Thanks for all of the compliments. Nathan and Scott, very nice work so far. Unfortunately I have been busy with other things lately but I did get some modeling time in on the A-6 over the past few days. The airframe came together in no time flat. All I can say is this Hasegawa 190 is great fit-wise. The only issue I had was the gap on the lower rear wing/fuselage joint. No biggie though. It also took some time getting the wing root joint (line) off the wing root cannon cover(s), mostly because it was in a tough spot to effectively sand out. This line should not be there and only Eduard has gotten this area right on 190's.
I've heard cowl assembly on this kit can be tricky. I had no trouble. I first fused the lower piece to the two side pieces with Tenax 7R and let it dry overnight. I then added the upper piece. No issues, it fit the front of the airframe like a glove. On a sidenote, I did notice that most of the panel lines seemed unusually shallow on this kit, therefore, I decided to forgo primer and go straight to preshading with XF-1 Flat Black. At this time I also painted the side fuselage (behind the exhaust) black and then taped off the triangles common on 190's. The white stripe along the top was added with XF-2 and taped off as well.
As I said, I decided that I would paint in the cowl checkers in lieu of the decals for several reasons. For off, Hasegawa decals are s#$t...not other way to say it. Also I decided do this for simple aesthetic reasons and the ease of weathering the area later. Paint just looks more convincing. In case anyone is interested, this is how I did it:
1. I preshaded XF-1 Flat Black on the cowl panel lines then sprayed it XF-2 Flat White. I cut it with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner for extra bite into the plastic for the upcoming taping.
2. I then cut out a few checkers from the decal sheet to use as a size reference.
3. I then took out my trusty mirror glass piece and threw down a strip of Tamiya tape. There is no substitute for this stuff, especially for this type of work.
4. With a new #11 Exacto blade and the aformentioned cut out decal, I commenced to cut squares out of the tape. I cut up numerous rows untilI felt I had enough.
5. Using the instruction sheet profile on the last page (for decal placement), I then started on the port side and worked my way around the cowl. For the front row of checkers (nearest the cowl ring), I took the same squares and cut a slit in them so they could be manipulated on the curved edges.
6. Once I had all the squares added, after a few minor adjustments, I sprayed the cowl XF-1 Flat Black with a tad of XF-8 Flat Blue added. I then taped off the cowl leaving the lower section exposed and it was sprayed XF-3 Flat Yellow with a touch of XF-7 Flat Red to simulate RLM 04 yellow.
Now for some pics...
I then redirected my focus to the camolage which will be the standard day fighter scheme RLM 74/75 over 76. I mixed up RLM 76 by Tamiya's recommendations of XF-2, XF23, XF-66 until it looked right to my eye. It eemed too blue so I added more XF-66 Grey. I then added XF-2 Flat White to the paint, thinned it, then streaked it along the bottom. A dilluted Red Brown mix was then added as a post shade to certain areas.
I bought some Gunze Aqueous paints, specifically the RLM colors, through the blackmark......err I mean from overseas, primarily because I've read they are quite accurate. That, and I'm tired of trying to get the upper surface RLM shades right with Tamiya mixes (See my D-9 elsewhere in the forum). I started with the RLM 74 and cut it with Tamiya's X-20 Thinner. This stuff seemed to behave just like Tamiya paint, but it wasn't as dense. It seemed to initially go on a bit translucent so I had to keep adding more paint. Once I got the ratio right, It did go down nice and smooth. I then cut it with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and streaked the upper wings. I had no issues with mixibg the two brands. I think I finally found a method for the upper RLM colors. Once done, this received the sme red brown postshading. Here's the results.
The RLM 75 will be next. Stay tuned...
Joe