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

Krow113- Sorry to see you leave, I removed your build from the list.  Hope you have fun over in Aircraft!

Hugh- Glad that the tips worked!  Looks like you have her under control now.

xradio81- Wonderful work there!  I updated page 1 showing your completed build, thanks for building here with us!

Dave- Glad that your decals finally arrived, and also glad to see that the rum locker key is still safely hidden!  The thought of you running a muck with the keys sends chills down my spine!  Your 190 is really looking good Dave.

Stumpjumper70- I have added you to the roster on page 1, glad to have you aboard!  If you could refresh my memory, which kit are you working on?  For weathering, I usually start off with a panel line wash, followed by some general oil stains and such from areas like engine cowlings, gear bays, etc.  Some exhaust stains, as well as cordite stains from the guns and shell ejection ports too.  I usually add chipping along maintenance panels, the wing root areas, cockpit sills, and wing and prop leading edges.  Follow up with some dirt and mud on the undercarriage and wheels, and finally seal it all in with an overspray of HIGHLY diluted Tamiya deck tan or buff to add a layer of dirt and bring all of the colors together.  That final step really unifies the colors and gives the machine a faded look.

chewybr- Those candy-cane striped 190's always look cool, but not always easy to pull off.  Yours is looking very good indeed!

Dave- Your paint really looks great, nicely done!

Hugh- Nice work there, glad you got it sorted out and back on track!

Chewy- Nice work on your underside striping!

She's looking good Dave. As for who Frank left the rum with all I can say is I have no idea.

Soulcrusher

okay well since i lost my internet lastnight do to a storm while i was uploading my photos here they are.

Thanks guys, RLM 70 it is.  I'll hit the prop with that right after I lay on the future.

Dave that is looking stunning my friend. I would go with the RLM 70 myself. I use it neat as i like the colour but im sure darkening it would work.

Looking forward to seeing the stickers on her.

...Guy

razordws... very nice indeed. You are at the same point as me as I'm about to apply the decals (cant help you with the prop colours am afraid). What are your plans for weathering? Short of adding a few chips around panel lines etc, am not at all sure what I should be doing in terms of weathering? Anyone?

On a separate note, do I have to officially enter the GB or am I in it already by virtue of being on these pages?!

Excellent work all round guys!!!!! Beuatiful work!!!!

Dave, the official color for propellers is indeed RLM 70. I painted mine with Tamiya black-green which is close enough for me and added some flat black to darken it up but still have a greenish hue. I think Frank said several posts back that he mixes 50/50. HTH

Spike, thanks for the Blackbird info!!!

Well, since no one is letting on that they've found the key to Frank's rum locker and they're keeping it all to themselves I had no choice but to work on my build! 

Got the RLM 81 and 04 on tonight.  The yellow nose band wasn't all that hard as the area forward of the band is a separate piece.  I just had to mask the rear part.  The one thing I wanted to ask the resident experts though is my choice of colour for the propeller.  The decal sheet specifically names the colour for the other aircraft propellers on the sheet as RLM 70 but gives no indication for this particular aircraft.  My search on the web shows about a 50/50 split on Fw190 A's between RLM 70 and Black.  Any opinions?  It's not glued yet so not too late to change it.

A clear coat tomorrow and decals by Thursday.

On another note.  After 3 weeks of intense heat and little rain look what mother nature brought us.  My poor sunflower plant.

That looks much better Hugh. Thats what makes the differnce between a good modeler and a great one. The really good ones can fix just about any kit shortcoming or mistake. Nice save on the wingroot gap.

Soulcrusher

All---I think I have the gap fixed thanks to Steve and Frank.  Added a thin shim tonight after inserting the sprue wedge they recommended.  I was afraid to try the wing tip tape lift.  I love the way the pros help out us newbies in the GBs.    Here's what I have now:

Thanks again!!!! 

Yipppeeee!  My decals arrived today.  Now I can get crackin'

Mike and Hugh.  Some great detailing there guys from both of you.

Xradio, turned out nicely for your first crack at it in 27+ years.  Looks much better than my first attempt after coming back to the hobby! 

Now with Frank gone I expect someone to have seen where he keeps the key to the rum locker. 

