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

[Robert Porter]

That is some great news on the fit being so good! It looks really great so far. When you move the rear deck from the kit cockpit to the resin replacement, is there a lip for it to attach to or are you going to have to build something to serve as a connection point?

 

[JKim]

That is some great news on the fit being so good! It looks really great so far. When you move the rear deck from the kit cockpit to the resin replacement, is there a lip for it to attach to or are you going to have to build something to serve as a connection point?

Thanks Robert! Fitting the rear deck was next on the to-do list so I can answer that question right now. I didn't want to use the photoetched brass decking as it is meant to be glued on top of the fuselage, which would place it between the sliding canopy and fuselage and potentially throwing the fit off. So I am planning to cut the rear deck from the kit cockpit tub. It should rest on the rails on the inside edge of the canopy opening and sit flush to the top of the fuselage.

I purposefully cut the piece ahead of the joint since I didn't know exactly how it would fit. It's much easier to trim down than to fill a gap.

With the cockpit placed into position and secured with tape, I've trimmed the rear decking piece to fit into place, making sure the forward and rear deck surfaces are level. Looks a-ok!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far John!!

 

[JKim]

Here is a long update on some minor bits and ends. After the fuselage halves are glued together, I like to deal with the seams and complete as much of the puttying, scribing and riveting as possible before the wings are attached since a fuselage without wings is easier to handle. The circular hatch under the nose of the Dora is not molded crisply and has been partially eradicated by sanding.

I've decided to rescribe the hatch without removing the old one. Using a circle template that is the same size as the hatch, I rescribe it using a sewing needle chucked into a pin vise. I recommend securing scribing templates VERY securely with tape... no finger-held templates for me.

I scribe the circle about 3-4 times. The circle will be rough with lots of plastic shavings but once the circle shape is impressed into the plastic, you can remove the template and finish the scribing process.

Using fine sandpaper, I sand the hatch edges smooth, which removes some of the shavings. The circle is deep enough to trace with the needle, which removes more of the shavings but also creates some new shavings as it digs deeper. I just alternate between the two until the circle is nice and uniform. A stiff-bristled paint brush or toothbrush is helpful in removing the shavings. After sanding, I've discovered that the template didn't match the hatch exactly and I have to fix the double grooves.
[image]http://imgur.com/StWNMvb.jpg[/img]

An extra step of puttying and rescribing is necessary to complete the hatch. I've also scribed a new line down the glue joint since this is where the engine cowling is joined.

I've painted the resin tail wheel assembly.

The tail wheel well is glued into the port tail half.

Now I can glue the two tail halves together. The wheel and fork is not glued on at this point. I'll leave the wheel off until after painting.

Jumping over to the wheel well, the Quickboost resin gun boots have been painted and glued into the wheel well. Like the tail wheel fork, I've used brass tubing as mounting pins so that I can install the barrels later, after painting.

The little air scoop and the gun barrels have been glued onto the gun cowling. I usually like to leave things like gun barrels and exhaust pipes off until after painting but there is no good way of attaching these gun barrels after the cowling is glued into place. I'll have to hand paint the barrels.

A big chunk of today was spent scribing the upper wings.

Using the Rivet-R rolling tool, the resulting rivets have raised plastic around each hole. The effect is uniform so you have the option of leaving it this way if you really wanted to emphasize the rivets.

I wanted a subtle effect so all of the riveted surfaces are sanded to remove the raised plastic.

Circular rivets are added to the leading edge. There is some raised plastic around each rivet that needs to be sanded down.

[image]http://imgur.com/ZdszofB.jpg[/img]

Finally... the cockpit tub has been glued into place using CA glue. As insurance, I wedged pieces of plastic sprue as shims to help keep the cockpit in place. I hope to have the gun cowling and the instrument panel hood glued into place soon!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

Damn nice John.

 

[Robert Porter]

Very nicely done! Impressive techniques that certainly get the job done!

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking very good.

 

[turbo]

Very nice work John, I'm liking it!

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys! It's slow going but hopefully the patient approach will pay off. Got more work done on the Dora this weekend. The gun cowling was glued into position with good results.

With the wing riveting finished, I wanted to tackle the Eduard brass wing flaps next. But the brass pieces are longer than my little brass folding tool (Small Shop's The Bug). I didn't feel confident trying to fold the long, fragile flaps without the aid of a folding device so I put that aside for further thought. I've already spent alot on this build and wasn't anticipating the purchase of another pricey (and specialized) tool but that is where I'm headed.

I jumped over to the radiator cowling. I'm going to show the flaps open and the trailing edges of the flaps need to be thinned down.

Careful shaving with a sharp x-acto blade whittles down the flap edges to a more presentable thinness.

Here is the view into the back of the radiator cowling. Depending on the light, you can see the grating molded onto the back of the radiator flap piece. I will make sure this is painted and given a dark wash to highlight the grating. I also need to fabricate some simple flap actuators.

Since I'm holding off on the flaps, I decided to start on the Henri Daehne propeller but I think I'll type up the report tomorrow. Time to get some sleep!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Robert Porter]

Nicely done! Suggestion for bending tool, I would avoid anything smaller than 6 inches since you are sure to need a longer one eventually. Micro-Mark and The Small Shop both make 6" fixtures priced at 49 and 69 respectively. But I am sure you know that. I have the little bug and the larger one and skipped the middle sizes. Expensive but basically one time expenses so I did not feel too bad. Wife on the other hand equates tools to shoes and clothes so I was informed my 2 "bendy" tools as she calls them equals about 7 pairs of shoes or 4 outfits. Not sure where she is going with this but I am sure it involves a shopping expedition coming up!

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Lucky13]

Phenomenonal work!

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys! Ok... so as I mentioned,I had a chance to work on the Henri Daehne resin prop this weekend. It's a beautiful product and I am really excited to incorporate this into my build. My first task was to enlarge the hole in the radiator face to accept the new brass prop shaft. Henri gives very exact instructions through every facet of construction augmented with detailed drawings and photographs.

Once I've verified that the hole is centered, I can move on to cleaning of the resin parts. There are no traditional casting blocks to saw off (it looks like Henri has performed this step) but there is excess resin to be trimmed off. Henri has included exact dimensions for all of the finished resin parts to help ensure proper assembly.

The spinner backing plate is trimmed and cleaned.

The fit of the parts is superb. After trimming the prop blade to size, you can friction-fit the blade into the blade hub to give you something to hold on to as you trim the blade hub to the correct size. The blade hub then fits tightly into the prop hub.

Here are all of the prop parts after the required trimming and cleanup. The only noticeable imperfection is a tiny depression near the tip of the spinner. You can just make it out in the picture below at about the 8 o'clock position.

Dry-fitting is easy when the fit is so exact and tight... everything holds together without glue.

I decided to take the dry-fitting one step further and mount the prop onto the fuselage. This will also be a good opportunity to check the fit of the Eagle Editions resin radiator cowling.

The piece de resistance is the spinner. The one word that comes to mind... "beautiful". Or maybe "bad-ass". It definitely adds a bit of attitude to the front of the Dora. It appears that the spinner must be glued to the backplate, which is unfortunate since the most of the hub detail will be unseen. But I'll make sure to paint, weather and photograph these parts before it gets covered up.

 

[Crimea_River]

Very nice.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Robert Porter]

Good grief that is a gorgeous prop! Was there a lot of excess on the blades themselves?