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

Thanks Handiabled, Joe and Nathan -- I blush discretely! It's been a great pleasure to take part and I've picked up knowledge and skills along the way from the great talents sharing this GB!

Nathan, the flaps are an interesting point. At the moment they are just press-fitted, so I can unhitch them at will. I could either try changing the angle of the tabs by scoring and bending, perhaps with the plastic softened with liquid cement, or I could remove the tabs altogether and glue directly, though it does not look like there is a common edge to work with. Re the outboard canons, Dortenmann's plane certainly had them, it's the kit engineering that took me unawares and I'll need to very carefully rejig things to attach them directly to the wing out surface. That really is a "superglue and prayer" situation and they'll be very delicate. That's for a later time, though!

Thanks again Mustang and all, it's been a great build to be part of and I'm glad to have added three subjects for my Fw 190 collection in one hit.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Oh, and just to show that enthusiasm never flags, these arrived in the post recently:

Other than the bagged Tamiya F-8, they are all of Trimaster lineage. I'm hoping to get to a couple of them in next year's build roster.

Oh, and there were of course an equal or greater number of Bf 109s in the post in the same period, too!

Cheers, M/TB379

Mike, you truly did a beautiful job on that bird. Everything is just spot on. Truly like the subtle weathering/finishing. That bomb really pops, btw. Adds a lot and I love it.

This one was particularly interesting to watch come together. It all came together so fast that even with my feeble memory I still recall what she looked like a few weeks back.

Mike, that's another lovely looking build. And a nice fresh haul of 190's.

Now does this mean we will be seeing a Stuka from you soon

Thanks Greg -- well, she was in play all the way back in RD III, then lay fallow for a long time while I warred with the idea of etched harness, but after I made that decision she was able to come together, then it was pretty much cookbook through to the painting stage, then the decals did their thing and imposed another pause... She's spent her time as a shelf-queen, in between bursts of activity!

Bish -- thanks! And yes indeed! I have three GB commitments between now and the end of the year, and the Stuka is one of them. I'm looking forward to bringing that animal together at last!

M/TB379

Thunderbolt379

I have plans for anywhere up to six Bf 109s for the GB next year -- a D, 3 x E-4s, an F-2, G-2 and G-6... I might be over-ambitious there, but I guess we'll see!

Lots to do, the A-8 makes seven completions for me in this calendar year, and I have nine more on my roster for 2014, of which six are close to the painting stage at this time

BTW your pic is now posted buddy!

Ummm.....Clemens.......the floor is all yours pal!

Joe, Herman muttered something about 109's so watch for the pasty white guy in the future.......

handiabled

Joe, Herman muttered something about 109's so watch for the pasty white guy in the future.......

Thunderbolt379

Oh, and just to show that enthusiasm never flags, these arrived in the post recently:

Other than the bagged Tamiya F-8, they are all of Trimaster lineage. I'm hoping to get to a couple of them in next year's build roster.

Oh, and there were of course an equal or greater number of Bf 109s in the post in the same period, too!

Cheers, M/TB379

Mike: She's definitely a beauty! Now we just gotta figure out what kind of 190 she is. Are we looking at an A-8 without outer guns or an F-8 without wing pylons? All joking aside, you sure managed to pull that one off very nicely!

I got me some 190 reinforcements too. Eduard's new Nightfighter kit and 2 Hasegawa kits (A-8 and F-8). Just for the record, I blame all of this madness on Joe for hosting this GB (I only had a single lonely 190 kit before I joined)

I didn't make much progress lately. I've been under the weather twice in the last 3 weeks and that really kept me from making any reasonable progress. I did get all the resin goodies cleaned up though and I'm working on the Dora fuselages right now as well as slowly plugging away at the gear bay PE for the A-8.

I got my Ultracast order yesterday (basically a whole lot of wheels - 9 sets to be exact) and a mysterious goodie from Eduard (for the A-8). The mailman also brought me a box with all kinds of MR.Surfacer inside. I finally found a supplier in Poland that ships to Austria and just ordered a jar of each one (Finishing Surfacer black, Finishing Surfacer gray, 1200, 1000, 500).

Joe -- dunno about distant relative but we seem to be on the same wavelength!

