1/32 Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 "Black One"

[JKim]

Time to start on a new project! This Dora that I am planning to build is a famous one and one that has been modeled more than a few times.

I hesitated on this subject because it has already been built by some fantastic modelers who I admire (Chris Wauchop and Klaus Herrold to name two) and whose work I cannot hope to match. But that's ok... every model is a unique reflection of its builder and hopefully, I can bring at least few new things to this representation of Hans Dortenmann's famous Yellow Tail Dora.

This is what I am STARTING with. The 190D-9 Late Version kit in the upper left corner is one that I picked up before and have not started yet. Next to the Late Version kit are a few of the resources that I have, most notably, recently obtained versions of Jerry Crandall's wonderful two-volume Dora reference books. Scattered about below is a collection of aftermarket items. Some are leftovers from a previous Dora build, others were intended for the Late Version kit and the rest were purchased specifically for this build.

I have a love/hate relationship with the aftermarket stuff. I can't resist the lure of eye-popping detail and super-duper accuracy but have been disappointed in the past by resin parts that don't fit and super tiny brass pieces that can't be seen by the naked eye. So what I start with may not be what ends up on the model.

Hans Dortenmann's Fw190D-9 is an interesting machine. The Werk Number of 210003 indicates that it was one of the first Doras to be delivered into operational service. When most late war Doras had an expected service life of a few scant hours, Dortenmann's D-9 survived to the end of the war only to be blown up by Dortenmann himself, rather than turning his faithful mount over to the enemy. I will portraying the Dora after Dortenmann's transfer to JG26 when his "Red 1" was changed to "Black 1".

In the next post, I'll take a peek at the Hasegawa kit and a closer look at the planned upgrades.

 

[Wayne Little]

Awesome!!!

 

[Airframes]

Should be good.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

Nice choice John

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking forward to this one.

 

[JKim]

Alright, let's take a closer look at the Hasegawa kit (ST19) which was originally released in 2003. The artwork features the bright red/white-bottomed Red 3 of the Papagei Staffel. The boxing is typical Hasegawa with a large plastic bag holding all of the grey sprues together and then a separate bag for the clear parts and the poly caps.

The clear sprue gives the modeler the choice of the early flat canopy and the later blown canopy style. While Hortenmann's aircraft was one of earliest Doras, it was documented to have been retrofitted with the later blown canopy by the time it became Black 1.

The rest of the sprues will be presented in no particular order... just as they come out of the bag. Here are two of the smaller sprues. The sprue on the left has the wheel well insert and some engine parts. The right sprue has the tail parts. Hasegawa, like other manufacturers, will often "modularize" their kits to allow for the release different versions. This tail is typical of most 190D-9's. The Late Version kit that I also have features a larger, Ta-152 tail that was documented on a few Doras.

Hasegawa was the first model company to correctly depict the open wheel wells that characterized the Doras from earlier Fw190 models. The separate wheel well insert allows for some nice detail but it also includes some pesky ejector pin marks that need to be removed.

The fuselage halves are contained on this sprue.

One criticism of the Hasegawa Dora kit is the shape of the gun cowling. Compared to the corrected Eagle Editions resin piece, the bulges on the kit part is exaggerated. The Eagle Editions cowling is left over from a previous build. Due to shrinkage and warping, the part did not fit to my satisfaction so I didn't use it. Instead, the resin cowling stood as a model to modify the kit piece, which I plan to do again.

Another left-over resin part is the Eagle Editions corrected radiator cowling. This one was just a hair undersized on my last Dora build. If I can find a way to incorporate it into this build, I will use it.

The kit instrument panel has some nice dial detail molded onto its face. I prefer empty bezels myself as decals make a more convincing instrument panel, imo. The Eagle Editions resin cockpit upgrade was purchased specifically for this build. Why Eagle Editions when I've had past issues with the fit of their gun cowling and radiator cowling? No good answer for that one. It was between Eagle and Aires and I preferred the resin/decal instrument panel approach of the Eagle IP versus the brass/clear acetate of Aires. Hopefully I'll have better luck with this Eagle Editions cockpit than I had with the MDC cockpit that I tried on my last Dora build.

