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

Handi: Fantastic scratchbuilding! It's looking really busy behind that access hatch.

John: Very nice work on the camo and decals!

Mike: Looks like you got all your wingroot problems sorted out!

Handi, I thought scratch build version I was good. V2 is amazing!

Thunderbolt, looking like an FW indeed. Reminds me I need to start at my wing joins soon. Yours surely look good.

Thanks Mustang, SS and Greg -- it was a bit of a fiddle but the joints seemed to behave themselves after a while. The next challenge is mating the engine and there are gaps a millimetre or more in width everywhere but across the upper cowl, so I'm presently thinking about building up the mating surfaces with strip plastic to take up the gaps. That might work and provide a firm gluing surface, but then there's the flushing aspect, and the curved wingroot areas have a step a millimetre deep, at least, so it's going to be in interesting exercise. Simply filling it is an option, but the curved joint should be visible... has anyone else encountered this problem with the big Hasegawas before?

M/TB379

Today I did some test fitting and measuring of the gaps. Here's what I had to work with:

Quite major gaps, but when measured, little more that .020" in width. The step effect is more difficult to do something about. I started by gluing some .020" x .040" strip into the mating areas of the fuselage parts, and the intention is to file and scrape them to a contour that agrees with the corresponding parts. After that, I'm not sure, as there's really only filler work with, and the fact is that the engine housing, which is built up around the perfectly circular engine within, is simply not the same shape as the fuselage to which it is intended to join. It's too wide at about the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock positions. I thought I might have mis-aligned the casing parts, but they are snuggly joined to each other and the engine, so I'm not sure where the problem could lie.

M/TB379

Good job there!  For some really unknown reason they put seams in the HARDEST placed combinations,,, too many angles coming together with no positive placement. A peg here or there at least would give some reference,, looks like you have it handled really well !!

Sorry hit reply too soon,, as far as the gap,, hmmm there's no easy one for that one from me,,, Nathan or Joe or Mustang maybe have an answer as they have a firm grip of the 190 kits out there.....

Thanks, handi, but these are the 'before' shots, I'm just getting to grips with it. Plastic strip wherever there's a gap, then file the strip until the whole thing is as snug as possible. Superglue for strength, then filler and hope real hard I can cut it back effectively...

M/TB379

They did say that mounting a radial engine in a fighter was always a challenge -- it looks like a radial in a model is too!

M/TB379

Like a boss !!!

Thunderbolt,

  is that a dragon kit?  I'm not a fan of there cowling, the four pieces never seem to fit right all the way around the engine.  and that step by the cowling is the hardest to make look right once you've filled it. But I'm sure you'll get it,  just a deep breath and a little added patience.

John

Thunderbolt379

Today I did some test fitting and measuring of the gaps. Here's what I had to work with:

.

I hear you LOUD and clear on this part of the model. I always assemble the whole unpainted nose with something like Elmers glue or some sort of white glue that's easy to strip back off and then test fit. I realize that this aint helping you right now but in the future it will help you avoid this kind of thing. Next go round you can manipulate each individual panel or cut a little off of each panel t to reduce the amount of gaps especially in the cowl to upper wing area. In displaying opened up panels in a large percentage of my builds I have definitely benifitted from planning and fit  to keep from being a frustrated mess   and looking at my build like .

John -- this is Hasegawa's 1:32nd scale A-8. The odd thing is, the cowling fit quite well around the engine, all tight and symmetrical... I expected that with the larger scaled, the error factors would become proportionally smaller, but it doesn't seem to have worked that way!

M/TB379

Mustang -- thanks for the info! I'm glad to see these kits do exhibit this tendency and it wasn't something I mucked up by lack of skill! I built the engine and cowling way back as a subassembly, same with the wing and cockpit, but bringing them together has been more challenging. It should be a beauty when it's done. but getting it there is a lot more work than a 1:48, that's for sure!

M/TB379

Ouch! I had one do like that and could do nothing but fill with plastistruct and melt with liquid glue...

Thunder I have no doubt you will get it looking great!  Herman opened the tail wheel access and detailed it with garbage laying on the bench.

