**** DONE: 1/48 Fw190 A-4 - Winter War / Eastern Front WWII

[JKim]

Username: JKim
First name:John
Category: Intermediate
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Model Type: Focke-Wulf Fw190 A-4
Aftermarket addons: Mostly OOB but may add aftermarket decals and canopy masks

I have ordered this kit as my second entry into this group build. I am intending to depict a fighter from I/JG54 with temporary winter markings. The kit decals include markings from Major Hannes Trautloft A-4 as shown on the cover art but I am contemplating other I/JG54 choices.

 

[le_steph40]

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

Would it be hard to determine what the underlying camo pattern would be on specific aircraft with the temporary white? I've read that there is great variability in the JG54 schemes circa 1942-43 but the choices I thought might be applicable are:

74/75/76

70/71/65

In addition to Trautloft's aircraft, I am considering Nowotny's White 8

 

[Wurger]

The first profile doesn't seem to be correct. JG54 in Russia used own camo schemes painted in the field with different colours ( probably captured Russian ones. But there is a doubt ) replacing the factory camo scheme. Most of A-4 and 5 looked like in the second profile. But it is more likely these colours were RLM79 (Sandgelb), RLM81 (Dunkelbraun) and RLM82 (Olive Grün) and/or RLM83 (Dunkel Grün) on tops and RLM76 Licht Blau more greyish in tinge (RLM76 Grau Blue). However the RLM70/71/02/76 (65) were used too. Here samples...

FED-STD-595 Federal Standard 595 Colors FS 30215, 30045, 34083, 36473

FED-STD-595 Federal Standard 595 Colors FS 30215, 30045, 34083, 35414

the factory scheme..

FED-STD-595 Federal Standard 595 Colors FS 36081, 26132, 35622

Here is a profile and image of Mjr. Hubertus von Bonin's Wurger A-4 that was flown by him in Estonia 1943 posted at FalkeEins' site.. Personally I would follow the one.

As far as the winter camo schme is concerned... painted overall sides and tops or white irregular spots over the summer camo scheme. These A-4s that wore the summer non-standard colours should have the camo paints under the white colour. But those brand new just delivered from a factory, the standard grey camo scheme.

 

[Crimea_River]

This one should be good. Plenty of interesting choices here.

 

[JKim]

Much thanks for all of the wonderful pictures and profiles, Wurger! You are obviously a big fan of the 190 based on your screen name! I am trying to think ahead of how to apply the winter camo. I want to use the original two-tone base finish but I want to do it in a way that will highlight the winter white. Since I like to pre-shade my panel lines and the dark green/green applied unaltered would obviously negate those effects, I may have to play around with it. I'm thinking about doing a screened back version of the dark/green, pre-shade the panel lines in black afterwards and then apply the white. But I will have to test that idea out first.

 

[JKim]

Guess what I got in the mail today??? My Hasegawa kit arrived from the Ebay seller well-packed and in original shrink-wrap!

This is the first time I am doing a sprue-by-sprue pictorial of a kit but I am going to use it as an opportunity to familiarize myself with the kit. A good macro mode on the point-n-shoot cam can be just as revealing as a magnifying glass so I'm sure to notice some final details that I would not otherwise notice. So forgive me in advance if this post gets long!

The packaging is typical Hasegawa. The main sprues are lumped together in one plastic baggy. Another baggy holds the clear parts and decals together.

Here all of the individual sprues:

The decal sheet:

The instructions are single sheet, accordion folded and black and white:

Panel lines are nice... subtle and clean. No rivets.

One of the two styles of wheels. I'm not sure which one is appropriate for the A-4 but I'm guessing it's this one with the spokes.

The louvered vents aft of the exhausts are presented as separate parts and molded in the open position. Looks like some minor flash that needs to be trimmed.

The dual row BMW 801 radial engine is molded in a single piece. I'm not a big engine super-detailer so this looks more than adequate to me given that it will be almost completely hidden behind the closely tucked cowl and cooling fan blades.

The wheel well insert. Lots of nice detail here including some molded wiring.

The other wheel style.

Inside detailing on the gear doors.

A closer look at the paneling on the upper wing.

The cockpit tub is molded in one piece.

