Fw 190 Butcher Bird 2013 (extended to June 2014) Group Build

There is some great work going on in here thus far!

Blackdog:Good work on the machine gun barrels and the spacing for no gaps. I wished I'd thought of the spacer.

PJ:The attention to detail out of you is always astonishing!

Everybody: Will be rejoining in the build as a participant at the end of December due to my D-9 coinciding with another one that starts on Jan 1st. As far as what I'm doing right now? I'm putting the final touches on a Monogram SBD that I have been working on for the last couple of months. I'm kit bashing a Hasegawa SBD-4 kit to get all the interior detail stuff out of it. I started with the box Monogram stuff. This is it here:

Thats right , TWO parts to the cockpit tub!!!

Moving along to the upgrades: The pilots seat, pilots control stick, rudder pedal slides and pedals for the front and the gunners turret and twin .30's for the back. I had to shorten the turret struts so the seat wouldn't rest on the tub floor. All seat belts were made out of lead foil with individual buckles and latches.

and this is where it is right now to move things along: Paint is applied, gloss is on , MOST  of the decals are applied and waiting on squadron letters, numbers decals from Hannants. Everything is done pretty much except for that. Here's before decals:

and where its at now:

I know this is a 190 GB but wanted to show you guys what I've been up to and why I haven't been continuing with the 190 these days.

Bunch of thanks guys for your nice comments.

Mustang

That is one cool looking SBD. I have the old Devastator and plan to do a lot of scratch building to both offices. Your 3 tone scheme and scratch belts look fanbloodytastic! Who needs stinking pe belts anyway! will you have a display base for it like a piece of a carrier deck? Great work on the twin mount.

Hey Joe, great job customizing that 2 piece tub! Looks really good,  So does the gun and mount.

great job on the sbd. I think on my next build im going to try scratch building the harness. im thinking of trying milliput and wire.

wow I think I got my badge right. now for more than 1 pic. per post.  :)

can anybody tell me do I use rich formatting for all post  or can I use the reply tab for just chatting (no pics)

thanks in advance.

You need rich formatting for quoting, smilies, and pics/vids.

ok thanks

I know  the sky is the limit when it comes to detailing and the pics of the brake lines are great help but I cant seem to find where they tie into under the wing. or do we just run them to the top of the stut and call it good. just a thought.

plastickjunkie....nice work with the drill im going try that if the option is on mine.

Dog

Run the line along the front of the strut close to the wheel doors and curb them once you near the telescoping part. Bury that end at the bottom of the gear leg and the top line part into the well, you really can't see where it ends into the wing. For the belts I suggest using metal foil. When I scratch out belts I use foil from wine bottles that we use. The buckles I make from discarded thin electrical wire. Mustang did a fabulous job on those belts which are very easy to manipulate and pose.  

Hmm. I'd wondered about where to terminate the brake lines too. Thanks PJ, and thanks for asking the question, BD.

Woohoo! Lots of great building going on gents. Really nice stuff to see.

Clemens - You are doing some real nice PE work. Keep it coming.

Blackdog - Sorry to see the issue with the canopy. Hope the recovery goes well. the rest of your work looks great.

PJ - Really sweet detailing on the landing gear. And overall, just outstanding.

Joe - Absolutely marvelous work on the SBD. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Thanks for all the wonderful builds gentlemen. There really is just some honestly great exhibition of talent and skill here. 

With that all said I am pleased to say that I have indeed made some progress. Better yet I have some pics. I regret the quality of my pics but, I seem to be having issues with my camera. Yet, I believe I will get the idea across. The first pic is the mask on the initial coat of RLM 84 (again, Gunze Duck Egg Green). The second is the coat of RLM 75 and the start of the last round of masking prior to the RLM 83. It all seems to be going well so far but all will be revealed once all the putty is removed.

pj thanks again for the info im going to try the bands also'.

greg your welcome.

joe I cant wait to see the finish. im not sure what rout im going to take on my my paint I was going to try free hand.

I came across this to day in my research  and thought it interesting. and maybe others might also it explains a lot of the fw 190 labeling. if anybody needs I can try for a better pic in the sunlite..

Blackdog, by any chance did you use Future on that canopy?  If so, thats likely your problem.  Unless you have an old bottle, the new formula is and wont cure.  Nice work by the way.  PJ, thanks for showing me how to rig the landing gear.  Mustang, One of tne sweetest SBD's I've seen.  I love the tri-scheme.  I have the Accurate Miniatures SBD waiting.   Please post a build thread.  Clemens, thats is looking fantastic. 