I'm getting caught up in here.  Thunderbolt, looking good.  I'm surprised your having issues with the cowl fit since the big Hasegawa 190 has been reported to have good fit.  I have that one in the stash so this is good to know.  Handi, thats some swell scratchbuilding there.  I look forward to seeing it all buttoned up.  Falcon, nice RLM paintwork.  You nailed the colors perfectly.

Anyways, I've been a wee bit preoccupied with this little peeing machine, "Casey".  I suppose its expected for a 10 week old German Shepard pup.  I took a week off work to get him housebroken, but its a slow process.  He keeps trying to nurse off our male 7 year old Goldendoodle "Oscar".  Oscar is  like WTF?? 

Needless to say the model bench has been lonely over the last week.  I did hit the bench last night for a bit.  I used Blue Tac to mask off the lines in preparation for the RLM 74.  I use this because I like the soft edge it leaves behind. 

I used Gunze for RLM 74  then added XF-57 Buff to lighten it for condensation streaks.  Once done, I removed all masks and posh shaded the panel lines, concenrating around areas that got especially.   dirty. 

Once I though it looked dirty enough, I sought to add the exhaust streaking which is common on 190's.  I started with XF-64 Red Brown then ran it back from each exhaust.  I then sprayed XF-66 Light Grey to simulate heat.  I was going for subtle here.  I think they turned out ok. 

I got some Quickboost gun barrels and Ultracast tires for this guy too. I home to get more bench time in soon.

Joe 

Dang it Joe! Your paint jobs come out almost immaculate!! That exhaust streaking looks good also. I didn't think to streak my exhausts on my A8/R2.

P.S. Do you guys realize we just went over 5000 posts as of the previous page? I never in my wildest dreams thought that a GB could make it that high in post count. Not only in post count but in the quality of the builds and conversation that has taken place in the last year and 3 months.

I again thank you all for making this GB what it is........Freakin' awesome!!!

Great work going on here guys! What a way to keep things going. Handi- You've got a knack for scratch building and adding detail.

Thunderbolt- I've never built the big Hase kit. On some of the older tool 1/48 Hase kits the cowling fit is similar. I've lessened the gaps by adding the lower cowling to the nose first, and adjust the gaps at the cowling ring attach later. Basically, I don't follow the multi-step cowling procedure in the kit instructions. Hope this helps if you ever build another one.

Lawdog- Great colors. Post shading and weathering looks cool. As does the yellow rudder amongst those RLM Grays.

Lawdog -- cute pup and fabulous Wulf! Nathan -- good thinking, I might give that a go if/when I put another of these birds together...

M/TB379

Absolutely gorgeous Joe. Very impressive paint and weathering. Your exhaust looks excellent to me . Sweet work.

Lawdog.  I got to  say you have the nack for putting down a smooth paint job.

Wow that is a lot of post this being my first BG I may be spoiled.   :)

I have to give credit to a lot of you guys for helping me. Much of what I did on my build I learned in this GB .

mustang. I'm going for another build with y'all I'll pick one out in the next day or so I'm thinking TA-152 not sure which one.

Law Dog... Paint is killer! Casey definitely not camera shy... but definitely cute!

Dose anybody have any info or pics of a TA-153 it's supposed to be another version of the 190 ?

And I think they had a 154 which was there version of the Brits mosquito. ?

Nayhan T, Rigidrider and Lawdog are the three names that pop into my head for info on those birds there blackdog.

Well I found a little time this weekend between car repairs and running errands to get some decals on. Just the little stuff left to but on then weathering, yeah.  

Can't wait to flatten it and start the weathering,m the gloss is killing me.

John

Shiny or not it looks fantastic!

Hot Damn John, That looks awesome. You certainly can do do a bang up job with decals my friend. I be to lovin' on your snake planes.

Handi and Joe,  thanks for the compliments.

John

Very nice work John. You nailed those decals down perfectly.

Nathan,

 Thanks,  the main snake body decal on the right side was very fragile,  it broke into about four sections.  it was like trying to herd cats with a twizzer and then add decal setting solution on top of it, to try to get them in place before they became to soft to move,  it was a challenge.

It will be fun to photograph my 1/72 #11 snake head 190 with this #8 snake head together.

John