Fw 190 A-8 | III./JG 54 Grünherz, Wehrmacht Luftwaffe
My kit didn't come in a box. This is supposed to be what the box art looks like.
I have gathered my project materials and continue my research. Finding it hard to find reference photos/drawings of the aircraft depicted (III./JG 54 'Grünherz', 5 + I).
Sprue A - looks pretty good. Much better than what I have built to date.
Sprue B - looks good too. Nice panel lines and some rivets.
Sprue C - The control surfaces on the elevators look a little over the top. And look, a bomb and a drop tank; the options are endless 🙂
Looks like they put in the effort and made nice wheel well detail for this scale. Bravo!
Those rectangles on the fuselage service hatch look a little over the top. I may try filing them down a bit.
The detail on the consoles looks primitive but will do.
This is the instrument dashboard...LOL.
A nice improvement from the previous two project's canopies. No scratches, clear and undistorted.
The plastic is a little think for the scale but as long as it's clear, undistorted and straight I'm happy.
Not much to the decals and the lack of tail crosses, crosses me 🙂 Anyway, at least they are straight and remarkably thin, and there are some stencils.
I found these in the same bag as the kit. I may use them; we will see how the kit decals workout.
The decals didn’t have tail markings 🙁
I found a decent set of tail markings for both 1:72 and 1:48.
I found a decent set of tail markings for both 1:72 and 1:48.
Checked my references and nothing. Checked the internet and nothing. Going to have to ask the experts...
Can someone help me out? The kit builds an A6 or A8. I'm building the A8 and the kit doesn't indicate if I use C19 or C21+A5.
Can someone help me out? The kit builds an A6 or A8. I'm building the A8 and the kit doesn't indicate if I use C19 or C21+A5.
I have small hands. My fingers are especially small for a male. However, this cockpit is going to make me feel like a giant with fat sausage fingers 🙂
Work commences in earnest. First a spray of Tamiya XF-63 German Grey on all the interior bits. It seemed to be the closest I had on had to what I saw in other references.
Cockpit detailed. Only four parts and easy to assemble and paint.
There was raised detail on the console and dashboard so I just touched some colours on using the tip of a sharp toothpick. Worked ok I think ?
The dashboard didn’t look so good with flat black dials and white touches for numbers, so I dabbed on some clear glop and now I think it look better ?
Applied some minor wear a tear using using a couple of AK dark and aluminum pencils. Easy to use and the effects is good. Especially like the wear in the foot well area.
Cockpit and dashboard in place and fuselage finally together after a lot of adjustment and tweaking; the fit was not great ?
Picture says it all. I’m quite proud of it. Hope I don’t mess up the rest ?
I got to tryout the salt chipping technique again. This tine it turned out a bit better but I think the chips are out of scale at 1:72.
Ya this chips are too big imo.
Ok. The wings are on and they actually look straight LOL ?
Looks like you can still see some cockpit details. ?
Yup. Fair visibility of the cockpit details. May consider doing an open canopy.
Some good progress so far. Time to do some filling and filing
I think I mentioned somewhere I don’t have good references. I’m going off what I see online. Some gear bays are the same colour as the wings while others are dark grey. Flipped a coin ?
Decent quality and detail on the sprue but once it starts coming together you realize it has fit issues.
I think I did a good job on this hairline seam.
The bottom seam is a bit fo a problem...
Those panel lines crossing the seam are an issue...
Thats not going to turn out well.
My primer is coming out bad; chunky in fact.
Yup. Not good. Both airbrushes too. I’m using Stylnez and I heard it is temperature sensitive.
Ya the primer coat is going to have to be sanded… and what the heck is going on at the seam!
Before pressing on with more of the build I confront the tiny canopy windscreen and cringe; I still have to figure out how to paint this speck of plastic and not mess up ?
On the plus side the landing gear is looking good.
LOL I forgot to paint the outer side of the gear doors. Now I get creative with the masking to protect the already assembled struts, wheels, and tires. btw. It didn’t work; still got overspray ?
My first time doing preshading
I was surprised how thin I could get my airbrush lines.
Time to start painting. I think ?
Going to try this to soften the lines between colours.
Going to try this to soften the lines between colours.
Masking started. I’m not good at handling the tape ☹️
Turns out I picked a complicated paint scheme ?
Don’t know why the pic is askew?
I think ? I got a good shade. Mixed a grey with RLM76 to make it less blue green.
Painting continues
Camouflage is looking really nice ?
I didn’t like the out is scale salt chipping technique I used on the engine cowling so I tried and under coat of aluminum and chipped the surface coat manually using a dental pick. I think it look good and in scale.