Anyways, I have a quick update.  My OCD did win out and I decided against better judgement and sanded the doors flush as best as I could then tried to rescribe the lines.  This was ackward and difficult like Das Fuhrer himself .  After it was all said and done, I think they turned out ok.  I did decide to save my Mayer decals for later and will to go with the cover subject, Walter Nowotny's JG 54 mount from the Eastern front.  Besides, I'm dying to try out Gunze's version of RLM 70 and 71 for which I bought but have yet to use.  Apparently Nowotny's 190 had an early scheme.     

I preshaded the panel lines and then added all that Eastern front yellow.  The was Flat Yellow cut with a tad of Flat Red untilI thought it matched the decals.  I'm curious, as I recall my recent 109 G-2 from the ETO, were the Russians overly intimidated by the color yellow?  The Luftwaffe planes in that theater certain had alot of it. 

The instructions call for RLM 76 on the lower (I thought it should be 65 actually...considering the top), which is next.  The yellow will be taped off soon and the scheme started.

Joe

Greg and BD...You are both welcome.

Joe Rix.... Thanks bud. Hey that paint job is coming along. Great masking job.

Lawdog...You are welcome. Great job in matching the yellow color. Ivan wasn't afraid of the yellow but it was an identification aid, which apparently the bright yellow was visible in inclement weather. It made it easier to curb friendly fire cases.

I hade some minor silvering smack in the middle of the black fuselage crosses so had to mix  the mottle colors and perform surgery with my Renagade AB that shoots hair thin lines. What ever overspray got on the black portion of the decal was easily removed with a small brush and thinner.

I'm adding little details such as the antennas , the longer one that Edurad did not provide an attachment point in the wing so I drilled a small hole for it, and a small antenna behind the loop which I added from thin brass.

I secured the foil hood using those multi hand thingies I got at Harbor Freight for a couple of bucks. I have several of them and come in handy as in here

I drilled out two spots on the wings for the landing gear indicators, stretched some sprue  and painted them red and white, trimmed them to size and glued them on

added the mismatched tires

starboard ribbed

and port smooth

I also found a picture of the actual plane when captured showing the difference in the tires

www.asisbiz.com/.../Focke-Wulf-Fw-190D13-JG26-(Y10-+-)-Franz-Gotz-Germany-1945-03.html

Nice work PJ! That scratch built hood was worth the effort. 2 things I noticed on the pic of the real yellow 10. Lots of oil staining on the spinner, and the allies obviously removed the wing guns and motor cannon, and taped over the holes.

Lawdog- Glad you haven't completely lost your *** on this build. The A-5s didn't come in the early scheme per se, they left the factory in 74/75/76, then received an overspray of the early greens, 71/70, as you can see the 74/75 peaking through here and there around the tail. JG 54 apparently tried to paint their planes to match the vast Russian countryside in the summer.

Gunze's 70/71 are pretty close. I do add just a touch of black to the 70 to darken it, and then add some 70 to the 71, just to give them less contrast.

Joe Rix- Great perseverance on the Wurger! Hope you get things nailed down perfect this time! Bet you can't wait to finish her up...and start another one...

Joe Rix: Glad to see you posting progress pics again. i know you have literally be to Hell and back with this thing and hope the progress forward is smooth sailin' for you on this thing.

Everybody: Thanks for the comments on the SBD. I should be wrapping things up pretty soon with that and concentrating most of my spare time efforts on the holidays. I didn't want to take up a whole lot of space here on this build with it but was just letting you all know why I haven't been continuing with the D-9 build so far. Will be returning to the D-9 after the holidays. I'm getting bit by the Luftwaffe bug as we speak.

Oh goodie, lots of action today!

Joe (Rix), coming along nicely. I appreciate each and every pre-shading and puttty-masking pic, as I have yet to try either. Rookie question: Once the silly putty (or equivalent) has been used as a mask, is it junk or is it reusable?

Looking forward to seeing this one progress. I seem to be happy with my interior detail work that ends up all but hidden, still struggling for the fantastic exteriors I'm seeing from y'all.

Blackdog, regarding Lawdog Joe's question to you about which Future did you use, that is why I asked you the same, or what kind of floor polish you used if not Future. I suspect you missed my question. Specifically regarding Future, their new labeling is confusing, and it is tricky to find the right one for what we want to do. If you are using some other brand of floor polish, that might be very iffy.

Joe (Lawdog), I can hardly wait to the the exterior on this one come together. That is a truly cool (and challenging-looking) scheme, looking like you have all well under control (as usual) so far. :)

PJ, that is some awesome detail work, mate! Never seen or heard of the gear indicator thingies before. Were they at all common? Was that a Luftwaffe-specific thing? I assume they were simply a spring loaded rod pushed up when some part of the gear physically retracted?