The instrument panel has lots of molded detail which should look good if painted properly. The decal sheet has some cockpit details including the IP so I'll have to evaluate that.

The clear parts look... clear with no obvious scratches or defects.

A nicely detailed tail wheel.

The cowl MG 17's are molded in the troughs... I didn't expect that. I thought they'd be molded onto the fuselage piece that fits behind this, which would make hollowing barrels (or replacing them) much easier. I don't have much confidence in removing the guns in such a tight space so I leaning towards making do with these. I had visions of using those fantastically detailed Master Model barrels with the cooling holes... oh well.

The inner wing MG 151's are visible through the wheel wells hence the long molding. I can't tell from the picture but I hope they are molded without an offset.

The outer wing MG FF's have flared ends.

Proper looking gun barrels can really make a model stand out and, conversely, unconvincing gun barrels can significantly detract from an otherwise good build. Can I utilize the molded guns that are supplied with the kit? They don't look menacing enough on the sprue but I will have to see if they can be made into convincing instruments of destruction. Into the workshop we go...

 

[Crimea_River]

That was quick John and looks like you landed a good one.

I most often end up using kit gun barrels. I find once the ridges are carefully removed and the ends drilled out, the usually look half decent.

 

[JKim]

That was quick John and looks like you landed a good one.

I most often end up using kit gun barrels. I find once the ridges are carefully removed and the ends drilled out, the usually look half decent.

I will certainly give em a try! But I'll leave the option of aftermarket if I don't like the results.

Like the Polikarpov, I tried to find something to work on without really jumping into the build yet. And like the I-16, I found the kit exhausts on this kit to be a little less than convincing. There are three banks of exhaust pipe tips on this FW. Two on the side of the cowling and one on the bottom. I don't think they are very visible and perhaps simply painting them black would be more than sufficient but, like gun barrels, I have this THING for exhaust pipe ends.

Oval openings... not as simple as circular opens. Definitely not as clean. Using a the tip of a sharp exacto, I scraped out one bank of tips in about 30 minutes. Just noticed the landing strut oleos in the bottom right of the picture. I could probably utilize my micro drill set on those! This build is officially started!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Wow John, you've got a lot of scope there from Wojtek and it looks to be a good kit.

 

[Wurger]

The kit looks really great.

As far as the winter camo is concerned... there is a couple of ways to make it. The easiest one is just to apply the white over the preshading . The another one is to paint a model with the summer camo and then the white over that. However the preshading can disappear when it's done. Especially if you use sandpaper for making the white worn. Therefore the applying of so-called wash is suggested for a such paint work. Also there is a way that requires using of two kinds of colours. For instance.. oil enamels like Humbrol for making the summer camo with oil varnish over that. Then the water acrylic white paint applied over the oil camo irregularly. A such applied paint can be removed at needed areas with acrylic paint remover applied with a brush.. Even peeling can be done with masking tape if needed. I would suggest looking at Hartmann52"s thread about Ju-87D and her wihter camo. link below...

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/start-finish-builds/junkers-ju-87d-5-revell-1-32-a-40644.html

 

[JKim]

Here are the exhausts hollowed out and painted.

Next I worked on the guns to see if the kit offerings could be made acceptable. The ends were hollowed out carefully and painted. The wing guns look ok actually.

The cowling guns didn't look so good. Not terrible but not really convincing either. I'm going to take a closer look at these and see if I can get them to look a little better.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

Good work so far.

 

[Crimea_River]

Can I send you my square exhaust stubs to hollow out?

 

[Lucky13]

Looking great mate!

 

[Rogi]

Excellent

 

[JKim]

Can I send you my square exhaust stubs to hollow out?

Circles, I can deal with. Squares??? Honestly... how would you go about doing those???

Got a little more work done this weekend. Working on the office of the Butcher Bird. First order of business was trimming down the thick seat...

To something more trim and in scale...

I added some PE foot pedals and seatbelts from a previous Bf109 build. I had to cut-n-paste belts and buckles to make them fit. The kit comes with decals that are supposedly applied over the molded instrument and side panels but I didn't see how that would work very well given the deep molding of the instruments. I elected to hand paint the office and use a pastel wash to bring out some of the details.

 

[Wurger]

Nice.