seem to be bright flecks in the finish, a scatter of fine spots that are glossier than elsewhere, as if some of the clear had not completely dissolved into the pigmented part of the mix. I'll try thinning the clear alone first, then adding the pigmented components and more thinner to finish with, maybe that'll even it out.

Yes, the shade looks pretty darn accurate -- it has the characteristic of 76 in that it looks blue in some lights and grey in others. If the other shades mix as accurately, it'll be a great way to spray Luftwaffe subjects when the weather is dead against enamels (and healthier too!).

I'll check out A2Zee and see what they have, those masks sure sound like a great way to avoid decal silvering. I might not have them in time for this build, but future builds will benefit, I'm sure.

Cheers, Mike

Mike- Awesome work, and a great tip on the X-22 to add the shine.  How much does that stuff impact the overall drying time of the paints?  I think you're right about the recommended Tamiya paint mix, looks just like RLM76 from here.

About those Montex masks... Mike (luftwaffle) used them on his build here, and said they were a little tricky to position, but otherwise performed well.  Funny this came up today, I just ordered a couple of sets of Montex masks last night from A2Z for some 109's.  I have ordered from them before, great people and superb service.

Rob- Sorry to hear about the pitot and tail gear, but your build is looking very good!  Just about time for the stickers!

Wow really looking good Max!!! Almost ready for the stickers!!!

Sim, Nice work guys...Very well done

Hello everyone,

Here is an update- got the plane painted. Will put on the landing gear over the week-end and start to add some details. As usual, I broke off the pitot tube and the tail wheel- so I'll have to frig around with those parts too!

Rob

Mike, Stik, very nice work fellas!!! Mike, pebbly finish? Can't see it from my house!!! Your mixing looks spot on to me mate!!

Stik -- ah, the Otaki! I have a couple of those on my shelves, so I'll be most interested to see what sort of job you can make of this one. If adding a few extras from TD or Quickboost and swapping out a few parts for Tamegawa unusued bits draws it up to speed, there are some sweet 190s waiting to be built.

Spike -- Montex -- that's the name I was trying to think of! A2Zee -- I'll check 'em out! And thanks for the kind words on the paint!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

PS: I'll have to mix some more 76, I forgot to paint the gear bay doors or the droptank! If I mask up the Academy bird I can get some underside colour on that one too... And the Airfix bird is a 76 underside as well.

Nice to see some paint going on Stikpusher,

Mike your paint looks just fine from where I'm sitting, nice job . Are you looking for "Montex" masks? I know you can get them in the UK from A2Zee models. I think I've read something about "miracle masks" but I've never followed up on that one.

Hope thats of some use,

Cheers...

Thanks Mike... my base kit is th old Otaki/Arii kit in 1/48, but I am also dressingit up with "extra" parts from Eduard and Tamiya fW-190s in my stash. Plus a little screatch built modes of my own and a seat from True Details. It will certainly be a Heinz 57 kit with a little of this and a bit of that when I am all done...

Your Wurger is coming long quite nicely there as well! Hopefully I will be at that point by next month...

Stik -- good work! What kit is that, and what scale? 1:48 by the looks of things...

More progress today, I masked the RLM 04 and shot the 76. It's hard to see the Tamiya tape against the yellow:

With the rudder, fuselage band and cowl band masked, I turned to mixing the 76 according to the ratio suggested by Tamiya in the kit plans. XF-2 White plus XF-23 Light Blue (more a grey) plus XF-66 Light Grey, on a ratio of 7:1:2. To this I added 25% X-22 Clear Gloss for lustre and thinned the whole lot 50%. I was pretty impressed with just how closely the mix was a match for MM enamel '76:

The paint covered the yellow and grey areas with two or three coats, and to my eye certainly looks like RLM 76. I have only one issue and that's with a slightly pebbly finish, despite having given the airbrush a proper service/cleaning beforehand. Maybe the gloss needed to be mixed in more thoroughly, maybe it needed to be thinned more to find its level, I'm not sure. It could be a characteristic of the paints in general, as I've experiences some grain in the past. certainly acrylics do not produce the velvet smoothness enamels are capable of. I may wet sand with 2000-grit paper to level out the surface, but if I go through the paint I'll be spraying again. You can see the roughness in this closeup:

Given that the photo appears about three times bigger on screen than the model actually is, the problem is in fact not a large one!

I've been considering using stencils for the crosses, given that they are all plain, open, single-colour types. Does anyone remember the firm that makes them? The name began with an M, I believe. Also, does anyone know an online supplier who stocks them? I did a search a few months back but could find nothing at my favourite outlets.

Hopefully I'll be masking for the topside shades tomorrow.

Cheers, Mike

Today for me the airbrushing gods were co cooperating weather wise and time wise so I was able to get the interior base colors down- RLM 02 in the cowling, wheel wells and RLM 66 in the cockpit, as well as Metallic Gray on the engine cylinders. All colors used are Tamiya.

Progress -- I get the feeling I need travelling music when I post...

The Tamiya F-8 is finally masked and into the paintshop. I think I was putting off masking the wheelwells all this time... When I was a teenager I used to say "filling and sanding is the cross modellers bear," but I think I've changed my mind. I think it's masking! That said, some kit will probably turn round and bite me on fit in the near future...

