FW190 A8/R8 - 1/48

You're doing a brilliant job with the seat belts. Take your time, they will really make the cockpit look nicer. I normally buy mine from Radu Brinzan, he does lovely seat belts, they are absolutely real.
http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=10
Take a look at his website, they come from Ireland and will be here in less than a week if you order them, really nice stuff, the guy is good, German subjects and well researched.

I visited the site Brian, and I agree, those seat belts really look real. Too bad they don't make any in 1/48

Having said that I plan to switch to 1/32 after this bird so I'll definitely be paying that website a visit in the future. Thanks for the tip!

Sorry Wayne, I was always under the impression that you were working in 32nd scale. It would be impossible to make those that small, you have to get the belting inside the buckles and they would be really small, i think that you should keep doing them the way you were doing them, they looked fine.

Small update.

Finally found some time to get the seat belts finished. I must say that scratch building them was a bit of a pain and handling them was quite fiddly to say the least, but they are finally installed in this bird's cockpit:



I'm currently retouching the paint, adding some washes over the belts to make them pop some more.

I'll bring the model over at the club this Wednesday so you guys can have a better look and give me your feedback.

As always, Thanks for looking.

Welldone Wayne , they look real ,,your just getting better my friend welldone

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

Excellent work Wayne, what a great looking pit, the seat belts really make a difference.

It's been long overdue but I finally have an update on this build. It got to a point where I could no longer continue unless I had a proper workshop set up - there's no way I was gonna use the airbrush anywhere in the house . This meant that I had to get the garage in order which up to a couple of weeks ago was still a total mess. Boxes full of stuff from when we moved, tiles, tools... the works.

Finally however the job is done, the garage has been somewhat cleaned up and I have created space for the workshop. This allowed me to put up a makeshift bench which will serve it's purpose until I can get a proper one built.

Anyway, back to the Fw. The next job was to put down a light layer of primer, just enough to allow me to spot blemishes in the construction. For this I used Mr Surfacer 1200 thinned down with Mr Colour thinner. I had a bit of problems getting the primer to flow smoothly, the airbrush kept spattering all over the place. After fiddling around with the pressure and paint mixture I got a somewhat better flow but I still wasn't entirely happy. To cut a long story short I went ahead with spraying the model (against my better judgement) and hoped for the best...

After a few minutes the primer was dry enough for me to handle the bird... which was rough to the touch Not giving in to panic I got hold of some fine sand paper and started smoothing out the finish.

The end result is not as bad as I thought it would be. One good thing is that I was able to spot a couple of blemishes in the construction, especially at the wing roots which I proceeded to correct with some milliput.

I meant to put up a couple of photos but unfortunately my camera (phone) ran out of battery power before I could do so. I will however post some tomorrow and will also bring the model along with me on Wednesday.

The next step is another light coat of primer but not before I get the airbrush to spray correctly

Here are the pictures as promised:

My new (temporary) workbench:


The primer-clad Focke-Wulf:







The dark grey stuff in the wing root and cowling is black milliput which I applied after the primer. This still needs to be sanded down.

Welldone Wayne , you got a nice spaced workshop...and the Fw190 looks good with the undercoat.....

Here's a pic of the pre-shading on the Fw 190.

I used a mix of grey and black acrylic colours as I didn't want to use a straight black.



Unfortunately I experienced problems again with the airbrush. I really had to thin down the mixture (almost to an ink consistency) for the gun to shoot out the paint. My guess is the paint was drying too quickly before it had time to leave the airbrush, clogging it up. This could be because of too high a pressure, the weather or more likely both. I found however that I cannot control the pressure as much as I want to on my compressor. It's either too high or too low, there's no in between. maybe I should have it checked.

if you are going to try pre shading i suggest you to use black or a very dark grey, otherwise you will not see the difference.

i totally agree with chris. I agree with preshading for German aircraft especially where there is mottle etc but a light colour won't work.

Ok, following Skyhigh's advice (given on another thread) I went ahead and sprayed some more paint on this Fw. I got hold of the workhorse airbrush my dad used to lend to customers while their own was being repaired. It's obviously seen some better days but at least it's dual-action.

I still have an issue with the compressor... pressure is way to high but here are the results (sorry for bad quality of the pics):





Upper surfaces were painted in Lifecolor's RLM75 thinned down with bottled water. The cowling is a mix of Model Master Black and White thinned with white spirit (shown in background) at a pressure of about 1 million psi.

I have to say that although it's far from perfect, I'm quite happy with the results as they are better than expected. Next step is adding RLM 74 camo and the dreaded mottling (in RLM 75).

Yesterday I found some time (and g/nuts) to continue the camo on this bird.

I applied the blue tack, mixed the paint, set air pressure at around 15 PSI (Thank-you TonyB for the regulator) pulled the trigger and BAM... disaster.

The end result is a patchy finish with a hint of overspray. I'm not even gonna post pics

I had half a thought of starting over, but I think it would be better if you guys had a look at the plane as it is first. All part of learning I suppose.

I badly need help on this guys so it would be great if we could set up a spray session at the club some time soon.

Ray wrote:

Wayne wrote:Yesterday I found some time (and g/nuts) to continue the camo on this bird.

I applied the blue tack, mixed the paint, set air pressure at around 15 PSI (Thank-you TonyB for the regulator) pulled the trigger and BAM... disaster.

The end result is a patchy finish with a hint of overspray. I'm not even gonna post pics

I had half a thought of starting over, but I think it would be better if you guys had a look at the plane as it is first. All part of learning I suppose.

I badly need help on this guys so it would be great if we could set up a spray session at the club some time soon.

PICS PICS PICS

ok maybe later

Here are the dreaded pics.

This one was taken at that akward angle to highlight the problem


Left wing


right wing

looking good Wayne.... two suggestions...

1. next time use white tac not the oily blue tac



2. try to avoid hard and sharp edges on the camouflage.



taqtax qalbek ok!!!

Wayne remember this is your first attempt...so pls be patiend..
I have already upload you this photo ..have a good look at the pattern ..german camo pattern were standard, but not in the last few months...

Even last wed you asked me about the wing leading edges...