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

Thank you again one and all, you are all making me blush!   It is an honor to build with all of you, as the workmanship is among the finest I have seen!

Richie- Actually, only the panel line wash was done between the Future and satin coats.  The exhaust stains, chipping, and streaks were all done after the satin coat.

Thanks for the technique sharing Frank. Just a quick question, All weathering was done after the Future and before the flat right?

Stumpjumper70

Daywalker, maxfax - stunning work. There's no let up in the standards on here!

Have picked myself up a Hasegawa 1/32 Dora which I am going to try and spec up a bit with some add ons including the Aires cockpit. Can anyone recommend a good reference site/book etc for the Dora, and in particular any rivet diagrams? They really seem to make a difference on some of the builds i have seen.

Keep up the good work everyone.

I build the 1/32 Hasegawa Dora for my entry and it is a sweet kit. Just a bit of a small fit issue at the wing roots but everything else was great. The Squadron/Signal walkaround book on the Dora is pretty nice and has alot of great detail shots in it as well as a couple of color plates.

Soulcrusher

Nice work Frank!   Flawless paint and perfect weathering... you're the man!

Daywalker, maxfax - stunning work. There's no let up in the standards on here!

Have picked myself up a Hasegawa 1/32 Dora which I am going to try and spec up a bit with some add ons including the Aires cockpit. Can anyone recommend a good reference site/book etc for the Dora, and in particular any rivet diagrams? They really seem to make a difference on some of the builds i have seen.

Keep up the good work everyone.

Frank, Wow thats a very nice peice of work you have there, well done

WOW!!! talk about a page fulla eye candy !!!! Stunning builds one and all

Frank Another great build by our fearless leader I too like the weathering and really like the way you toned down the spinner spiral. Its small details like that that really make a build stand out.

Now to the front page so I can be overwhelmed by the great builds going on in this group. Makes me worry about my build measuring up

OK, here's how I did some of the weathering on the bottom of the plane.

For the tiny dirty oil streaks, I took tiny amounts of black and burnt umber oil paints and put tiny drops in the panel lines where I wanted the streaks to begin.  Then, I took a Q-tip just barely moistened with mineral spirits and drew the oils backwards with the airflow.  If I didn't like the look, I simply wiped them off and tried again.  For the cordite stains behind the shell ejection ports, I took some Tamiya NATO black (as it has a greenish tint perfect for stains) and thinned it about 10% paint to 90% straight 91% Isopropyl alcohol.  At about 8-10 psi, I lightly airbrushed them on.  With the very thin paint and low pressure, you are able to build up the effect very slowly.  Ideal for weathering IMHO.  I hope that helped, and I didn't explain it very well, please say so as I would really like to help.  Good luck!

Frank, Yes I did mean the streaks behind the landing gear, how did you do it? I really want to weather a plane.

Sorry I am confusing to others and myself sometimes.

Thanks guys, glad you liked this one!  I have to admit, the odd color scheme is what drew me to this one.  I have wanted a late-war bird with the yellow cowl stripe for a while, and this one fit the bill. 

Frank well done!!   that is a very good looking plane love the different coloring

Damon

Frank--I agree with the others.  The Wulf is a beauty.  Also, belated thanks for the links to the LG technical information.  I am going with the longer kit struts and hope to have "Yellow 10" on its feet this weekend.

Great idea to post pictures of all the builds on page 1!!

  on all of the above.  Another awesome build Frank!   

Now to go check out page one. 

Stunning build Frank and a colour scheme thats growing on me all the time. As has been said, another masterpiece. Awesome,

...Guy

Nice work Frank! I love the weird late war color schemes. I'm going to check out the front page now so I can view all of the great builds done here so far.

Soulcrusher

Many thanks everyone, much appreciated!  Sure feels good to finish this one up- felt as though it were growing roots on my bench LOL.

Mike- Thanks mate, and yes- I do dip my canopies in Future.  I usually polish them first with Tamiya polishing compound to remove any scratches if there are any present.