The next sprue has the wing components. Molding is very fine and all exterior panel lines are recessed. There is a conspicuous absence of rivets though. Based on archive pictures of Doras in service (see the photo that I posted of Black 1 as a good example), I think rivets on this model are appropriate so I'm going to rivet all of the exterior surfaces.

The drop tank, landing gear and other small details are on the next sprue. Also included is a multi-part pilot figure, which you don't see much of these days. I'll post some closeups of the figure later. The exhaust pipes deserve a mention here. Although they are molded with solid ends, they are designed so that they can be added to the aircraft after all of the painting is complete. Always a nice touch.

The final sprue has some control surface parts as well as the cockpit tub and seat.

I'll continue on in a bit...

 

[Wurger]

 

[Lucky13]

Awesome!

 

[JKim]

Thank you all.

I'll continue my pre-build review with a look at the Eagle Editions resin cockpit set for the Dora. Included in the set are pieces in two different colors of resin and a photoetch fret. This set is designed as a full replacement of the Hasegawa cockpit and will require some removal and thinning of the kit parts.

The cockpit tub has finer detail than the kit tub and includes wiring detail on the floor.

Eagle Editions supplies two types of seats: one with the harnesses molded in and one without. Interestingly, plain seat is molded in a different colored resin material than the other parts. A very good result can be obtained by careful painting of the molded harnesses but I have picked up a set of fabric harnesses by HGW that I am intending to use. There is also a third option available as Eagle has included the harness buckle pieces on their photoetch fret.

The Eagle cockpit has a nice rendition of the Revi 16B gunsight that was used on the Dora. I also have some Revi gunsights from Quickboost that could also be used. The Eagle gunsight is noticeably larger than the Quickboost gunsight.

The Eagle instructions recommend using the kit instrument panel decals but I thought that Airscale decals might look better. I also have some IP decals leftover from the MDC cockpit set that could be used in a pinch.

I picked up this Eduard photoetch set with the intention of using it on the 190D-9 Late Version kit but I'll include it here for reference. It is fully dedicated to the Dora instrument panel and goes a few steps beyond the normal Eduard cockpit upgrade set in that it has separate brass pieces for the instrument bezels. One negative about Eduard photoetch is the strange purplish color that they use as RLM66 Dark Grey. There is also a noticeable fabric texture to the colored PE faces. It's hard to get rid of but you can reduce the texture effect by giving the pieces a flat coat. In all likelihood, this set will not be used for this build.

Rounding out the cockpit upgrades is the HGW Luftwaffe harness set. This will be my first experience with the HGW product but I have used similar harnesses from RB Productions as well as fabricating my own harnesses using foil from a wine bottle and buckle hardware from MDC.

To be continued...

 

[turbo]

Looks great John! Good to see you busting out something in 1/32 - lots of fun detail to play with

 

[JKim]

Thanks Kirby! Yes, this one has a lot of stuff to keep me busy!

Continuing on with the pre-build review, we come to the markings. I picked up a set of EagleCal decals for Black 1. I will use the tactical number (Black 1), the black Gruppe wave (or welle) and the stenciling from this sheet. But for the larger national crosses, I want to paint them using masks. Based on information that I found from Crandall's Dora books, I ascertained that Black 1 (W.Nr 21003) and JV44's Red 13 (W.Nr 210240) shared the same size/style crosses, which makes sense with both aircraft being 210xxx series of early Doras produced at the Sorau factory. I was able to find a set of Montex masks for Red 13 and will use these masks for the crosses and swastika.

I picked up a set of resin guns for the Fw190A-7/A-8 from Quickboost. I will probably will be using brass tube for the wing cannon barrels but what I needed from the Quickboost set are the rigid metal gun boots that are visible in the wheel well. These will replace the blobs found in the Hasegawa kit that are supposed to represent canvas covers.

The kit flaps will be replaced by these photoetched flaps by Eduard, provided I don't mess them up. I think the Hasegawa flaps are perfectly acceptable but I was fascinated by the intricate look and wanted to give them a try.

