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

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Thanks guys! I look at the pre-shading as a bit of visual trickery. That, layered with various post-paint weathering techniques, helps to break up the surface of the model from one uniform surface. I'm not sure I'm succeeding but I want to give the visual appearance of something bigger, something metal, something heavier, something older than the pieces of styrene plastic that make up the kit.
 
Doing great. What are you using for the 75?
A custom mix. I had a bottle of Gunze Sangyo RLM 75 that was running low. I don't have access the new Gunze Sangyo paints so I simply made a mix of Tamiya paints in that bottle that matched the Gunze RLM 75.

Thanks for the comments guys... always appreciated. I had a few hours on Sunday afternoon to do more paintwork on Black 1. Got lots of the camo done!

Before starting on the spraying, I attended to a small detail. The tail of Black 1 was painted yellow by Dortenmann to give the boys from his squadron a bright flag to follow. I assume that the Werk Number and swastika were masked off prior to the yellow and so I prepared masks to be applied to the tail before I spray the yellow. This will preserve the factory camo as a background for the Werk Number and swastika.


Ok... on to the camo painting. The horizontal tail stabs were masked off to prevent overspray. I like to use Post-Its as much as possible since they are much less stickier than tape and less likely to pull up the somewhat delicate thinned RLM 76.


After the RLM 82 Light Green was sprayed onto the horizontal tail parts, I sprayed the RLM 82 on the port wing root, which had been hairsprayed, as well as the upper fuselage.


After the Light Green was finished, the RLM 83 Dark Green went on, starting with the tail again.



My intention was to leave some traces of the RLM 75 along the borders of the 82/83 but it just didn't look right to me. So I ended up covering all of the underlying RLM 75.



Some of the lighter "irregularities" that you see are airbrush runs that dried flatter than the surrounding coats and will be eliminated with a clear coat. This happens occasionally when spraying highly thinned paint mixtures.



A look at the bottom with the masks removed. It looks like working on top of the soft t-shirt has helped keep scratches off the bottom.



The majority of the RLM82/83 camo has been applied. The mottling has not yet been applied. Mottling is a very tricky deal for me. Paint mixtures need to be just right to avoid sputtering (too thick) or running (too thin). So I'm keeping it as a separate step.



I can now do the wing root chipping. There have been multiple coats of paint and lots of elapsed time on that starboard wing root so I'm curious if I'll be able get the hairspray layer to react with water.



The rear fuselage has lots of paint work to be done. After I do some mottling on the spine and vertical tail, I'll give it a layer of hairspray so that I can show some wear on the yellow tail. The masks for the Werk Number and swastika will go on prior to the yellow but before or after the hairspray, I don't know. The black and white fuselage bands also need to be added.
 
Thanks guys! I'm happy to get going on this bird again, finally!

Very nice. I have not yet perfected my Tamiya mix for RLM 75 and that's why I asked.
Yeah, mine's not perfect either. I have a couple of color chip sheets from two Japanese publications that I use to help steer my mixes in the right direction. But my color mixes are always changing. Which happens to match the reality of war-weary Germany in 44/45.
 
Model's looking terrific John, I'm liking the paint job!

Very nice. I have not yet perfected my Tamiya mix for RLM 75 and that's why I asked.

Juan Manuel Villalba gives his mix of RLM 75 as 75% XF-19, 20% XF-1, 5% XF-7. Haven't tried it myself so can't really give an opinion.

The mottling has not yet been applied. Mottling is a very tricky deal for me. Paint mixtures need to be just right to avoid sputtering (too thick) or running (too thin). So I'm keeping it as a separate step.

Good idea John, mottling's always the tricky part and is easy to stuff up! I noticed Black One appears to have some of that diffuse "cloudy" mottle you sometimes see on Luftwaffe fighters. For what its worth, I thin my paint right down and spray small amounts of paint in a tight figure 8 pattern to keep the airbrush moving and avoid runs. The mottle pattern is slowly built up which takes some time and patience but I think is worth the effort. Turns out something like this and allows good control over the opacity and variation in the mottle. Sorry for the poxy photo.

 
Excellent advice to take into account (better have them written down in the "now I know" book). Thanks Kirby and Wayne

 
My thanks also guys. The issue with 75 is that it apparently has a very slight purplish tinge as described by it's "grauviolet" moniker and the chip included in Merrick's book confirms that. Kirby's mix has a touch of XF-7 Red in it and one other I tried has has XF-9 Hull Red in it but this one proved to be too much.

Sorry for the diversion John. Back to you.
 
Great comments about the RLM 75. I'm not sure what Tamiya colors I used to make my current mix but I did add quite a bit of purple to get the GrauViolet. And I just ordered a bottle of Mr Hobby Aqueous in RLM 75, among other RLM colors.

The hairspray chipping was performed on the wing roots. It's interesting to notice the different effects achieved on the two sides. I prefer how the starboard side turned out as opposed to the two-layer chipping on the port side. Not to self: the low contrast between the silver and RLM 75 grey renders the two-layer approach all but useless. Given this observation, I have chosen NOT to try and represent any of the RLM 75 underneath the newer RLM 82. A note about the chipping... it looks a bit isolated since it is constrained to just the wing roots but I will "expand" the wear area outward using different techniques.



The mottle pattern was applied using for reference the photograph of Black 1 and the color profiles found on the EagleCal decal sheet and the Dora book, which are slightly different. I started the mottle just forward of the windscreen, concentrated it in the area along the cockpit and then died it off. The tail was given a light mottle pattern but this will be covered by the yellow tail.



With the majority of the camo painting done, I've given the model a light coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss clear, which is my current favorite clear gloss. I want to protect the camo from scratching and also from the next masking step as I will be doing the yellow undercowling and tail and also the masks for the markings. Another coat of clear gloss will be applied prior to decal application.

 
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Fantastic build! I really like your painting aproach. It's very inspirational and looks very scale correct.
I'm sure I'm gonna try your "motteled" pre-shading technique as well!
 

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