Clebode

Mike--Thoe exhaust tubes look like the real thing.  Where did you find small tubing? 

Hugh- Picked that up at Hobbytown, they had a nice selection of metal tubes and rods.  I've found that model railroad stores are a great source for stuff like this too.

Looks like you have your hands full with that fit, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Luftwoller

Great job Xradio. You will grow to love German planes and find the lure of building them irresistable. GB's are the way to go as youll find out so much info your head will hurt. Hope to see another build from you soon,

...Guy

What Guy said!

Great job Xradio. You will grow to love German planes and find the lure of building them irresistable. GB's are the way to go as youll find out so much info your head will hurt. Hope to see another build from you soon,

...Guy

Finally finished my Monogram 1/48 G-3. Here are a few pics. I hope the next one is better. This is my first finished model since 1983. I am not familiar at all with German planes but I will be building a few now.On to the next groupbuild, I will see you there.

Frank, Steve and Guy---Thanks for the sprue wedge idea.  It worked like a charm.  The underside fuze fits so well to the sides that the seam cleanup was perfunctory.    There is still a tiny gap at the flap/wingroot junction but it is managable now.  More pics soon.. 

Boys; I hate to do it but I must go ahead with my D-9 in the aircraft forum. I had started this kit and was through sub assy to primer prior to this GB so I know you guys wont mind. I will keep up here and hope you guys do the same for me. I have had ,and will keep having,fun watching and reading the posts on this GB. There is a lot of info here and a lot to come on my WIP , that is the biggest 190 , the Trumpeter FW 190 D-9 1/24 scale , I have posted today to begin the work on this kit.

Guy well done on another fantastic build, she really is a beauty

Luftwaffle she's looking great, those masks seem to work a treat, results look excellent from here.

Stumpjumper your mottle looks good to me especially as a first effort, paint work looks good all round

Hugh what a shame about the gap, as others have said try putting in a spacer to spread the lower fuselage and keep working at it, I'm sure you can beat it.

Have a nice break Frank, great picture of the Blackbird, Richie I googled it and came up with          61-7964, hope that helps.

Cheers....

Nice work going on here everyone!!! Pity bout the fit issues Hugh, a paint to be sure but, as said they can be reduced somewhat. Good luck with them!!!

Frank, Can you get the tail number from the Blackbird please???

Hugh that gap is a nightmare. I dint have a problem with any of mine like that. Make sure that the fuse isnt binding on anything.  You may be surprised and the whole thing just clicks into position. Your wings are together right? The panel lines all line up?

The pit looks great btw,

...Guy

Hey Hugh. OOOPPSSS my bad I forgot to tell ya about the wingroot fit. I had the same problem and to close up the gap I cut a length of sprue and wedged it under the rear of the cockpit and adjusted it and cut etc till I was happy with the fit. I then glued on the wings and there was a still a very small gap, so I taped from wingtip to fuselage and pulled the remaining gap closed. It fit like a glove and didnt even need any filler. It also helped with setting the dihederal. I posted pics of my cure but that was a lot of pages ago.

Steve

Mike- Thank you, I shall be careful with those masks.  Hope to use mine very soon!

Hugh- YIKES!  That looks like a really poor fit.  Hopefully, someone here with some experience on this kit will chime in.  Would some sections of sprue wedged in under the cockpit help expand the fuselage to fill the space?  Just a thought.

Well fellas, I will be on vacation for most of this week and will not be near my computer.  If there is anyone signing up here while I am gone, or there are any finished builds, I will update page 1 as soon as I return.  I will be stopping in at the SAC Museum in Nebraska, and hope to get some good photos of the aircraft there.

First thing you see when you walk in:

  They have a few you cannot find anywhere else, or at least not easily.  They even have an RAF Vulcan!  A very cool museum, as many of the aircraft are in the condition they were in while in service, and not re-painted to look more attractive on display.  I like the rough look of them!

Mike--Thoe exhaust tubes look like the real thing.  Where did you find small tubing?

All--Been going at it on the Eduard D-13 "Yellow 10" .  I didn't post cockpit or engine plug photos as Guy took care of that a while ago.  If you've seen one plug you'vr seen them all.  The cockpit is pre-painted PE so no real variation.