I am going to replace the kit tail wheel with a resin replacement from Eagle Editions. Again, there is not much to criticize about the Hasegawa tail wheel but the separation of the wheel from the strut will allow me to paint some white sidewalls on the wheel.

Wow... I've really added a lot of extra stuff to this build haven't I? Most likely, if past experiences hold true, some of these things will get tossed aside but at this stage I'm hopeful that all of the goodies will get included.

One more aftermarket product to share in a moment...

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff John. That resin tailwheel fork looks a bit dodgy for strength.

 

[turbo]

Wow... I've really added a lot of extra stuff to this build haven't I?

You won't need the kit soon!

 

[fubar57]

Looking forward to the build John. Regarding the flaps, I just went through a schwack of Fw 190D books and could only find 2 photos with the flaps down, including captured aircraft. Up seems to be the norm. If you want any reference photos from these books, feel free to ask

 

[JKim]

Good stuff John. That resin tailwheel fork looks a bit dodgy for strength.

Yeah, I was looking at that too. Not only the struts themselves but the wheel to fork attachment looks vague. I can also strengthen using sections of brass tube.

You won't need the kit soon!

This collection of aftermarket seems excessive, even by my standards but I've got good reasons for each of them. Whether or not they are "worth it" is another question altogether but compared to other hobbies (i.e. photography) this stuff is like peanuts.

Looking forward to the build John. Regarding the flaps, I just went through a schwack of Fw 190D books and could only find 2 photos with the flaps down, including captured aircraft. Up seems to be the norm. If you want any reference photos from these books, feel free to ask

Thanks Geo! Crandall's Dora books have some good info regarding flaps. I'll have to verify but something to the effect of 13 degrees being normal for aircraft at rest and a max of 60 degrees for landing. There are pictures in the books with flaps at both of these positions.

 

[JKim]

Here is the last piece of aftermarket that I wanted to share. It's something that caught my eye over at another forum. When I saw this man's work, I thought, "How cool is that??? I gotta get some!" Since his work is not widely available through retailers, I thought it warranted a post of its own.

Henri Daehne produces resin prop and spinner assemblies for various WW2 Luftwaffe aircraft. I ordered three sets directly from him. Price is very reasonable for the quality of the work and the level of research that goes into his prop assemblies. I paid 50 euros for three sets to be shipped to me from Germany. That's around $16 for each set.

The set that is relevant to my build is, of course, the VS 111 prop for the Fw190D-9.

Henri packages his props with a detailed, multi-page pamphlet that includes some reference photos of the actual parts that he has drawn measurements from. The instructions are very detailed and include helpful measurements so that the modeler can ensure that parts cut from their casting blocks are prepared for assembly.

The resin pieces themselves are finely cast in a shiny resin that I have not seen before. They look more like finely molded styrene plastic than the textured resin that I normally see.

The detailing is exquisite as you can see, especially on the hubs. I hope this detail at least is visible when the prop spinner is placed over the blades.

There are some thin bits of excess resin hanging onto the parts, most notably the openings in the spinner but the resin on the parts looks immaculate.

The comparisons between the HD parts and the kits parts indicate to me that Hasegawa did a very good job at portraying the shapes of the spinner and prop blades. Outside from the lack of riveting on the Hasegawa spinner, the differences between the two are subtle and may not be deemed to be significant to all modelers.

One notable difference is the increased length of the HD propeller blade at the base nearest to the hub.

Interestingly, on my last Dora build, the Hasegawa prop assembly was questioned by an enthusiast as being inaccurate since it appeared that the blades would not clear the front of the radiator cowling if the blades were fully feathered. The longer shafts at the base of the HD propeller blades may correct this inaccuracy.

That finishes the pre-build inventory of the kit and aftermarket pieces. I still need wrap up a few obligations before jumping back into the modeling workshop so this build won't start in earnest for at least a couple of weeks.

 

[turbo]

Cool!

 

[Totalize]

John,

I really like your Luftwaffe builds and this is great to see you adding a whole whack of resin to this one. Should be a great one!