Hasegawa 1/32 Fw190D-9

And as I mentioned, not all is well with the Aires cockpit set on this particular build. I can get the cockpit tub to fit decently enough into the fuselage sides, but once I introduce the instrument panel into the mix, things start to get a little murky.

There are a couple of problems here. First of all, the length of the side consoles are different. The resin side consoles are noticeably shorter. Since the instrument panel butts up against the forward edges of the side consoles, the position of the instrument panel is tied into the position of the cockpit tub.




When I put the kit cockpit into one of the fuselage sides, you can see how far back the instrument panel is nestled into the coaming.




Compare the instrument panel position when I put the resin cockpit tub into place. Much further forward, which then causes an unsightly gap between the top of the instrument panel and the bottom of the coaming. You can see the other issue... the offset that puts the upper instrument panel closer to the pilot than the lower panel is much more pronounced on the Aires instrument panel AND it has some funky angles to it. Why not slide the resin cockpit forward? Well, that causes a gap between the rear decking and the rear cockpit wall.




One possible solution is breaking the connection between the instrument panel and the cockpit tub and installing them separately. Since the big offset between the upper and lower instrument panels is complicating matters, I'm contemplating using the kit IP. Just to test my idea, I used Blu-Tack to locate the instrument panel in a suitable position under the coaming. Not all the way back like the kit IP but not too far forward... a happy medium between the two.




Buttoning up the fuselage sides and taking a peek inside yields some promising results. It actually looks ok. There is a gap between the instrument panel and side consoles but I'm not sure how much you'd notice looking in from a closed canopy. And perhaps I can reduce/eliminate that gap by moving the instrument panel a bit.

Assuming that I will be using the kit instrument panel, I want to see if I can graft the photoetch instrument faces onto the kit part. The kit part has some nice detail but I don't like the raised molding for the instrument gauges. I prefer raised dials but blank instrument faces where I can punch and install individual gauge decals.




First I shave the raised details from the top panel...




The photoetch part is a good fit, shape-wise, for the top panel.




Shaving the bottom panel was a bit trickier and required removal of the portion of the top panel that extended onto the bottom. So far, so good.




Again, using Blu Tack to temporarily place the instrument panel under the coaming, I think I can place it so that the instrument panel will butt up against the side consoles.




I think this is a GO. I'm not going to agonize too much over exact positioning as long as it looks the part. The Revi gun sight goes into that rectangular opening in the coaming. The gap in the padding along the edges of the coaming will be filled in with a piece of stretched sprue when the time comes.





A view towards the rear to check the position of the cockpit tub against the rear deck... looks good. There is a small gap between the back end of the rear deck and the fuselage but that will be covered by the canopy.




Still lots of prelim work on this build including riveting the entire airframe. A tedious and time consuming affair but it will pay dividends in the end. I just need to get into the riveting mood first.

It's going to be a good looking cockpit John

Let's paint the instrument panel. The panel faces are painted Dark Grey (RLM 66) with the bezels picked out by brush in black.




The clear acetate has the gauges printed out in black. To bring out the dial detail, I sprayed the back of the acetate white.




Flipping the acetate over and placing the painted instrument panel faces on top, you can see the gauges. The shiny acetate is on top, which gives a nice impression of the glass in each of the instrument faces.

Great start John, the IP looks a treat.

IP looks great John. What does the IP/side console junction look like in the real aircraft? I think if you can reproduce a decent rendition of this from the viewing position it should be all good

Nice !

Great work so far John!

looking forward to this puppy!!!!

turbo said:

IP looks great John. What does the IP/side console junction look like in the real aircraft? I think if you can reproduce a decent rendition of this from the viewing position it should be all good

Click to expand...

It's connected so that's what I'm aiming for.


Thinning the radiator cowling flaps is one of the many "little" things that need to be done. These kinds of tasks are usually done in-between the bigger jobs.





Time to sculpt the gun cowling! My first step is to use White Milliput to fill in the exaggerated valleys found on the kit cowling. Using a water-moistened fingertip, I can shape the valleys and blend in the putty to the approximate shape. I have both the Eagle Editions and Quickboost cowlings to use as models. All three cowlings (the kit, Eagle and QB) are different and this modified kit cowling will be different still since it is hand-shaped without any exact measurements.




After the Milliput has cured overnight, I refine the shape with sandpaper. It's difficult to gauge the work due to the contrast between the white putty and grey plastic. Mr Surfacer 1000 is used to blend any rough edges and fill small imperfections. Apply putty... sand... repeat... this process is iterated a few times to ensure a smooth surface. There were many subtle variations in the D-9 gun cowling, which Jerry Crandall's two volume reference documents thoroughly. Red 1 had a late 3-piece gun cowling with no bumps or flares. The kit cowling represents an early 5-piece gun cowling with semi-circular flares along the bottom edge of the cowling between the two fasteners. The extra panel lines are filled in with Mr Surfacer and the flares are sliced off.




When I get to the point where the cowling looks good to my eye, I have to verify the work with primer.




I spray the rear half of the cowling with Mr Surfacer 1200 thinned with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner (my preferred primer).




Comparing the modified cowling with the Eagle and Quickboost versions, I notice a few things to correct: a slight indentation along the left gun bulge and the valley between the two bulges is a little flat and needs to be hollowed out more. The hole for the starter crank will be added after the shaping is complete as will the lost panel lines.




Comparison with the un-modified kit cowling shows the reduction of the "cleavage" as well as the removed panel line and flare. I've added a bit of Mr Surfacer 1000 to the indentation and I'll do (hopefully) the final shaping of the gun cowling tomorrow.

Doing great.

Great stuff John.

Nice sculpting John!

Looks great so far John!

Thanks for the comments! It was a busy weekend so I don't have too much to report on the D-9. Another small task is to fill the ejector pin marks in the wheel well. As you can see, it can be tricky to sand without damaging the surrounding detail.




So I made some simple sanding tools to help me. These are simply wooden toothpicks with the pointed ends blunted off. On the squared off ends, I superglued little squares of sanding paper.




Due to the small area of the sanding surface losing its sanding effectiveness relatively quickly, I made up a few of them and labelled them per the grit of the sandpaper. With these, it's much easier to sand down the putty within a confined space.




The different components of the instrument panel have been assembled. This is a mash-up of the Aires metal panel faces and the kit plastic instrument panel backing. The "discoloration" on the lower left portion of the panel is just texture: flat vs. satin... I'll fix it before the IP is secured into the fuselage.