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

Man those pics WERE worth the wait. What a job you are doing on that bird Clemens. I'll have to say that I built the Tamiya D-9 and I never had such an in depth build (after I got through with it anyways) go so easy. Its out of the ordinary for a Tamiya kit to have such poor fit especially in the 190 line up. I will have to agree with you that Tamiyas landing gear sucks in the fact that the legs are way to short and the wheels way to small, which is why I used an all Eduard landing gear and modified it to fit the Tamiya offering. Keep plugging away man, these machines you are building are looking great so far.

You have certainly done some wonderful work on your 190's Clemens. No doubt that the vast array of PE you have applied enhances the detail. And kudos to you on the degree of patience you are exhibiting in attaching all that AM. Keep on it. You're doing awesome.

I too picked up a Tamiya F-8 last year with the thought of completing it for the Butcher Bird GB but, ran out of time. Certainly disturbing to hear that that particular kit has such issues. I at least picked up a CMK cockpit , Aires gear bay set and other AM for it. So maybe I'll be able to polish that turd after all.

Thanks guys!

I was a bit surprised by the quality of the Tamiya kit. It really is the worst of their aircraft kits I've seen so far and a far cry from the excellent Tamiya Jugs (my all time favorite 1/48 kit).

Good to see your latest progress, Clemens.

Sorry about all the Tamiya trouble. A surprise to me. Didn't realise Tamiya makes bad kits.

Nice production Clemens! That pe work looks real nice. Well worth the look. Looks like you got all the seam work done and looking great on the Eduard kits as well.

...and regarding the Tamiya kit. Yes, it is one of Tamiya's worst 1/48 kits imo. Even the old, old Dragon 190 kits are way better in every regard.

Great to see your progress, Clemens! I'm in awe of your persistence and knowledge of subject! I doubt I could ever run such a production-line, though I'm going to try to open a Messerschmitt plant in 2015...

I'm amazed at the problems you're having with the Tamiya F-8. I built that one several years ago and don't remember the issues being that bad. I have another I'll be doing next year and will be looking out for the fit problems. I build closed up anyway, so light detail in the cockpit does not concern me, and I must say that the 190s I built this year seem way too tall compared to the Tamiya bird -- notably because their shock struts are all moulded fully open, as if there is no weight on them. It creates what seems an inappropriate nose-high attitude, though if the Tamiya legs are too short it could be a cycle of assumptions at work instead... Hmmm!

M/TB379

OK gang, I finally got those pics taken and uploaded for ya'll! I'm not too sure if it all really turned out that good though...

No news regarding my Tamiya F-8 yet 'cause it's causing nothing but goddamn problems. The details are lacking compared to other kits (especially in the cockpit and gear bays) and the accuraacy isn't all that great either (what's really bothering me are the short gear legs and way too small wheels). Well at least it's a Tamiya kit so the great fit is going to save it, right? Right? WRONG! The overall fit of this kit is way worse than what Tamiya kits are known for. The Hasegawa 190s are a walk in the park compared to this kit. Even the goddamn Eduard kits most modellers find ill-fitting were a whole lot more fun to assemble so far...

I will of course finish the Tamiya F-8, but I'm going to model her all closed up and hope the winter camo does its job in making it look comparable to the other 190s in my Staffel...

Enough rambling for now. How about I show you some pics? I think that's not too bad of an idea...

Hasegawa 190s:

It really is a shame that only this little of the beautifully molded cockpit detail is going to be seen (actually even less once the canopy and windscreen are in place):

And now it's time for my personal favorite: Eduard's beauty of an A-8 with all sorts of little goodies thrown in here and there:

Gear bay PE:

Gun bays:

Yes those are PE. 100% PE... Kind of a pain in the rear to assemble and fill gaps after permanently trapping them between the wing halves, but well worth it IMO... They didn't turn out looking perfect, but I think it's good enough for my standards. There's still a few bits and wiring to be added as well as the guns themselves, so they should look a bit busier in the future. The shell ejection holes were kinda tricky to align as the set was designed for the D-13 which has slightly different wings and the correct gun bay openings.

And some pics of the painted gear bays with the normal A-8 ones at the bottom for comparison. My apologies for the bad-ish pics. The lightbulb of my normal desk lamp reached the end of its lifespan yesterday so I had to use 2 nomal lightbulbs which aren't all that great for photographing models:

I'm not sure if you can tell from the pics, but the PE parts are a huge improvement over the already nice Eduard gear bays.

Fun-fact: All the PE and resin involved actually improved the fit of this kit.

So far I've used Eduard's A-8 PE set, the gun bays from their D-13 Pe set and the Brassin nose gun set they make for their 190 kits.

Now call me all sorts of crazy, but I plan on improving the Brassin set with a few selected PE bits and I'm also going to replace the resin gun barrels with metal ones. building a kit with aftermarket stuff only to add further AM goodies to those sets. Ain't AMS funny.... 

All of this doesn't even come close to I've seen you guys pull off, but I hope you like it nonetheless... 

Cheers, Clemens

I didn't like the way the oil wash turned out so I removed most of it and gave it another try. I don't think it's gonna be dry today, so I have to delay the pics another day. The A-8 is more or less the star of the show this time 'round so I want her to look nice

I got the other gun bay opening reshaped as well, but I caused some slight damage to the gun bays themselves. I'll fix that tomorrow (or try to at least) and repaint them. Then it's just a matter of giving it all the usual oil wash treatment and once that is dry I'll post a few pics for you to nitpick on!

mustang1989

Lookin forward to seein' the action buddy!

Ditto that!

Lookin forward to seein' the action buddy!

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?

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

Thunderbolt379

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

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

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

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...

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

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

Glad you finally got some Mr Surfacer, Clemens.

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

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

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!

Thunderbolt379

 Group builds are a great motivator!

 

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

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).

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)