I’m back in the saddle after relocating across the country this summer. I have my workbench all set up now in St. Augustine, Florida.
I’ve been wanting to build one of the classic eagle marking 190’s for a while. I figured I’d give the Pacific Coast Models kit a try just for something different from my usual diet of Tamiya and Eduard kits. It’s a “short run” kit - not shake and bake at all. Resin cockpit tub, engine, landing gear bay, wheels, PE IP, Cartograf decals. It’s a little more work than usual but should result in a nice finish. I plan to use Mr. Color paints this time.
The subject I’ve chosen is Black 11, an early Fw 190A-3, W. Nr. 2187 of 8./JG2, assigned to Herbert Hufnagel in November 1942.
On 7 November 1942, 8./JG2 attacked an unescorted bombing raid (B-17s and B-24s) on Brest u-Boat targets. One B-24 was shot down for the loss of two Fw 190s and their pilots to the bomber gunners, including Hufnagel and his plane.
The instrument panel and engine are complete. Working on finishing the cockpit and wrapping up the fuselage next.
The main build is now complete. She’s ready for priming and painting.
There were a few challenges with the build, but they were not unexpected. The resin cockpit, engine and wheel wells fit and integrated well. The instrument panel did not fit into the fuselage at all – lots of scraping and fit checking to get it aligned. A liberal amount of epoxy came in handy for the large resin parts. Sorry for the lack of photos but the mission took priority.
The other challenge was sequencing the assembly of the cowling panels, fuselage and wings during the build. My focus was ensuring the cowl panels all fit properly around the front ring and that the top nose covers and bottom cowl covers all lined up. Lots of fit checking and rework but it ended up OK. There are no locating pins or alignment tabs so I added several strengthening tabs to the nose panels and fit checked multiple times before pulling everything together.
Overall, the kit is pretty nice so far. Not as simple as the Hasagawa 1/32 190, but there are some positives: (1) superb fabric surface rendering - it really looks like fabric stretched over a metal frame, (2) restrained panel line detail and limited number of rivets – similar level to Hasegawa IMO, and (3) a large number of options with 16 different aircraft from A-0 to A-4.
On the flip side: (1) inconsistent detail - for example missing hinges on all access panels, (2) inconsistent molding quality - quite a bit of flash and many sink and pin marks on important surfaces, along with panel lines varying in depth and width, and (3) many parts are too thick - armor plating headrest, trailing edges of all surfaces, prop fan, ammo covers, landing gear covers, etc. I spent quite a bit of time thinning these down.
The build has been more work than usual (a little more than Hasegawa, but a lot less than the Revell 262), but the result is a nice, clean canvas for painting.
Priming, main camo and gloss coat are now complete.
Mr. Surfacer 1200 was used as the primer. It does a nice job of hiding the small sanding scratches while preserving detail.
The main camo and mottling were next using Mr. Color lacquers for the 74/75/76 scheme. Yellow on the under cowl and rudder was painted first. RLM 76 was next underneath and on the sides of the fuselage. Then RLM 75 went down on the wings/stabilizers followed by RLM 74 using paper masks based on the profile. The fuselage and mottling were freehand. Only did minimal fading and shading at this point – I’ll focus on this area after the decals are on since they’re so prominent in this scheme.
Based on the photo of the plane, I kept the mottling fairly light. The white part of the fuselage crosses look pretty washed out. Since this plane was a hand me down from another staffel, the plan for weathering is to depict a heavily used but well maintained aircraft.
And what project would be complete without a gloss coat of Tamiya X-22 and MCLT? Decals next.
Welcome to my home state. I love St Augustine and have been up there a bunch of times. I’m about an hourish away down south in Central FL.
Looks like very good progress so far and will look very nice once finished. The paint looks outstanding.
The decals supplied with this kit are from Cartograph and they are superb. They went on without any issues.
I then did a Flory wash to bring out the panel lines - gray for the underside and black for the topside. After the wash I really appreciated the thin, shallow panel lines and features of this kit - very crisp. I then did some fading and shading with lighter and darker versions of the base colors and toned down the contrast a tiny bit on the black and white markings. A thinned black/brown mix was then applied on the panel lines for some basic grime, exhaust, smoke and general weathering.
Yikes, you don’t mess around. That big 190 is really looking great! Looks awesome in those last two pics with the decals on.
Another welcome to FL. I’ve yet to visit St Augustine and we are planning to come up for a short getaway sometime this winter. From what I hear, you have chosen a lovely place.
