Ok, here goes my attempt at the ever popular Fw190…
Here is a work in progress 1/48 Tamiya Focke-Wulf Fw190 F-8. I’m sure this is nothing new to many of you, but for those of you who may find this interesting, enjoy. Oh, and by all means, please feel free to critique and offer tips if you have any.
Upon opening the box ($15 on ebay, by the way), I was greeted with the usual Tamiya quality we’ve all come to expect. A couple of sprues of gray plastic, fine recessed panel lines, nice, crisply molded parts with plenty of good detail, two canopy options, a nice set of decals with options for four different F-8’s, and of course, the ever-handy paint scheme sheet.
I decided to “attempt” to dress this one up with the kit decals for “Black Chevron, Red 2” with the winter paint scheme, wish me luck with those little white lines! This aircraft flew out of Hungary with I/SG2 in 1945. Here’s kind of what I’m aiming for, except of course for the side markings:
I started this kit tonight and so far, the office is all I can post for now. I think I’ll order up an Ultracast seat to show some seatbelts. Stay tuned, more pics later…
…also got the horizontal stabs on and shot the base coat of Lichtblau (RLM 76) on the fuselage and lower wing. While test fitting, I found that the left wing has a pretty gnarly twist too it, so I’ll have to make sure I clamp it up good when I assemble the upper wing to it. Anyone else ever have this problem?
I’ll take that as a no on the GB idea, so here’s another pic instead.
I got the wings together last night and started a little weathering on the wheel wells and such. I’m happy to announce that the nasty twist to the left wing tip is gone! I took a risk and tried something new, and what do you know, it worked! I borrowed my wife’s hair dryer and “preheated” the wing tip a little and then gently twisted it until it cooled. After repeating this a few times the twist was pretty much gone! Anyway, here’s the wheel wells:
I got the wing assembly attached to the fuselage and put on the engine cowling. The fit is pretty good, only some minor filling will be required under the aft seam, maybe some sanding where the wing joins to the engine cowling. Overall it went together fairly well, not quite as good as the Tammy Spitfire Mk Vb I did last year, but still far better than than those old monograms! I’ve also done alot of the small detail stuff like the struts, prop, antennas, and so on, but those will go on after the final paint and decals.
Speaking of final paint, should I use soft edge or hard edge for the camo?
A 190 GB is always a great idea. But a spur of the moment one is tough since by now the “GB” participators as are usually loaded up. But if you were to organize one in the future… I have 3 Eduard 190’s that are alwyas begging to be let out of the cabinet.[:-^]
Got the basic camo scheme done, next up will be to add the winter white stripes. This was my first attempt to “free hand” a camo scheme, my others were masked. Here’s a couple of quick pics of where I’m at so far:
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Andy, but believe me, it’s not easy for me. I was having fits getting my Badger 200 to work properly. I must’ve tore it apart and cleaned it three times and fiddled with the mix on my paint at least twice! [banghead]
Anyway, as far as progress goes, I shot on the winter camo last night, and I think it turned out pretty good. Not as good as some of the work I see on this site, but for my amature skill, I’m fairly happy with it. That is, until today when I painted the red on the engine cowling. I guess I didn’t mask enough and got some overspray. I’ll try to repaint the camo on the nose and post some pics soon. Up next…decals…yaaah!
Great job. I just finished a Tamiya F190-A3. Many similarities in paint scheme but yours looks really great. I understand your difficulties. am also new to this, so I got more practice models[:D] so I can learn before going to big ones. Can’t wait to see the stripes, and how did you do them, also what was hardest part.
Ed, thank you, and to answer your question, as you may have read above, I had a wicked twist in the left wingtip I had to deal with. But other than that, this build has been typical Tamiya, and that’s a pleasure. The white stiping was done with my fine nozzle in my airbrush (Badger 200), set for very low volume at about 10-12psi, and a boatload of patient, tedius spraying. Took me about an hour or so. As promised, I’ll post pics as soon as I fix the overspray.
Those stripes look outstanding! You really do have a knack with the a/b. I might be up for a FW-190 GB later in the year, have a couple going right now.
