Username: Bustedwing
Name: Graham
Category:Advanced
Kit: Eduard Fw190A-5
Scale: 1/72
I decided to nix the 262 and the 509. The 262 I'll save for the Monster or ugly build category if we have one. The Mosquito is my favourite plane and I have a kit for the fighter version. I did build a Mosquito a while back for another build. That leaves the Focke Wulf 190 as my favourite Luftwaffe plane. The Eduard kit looks great. I've only built two other Eduard kits and they were a snap. This kit comes with two trees for fuselage and wing parts and I assume this is for another version to be released at some point. There is a nice set of very tiny PE parts and canopy masks which I never use, too fiddly. There are decals for 5 different pilots and their planes. I plan on building the plane flown byAustrian Walter Nowotny of JG54, 254 victories, KIA November 8th 1944.
Starting in on the kit. Cockpit and the PE set. There are still some tiny PE levers, seat belts and pedals to go on. The pedals are quite the deal to fold up so I'm going to give my eyeballs a break for a few days. The gear locks in the wheel bay also has a PE part. The instructions are a bit vague in places. I ended up using the wrong wing underside so it's going to have to be a choice between two other versions. I also lost a teeny tiny part to the carpet monster. Supposed to stick out tha hole on the underside of the cowl. Must be a drain of some sort. I'll just use a bit of sprue.
I have to admire your pluck working with PE parts in this scale, the damn things are frustrating enough in 1/48 scale, so bravo to you. I also have to say that if you have only lost 1 piece to the carpet monster, you are doing well, very well,
Cockpit update. I'm not sure how I did it but I managed to bend up the PE rudder pedals OK. The the fun started. One of the PE belt straps vapourized, after looking for it with a magnifying glass I gave up and did what I usually do. Masking tape straps and then cut the buckles and clasps off the PE and glue them to the masking tape. Trying to bend the PE to conform to the shape of the seat is too frustrating ! Then the next thing to go kaboing. One of the levers that go on the gauge panel. I didn't even bother looking for it. I did find it however. After gluing the cockpit in I noticed it stuck to the back of the cockpit behind the seat. At this point I'd like to thank Old Bushmills for a very nice single malt !
Full marks for sticking with it, nice recovery with the belts. I gave up with those little leavers, don't bother with them now and that is in 1/48 scale.