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

The mottle camo is good Greg, I see no obvious improvement required. Interesting scheme too, I'll note that one for a future project.

Cheers

Tony

Well Greg, For someone who is not fishing your going to hook a few whoppers as that is remarkably well done. You should be rather pleased with that excellent effort. I can honestly say that you are way ahead of me when it comes to mottling given that I have yet to trust my skills to try it yet. Your doing great stuff there.

I have never seen a FW in the MTO scheme.  Getting the mottling down just takes practice.  I had to practice alot on scrap plastic before I got good at it.  The trick is to spray softly and gradually build up and also to have a good detailing airbrush.

Nice Greg, pretty realistic to me. Did you have a photo or anything for inspiration?

I don't see anything wrong with that at all Greg!! Not bad at all....not bad!!!

Well guys, no preamble, no excuses. My first mottle attempt.

At least I don't feel like hiding my head under my pillow, as I had expected. That said, it is what it is, a first attempt and I am most certainly not fishing for compliments, just sharing.

Thanks for all the reassurance and confidence building camaraderie which finally convinced me to stop whining and try it. 

Incidentally, until a few months ago I'd never heard the word "mottle". I don't really know what it is I am trying to achieve, so by all means please don't hesitate to correct my mistakes. (aside from some too repetitive pattern, which I knew was going to happen because of the was my brain works, or fails to work, or whatever).

JOE RIX

Greg, I have a question for you concerning the Vallejo gloss. Did you need to thin it at all or did you shoot it straight out of the bottle?

Joe, ok, this is embarrassing. I think I shot it straight, but I wanted to give you good information so I went down to do a test shoot to be sure. I was unable to recreate the easy, no fuss glass finish. Go figure.

This has me bugged and I will try again. Perhaps I did something really stupid today.

JOE RIX

Problem is that this did not happen over the weekend. Joe and I noticed this last Thursday. I found that when I clicked on my current thread count and it takes you to your post history that I found my original post count was still there recorded.

Now that seems odd. I am sure mine was as it had been on Fri. I just did what you said and your right, mine says 7,899, about what it should be. This is certainly odd.

I just looked it up and I have over 1400 posts, but the number under my name only says 732...

Problem is that this did not happen over the weekend. Joe and I noticed this last Thursday. I found that when I clicked on my current thread count and it takes you to your post history that I found my original post count was still there recorded.

I know old threads have been deleted in the past and we have lost posts from our count. But this seems a bit different. waynec is down to less than 20 posts, and that ain't right.

maybe theres a problem some where, I guess we will have to wait until Monday so they can look into it. I noticed it yesterday and it does seem odd it happened over a weekend.

So post were actually deleted? That kinda sucks!!!

Yeah me too. It's not forum ending or anything like that but it would have been nice to know so I could print off some of the Q and A posts that I was interested in. All in all ....no biggie.

Yeah Doug, I noticed im missing around 700 or so posts, same with others ??

Hey Greg,,, Looking good! Love watchin WIP. Joe, Your enging looking good too! Very realistic...

For struts I used to keep the testors chrome also, Now I just use the "foil" and wrap it around the strut. Just another method...

Take care guys...

Hey by the way, the "stars have been dissapearing by your names, Bish thought it was from FSM deleting old entries... Likely so But I dont care, The contributions were made and shaving the points just dosnt seem right if thats what is happening...

Doug

Couldn't agree more Nathan. I too use Testors Chrome for the same reason.

Greg, I have a question for you concerning the Vallejo gloss. Did you need to thin it at all or did you shoot it straight out of the bottle?

Nathan T

Greg- for struts I find nothing works better than good ol testor's chrome silver in the small square tube brushed on by hand.

Hmmm. Enamel, correct? I haven't used that stuff in 30 years. But what you say makes sense and it is even readily available locally I think.

Great tip, Nathan. Thanks!!! Especially since spraying a struts seems a bit of overkill to me.

Greg- for struts I find nothing works better than good ol testor's chrome silver in the small square tube brushed on by hand.

Clemens, thanks! I actually brush painted Vallejo Air 71.064 Chrome, and to my surprise it went on a bit thick, so not the smooth surface I was hoping for. But it sure is shiny! I would guess the proper thing would be Alclad Chrome sprayed on of course.Some day I plan to get ambitious and try that on a pair of struts. :) That said, I suppose the Vallejo Model Air would spray on nicely too.

