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

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Thanks for the comments! I got a bit more riveting done yesterday.

The fuselage halves are next.


A closer view of the fuselage surface prior to the riveting work.


The rivet lines are drawn onto the surface of the fuselage using a pencil. I don't get too exact here and simply eyeball the rivet line position based on the scale drawing. My primary guide for drawing the lines is a flexible plastic ruler. For areas with significant curvature, such as around the engine, I use Tamiya white plastic tape.


It's important for me to scribe each line carefully and under magnification so that the riveting tool stays on the correct line. If I do this right, I do not need a straight edge to guide the riveter and this simplifies the process somewhat.


After the rivets have been applied, I give the entire surface a light rub with very fine sandpaper to knock down the ridges around the rivet holes. Rivet close to panel lines may distort the plastic into the recessed lines so I will gently run my scribing tool along those panel lines to restore their edges.



This view was supposed to be used in comparison with the unscribed picture but due to the lighting, you can hardly see the rivets. I guess it's a good perspective in that it shows the subtlety of the rivets. I want them to add visual interest to the surface but not overpower it.


There is at least one row of rivets that I blew as I lost control of the riveter around the engine. I just remembered it now as I was typing this update. I should have filled them in with Mr Surfacer putty yesterday so that I could re-rivet today but I'll have start on that putty work later today.
 
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The Thinnerline circle cutter is different than most circle cutters I've seen in that the circle is established by the outer ring and doesn't work like a compass. The compass approach is serviceable but it has drawbacks as the center anchor point can drift slightly during the cut resulting in a less than perfect circle. The cutting blade of the Thinnerline is supported by the rotating inner circle and the turning motion is made smoother by the use of ball bearings. The closer the blade point is to the center of the circle, the smaller the circle. This gives you a second advantage over the compass-style circle cutters: you can cut a much smaller circle.

One drawback is that the circle size is not indicated on the tool. You have to take a guess, cut a circle and measure it to figure out where you are at. Adjustments are inexact also since there are no detents or finite adjustment steps. With a little ingenuity and some minor modifications, one could probably put their own rough scale on this tool.

Here is a short video of the Thinnerline in action which was posted by the retailer that I bought my cutter from.
View: https://youtu.be/oSND48Os-Vg


The thing works as advertised but at about $75-$80, it is an expensive tool that only cuts circles. It might make more sense to save yourself a few bucks more and get a digital cutter like the Silhouette Portrait and cut any shape you want. I've not used one but it seems to be infinitely more flexible than the Thinnerline but probably more complicated to use.
 
Great job on the rivets John, and thanks for posting the video on the cutter. Looks to be a useful tool, but a tad expensive for what it is, for me anyway, as it would have limited usage in my case.
I've had a compass cutter for a number of years, and probably used it maybe four times !
 
The Dora build continues. I'm holding off on the engine assembly while I wait for some thicker gauge lead wire to be delivered. In the meantime, I am filling the time with little odds and ends that need to be done. The kit gun barrels look serviceable. The main thing I look at is the cross section... is it circular?


The slight faint of mold lines are scraped off and the barrel ends are hollowed out with an x-acto blade. There are even some traces of the cooling holes in the barrel jacket but these won't be seen once the barrels are mounted.


I think these will look good after they are painted.


A bit of time is spent re-doing some of the crooked rivet lines.



I have the Eagle Editions 190D-9 radiator cowling from a previous build but I didn't use it because it was just a tad undersized. I think I can get it to work on this Dora so I'm going to put rivets on it.



The rear wall of the engine assembly has the ammunition boxes. Since I am planning to replace the spent ammo chutes with brass sheeting, I cut off the plastic chutes.


You can see how the strip of sheet styrene will be used as a form for the brass ammo chutes.
 
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Good stuff John. For 1/32 scale projects like yours, you might consider getting some solder instead of lead wire. It's readily available at electronics suppliers and is much cheaper than lead wire. I have two spools, .022" and .032". These are a bit too thick for many of my 1/48 projects so I also have gone to finer lead wire instead but they may be perfect for your larger projects.
 

Thanks Andy. I have 0.010", 0.015" and 0.020" lead wire, which seems to cover my 1/48 needs pretty well. They come in small sewing thread-sized spools that cater to fly fishermen. I just ordered .030" and 0.035" for bigger scale work. With shipping, it is costing me about $3-$4 per spool. Not cheap but spread out over the multiple years that each spool lasts, not expensive either. I'll check into the soldering wire next time I'm at my local Fry's Electronics store.
 
Thanks guys! Steph... that build by Blackdog is definitely one of my references, especially since it is the same aircraft AND utilizes many of the same upgrades as mine.

A short update as I'm still waiting for some things to arrive before doing work on the rear engine plug. Using the stick of sheet styrene that I posted earlier, I folded some brass sheeting around it to form hollow ammo chutes.


I can slide these tubes into the ports in the bottom of the wing that I opened up earlier.


A look into the wheel wells shows how the chutes line up to the ammo containers.

 
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I had to prepare for an all-day fishing trip tomorrow so I had to content myself with some minor work on the Dora this morning. The boarding ladder is extended from an opening at the bottom of the fuselage. Instead of just opening up the two mounting holes, I thought a nice touch would be to hollow out the entire opening.


I made some marks along the ladder opening outline as guide for drilling small holes. The holes can then be opened up further with an x-acto blade and the opening can be cut out to shape.


Here is the opening after it has been cleaned up.


I place the ladder into the opening. No glue so the ladder isn't sitting straight but I just wanted to make sure the opening was the correct size.


The wing bottoms have a glue-in section that allows Hasegawa to offer different varations of the Dora. I decided to glue these in prior to riveting the wing surfaces.


Fit is not perfect. I pushed the section to one corner so that the putty work will occur on the joints that are easier to work on. I will use White Milliput to fill in the slight gaps without having to sand.



Next update will be on Sunday or Monday!
 
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