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

Yea c'mon Stout. You know you wanna.

Nice build Stout! Definitely something to be proud of. Man I just love those early western front 190A schemes. I managed to get a few decals on the A-8 today, but been real busy with other things and I'm getting lazy with the pic taking.

Wow stout, very impressive!  So I take it that canopy goes nowhere with the antenna wire strung the way it is?  Great looking build, hope i can do half as well on the A3

So I found this article ... http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=993  and realized that I had my colors all wrong, and the inaccuracy was driving me nuts.  So I found the correct colors (RLM 80 and RLM 83) and set to fixing it.  Here is how it turned out.  You may notice that I left the mottle the same colors, as my little artistic twist on the airplane.

I am much happier with the look now, and it looks more like all the photos that I have seen.  The next step will be to add the metalizer to the bottom wings on both the D9 and the 152, then gloss coat and decals. 

Nathan T - i found the article about "yellow 6" in the info eduard newsletter, and have aquired RLM 77, think that I am going to give it a try on the wing uppers in place of the grey-violet color there now. Might have to strip off the acrylic paint that is there now.  anyone have a good method that doesnt involve brake fluid or zip strip?

Thanks for looking,

Matt

Matt: I cant remember if you are using acrylic or enamel on that bad boy. If its acrylic then its no problem. Just a little windex or in my experience alcohol pads just wipe it away. And by the way......looking good!

Reasoned: Good to see you in around these parts. Been missing your company and expertise.

Ok folks here's where I am right now. Just applied the RLM 75. In case anyone didn't notice I backed out of the black primer at the last minute. Going to try this mottle thing  the way you all are suggesting.

Blkhwkmatt - I have to say that your revised paint job looks much better. Excellent work. As far as paint removal goes Joe is correct about removing acrylic paint. If you are removing enamel paint I use Polly S's ELO (Easy Lift Off).

Joe - Glad to see you have everything fitted, filled and sanded and are able to move on to the painting. She's looking really good. By the way Joe, is your local branch of Wells Fargo aware that they are missing a floor mat.

Nice to see some paint Joe. looks good. You'll have fun with the mottle, I'm sure you'll get it right.

Matt- Nice paintwork. Glad you found the article. What paints are you using? I don't think I have an exact rlm 77 match. Do you mean 82 and 83 colors on the Ta 152? I've seen that mentioned as well as 81/82. Hard to tell in black and white pics if the color actually is brownish or just two green shades.

Hey There Gentlemen, I have an interesting question to ask of you in hopes that you may enlighten me. I just received this PE set of landing gear doors I ordered off ebay. They looked nice to me and were quite inexpensive. They are manufactured by North Star Models out of Latvia. Anyway, the set does not come with any instructions.Even though it only took me moments to figure out that you glue the 2 halves together to make the door, what I cannot figure out is what the 8 little round parts with tabs are for nor where they go. I went to their website and found pics of the assembled doors yet, no clue as to where these little parts go. My initial thought was they might be mounting brackets for the brake line but that does not match up with any reference I have. Any ideas?

Hmm...Do you need to bend up the little tabs on those parts? Are they brackets to mount the doors to the struts?

Ooooh, Now that is certainly a possibility. I'm going to give a little examination with that in mind. Thanks for the input Nathan. You know Nathan, I sure am glad you know your way around the 190. You are a huge help and I thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

Nathan T

Matt- Nice paintwork. Glad you found the article. What paints are you using? I don't think I have an exact rlm 77 match. Do you mean 82 and 83 colors on the Ta 152? I've seen that mentioned as well as 81/82. Hard to tell in black and white pics if the color actually is brownish or just two green shades.

nathan - I am using testors model masters acryl paints for most of the colors, that is the only brand that I was able to match RLM 77 to, using the online paint converter tool.  the olive green is testors and is listed as RLM 80, where the lighter green is from the polly scale line.  It is labeled as light green, however matches favorably to the pictures in the article that i linked to, as well as the artwork on the box and several profiles that I have seen. 

Joe - thanks for the tip, i will try both the alcohol wipes and windex and see which one works better.  I might look into getting some polly scale ELO as well.  Your painting is looking good, comming right along, good luck with the mottle.

Matt

Isn't the bottom protion of the MLG doors over the wheels seperate from the door covering the leg?

Joe Rix- No prob, glad to be apart of this group build, its alot of fun being able to share some knowledge.

Matt- You sure do a good job of airbrushing. The polyscale shades look great. I don't use Polyscale except their clear gloss, which is amazing.

Archangel Shooter

Isn't the bottom protion of the MLG doors over the wheels seperate from the door covering the leg?

Nope. Its all a one piece cover. Hasegawa and some other kits get this wrong by supplying 2 seperate gear doors, which gives it the wrong look and makes it harder to assemble. This is the case for my Hase A-4, and I'm contemplating how to fix it.

Nathan T

Joe Rix- No prob, glad to be apart of this group build, its alot of fun being able to share some knowledge.

Matt- You sure do a good job of airbrushing. The polyscale shades look great. I don't use Polyscale except their clear gloss, which is amazing.

Archangel Shooter

Isn't the bottom protion of the MLG doors over the wheels seperate from the door covering the leg?

Nope. Its all a one piece cover. Hasegawa and some other kits get this wrong by supplying 2 seperate gear doors, which gives it the wrong look and makes it harder to assemble. This is the case for my Hase A-4, and I'm contemplating how to fix it.