Andrew- Not quite sure what you mean by the area behind the landing gear.  Do you mean the streaks flowing from behind some of those panels?

Rob- Thank you!  One thing that has helped me with my weathering is to do a little at a time, then STOP when it looks like almost enough.  You can always go back and add some more if it needs it.  About the PE, I generally avoid it as I don't like working with it.  Sometimes though, it really adds an extra dimension to a part such as ring gunsights and other bits.

Manstein's revenge

Someone should start a new thread with just pics of all the finished builds...I have gone thru about a dozen pages and seen some gorgeous work but it is too time-consuming to go through all of the pages in the thread and I don't wanna miss anything!

Great idea Manny!  I just updated page 1 with photos of each finished build.  Thanks for the tip!

Someone should start a new thread with just pics of all the finished builds...I have gone thru about a dozen pages and seen some gorgeous work but it is too time-consuming to go through all of the pages in the thread and I don't wanna miss anything!

Frank: that's terrific. The overspray on the spinner is excellent, and is the overall painting and markings!!

Frank- Another beauty from the Daywalker model machine!  Really looks great, as usual you've nailed every aspect of the build and the end product looks outstanding.

Daywalker:  Wow- nice work! It's nice to see a plane with minimal weathering. I feel sometimes I get caught up in the whole weathering process and end up doing too much. The same goes for PE parts. I think I'll follow your lead on my present build.

Rob

Wow masterful build Frank!

What did you use to weather behind the landing gear carriage underneath?

Again Great unusual build.

Maxfax your doing a great job despite it fighting you all the way, I'm taking notes for mine.

Frank bravo! All looks ***-and-span to me, love the yellow band on the cowl. Do you dip your canopy's in future? they always look crystal clear to me.

Cheers...

Awesome looking build mate!!! Well Done indeedy!!!! You never cease to amaze Frank!!!! I expect to see another trophy young man!!

Well, I'm sticking a fork in this one and calling it done!  Had a few issues here and there, but mostly the same as I have encountered on the other Tamiya Wulfs I have built.  Things like a wing that does not want to sit level with the fuselage and the landing gear alignment.  Besides those things, I fought with the flat coat and finally decided a satin coat would be good enough for me.  I did some minor scraping of the paint, but tried to keep the damage to a minimum as it was done late-war.  I added a dark overspray to the spinner, figuring that in the last days of the war the Luftwaffe was trying just about anything they could to make their aircraft less obvious (except for that yellow stripe around the cowl LOL!).  Well, enough of my ramblings, on with the pics!

Frank, I should have some WIP pics real soon

Despite the issues you guys are encountering, the progress photos look very good indeed!  Some excellent progress there.  I am hoping to get some work done on my build today, and will post some pics later- promise!

Hey everyone,

Here is my progress so far- I added PE to the wheel wells and right gun bay. I'm going to keep the left closed. Real bugger to close the left gun port hatch- the wing was about .5mm forward as compared to the moulded-in gun bay on the fuselage. Lots of scraping and adding plastic to get the door to fit. After the pics, I added the engine mounts- again one side is off about .5mm- I'm not going to worry too much about that. I'm going to leave the engine doors open, so hopefully this discrepency won't be a big deal.

Thanks,

Rob

maxfax

 Has anyone had problems with the shell ejector part actually fitting into the lower wing section? There is no way that it will fit, they land right on toop of the main spar piece and I fear I will need to cut them off.

That's exactly what I had to do.

Sim i agree, especially with the joint venture idea...I've seen a couple of Eduard kits built here that were outstanding but for a modeler like me who struggles to find bench time and struggles with patience i find it easy to get bogged down with projects that take longer than 20 hours to build...The reason i changed my BoB GB build from the Eduard 110 to the Tam 109 is because after 12 hours on the interior alone i got bored with it and built yet another mustang...I do think though that Eduard should keep up the excellent work on their range of WW1 subjects, i have a couple in the stash that are just waiting for the right GB to pop up...