Okay, 12 areas masked with tape, tissue and rubber solution, here she is:

I moved on promptly to painting. The markings will be Green Double Chevron of SG2, March '45, so it really is among "the last of the last," and the 74/75/76 scheme is accented with SG2's yellow rudder and cowl band. I'm doing this whole job in acrylics so I mixed the RLM 04. To begin with, Tamiya XF-3 Yellow to XF-7 Red (9: 1), though 5% would probably have been enough to warm the shade sufficiently. Then this mix was lightened with XF-2 at 1:1, though it could probably have gone lighter still, XF-3 is a surprisingly powerful tinting shade. 25% X-22 Clear Gloss was then added to the overall mix to bring up the lustre, as seen in the MM enamel equivalents.

Thinned 50%, I laid it on with my Paasche VL (which could have done with a tip clean, there are a few specks and spots here to deal with), like so:

The nose and tail bands are supplied as decals in the kit but if I was mixing the rudder shade I figured it was far better to paint the bands then struggle with decals, which are not guaranteed to match the colour of the rudder anyway. I mixed more paint than needed and ended up laying it on in several coats (also on the rudder of the Academy A-8 I started for this build), and will let the paint dry overnight before doing another round of masking.

The main camo I'll soft-mask. The division between the 76 flanks and the 74/75 upper surfaces is a straight line in the plans, and I'm not sure this is correct, after about 1940 and the time of hard-masking, the straight line divisions were replaced with wavy lines freehanded with the spraygun IIRC. Anyone have any thoughts on this???

Cheers, guys, fabulous work all round and I hope I can get at least this bird into the hangar on time!

Mike/TB379

during the last weekend I started putting on the decals, I have most of them on, but still have a few left. after that its just weathering and then I should be done

Edit: Is there anything I can do to tone down the paint job so the plane doesnt look like it just rolled off the factory line

Man October sure sneaks up on you fast...got an armor show this weekend, then it's back to the a/c! The wrap up of my 190 is first up on the docket!

Besides, if I don't finish this one, Frank won't let me into that sweet-sounding "Hornet's Nest" GB.

simpilot34

Awesome pics Bill!!! Yes, as been said, we will drool over whatever pics you post of the races!!!

very cool!

Thanks Bondo for the very nice pictures, looks like you had a good time.

Rob I'm glad I'm following a few others building the Eduard 190 as it has certainly given me a few pointers as what to look out for, even so I'm having to wrestle with the engine but I've decided to close up all the cowls etc so all will be ok. Hope to get some pictures up soon.

Cheers...

I took a picture of the destroyed tire. Looked to me like the brake seized and It got the "loaded" treatment we all do with a sanding stick... Could have been a bad scene. You know, color me jaded but the a/c didn't rock my boat. It's actually pretty ugly as airplanes go, kind of relies on being such a venomous looking little machine.

Great to see one fly though, even if pulled around by Hartford's best.

Bondoman thanks for the pictures buddy Anymore pictures you want to send my way wouldn't brake my heart I can tell ya.

Now to see if I can find more info about it on the net, there seems to be very little. I had talked of doing an FW 190 racer a while back and now we have one. Hopefully they will have the bugs worked out for next year. Seems to me it did quite well considering it had only first flown back in May, well white 14 anyway.

Just checked on the net, and it is a Flug Werk plane, but uses an R2800 instead of the Russian/Chinese radial 

"Meanwhile, at Chino, California, USA, Rudy Frasca's Flug Werk FW 190 flew on May 13 with Steve Hinton at the controls. Unlike the other Flug Werk '190s, it is powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-2800. Oil cooling problems were initially encountered, but the machine is due to make its debut at Oshkosh in July before flying to Frasca's base at Champaign, Illinois. "

Thanks bondoman for the pics! Did you happen to find out if that FW was one of the Flug Werk ones?

Rob

Great pics Bill, thanks for sharing them!  Mmmmm... CORSAIR...

Awesome pics Bill!!! Yes, as been said, we will drool over whatever pics you post of the races!!!

Just got back, dumped the gear in the front yard, took a shower and uploaded the various cameras. What a great weekend. The FW 190 is owned by Frasca Aviation, they of the trainer industry. It was a joy to see, alas not much of a flyer. On Wednesday when she flew in she locked up a wheel and burned out a tire, spent the weekend on jacks and didn't fly until this morning, once and out. But an item of interest. I took my father in law over to see it. Before we went, he wanted to know if she was a radial or inline. Said the inlines were the ones gave him heck for. His fighter victory was a 109. Shot down lots of italian transports.

And one for Frank- a R2800 in an airframe where it belongs.

vetteman42

Sorry about the double post guys,,,,, well not really. Here's a picture of the FW-190 that arrived at Reno lastnight.

Piloted by John Maloney, looks to be race #14 but I am not too sure about that yet.

Now to see if I can find streaming video so I can watch the races.

Nice!

Wow, I would love to see that Wulf racing at Reno!  Bill- I'll be looking forward to those pics.  If you get any good ones of the Super Corsair (race 57) I would love to see those too!

Very nice Krow, lots of detail in there...

.......................check my wip...........................

Julez72 I knew they raced a 109 way back when, but this is a first as far as I know about a 190 racing, I could be very wrong though as I know little about them. For a time I was thinking of building a what if FW-190 racer, now I have a couple of pictures of one

Maxfax I have no idea buddy, one of the other guys here may very well know. I was just blown away when I saw this one is racing in Reno and this group was the second thought for posting the picture I found of it. First thought was how can I get me to Reno this weekend to see the goings on there. I did find a site where I can listen to the race announcer but still havent found a live video site yet, havent given up the search though.

I do have a better picture of Race # 14 if you guys want me to post it I will.

Bondoman cant thank you enough, I would love to see any pictures you are willing to post. In fact if you want to email any of them to me I will PM you with my email addy.