There is actually a caviat to that which may explain why the Hasegawa kits gear doors are 2 pieces. FW 190s operating in muddy and/or snowy conditions did in fact remove the lower half of the gear door in order to prevent blockages when the landing gear was retracted. A couple of my references make reference to this as well as provide photos of 190s with half the gear doors removed.  

I didn't know this about the gear doors on some kits. Mine are all one piece, thankfully. I'll have to keep an eye out for that when i do my other ones.

heres another update./ I have the RLM 76 and 75 on, the 74 should be on tomorrow. I used white tac to mask the main bits and did the motteling free hand.

I am doing a scramble dio for this one, so adding a generator unit to start the aircraft. Thats now painted, just needs some weathering.

And the base is all done. One of my favorite things about aircraft dio's is the bases are usually rather simple.

Cool base Bish, love the trim! Nice painting. Hows about an underside shot of the flaps?? Joe Rix-very true about the removal of the lower gear doors. Seen that alot on F-8s in the snow. For my A-4 though I'm thinking of glueing them together on a flat surface then seeing if they come out too long? Last thing I wanna do now  is surgery on a painted model, but I'm sure I've fixed worse.

I too have seen the pics of FW's in the snow. Just wanted to be sure the gear door was one piece when I apply it to the strut. Paints and the SAC metal landing gear arrived today. Time to start hitting the project in earnest.

Hey Bish that's a nice bit of painting you've done there. Real nice indeed. I do concur that that's a sweet base you've made. What did you use to simulate the grass?

Nifty base!! Nice paint job also. I have a base in mind just not that elaborate. I'll probably do a mirror base. I like the grass really well though.

Thanks guys. Joe, the grass is just static grass. I use a mix of colours and lengths. I have a bit of a selection, most of it is Woodland scenics. This is a pretty simple base to do.

Nathan, i'll get a pic of those flaps next time round, going to start masking in a bit and get the rest painted.

JOE RIX

Ooooh, Now that is certainly a possibility. I'm going to give a little examination with that in mind. Thanks for the input Nathan. You know Nathan, I sure am glad you know your way around the 190. You are a huge help and I thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

Alrighty! Got the camo pattern done on the top of the wings. Now to mask and move on to the fuselage and bottom of the wings.

Very Excellent! That turned out nicely. Did you mask before you sprayed the second color? Also, I'm assuming it's a case of the lighting and /or camera angle as your pic seems a bit dark and thusly it is hard to see the contrast between the 2 different colors. Excellent job too of filling and smoothing the gap you had at the wing root. Can't even notice it.

Nice camo Mustang. I would just say don't mask anything on the fuselage. It all should be soft edge/overspray, just like you have it now. Can't tell if the light color on the fuselage is 76 or primer yet? the soft edges you have on the fuselage now look just right. Even blue tack masking for the fuselage would result in too fine a demarcation for the fuselage IMO.

Thanks you guys. I have messed with just about every adjustment on the camera I can think of except using the flash and those pics with the flash come out more white than anything else. Gotta change up the lighting. Will probably start taking the plane outside to take pics I guess until I get better lighting. Ive got idears for the side of the plane already.

I will ask, however, I tried some mottle patterns on the white cardboard that I have this morning at like 5-10 psi and ended up with some paint spots on the outside of each mottle pattern I did. I think I had the paint still too thick. Help with this would be appreciated because I definetely don't want to screw this up.

Hey Joe ,,,  spray your base coat on some cardboard ,, then with your mottle color thin a bunch like water thin ,, then practice spraying on your cardboard ,, thinned right you should be able to spray for a few seconds before the color starts too show ,,, then work from the inside out so the color gradually fades ,,,it works for Herman and I,,,,,  hth

                                   B

Well hell. Thanks Brent!! Good to see you in here. I'll give it a try buddy, Joe

Hard to say Joe. I'd imagine each person has their own method to achieve a good mottled look. You'll just have to experiment with different things. Sounds actually like your paint was too thin, and just spattered when it hit the model, or...you pulled the trigger back too much, or, you were too close?? All I can say is, try different air pressures-don't think you have to have the psi way dialed down or have the paint super thin. I've found that the same settings I use for base colors work about the same to get a good mottle pattern. 15-20 psi, 50/50 thinner to paint roughly. Only thing that changes is technique, just barely pull the trigger back and constantly move the airbrush around, and get in closer. Sometimes for larger spots that are barely visible, I'll actually mist some paint on from about 3-6 inches away while moving the airbrush around. For more defined spots I just move in closer. Show us some pics of your trial work If you want. The question is, what works best for Vallejo paints?? Thats what your using? Do they spray well thinned? Do they mist on nice when you barely pull back on the trigger? Do they like higher psi? Also, it helps to have some good refs to establish the mottle pattern, but I find I don't actually need to replicate spot for spot, just shoot for the general look.

Nathan... I've found that using higher psi and slightly over  thinned paints make for good up close more distinct patterms, and by using a lower psi (about 10 to 15 ) and normally thinned paint you can get some pretty nice motteling, This by all means depends on your gun too.  Using lower psi you get a bit of over spray and if not careful you fade your base coat color away, take some clear acetate sheet and cut some irregular shaped and sized holes in it and you have a great motteling mask. I have a couple of air brushes and for motteling I like to use my Badger 150 with the IL tip and needle, ( extra fine, about 2mm) and have just recently picked up off Ebay a Master brand from TCP Global.(also a good source of custom paints) and I'm still trying to learn it, its gravity fed and can lay down a line like a pencil if used properly.

I think Joe Rix had the right idea though, practice , practice , practice!