My main concern was the scary stories about the fit of the wing spar.  My wings went together almost perfectly.

The cockpit tub and lower IP were a little big and I didn't realize it until it was glued to the starboard side fuze half.    I guess I got over confident after clearing the wing hurdle but saved it with some agressive trimming.    Its hidden deep under the hood.

So, I test fit the wing assembly to the fuze and  there is a huge misfit on the R side aft wing root.  The front fit is near perfect.  The L side is perfect.  See what I mean below.  If I did something wrong and anyone knows what my mistake was, please let me know as I have a D-11 to build in the future.

L Side Good.

R Side Bad

I think shimming and trimming is the only answer.  The wings wheel wells look good I think.

I broke open the Fujimi A-7 today.  I washed the sprues, cut the fuselage and wings free, dry fitted a bit, and was all set to start when I realized I didn't have any RLM 66 for the cockpit.  Sent the wife to town but she didn't make it to the HS.  Guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow. 

Pretty simple kit, but comes with parts to make 8 versions.

Daywalker

Mike/luftwaffle- Black 8 is looking incredible!  The painted on markings look spot on, too bad about the number and the winkle.  I bought some of those Montex masks recently for another project I am working on, and shall heed your warnings.  How did you find the tack of the masks?  Is it very strong, and should I weaken it a bit so I do not remove the underlying paint?  Also, nice job on those exhausts, MUCH better than the solid ones.  I was a little surprised by the kit parts, in 1/32 scale I would have expected at least a little attempt at hollowing them out.  Yours look perfect!

Frank, the tack is just about perfect, enough to stick but it never peeled off any paint for me.  The problem for me is they're vinyl  and if you're not careful you can stretch them and distort the shape.  I'm hoping to do a D-9 for this GB too and I'll try some of the other methods I learned and hopefully they will come out a bit better.

luftwaffle

OK, I really have been plugging along here but this one has been a comedy of errors, more touch up painting than I have ever done in my life.  All the markings you see here are painted on using Montex masks.  Conspicuous by their absence are the tactical number and IV. Gruppe winkel.  The numbers did not come out right so I'll be using a decal.  The IV. Gruppe winkels were applied and afterwards I realized that they were not a mirror image of each other as they should have been, the masks were identical so the starboard side was backwards,....so sand off and repaint white fuselage band.  The large amount of touch ups were due in large part to me be careless with overspray using the masks.  These things give good results but you really have to be meticulous when you apply them.

Here's some detail on the exhausts, Hasegawa provides some solid stubs for these.  I used some aluminum tubing crimped down to an oval shape for the port and starboard exhaust stacks and drilled out the lower stacks.

 

 

Mike she loks great. I really want to try thoses masks someday also. Even as nice as some of these decal sets lay down markings will still always look better painted in my eyes. Looking foward to seeing more.

Soulcrusher

Mike/luftwaffle- Black 8 is looking incredible!  The painted on markings look spot on, too bad about the number and the winkle.  I bought some of those Montex masks recently for another project I am working on, and shall heed your warnings.  How did you find the tack of the masks?  Is it very strong, and should I weaken it a bit so I do not remove the underlying paint?  Also, nice job on those exhausts, MUCH better than the solid ones.  I was a little surprised by the kit parts, in 1/32 scale I would have expected at least a little attempt at hollowing them out.  Yours look perfect!

Mike Nice work so far looking good

Stumpjumper great job! is that your first mottling paint job? I did not catch what kit you are building and the scale. You are doin a great job if that is your first attempt at mottling took me a while to get that down.  

Damon

chewybr- I have had the same problem with every Tamiya 190 I have built.  The initial release A-3 isn't bad, but it seems to me that as they have made new parts for different versions, that they do not match up quite like they should.  The wing-fuselage joint on mine was a tad off, forcing the left wing to have less dihedral than the right.  Some filing, shims, and lots of test fitting minimized this. 

Mike/benzdoc- That's a lot of work on that intake, but it does look much better than it would have without the mods.  Great progress, and hope your business trip goes well!  We'll see you in a couple of weeks.