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

Mike, thanks for your weathering / finishing input.

Never thought of using Flory for wheel wells and the such, will have to try. What about the landing gear struts themselves? Flory or oil wash? (they look very good)

Clemens and Bish -- yes on both counts! It's a beauty in the box, like the 48 on steroids and I'm really looking forward to cutting sprue. In 48 I've picked out Hans Trautloft's summer markings in a G-2, and am looking at one of the new-tool Airfix 72s as well.

M/TB379

Mike, I take it that's the Hase kit. If so, I look forward to that one. I've got that kit and did consider it but decided to go with the simple scheme.

That's a nice choice, Mike! I'm going for one of those big Hasegawa 109s too, but with some fancy nightfighter markings. My 1/48 project for that one should fit your marking scheme kinda nicely though...

Thanks Clemens, Greg and Bish! Greg, the weathering techniques used on the underside are as follows: the oil stains are dabs of brown oil paint dragged into blown smears with a soft, flat brush wetted with enamel thinner, non-reactive with the underlying acrylics; the panel accents and shadowing in the wheel wells are done with clay-based Florey wash; and the gun carbon and dust effects are Mig pigments, applied with a small pointed brush.

I've been away over the weekend but will be back on the A-8 tomorrow. Oh, one of the kits I've already picked out for the 109 GB will be a 1:32 G-6 in Hartmann's markings, which I'm very much looking forward to.

I'm hoping to have the big one done directly -- it's fitting that it's a 32, because it's exactly 32 years since I last worked in that scale!

M/TB379

I've been just kicking back and watching this discussion here. You learn something new every day.

Doug, you are indeed correct. This was an early war marking for the Schlact units which also carried a single letter rather than a number. They were replaced with the new markings in April 1943, though I would bet the earlier ones will be seen after this.

You know the Germans, never like to make things easy.

Thanks for the info, Doug and Bish.

Interesting stuff.

Gotcha Bish... But didnt the ground attack aircraft of the FW 190 and Bf109 class also carry a black or white triangle to ID them as ground attack? Or am I (as usual) turned around again...

Doug, I believe those types of markings were only used by the Geschwader and Gruppen Stab. Initial they were used on fighters, but from 1943 also used on Ground attack aircraft, but the system was not the same.

Greg, those markings are those of a Geschwaderkommodore of a ground attack unit. But in this case not just any Geschwaderkommkodore, this is the aircraft of the commander of SG 2 in April 1945, Hans Ulrich Rudel.

Mike, that is one sweet looking build and being Rudel's bird just makes it sweeter for me. Lovely. And the A-8 is looking just as good.

I know I haven't posted much, but I have been following along. Mustang, you can certainly be proud of yourselves, this is certainly the best GB I have been a part of. And that's not in any way putting down any of the others but simply shows how good this one was.

You certainly have a high aiming mark for the 109 GB.

Greg... sometimes (usually) the group commanders, staffle kapitains, adjutants, etc... used chevrons, bars, circles and various other markinge, in just about any configuration or arrangement, to ID themselves to the rest of the staffle while in the air. I guess it was a quick way to ID their leaders in the confusing and hectic coures of combat, specially dog fighting.

Mike, that Hobbyboss came out great!

Super cool scheme, really like your subtle weathering on the underside, et al. A very clean and attractive model.

Sure like the detailing of the landing gear struts and gear bay. May I ask which wash technique you use?

I notice there is no aircraft number. I'm only just learning about Luftwaffe a/c and curious why that is on this particular bird if anyone can tell me.

You're welcome, mate! I'm just glad the new decals work as intended!

Both the D-9 and the A-8 are absolute beauties!

Well.....that just shows how much I was with it. 

lol

The A-8 is the 32! I'll have her done in a few days!

Cheers, M/TB379

That's weird about the gun covers on that A8 Mike . I'm sure you're going to overcome that obstacle though. Your pic is posted in the intro. Can you scrounge up a pic of your 1/32nd scale build so I can post that one too. Looks like that one appears to have slipped through the cracks.

Thanks, Joe! Coming from you, it means a lot -- all you guys are absolutely top notch! I wrote a review of the kit for my blog, I'll get it up when I can, hopefully over the weekend.

Right, I spent most of today decaling the A-8. the day is about done, I have a stiff neck and a headache., so I'm calling it for now. By my calculations there's about 14 decals to go. I also sprayed some clear earlier, doing the lower flaps, droptank, gear bay doors, prop blades and spinner cone. Here she is as of this moment:

I'll be away tomorrow, so back on the bench the day after, hopefully finishing the decals and sealing them, then on with detail painting and getting the undercarriage ready.