Joe (Mustang), thanks for sharing your steps on the exhausts. I am filing that away for next time instructions call out 'burnt iron'. I really like the look a lot. Love your tip of brushing on some ground up black charcoal sticks for an overall surface dulling, too!

Jester, thanks mate! I'm very pleased you like them!

Jester: Thanks Eric. Now lets just hope I can get a paint job put on my birdie like you deliver!

Nathan T: Thanks to you too buddy. The pics are going to come into play when I start laying the electrical stuff in at the firewall area. Kind of going to lean on the Dora book as well. Thanks for those pics too man. You can't really put a price on stuff like that in modeling!

Sweet lookin Jumo Mustang! Did those pics I send you help at all?

Greg, those struts and tires look great! Nice and dirty just how I like em.

Joe, fantastic work on that engine compartment as usual my friend!!

Joe Rix: Thanks buddy! Cant wait to see pictures from you.

Clemens: Thanks to you too sir and good to see you back in here.

Greg: Hey thank you too. I used enamel rattle can silver to start with a base coat on the exhausts, followed by a half hearted coat of acrylic rust. After that I hit the whole thing with a really light and quick coat of MIG Productions dark wash. Its gotta be light and quick because its oil based and will mar the silver undercoat that's still showing through the light coat of rust. After that came a light brushing of ground up black charcoal stick to dull everything up. I have been building this engine like was building one for real in the shop but without the new look. I was really going for the used and abused look on this thing!

Nathan, thank you for the compliment. I know you are an experienced modeler and it means a lot to me.

IMO, Vallejo gloss varnish dries amazingly fast. Noting that I have only about a couple months experience with Vallejo so far, it seems to me that the old adage about dry doesn't mean cured is especially true with Vallejo. That said, if I recall I jumped the gun on the oil wash only several hours after the initial gloss coat, I undoubtedly spayed the gloss on heavier than necessary, and got away with it anyway.

Joe (Mustang), thanks mate! I thought I overdid the dirty tires a bit, but if you approve, that's good enough for me!

And you read my mind by posting. When you commenting on your progress earlier, I thought "I wish Joe would post a pic, I want to see what he's done". And you do not disappoint. the detail and your workmanship continues to inspire me.

Could you advise what colors/techiques you used on what I assume are the exhaust stacks? They look really good.

Joe (Rix), I take that as a great compliment coming from you! Thank you!

Blackdog: Welcome to the GB!

Nathan: Great to have you back! That's a good start. The fit looks nice!

Joe: Awesome work as always, mate!

Greg: I LOVE it! That's a really stunning result! I have to give that Vallejo gloss coat a try! The oleos look perfect to me! I never managed to get a nice look with silver paint. Are they brush painted or airbrushed? What color did you use? Oh, and remember: I WILL send you the Gunze olive green!!!!

Greg - Very nicely done. By George, I do believe you're getting the hang of this.

Joe - Very, very sharp work. 

ah hell. I was sitting around not doing anything and I said to myself, "You know I could post a  real quick photo because I still have to wait on the cowl gun barrels to make it in before I really do a whole lot more to it. I still have to paint the cap on the reservoir in the foreground and touch up a couple of things but what the hay?"  So anyways this is where the nose module is as of right now:

Yeah Greg. Really nice work on the door and struts. I really like the weathered tires! I still have to work on that....................

Really nice work Greg. Nice realistic weatherd appearance. Hmmm, I might have to try Vallejo's gloss if its as good as it sounds. Does it dry pretty fast?

Minor delay, Joe. I'm sure the short wait will be worth it. Doncha hate it when you re ready to do something and find out you don't have something you thought you did?

Thought I'd post a shot of my landing gear. Nothing special to y'all, however this being my second set of gear with a detail wash, it's sort of a big deal to me.

Also, notable that I used all Vallejo paints and wanted to mention how impressed I was with the clear gloss (Vallejo calls it Gloss varnish). Prior to decals, I glossed the undersides of the doors only and was shocked at the glass-like finish. I'm afraid I didn't allow quite enough cure time before the oil wash, hence a couple of smears but I think they look ok and if this were someone else's work, I'd assume they worked really hard to achieve it. :)

I was a bit scared after the post-decal coat of gloss, you guys warned me that Hasegawa decals are maybe a bit thick, and they are. But the final coat of matte varnish made it all the oh-ohs disappear.

I'm happy overall, except for my hand paint job on the chome oleos.