1/48 Tamiya FW190D-9 White 11 of IV/JG51

[Crimea_River]

As I will be sitting out the "Between the Wars" GB, I'll take the opportunity to complete at least one other project that needs attention in my stash. I had started assembling this 1/48 Tamiya FW190D-9 two summers ago but set it aside to start a GB project and pending arrival of some resin parts I had ordered.

I will be completing this model to depict D-9 "White 11" of the IV Gruppe of JG51 as it appeared upon surrender to British forces on May 5, 1945. The following page, taken from Eduard's "Late Doras" kit, which contains decals for 5 aircraft, including White 11, shows how this aircraft will appear. I'll be using Eduard's decals for this build.

Wayne's been very kind to provide me with some additional information on this aircraft and I'll certainly welcome as much feedback as people are willing to give on this project. This will be my first late Luftwaffe subject and I'm fascinated with the variety of camouflage colours and schemes available for this time period and I'll certainly need help and guidance along the way! One thing to resolve is whether the darker colour on the main wings is RLM 81 or 82.

Anyway, on to the build. These first pics show the model as I left it. Aftermarket parts that I intend to use are the Quickboost resin exhausts as well as an MDC resin wheel well modification set complete with engine plug. I need to look into whether a new nose cowl should be obtained (I recall, perhaps wrongly, that this may be incorrectly molded by Tamiya) and I have a feeling I have a PE cockpit set somewhere but I could be wrong.

This is the Eduard decal sheet from which I'll steal the applicable markings.

The first bit of assembly of the resin engine plug parts is shown below.

I'm looking forward to this build and to lots of help guys! See you soon.

 

[rochie]

like the look of that one Andy

 

[Lucky13]

Me too!

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Crimea_River]

Small snippet of progress here. Assembled and painted the engine plug and firewall/ammo boxes. In the meantime Wayne's been feeding me plenty of food for thought on the colour scheme for this bird.

I'll be back in Toronto for the week and away from my bench so no progress til later next week.

 

[zaxos345]

Good start Andy, looking forward for some more!!

John

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks John. It'll be a bit of a slow start as I have lots going on.

Hope your workload has relaxed a bit.

 

[Crimea_River]

Managed to sneak in a bit of time on this build today to work on the engine plug some more. Since the last update, I began to add some plumbing as shown in the following pic. If you look carefully at the edges of the firewall, you'll see that I also added some plastic strip to the edges as a dry fit revealed large gaps on both sides where the firewall meets the fuselage.

Here are both sides of the plug as it sits tonight with some of the major plumbing done and the engine bearers and coolant tank installed.

Also started today was some of the trimming needed in the wheel wells. The right side of the below pic shows the front wall being nibbled away.

Lots of fiddley work in this area to make it realistic. Pity Tamiya got it all wrong. I've read a bit more on this kit and have also discovered that the spinner is too small, as are the tires. Also, the landing gear struts are too short. Luckily, my Eduard Late Dora kit has a spare spinner for a D-13 that I can use. All I have to do is fill in the hole for the cannon. The kit also has spare wheels which I can use but I'll need to do something about the struts myself.

Thanks for looking in guys. There will be spotty progress here as I have some home projects I need to attend to but hopefully I'll get some mroe pics up this weekend.

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[A4K]

Looking great so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers guys.

 

[stona]

Re upper wing colours,Jerry Crandall is very non commital about this 213 series.He suggests the lighter colour might be RLM 76 or "light grey" maybe RLM 77? The darker colour might be RLM 75 or RLM 83.
A quick look at the JaPo volumes reveals no more!
Look on the bright side,whatever you decide to do will be just as "correct" as any of the alternatives

Cheers

Steve

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Steve. Hope you'll stick around and provide some much needed critique as I'm keen to learn more about the late LW schemes. Wayne had started an e-mail discussion with me on this topic and it appears the choice will ultimately depend on consensus on the amount of contrast between the two colours seen in the two B&W photos with Heinze and Radlauer standing behind the wing.

Japo seems a but more sure on the 76 on the upper wings but offers up 81 or 82 as the darker colour. Any question that the horizontal stabilzer is 82/83?

 

[Lucky13]

Like with me and my 'Red 13' of JG301 and that blasted lower wings... Need to kickstart that bird again, by ordering the best suited Vallejo Air grey for the upper camouflage...

Right pain in the tailpipe, the late Luftwaffe, but oh so interesting and educational to learn...

 

[Crimea_River]

I'm with you there Jan. Would love to see you back at that model too.

 

[stona]

Japo seems a but more sure on the 76 on the upper wings but offers up 81 or 82 as the darker colour. Any question that the horizontal stabilzer is 82/83?

I think there is a reasonable consensus that the horizontal stabilisers were in 82/83 uppers.

I can only offer my personal opinion about the mainplane. I agree with JaPo (for once!) that the light colour is probably RLM 76. It's too light for RLM 74 and I've only seen RLM 77 on Messerschmitt (Diana and Regensburg) aircraft.
I don't think that the dark colour is RLM 82 which was quite a bright green as commented on in various allied intelligence reports. I'd go for 75 or 83. You can't discount RLM 81 which looks very close to RLM 83 in B+W images. This block was small and built very near the end of the war,which might mitigate against RLM 75,but noone really knows.

I'll definitely be following your progress! I'm tied up with Tamiya's awful 1976 vintage 1/48 Lancaster at the moment (don't ask,I have a very low opinion of this old kit!) but normal,ie Luftwaffe,service will be resumed shortly

Cheers

Steve

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Steve - and I agree with you re the Lanc kit - and it's still the same, just with added extras and a grossly inflated price!

 

[sturmbock44]

Hey crimea i have two pics from my eagle cals booklet.. not sure how accurate it may be as i have no pictures of white 11 in my collection. wish i did though. if you come across any you want to share let me know im also looking for any of white 1 with the R4M rockets. anyways the booklet shows 82 \83 wings with natural metal MG covers. not sure how accurate that is because it list the same for white 1 . if your sources point to the really light colored late war wings, i would go with RLM 76 ... depends though because the pics i have of my F-8 yellow 14 show almost white , so im fairly certain that its 76. but some almost seem to have a primer gray look to pale to be 75 but not quite white looking. the cameras, lighting, films, and angle can all really affect the look so no one can prove you wrong no matter what you pick in my opinion. even bare metal can look painted depending on what angle it is. My opinion 83(dark green) could be your darker color , 82 or 75 for your lighter. but 76 and 81 seem to be popular field paints for modifying camo... so if you have a real light color on the wings it could be very well 81 for dark and 76(sky) for the light ... ill shut up now because there is so many possibilities in late war 190s! pics would help me make a better guess. horizontal stab. maybe a mix of 82\83?

 

[Crimea_River]

SB44, thanks for your input. The bare metal gun covers on White 11 are backed up by pics. Interesting that EagleCals calls up 82/83 for the wing uppers when Crandall himself goes fro the 76 theory. Eagles decals usually compliment their books. Anyway, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you some info on White 11. I must have deleted the last one where you sent me the Ar 234 stuff after I saved the pics.

Steve, on the lighter colour Wayne opined that it's 82 because the pics in JaPo and EE don't seem to show the contrast you'd expect if it was 76.

Now, what's everyone's opinion of the wheel well colours? The wing spar and inside surfaces of the upper wing and its ribbing are all visible.

 

[meatloaf109]

Late war LW is such a quagmire, I will stay out of it, except to say that I think you are doing a fine job. And what ever you guys come up with will be as close to "true" as possible, I am sure that the next one I do will draw heavily off your research!