You might notice something odd going on with the wing walkways and the gun covers -- I'm not sure what happened but either I or Hasegawa got the covers in the wrong place, they should be a scale foot or so further back, which I did not notice until looking at the walkways to go round them. So to make the walkways look realistic, I've had to patch some strips and cut others -- a couple of pieces to go. I'll make sure I get that right next time!

Cheers, M/TB379

Absolutely marvelous Mike. Your top notch skills have pulled off a 4 star effort. Beautifully done my friend. Beautifully done indeed.

Doug -- I'll definitely be in the 109 GB, I've already picked out kits in three scales, can't wait to rip into them!

Well, the A-8 is back on the bench, I've applied the first ten decals and this sheet is behaving itself nicely! (SS, thanks for the help out, I owe you bigtime!) I'm pacing myself through the day, doing batches of ten, and hope to have the burnt metal areas behind the exhausts masked and sprayed either today or Sunday (I'll be out Saturday).

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Excellent finish Mike!  Beautiful work... hope to see you in the 109 build!

Doug

Thunderbolt379

Stretched sprue -- interesting, it's a technique I was never able to make work for me, no matter how careful I am, the sprue just snaps. But it's always worth having another try, and if I can get some pieces that are thin enough to take on the shape, I'd be most interested in rigging the wire. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks, Mustang -- that's a great compliment, especially in view of the awesome parade of talent there's been in this amazing GB -- and I'd like to thank you for being such an active and omnipresent host! I confess I was a bit worried about this one with the AB woes, but in the end it all came together and I'm very happy with this paint.

Stretched sprue -- interesting, it's a technique I was never able to make work for me, no matter how careful I am, the sprue just snaps. But it's always worth having another try, and if I can get some pieces that are thin enough to take on the shape, I'd be most interested in rigging the wire. Thanks for the tip!

Well, I have the decals in hand for the A-8 now, so I'll see how they go tomorrow!

Cheers, Mike

First off I want to tell you that the paint on this bird is outstanding!! Secondly I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being a good part of this GB Mike. It's been a true pleasure having you here. I'll get your pics posted soon.

 Lastly, I'll show you my antenna on my D-9 and how I did it:

The piece that I ran from the canopy to the tail was stretched sprue. Now it took me about 30 minutes practice and about 10 pieces of straight sprue to get mine this thin but it paid off. The vertical piece is made of E-Z line that freely lends itself to the shape that it has.

Many thanks Mustang, Greg, Clemens and Joe Rix!

Right then, as promised, the gallery photos. I'm calling her done. Sure there are one or two things more I could do, like bare metal scuffing, or red stripes on the bombs to indicate they're fragmentation type... I could open the canopy but as yet I haven't figured out how to do a slack antenna wire. I'll come back to that when I know how, and also touch up the canopy sills in 66 so I can pose her open.

I missed two parts, a tiny intake that goes on the forward starboard side, and that stub antenna under the fuselage which again required a hole opening or drilling. Hey ho, I'll catch it next time! For now, I'm delighted to say I've finished my first Hobby Boss kit, she was a great pleasure to do and looks real proud next to the Hasegawas and Tamiyas in the display case.

So, here's the evidence. My light source is not daylight/5000K these days, so colours are slightly warmer than they should be:

Mustang, for a shot to use on p1, how about either the last one above, or the second from the top?

Cheers, thanks for looking, all comments welcome, and I'll get on with the A-8 as soon as I can!

Mike/TB379

JOE RIX

roll an armored truck?

Mike: Your D-9 is turning out fantastic. I did a spectacular job on painting the "salad" camo. It came out great. I'm looking forward to the finished product.

Clemens: My lord! Now that is one fabulous haul of AM booty. No wonder you were bent when the package went wayward. So, what did you do to bankroll that large bounty, roll an armored truck?Lol.

Mike: The camo and the subtle weathering look really nice! The spinner looks amazing too!

Mike, you surely don't mess around when you get to building!

That spinner looks amazing.

Man that's a tightly wound spiral on that prop spinner! It's gonna sit right at home on the nose of that thing Mike.

Latest -- before work today I got the prop assembled, and the landing gear separated, cleaned up and touched up. Now to install it and get to grips with the detail painting and assembling the bombs. I'm thinking the next shots you see may very well be the gallery pictures.

M/TB379