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

Thanks Bish! I was originally going to open the cowlings up on this one but as you can see I decided against it and hacked off the cowling mg mounts and opened up the bays on the wings to accept the panels closed. Fairing in the closed wing panels is going to be a blast

Eric, some nice progress there to. I see your has open gun bays as well. Will you be leaving those open.

Looking good there Mustang. Are the cannon bays a part of the AM set your useing.

I am sure there is plenty of room jug!!

Mustang, looks like we are at about the same point. I just finished gluing the upper wings halves down. I too had a bit of a gap and some overhang on the rear fuse section of the lower wing when dry fitting but I solved this with s small spreader bar underneath the rear deck of the cockpit.

There is still some small gap there but nothing at all like what it was before the spreader. Seems like the front of the pit floor does a good job of keeping the fuse open enough up front but in the rear there is nothing. 

Looks like those seams on the lower ammo chutes will be visible after all, should be an easy fix though.

Also, after gluing the fuse havles together, it seems there is a bit of a twist back towards the narrow part of the fuse. You can kind see it here in this pic. Not sure if its my eyes playing tricks on me or what but looks like it bends to the left in the pic a bit.

Is there place for another entry? If so I would like to enter with Special Hobby's 1/48 A-6. I can only start building in May however.

Nice Mustang. Could never tell by the pics that you're having so much trouble with fit, everything looks so clean. Hope the engine and engine mount fit well for you.

Joe Rix, 50s?? I long for 30s...haha. I still have 1.5 months of good bench time due to us still being deep into winter up in Minnesota.

I've got all my main painting done. I did some fading with the airbrush on the top colors, and will shoot a gloss coat within a day or two. I still have wheels and a few small bits to paint up.

Joe, I am marveling at your patience and ingenuity to save your 190. I believe many folks would have long since given up on that but, you are demonstrating that if you simply take your time and give it an honest effort (coupled with a healthy dose of stubbornness) that any ill begotten model can be overcome. You are doing an excellent job on your bird Joe, and it appears you are about through the worst of it.

I glued my fuselage halves together yesterday and the seams required just a little touch of Mr. Surfacer 500. Fitting my wings on, which is very tight, I too have a small step on the port side. I will address that in short order. Gluing in of the cockpit is in store today. Bench time has slowed a bit as we are breaking out of a very unusually cold winter for here finally and with the temps in the 50s I am not resisting getting outside and enjoying some fresh air and sun.

Still have to put the rest of the photo etch and wire harness detail in the cannon bay but will be doing that after the exterior is done. The set up for the masking has a tendancy to break the photo etch detail loose after gluing in my experience (and with my luck!!!!!!!).

Ok folks. I managed to get the fuselage attached to the lower wing Something was off kilter with the two mating up. Honestly I really feel strongly that the lower wing was much more warped than originally thought but..........I made it work. I glued the front of the fuselage to the lower wing and then tweeked it around to make the lower wing fit properly to the fuselage at the rear of the wing/fuselage area. This resulted in the rear part of the lower wing(that is actually part of the lower fuselage) sticking out on the L/H side resulting in a "lip" on the L/H side which I removed plastic until flush. That done I installed the upper wings. Well as many of you know the work was not finished with tweeking. The R/H wing fit too snug and the L/H wing too loose. It was a simple matter of tweeking on the R/H wing but the L/H wing need filler between the fuseage and the rear part of the upper wing. So I made that work too.

 Now its a matter of cutting up wing cannon access covers (in which I have 2 extras for each side) to mask off the cannon bays so I can prime and paint the exterior. Got the R/H side done and will be moving on the L/H side tomorrow, then masking off the canopy as well as the engine/ cowl gun bay area.

Here is what I have so far fellas:(still playing with the camera lighting so bear with me)

Nathan, thanks. This is the first time i have used PE flaps, i was surprised at how easy the were to do. Do you mean the two bumps where the guns emerge from the fuselage. There should be two bumps there, but i think these are a bit to big. The guns, which were molded in, did seem rather large. I have removed them to replace with metal barrels. I'm going to check my photo's and sand those blisters down a bit.

And thanks to everyone else. I think most of the detailing is done on this now. Just the other half of the flaps and the undercarrage legs to finish of.

Way friggin nice Bish! I've said it before and I'll say it again, "My hat goes off to ANYONE who can off detailing a 72nd scale aircraft and make it look like it should have been 48th in pictures". Nice job and that goes for you too Rix. Good job to both of you, Joe

Sorry, forgot to use rich formatting.

Bish, Very nice work so far. The PE flaps are indeed a nice touch.

I thought I was done carving prior to gluing the fuselage together when I took notice of the solidly molded air cooler shutters. So, since I was in the carving out mood I set to them with a scribing tool and a large needle chucked in a pin vise. I regret that the photo is poor at best but try as I might this was the best I could get. Hopefully it gives you the idea as the effort really enhanced the realism of those shutters. Oh yeah, I still need to carve out the ones on the otherside.

i848.photobucket.com/.../8b1163e9-3302-4a71-b37d-bcafe2ecbd6c_zpsa9832f9a.jpg

Bish... Man... I still cant get over the amount of detail you can pack into that 72nd scale. I can barely see the instructions! LOL... Great work man...