Completely forgot about the yellow wingtips underside. No problem. Done ✅
OMG! Noooooooo…. ?
I didn’t mask far enough up the wing ?
I didn’t mask far enough up the wing ?
Ok. I’m calm now. Problem fixed. Lesson learned. ?
I had been dreading the mottling but it turns out it wasn’t that hard.
I let the air pressure low and tried hard to control the flow on my 0.2 mm airbrush but it still sputtered a bit. Overall still look good.
Propeller assembly finally attached. Looks good.
Looks good on this side
Looks good on this side too.
Yup. I’m liking the look.
Closeup of the business end of the bird
The compressor option gives it a bit if a different look but not a huge change.
I don’t have a suitable stand or jig so I used an only battery fix the kit in place as I dealt with the blue theatre stripe.
The home made temporary jig worked well and allowed me free access to the entire tail. I need all the help I could get because I such at masking and this was my first attempt at this kind of marking.
I think it turned out great! I stepped outside my regular Tamiya pallet and tried Vallejo Air French Blue. Very nice paint good smooth coverage and behaviour overall.
With the theatre strip now on the livery is coming to life.
Yup…looking good.
I have to admit at this point that I should not have added the propeller and cowl yet because there is more to do and the delicate prop is now at risk as I fumble with the kit ?
The navigation lights turned out well. It’s just a plastic bump on the kit, but I paint clear red/green over top of bright silver and voila! Lights ?
The interior is still busy but a little rough, but I’m still going for an open canopy.
Time for dealing with some new Vallejo gloss varnish.
Second coat of glass looks ok.
Don’t like the textured look I got from the primer. I sanded it and the paint hid it a bit but the gloss varnish really brought it out. ?
I noticed the gloss clear coats also subdued my chipping on the wings and gear do covers.
I’m going to try a sludge wash I saw demonstrated online. I made sure I hit soft pastels and in greyscale because I think the bright coloured pastel are probably not as useful on war machines ?
For what I paid I would expect them to at least not come broken ?
My wife gave me one of her cosmetic containers for mixing paint. It works great for shaking up the washes! The sparkly lavender lid helps me identify it quickly LOL
OMG that’s dark. I hope I didn’t ruin all that work!
Yup that’s really dark
While the sludge wash dried I decided to try my hand and making my own canopy masking rather than trying to free hand it like on the previous two kits.
This is the first time using masking liquid. I found it a bit tricky to apply to a smooth curved surface.
This worked out well
That ‘sludge wash’ didn’t turn out well. It stained the clear coat!
Top and bottom the overall paint job has been darkened by the wash. Now the paint is darker than I intended !?
I guess it looks ok but not what I was aiming for.
The staining is especially bad here. And I can see a finger print! ?
Started attaching the gear and other protuberances that I was afford to break off!
Looking good so far.
Ok all the little bits attached and time to seal it and get rid of that ultra shiny finish with some good old fashion military dull and flat finish 🙂
In the next few images I am applying the flat varnish.
Forgot to mention earlier that the decals are great but that I had many mishaps during their application. I'm sure the astute modeller will quickly see the problems...
Forgot to mention earlier that the decals are great but that I had many mishaps during their application. I'm sure the astute modeller will quickly see the problems...
One of the decal issues is that one of the green hearts attached immediately to the finish and would not allow me to reposition it; that's some great adhesive. Luckily it is relatively straight but crooked enough to bug me...
Another issue is that one of the upper national crosses disintegrated as I was transferring it to the upper wing surface; they are simply that thin! SO I substituted from a balkencruze deck set I purchased for this eventuality. However, I found the replacements smaller than the kit decals.
Flat coats applied but I forgot to do the paint touch ups on things like the pitot tub, pilot's step, gun barrels, etc. 🙁
Almost finished. Just have a few paint touchups to do. made a rudimentary platform for it to be handled because it's relatively small and fragile.
I have mixed feelings about the craftsmanship. Some of the kit I am very happy with but a few things were a disappointing blunder.
I'm generally happy with some of the weathering. The inside of the canopy seal needs to be touched up. I am happy with the modest scratch built details I added Infront of the pilot armoured head rest.
Almost finished. I will have a full range of glamour shot up shortly but for now I couldn't resist a quickie out in the sun. I still have an issue with tape and masking liquid residue on the canopy of anyone has any suggestions.
I can see now that I lost a lot of detail to sanding down that bad primer coat. I’m glad I put the effort into the cockpit.
I’m happy with the detail I added in the upper rear canopy area. I just made the info plate on the pilot headrest armour out of masking tape painted silver then red with some scratches for lettering LOL ?
Comments
46 7 June 2021, 04:41
Bruce HuxtableWatching with interest 🙂 (soo jealous of that canopy, compared with Revell's...)
