Hasegawa 1/32 Fw190D-9

[Crimea_River]

Very nice.

I never leave Solvaset on the model for more than 30 seconds After that, all residue is pulled away with the corner of a tissue. Too much damage experience!

John, where do you get this "Orimask 810"? Buy on line or at a brick and mortar?

A suggestion on how to cut the 1's in future. If you design the mask so that it cuts with the smaller 1 nested within the larger one then you can use the part of the mask that represents the white border either as a guide to place the inner mask to paint the white or as a mask itself to paint the red.

 

[JKim]

Hi Andy... Thanks for the tip on the Solvaset! After that incident, I started soaking up any large pools of the stuff with a sharp corner of a paper towel.

I bought my Oramask 810 online from Ante Up Graphic Supply. You can buy sheets or rolls. I paid $8.99 US plus shipping for a 12" x 10 foot roll.

The Montex masks are cut in the way that you describe but I find it too fiddly to try to work with that skinny intermediate mask and do the inside color/outside color order instead. So when I produced the custom masks, I just copied the Eagle Cal decals directly (separate white and red shapes) knowing that I wasn't going to mess with that intermediate mask. It works ok... sometimes you get remnants of the inner color on the outside edge of the white border but that can be easily cleaned up.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks John. I'll look around for the Oramask stuff. On-line shipping from US to Canada is usually ridiculous. (example - an 8 dollar decal sheet would cost me 15 dollars or more in shipping - someone is laughing all the way to the bank).

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[JKim]

Here's my stenciling on the port side. The overspray near the swastika hasn't been fixed or even noticed at this point.

Here she is after the overspray repair. It was right on the red stencil decal so it's not the neatest repair job but I'm assuming it will disappear after the weathering steps to come. That grey blob intruding into the squadron emblem under the cockpit is not a mistake but a repair area evident in the photos of Red 1.

The wings and starboard side stenciling is done too.

A close-up of the starboard side so you can see the overspray repair as well as some of the stenciling.

I'm going to let the decal solution fully cure before I seal the decals with a light clear coat. I glued in the horizontal stabilizers after the last pic and I made a little mess that I'm going to have to clean up before moving on to weathering.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Luftace43]

John, this is really impressive work. The detachable spinner idea is really smart and your paint job looks immaculate from my end. I am really enjoying this build, thanks for sharing it with us.

Chad

 

[JKim]

Thank you and your welcome! Continuing on with the build...

Here is the joint on the horizontal stabilizer. Pressing the stabilizer into place produced a glue blob.

I let the glue blob dry completely and then scraped it away using a scriber. White Milliput was used to make the joint uniform.

The area was then masked and painted in several steps. Neutral grey, black along the joint, RLM82 Light Green on the stabilizer side and finally RLM83 Dark Green on the fuselage side. Note the little bit of grey plastic showing through on the rear edge of the stabilizer which needs a bit of repair.

After that repair, the aircraft was sealed with a gloss coat and preparations for the first weathering stage began. I make my washes with pastel chalk and water. I simply scrape chalk dust into a small cup. For this stage, I'll be using a mixture of black and dark brown.

A small amount of water is added along with a drop of dishwashing soap to help the two ingredients mix. This small amount will be enough for the entire aircraft.

The wash is applied over the panel lines and rivets and allowed to dry. I'll usually do both wings first. By the time I finish the second wing, the first wing will be dry and I can start removing the wash.

Using a small piece of folded paper towel, moistened with water, the wash is wiped off. New pieces of paper towel are used as they get loaded up with the dark wash.

Here is the wing prior to the wash. The effect is a little more prominent in real life as it's difficult to capture photographically due to the high contrast between the red and the white.

I work my across the bottom in subsections. I like to wipe in the direction of the airflow but occasionally I'll need to wipe in another direction. I'll always go back to that area and make a final wipe in the direction of the airflow... any inadvertent streaks will look better that way.

The top is done in the same way.

I'm going to let this sit and dry. I'll come back and go over it again with a paper towel just to make sure I didn't miss any areas. I'll then seal the effect with another clear coat in preparation for the next weathering step.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Lovely.

 

[le_steph40]

Lovely

Agreed ! Very lovely !!!

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far John!

 

[Papa Tango Whiskey]

Crap! Where have I been since you started this build? This is some real amazing stuff, JK.

 

[SANCER]

Hermoso trabajo John

 

[Wayne Little]

Top stuff there John...

 

[JKim]

Thanks for the comments guys!
Time for another correction! Again it was something that I did not notice at first. Based on the photographic record of Red 1, the position of the fuselage cross puts it very close to the red bottom with only a sliver of RLM76 light blue peaking through.

There is a noticeably bigger gap on my Red 1.

A suggestion was made to lower it but that would lower the top of the cross below the red "1" and I thought that it would look odd. Instead, I decided to create a slightly larger mask. If I could encompass the old cross entirely within the new mask, it would make the replacement MUCH easier to boot.

A new mask was produced using the Portrait 2 cutter. Test fitting the mask seemed to validate the solution.

A couple of small stencil details needed to be removed. The two data plates under the cross were really welded onto the model and I couldn't get them off. I rubbed them down with Micromesh to remove any visible edges.

I used a different paint order on these crosses. I did the white first, instead of the black.

Here is the new cross... the offending gap has been greatly reduced and the top of the cross is roughly in line with the top of the "1".

Fixed cross on the starboard side. This is the first instance where I experienced major paint lift upon removal of the mask but it should be a very easy fix.

I like the crosses better. Honestly, the gap between the cross and the red bottom didn't bother me much for some reason. However, the white in the old crosses was a bit soft and underdone, especially compared to the crispness of the "1". I think the new crosses are an improvement in that regard.

 

[JKim]

The first round of post-shading is done. This work was sealed with a satin finish (1/2 gloss, 1/2 flat). I'm working my way toward a salt fade and I find it easier to do if the finish has a little flat to it.

The post-shading, using very watery mixtures of dark browns, is also an opportunity to replicate some of the stains evident in the archive photos of Red 1.

The exhaust stains were also painted at this stage since there are shades of browns and blacks in the airbrush already. Note that the stains stop abruptly at a panel line. This is to reflect the references which indicate that the engine assembly may have been a replacement on Red 1.

A close-up on the starboard upper wing showing a bit of the mottle pre-shading that was done many steps ago. The post-shade on the top came out a little bit too heavy, especially along the wing root on the port side. If I have the ability and opportunity, this will be targeted to be toned down but salt fading step should do that as well.

I'm kind of at a loss of what to do on the bottom. That contrast between the red and white is so strong that it tends to kill the effects that I'm used to doing, although it shows up better in person than it does in photos.

 

[Wayne Little]

Top work John.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Papa Tango Whiskey]

I am enjoying this, John. Nice modeling.