**** DONE: 1/32 Fw 190D-9 - Allied Advance and Defense of the Reich WWII.

[JKim]

Thanks guys! I've tried to approach the mottling a little bit differently... more feathered but less circular and blobby. It takes a certain mixture of paint to do this and it can be a pain getting this dialed in. A thick mix will cause the paint to spit and will kill the effect but too thin a mixture won't give enough definition to the mottle. Since the consistency of the paint changes as it flows through the airbrush (settling + drying effects), I'm constantly spraying test shots on post-its and masked areas as you can see in the photos. A certain amount of cleanup work is required after to catch the oversprays and eliminate the occasional "donut" marks that result from thin paint mixes.

I've masked off the bottom of the 76/81 area and have re-established the transition between the 76 and 81 in preparation for a new shade of 81. Stay tuned...

 

[Crimea_River]

Great work and a cool scheme. I agree about the 81 - maybe a bit too brown.

 

[Wurger]

It seems that the RLM81 could be of a couple of different shades getting started from chocolate-brown one going through the greyish violet-brown to the khaki. So I would say it could be.

 

[Wayne Little]

Love your mottle job John, mottling can be a real pain as you describe....Agree too on the 81 don't look quite right....

 

[fubar57]

Beauty

 

[Tuomas]

Very nice build! I love to follow this. The RLM81 and RLM83 are always difficult colors. They has to be quite different from each other otherwise they blend to each other too well. I haven't found colors to my liking yet..

Here is my Tamiya 1/72 Dora. About the same paint scheme..

 

[JKim]

Thank you Tuomas! The Dora is one my favorite aircraft so I am enjoying this build very much. I primarily build 1/48 scale so the jump up to 1/32 has been very fun. So much so that I just pulled the trigger on ANOTHER big scale Hasegawa Dora...

 

[Tuomas]

Dora is one of my favorite aircraft also. I primary build 1/72 (6 built Doras by now) but there is Eduards Late version next in line:

And I have exactly what you are building here: Hasegawas 1/32 'Rudel' in stash. I really wanted to start that when I saw your build, but one step bigger first..

 

[Crimea_River]

I built black 6 there fort he Doras Galoras unofficial GB with very different colours than on the Hasegawa box.

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far John!

 

[JKim]

Dora is one of my favorite aircraft also. I primary build 1/72 (6 built Doras by now) but there is Eduards Late version next in line:

And I have exactly what you are building here: Hasegawas 1/32 'Rudel' in stash. I really wanted to start that when I saw your build, but one step bigger first..

The Hasegawa kit is great. My only real complaints are the lack of harnesses for the seat and the overly bulbous gun cover. I was planning to use a bunch of aftermarket resin but I ended up tossing the majority of it including: most of the MDC cockpit, the Eagle Editions gun cowling and radiator cowling due to bad fit. And I went to the extra effort of riveting the entire surface.

I've been interested in trying the Eduard kit since I've had very positive experiences with the Eduard kits I've already built. Their molding is very good and I also like the quality of their decals.

I built black 6 there fort he Doras Galoras unofficial GB with very different colours than on the Hasegawa box.

I remember that one Andy... beautiful build! I'm not sure if I want to do Black 6 or Brown 4, which I assume are the only documented Doras with the big tails? Have no immediate plans to start it and I'm not going to do any AM shopping for this one, except maybe for decals. Luckily, I have a complete set of seat harnesses left over from the MDC cockpit set that I can use as well as the instrument gauge decals.

 

[JKim]

Got a lot done in the past couple of days. Not really digging the Brown RLM 81 that I layed down previously, I mixed up a new batch using a bit more purple and some red too. I got this result, which I like much better. I added some mottling too.

I also masked off the rudder and re-did that a few times (around three) before I I got something I could live with.

I added metallic grey to the gun barrels.

The mask blocking the radiator face was removed.

I was almost going to spray on a gloss coat in preparation for decals before I remembered that I had done a hairspray covered portion of metal finish. Due to the repainting of the RLM 81 and the mottling work, I didn't bother trying to work my way past those additional layers of paint and concentrated on the wing roots and a little bit on the gun cowling. I'll do some chipping with the silver pencil during the weathering stage.

Now the gloss coat can go on. I use Alclad Aqua Gloss and have been liking it so far. I like the fact that I can thin it with iso alcohol and that it actually DRIES (unlike the Alclad Klear).

The decals are next. The Eagle Editions decals worked great with the exception of one of the yellow 11's that decided to crack on me. The Microset/Microsol system was used to get the decals to lay down into the recessed areas. These
hodgepodge Doras always look really weird to me during the painting stage but the decals bring back that familiar Focke-Wulf look.

The poor antenna mast on top of the tail fin has been abused and bent. It will need a repaint but fortunately hasn't broken... yet.

Here's a close-up of the cracked decal. I wasn't able to salvage the pieces due to disintegration but I figured it'd be a relatively simple paint touch-up.

The important part was mixing the right shade of yellow to match the decal. You can barely make it out but there is a ridge around the hole due to the thickness of the decal. Not perfect but I can live with it.

The decals are sealed with a light coat of gloss and I'll let that sit overnight before I start with the weathering. Thanks for tuning in !

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Looks great John, nice and oddbally

 

[Tuomas]

Luckily you remembered your hair spray thing, scratches looks very nice! Pity that your decals cracked, great correction though.

 

[JKim]

Did the pastel wash and the exhaust stains today. Here is the tail after the wash has been wiped off.

Starboard exhaust stain is heavier than the port side.

All done with the wash and exhaust.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[Tuomas]

I've been interested in trying the Eduard kit since I've had very positive experiences with the Eduard kits I've already built. Their molding is very good and I also like the quality of their decals.

Eduard Dora seems to be good looking from the spruces. And there is masks and photo etch from the box, so no need for after-market pieces. I also like there is some fact to those decal options..

I remember that one Andy... beautiful build! I'm not sure if I want to do Black 6 or Brown 4, which I assume are the only documented Doras with the big tails? Have no immediate plans to start it and I'm not going to do any AM shopping for this one, except maybe for decals. Luckily, I have a complete set of seat harnesses left over from the MDC cockpit set that I can use as well as the instrument gauge decals.

There is yellow 6 in Eduard box. There is no evidence and instructions says that based on serial number it could be big-tail Fw. Only big tail Doras as I know that there is pictures of for sure are Black 6 and Brown 4. I'll think I'll go for Brown 4..

 

[Crimea_River]

The only PUBLISHED PHOTO evidence of Doras with the Ta152 tail are for Black 6 and Brown 4. The only published shot of Black 6 is of it when it was a pile of ash and only the tail remains. However, IIRC, the scheme commonly associated with this particular aircraft comes from a documented description of one or more photos of this aircraft when it was still intact, and which are unpublished in private hands. There is speculation that at least one other large tailed Dora existed based on the fact that Black 6 was s/n 500645 and Brown 4 was 500647.

Model looks great John though I'm still not with you on that 81 but who knows.......