Never thought of using the alligator clip extra-hands thing to hold awkward parts for gluing. Brilliant, thank you!

The landing gear came together beautifully. Cool idea on the two tire types!

Thank You Gentlemen for the compliments and encouragement. I have the next round of putty mask on and will be spraying on the RLM 83 tomorrow. I should begin to move right along here as this is my last day at the used bookstore prior to the closing of it's doors. This will afford me an extra day and a half to spend at the bench.

Greg: In regards to using silly putty after it's been used as a mask, it is quite reusable. Just wad it up and knead it for a while and the old paint just becomes incorporated in to the putty and tis good to go for another round. I have one batch that I have used for masking on three models and it's still usable.

Nathan: Currently I am planning on staying in here with ya'll with the Tamiya 1/48 fw 190F-8. Yet, that may change as I may opt to tackle something I know that I can finish in time to enter in WestFest next April.

Greg

PJ, that is some awesome detail work, mate! Never seen or heard of the gear indicator thingies before. Were they at all common? Was that a Luftwaffe-specific thing? I assume they were simply a spring loaded rod pushed up when some part of the gear physically retracted?

Fairly common on most if not all Soviet A/C in WW2. Yaks, Lavochkins, Shturmoviks.

Zero's too mabye?

Also found on MiG-17s, not sure about the MiG-15.

greg and lawdog..... sry I ment to get back to the both of you.  . this is the future I used its about 3 yrs old. it worked fine on my sample canopy (f-84) and fine on the rest of this canopy. about a 1/4 way up from the bottom of the front screen was a seem in my tamyia tape that's were the issue was. so I brushed a bit more on just to see if it would help it did clean the smudge up but blerd the rest

so im thinking maybe I rubed to hard on the seem or something because there was other seems in my mask..

Joe, thanks for the info on reusing the silly putty. Good to know! I was afraid I'd have to go to Toys-R-Us and buy a case of the stuff. I tend to be a bit of an inventory fanatic. :)

Nathan, that's interesting about gear indicators, thank you.  Odd it wasn't more widely used. Simpler is always better, and that seems a straightforward solution to "Is my gear down"? I think I'd tend to trust it more than three green lights.

BD, that's the stuff. It is the old label. If you ever want to buy a new one for some reason, let me know and I'll track down a pic of the new label so you don't waste a week buying the wrong stuff, returning it, etc. as I did! :) Glad to hear you got what happened sorted out.

thanks greg I read that some builders use it to clear coat for decals also.. this batch should last awhile  it around 1/4 of a bottle.

greg     I was gone for a bit last I seen on your build you was decaling it. did you finish it up ?.    

BD, I actually wrapped it up yesterday. Haven't gotten around to a final inspection or taking the pics yet. Keep waiting for a spurt of energy. :) Thanks for asking!

Sweet Greg! I can't wait to see some pics. And to hear what 190 you're building next.

Joe got me off my butt. :) This is the 1/48 Hasegawa Fw190 F-8 with BT700 Bomben Torpedo Limited Edition.

No excuses. I spent more time on this than I planned and for my second build back I am pleased with it. (Was supposed to be a quick build just to try my first airbrushed camo not to mention mottle attempt). Didn't quite work out that way. :)

As always, higher res image avail by clicking on image.

This was a SOOB build. Many thanks to those of you who recommended one of the Hasegawa kits for my first FW-190. It went together very well. And also for all the help, great tips, and advice along the way as always!

And yes Joe, I'm hooked. There is another FW-190 in my very near future. As soon as I figure out which one, I'm back in. :)

Oh, one last thing. Thanks to you who invited (prodded??? :) ) me to join the group. Frankly I had little interest in the 190's but wanted to join in this great group. Now I'm hopelessly hooked. Super cool aircraft.

Greg -- your second build? That is absolutely brilliant! I've wanted to do Red 10 myself for a long time, and must go back and study your approach!

I'm delighted to see this GB extended as I would still very much like to get that 1:32 Bodenplatt bird done, I have received the preprinted seat harness etch set, and as soon as I can figure out how to do it I can crack on and assemble the rest of the beast.

Mike/TB379

Greg:  That is one awesome looking 190 and you pulled that mottle effect off flawlessly!! This will fit proudly with the rest on display on the intro post!! Looking forward to seeing the next one your'e talking about!

Update: Just thought I would edit this post to reflect that I now have that good looking bird of yours on the wall of fame. Good job Greg!

Thunderbolt: I've been looking forward to your build! Glad to have you with us buddy.