Well I just got my Eagle Cal decals for the A-8/R2, and according to JC, it didnt' have the upper mgs (faired over), didn't have the outer MK108s(faired over), and it had a wooden VDM larger prop?? So I have to rob a prop from a dora or an A-9, and just screw the rest? Too late to fair over the upper guns.

Thats a sweet little build Bish. Looks like all fit perfectly. Those pe flaps looks yummy too. Whats the deal with the two little fairings at the front of the gun cover? Looks like fairings to cover up the MGs like on some Sturmbocks? But this one will have the upper mgs right?

Time for a bit of catch up. I've only made the odd brief visit to the forum in the last few days. Been trying to concentrate on building.

Mustang, thats looking good.

Stoutfella, close call with the Micro. Really glad you caught that as she looks stunning.

nathan, nice work on the paint job. That Ta 152 looks really nice. I long the long nosed aircraft, but those long wings really catch my eye. I have a dragon 72nd 152, but after seeing the issues Archangel had, that could be a scary build.

Archangel, thats a real bummer. Hope you have better luck with the airfix.

blkhwkmatt, you got to love those eduard cockpits. Thats looking nice.

Eric, another great looking pit.

Hope i haven't missed anyone. Some great work here guys. Now for what i have been upto.

I got the wings attached and most of the sanding done. I then had an issue with fitting the front part of the canopy. When i trimmed the plastic at the front of the cockpit i over did it. So when i fitted the PE shroud it was to wide so the front screen wouldn't fit. So i had to remove the shroud, re fit and do a bit of filling. When i put the front scren on, there were a few gaps under that so a bit of filling there as well. I replaced the kit canopy with a Squadron Vac Form.

The white nose was painted on Wed, so time allowing i will be masking this tomorrow and painting the yellow underneath and the thin black ring at the front.

I have also added the rack for the fuel tank. I had to remove the mounting pins as these were lined up for the A-8 and the A-6 had it slightly further back.

All in all its been a pretty good build. There was a little filling on the wings. The majpor issue was the front of the cockpit, and that was all my fault. So thats two Academy kits in a row that have gone together well. 

Sounds like a sweet build Joe. What did Brett Green do to his? Did he use the MDC set?

Ordered the Aires detail set for the D-9. Lucky model had it for 46 bucks with free shipping. It was a no brainer! Will be ordering the kit within a week or two. Had to go with the Tamiya this time against sound advice but have the corrections that need to be done from Brett Green in his review of the kit. Gotta have a change from the Eduard way of doing things after this A-8.

Speaking of which I managed to tweek the lower wing and fuselage together at the rear of the bottom wing. Will have to do a little sanding/ filing but shouldn't be too awful bad.

JOE RIX

Hmmm, The Wonderful Wife gave me an $25.00 Amazon gift card for Valentines Day. I can get either an Eduard 1/48 D-9 Weekend Edition for $0.99 or a D-9 Profipack for $15.96. Very tempting indeed.

Will get through it though

stoutfella

Started decaling this morning and nearly screwed the pooch. Put one of the wing crosses on with some Microset and decided to hit it with some Microsol. So I took the lid off the bottle, dipped my brush in and was *this* close to covering the decal when I happened to notice the bottle said "Microweld" not Microsol.

Sheesh that was close. I've had a couple of close calls like that but it was with paint.  As far as your 190 goes, it looks great. I only hope my finish comes out like that. I have a couple of new ideas to try on that mottle.

Nathan T

You'll need a heck of a long list of AM for that Tamiya kit though. I know they can be tricky, but I'd recommend an Eduard Profipack anyday.

I will add that Ta 152's are grabbing my attention as of late too.

Hmmm, The Wonderful Wife gave me an $25.00 Amazon gift card for Valentines Day. I can get either an Eduard 1/48 D-9 Weekend Edition for $0.99 or a D-9 Profipack for $15.96. Very tempting indeed.

Hey Mustang, you'll love the longnoses! You'll need a heck of a long list of AM for that Tamiya kit though. I know they can be tricky, but I'd recommend an Eduard Profipack anyday. Eduard just got it right as far as accuracy, and with the pe for the pit, the only aftermarket would be small stuff, like prop and exhaust...wheels if you're a true AM nut like me. If you can handle this A-8, you can dig the Dora.

...or might I suggest the Ta152????

Ok you guys are giving the D-9 bug! I've spotted a 1/48 Tamiya D-9 offering and am looking at the Aires 4019 detail set for it. Lord only knows how long the AM list is gonna be!!  Well looks like I've got my next build lined up!!

Thanks Doug.

Stout fella & Nathan... Looking great, Cant wait to see the finished pictures!

Man Nathan! The cowling stripes, the Defense of the Reich bands, hell the whole dam thing! It all looks awesome. Nice job on showing the camo technique. Never thought of that one.............

Thanks for the painting approval Eric and Joe. Wish I could do more work tonite but with Valentines Day and all, I think I owe someone a date....

Nathan T

Joe- from what I understand, the armor headrest type on the blown canopy couldn't allow for the taughtning mechanism, so any 190 with the "blown type" would have the antenna slack when opened

I was afraid you were going to tell me that. Well. I'll just settle with that when the time arrives.

As for your paint job Nathan, Absolutely Fabulous! Man, not only did you nail the cowling but flat nailed the whole dang camo. That is simply a magnificent paint job.