7 June 2021, 10:36
MathieuAcademy 1/72 serie is really nice to build, this Focke will turn into a beauty.
Cheers.
9 June 2021, 06:30
RuiLukasz… I know what you mean about the mottling. I have not reached that point but I'm concerned about messing it up so I'm going to practice first.
9 June 2021, 17:11
RuiMathieu… ya it is a nice little kit. At this scale and price point it has nice cockpit and wheel bay detail, and a choice of canopies and ordinance. What it could use is a couple more livery options.
9 June 2021, 17:15
Łukasz GlińskiThe Propagteam sets are cool (used one on my F4U), but seal them first. They are quite old and brittle.
10 June 2021, 09:20
RuiCan anyone help answer the caption for photo 15? I'm building the A8 and the instructions don't indicate if I'm supposed to use the airflow ducts (C19) or C21 plus A5 (not sure what they are but I bet they cool the rear cylinder row). I have looked at my references and online and no conclusive information or pictures in fact. I'm kind of leaning towards the C21+A5 parts but If they are way off base I don't want to spoil my build.
11 June 2021, 05:14
MathieuHi Rui, this is for the compressor equipped sub version (u7) very few birds had it. But I agree with you they look pretty cool!
Focke-Wulf Fw190A-5/U7 'Graf Special' (Hasegawa 09976, 1:48)
11 June 2021, 05:34
RuiThanks Mathieu. So It would not be inaccurate for me to Build an A8/U7. Here I thought subversions were all R numbers.
11 June 2021, 06:19
Neil PatrickRüstsätze variants (R) were field 'add-on' modifications typically involving weapons and radio configurations. Umrüst-Bausätze (U) were major factory alterations like fuel or pressurisation. Thus it's quite possible for an aircraft to have either an R or a U designation, or both. Am sure some experten will tell us of exceptions, but I like things as simple as possible. 🙂
12 June 2021, 07:25
HSC1932What do the paint fallouts show? Typically they will show the right parts regarding the compressor, etc, for the right version
12 June 2021, 21:50
RuiThe paint callouts do specify things like the gun configuration and the correct canopy depending on if you're doing the A6 or the A8. The the compressor or air ducts are the only options they don't list as one or the other version. Also the paint callouts are generic (eg. black, grey, dark green, etc.). I'm going with the compressor because I haven't seen any other builds with it so we will see how it looks. As for colour guide I'm using instructions from my other kits LOL ?
12 June 2021, 23:26
RuiThank guys. Much appreciated.
Took some photos today and will upload as soon as I get them off the camera; I used my old dSLR so I hope they are decent pics.
27 June 2021, 00:36
RuiUploaded a few new photos today. Having trouble with my dSLR. It's a good camera (Nikon D5000) but it hasn't been used in years and I think it's a bit off in focus.
1 July 2021, 16:33
RuiI think it's time to stop fussing with it and declare the project finished. I have uploaded the remainder of the photos; wish they were better, but my camera autofocus is off. Anyway, thanks for all the great comments and encouragment.
5 July 2021, 05:26
Łukasz GlińskiLovely, looks grand in the sun.
Reminds me I need to go back to my mottling one day.
5 July 2021, 07:28
RuiSo time to actually finish this Fw 190. Its mostly finished but I did want to do the arial cable so I ordered some rigging...
[img1]
Problem is that I have never used this or done rigging and the instructions are a little skimpy 😀
Anyway, instructions are that the internet is for, right 😆...So I look it up and it seems all I need is a microscopic drop pf cyanoacrylate ate either end of the cable.
Now the challenge is because the canopy is open determining the amount of sag on the cable. And where to attach it on the canopy. I found all sorts of images but some don't show the cable or where it attaches.
Its all bit inconsistent does anyone have any advice or relatively accurate reference. I'm afraid of mucking pop the kit.
Thanks.
20 September 2022, 04:42
RuiThanks Dean. I think this was my third build on returning to the hobby after about 30 or so years and I really enjoyed the build. I also learning a lot of new techniques; some worked well, some didn't.
20 September 2022, 06:25
Album info
Straight out-of-the-box build to practice livery. The only things added was new balkenkreuz because I damaged the kit decals trying to put them on (they were very thin), and swastikas because the kit did not include them.
This was a very enjoyable build. I did make a few mistakes that nearly ruined the project, but I was able to recover.I enjoyed doing the camouflage very much. At this scale I had to do it all freehand because masking was impractical. Some of the weather was also enjoyable, but I'm still not getting the hang of the salting technique for the chipping. Th most enjoyable, oddly enough, was painting the yellow recognition panels and the engine cowl.