Mustang -- I'm entertaining ideas about eight 109s next year! We'll see -- some subjects would nicely production line through at least two at a time. And that's just 109s, there's the rest of the year's roster...

The A-8 was the seventh completion for the year, and I have a flock more close to painting. As of yesterday I opened up the Stuka for that GB again, assessed where I am and got started, as well as starting the prep to paint an old T-72 that's been a shelf queen far too long. There's a scratch build item to finish for a Pz. IV and with that done I can rip into the paintwork for that one. 16 is the target for this year and next as well, and I've never been as productive -- in years gone by I've managed four or five completions only.

It occurred to me a couple of years ago that if I'm ever going to really build my collection, I have to get busy! :-) Group builds are a great motivator!

Cheers, M/TB379

Thunderbolt379

 Group builds are a great motivator!

 

I didn't have much time for the forum lately because I was really busy and spent almost all of my free time at the bench plugging away at those 190s. I should be able to show you some progress on Sunday if everything goes according to plan!

We're lookin' forward to it Clemens good ol' buddy!

Glad you finally got some Mr Surfacer, Clemens.

And I surely hope you are feeling better, my friend.,

Its gotten scarce here too! I asked my hobby shop two weeks ago and he just hung his head... said right now they just cant get any,, no explanation,  just cant get it...

Doug

I managed to "acquire" mine from a good friend I have here thankfully!

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of pics. I managed to utterly ruin my mouse by spilling tea on it. I'm waiting for  the new one I ordered and I hope it arrives soon. Untill then I'm stuck with posting from my phone and I can't add pictures that way...

We'll let the mouse slide. lol . Now, how's the progress on the 190's?

Hope you're up and running computer-wise real soon, my friend! Can't wait to see the new Focke-Wulfs coming out of your production plant!

M/TB379

Thunderbolt379

Can't wait to see the new Focke-Wulfs coming out of your production plant!

Ok fellas, I got news on my PC situation:

The mouse arrived today and I can pick it up from the post office on Wednesday (got an appointment at the dentist tomorrow)

Here's what I got done so far (just text for now, pics on Wednesday evening):

Assembled and painted the gunbays and gear bays of the Eduard A-8

Got the wings of the A-8 glued together and sanded the seams

Hasegawa and Tamiya 190s have their cockpits fixed in place and the fuselages joined to the wings (seams still need some attention)

Started detailing the rear engine room and nose gun bay on the Eduard A-8 (I think you're gonna like that one)

Finished detailing the motorcannon compartment (what's visible from the gear bay) of the D-13 and got it ready for some paint

Assembled the 2nd Hasegawa cowling

Cleaned up all the exhaust stacks for the Doras and started painting them

Cleaned up the parts for the Dora nose gun bays (those will be assembled once the exhausts are in place)

And I got a little mystery item to show you...

Sorry for the horrible spacing, but I can't use rich formatting on my phone...

I should have the dora fuselages assembled by the end of this week... The A-8 is going to take a bit longer to assemble with the little additions I decided to go with, but that one's fuselage shouldn't take much longer than 2 weeks...

Sounds like you've been busy with all those 190's Clemens! Can't wait to see pics...........

I just noticed a little issue with the gun bays on the Eduard A-8. Their shape is completely off! The real gun bays have straight edges while the openings in the kit's wings have a cut out on the outer edges. I'll correct that before posting the update, so give me a day or 2 (depends on how much bench time I get tomorrow afternoon) to get it sorted out. It shouldn't take much mure than a few pieces of styrene sheet and some sanding, so fingers crossed everything is gonna be ready tomorrow. I'm actually really getting the hang of assembling Eduard 190s. They sure are tough to put together, but once you figure out how things work it's not that much harder than with those Hasegawa shake'n'bake 190s...

Ok lads, I got the left gun bay fixed and I'll tackle the right one tomorrow. getting the shape corrected isn't all that hard by itself, but with the actual gun bays in place and the wings all glued together things start to get a bit more painful to pull off without causing too much damage...

I know I'm taking way too long to get those pics posted, but I want to do this right so please bear with me...

No problem Clemens. It's just that we are all excited and anxious to see how you are coming along. I am more than sure that it will be well worth the wait. Sooo..Are they done yet?

Lookin forward to seein' the action buddy!