Hasegawa 1/32 Fw190D-9

[JKim]

Just a few pics in between family obligations. The bottom wing insert panels have been glued in and the thin gaps have been filled with White Milliput.

The tail unit has been riveted as well. Due to the breakage at the tail of Black 1 during shipment, I am going to attach the tail unit differently. Instead of assembling the tail halves and gluing the complete tail unit into the forward fuselage, I will glue the left tail unit onto the left fuselage half and the right tail unit onto the right fuselage half. This should give me access to more surface area to facilitate a stronger glue joint.

Temp repair to the lamp clamp lasted until just now. Amazon Prime shows my replacement clamps out for delivery so I should be back in business soon!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Luftace43]

Looking good. Riveting will be my next hurdle to conquer as I have yet to try it. Your riveting efforts always look great and are tempting me to make the leap.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[JKim]

I got replacement clamps for my desk lamp so I was able to do a bit more work on Red 1. Plowed through some more riveting as I want to clear a major construction milestone soon and that would be buttoning up the fuselage halves.

After riveting, a round of dry-fitting to remind myself of the Dora's beautiful lines, which have always caught my eye. I stopped the fuselage riveting short of the fuselage seams and will fill those in later after the fuselage is assembled. This will reduce any mismatched rivet lines and also reduce the amount of rivet repair to to the seam work.

The tail unit was also checked for fit. I'll need to complete the engine plug painting and assembly and also paint the tail landing gear before I can glue the fuselage together so I expect those to be imminent steps.

 

[JKim]

Back to work on Monday after some extended time off last week. I was expecting to make some paint progress on the Dora but found my compressor malfunctioning after the long layoff. The storage tanks don't hold air after the motor fills them up. I THINK I've isolated the issue to a release valve. My brother-in-law, who is more mechanically inclined than I, was able to find a replacement valve online so I'm waiting for that part to arrive.

In the meantime, I did some more riveting work on the Dora. This time, it was the upper wings. The main work in riveting is the drawing of the guide lines.

After one wing is riveted and the pencil marks removed, you can see the raised effect that the rivet wheel makes on the surface of the wing.

Both wings riveted.

I've reduced the raised effect by using fine sand paper on the wings. I still need to put a row of circular fasteners on the leading edge of the wings but that requires a different tool.

 

[Wurger]

Well done John.

 

[Augsburg Eagle]

Well done My favorite piston fighter.

 

[fubar57]

Agreed

 

[Crimea_River]

Very nice.

Not sure if this applies but maybe your compressor bottles have a drain plug on the bottom that might be loose?

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far John!

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys! No, Andy, it's not the drain plug on the tanks as those were opened and closed without issue. This particular release valve controls the tanks as they fill up. Presumably to vent at higher pressures but the valve releases air as soon as the tanks are filled and doesn't stop until the tanks are empty. Hopefully, the new part will take care of the problem but I may have to take the unit back to the factory (which I think is in San Diego).

 

[JKim]

Continuing work on the upper wings... the leading edge features circular fasteners that aren't represented on the kit.

Using the scale drawing as a guide, I mark the fastener locations on the wing in pencil.

The fasteners will be represented as small recessed circles, which I will make using this tool. Some model retail shops sell this as a rivet tool but if you want to save some money, do a search on Ebay for "diamond setting beading tool" and you get one for less than $10.

The tool is pressed onto the plastic at the specified marks to make the small circles.

Here's what the fasteners look like after the pencil marks are removed.

I like to mark the specific tool size with a piece of tape in case I need to repair any of the marks that I made or need to put any additional marks of the same size.

I am going to show the mounting ladder deployed so I want to cut out the ladder outline from the bottom wing instead of just drilling two holes as recommended in the instructions.

I put guide marks on the ladder with the tip of an x-acto blade.

A small drill bit is used to remove the ladder outline one circular chunk at a time.

After the opening is cleaned up with a knife and sandpaper, the result is a more realistic opening for the ladder.

Red 1 was documented with no drop tank or ETC rack so that is how I am going to portray her. I've opened up the drop tank fuel ports to appear as pipes not solid circles.

The ammo ejection ports on the wings show the thickness of the plastic. Should I shave this down?

Finally got the compressor repaired so I was able to shoot a base coat of black onto the engine plug parts.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff John. The shell ejection ports were actually ducted up to the guns so, rather than shaving the plastic down, it would be more appropriate to make some walls out of sheet styrene.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[JKim]

Good stuff John. The shell ejection ports were actually ducted up to the guns so, rather than shaving the plastic down, it would be more appropriate to make some walls out of sheet styrene.

View attachment 520012

Ack... too late! I've already done a bang up job on thinning the ports with the help of a Dremel and stone bit!

I've plugged the hole in the wing bottom with a punched piece of styrene. The hole is to accommodate the loop antenna and Red 1 is documented to NOT have this antenna present.

I'm modifying the landing gear doors by adding small shims. On the real Dora, the upper end of the landing gear doors tucked into the gear wells when the landing gear was down. I can't represent this without major modification of the wing in direct vicinity of the gear leg mounting which I really don't wanna do. So I'm simply reducing/eliminating the gap between the door and the wing.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice job using the Dremel. Things could go south quickly doing that.

 

[JKim]

The shims on the landing gear doors have been trimmed to fit. I don't have a before shot but you can see from a previous build the small gap between the landing gear door and wing that I am trying to close.

I've also gone the extra step of riveting the landing gear doors this time.

One little thing that has bothered me on my previous Dora builds is the ducting detail molded into the wheel well. See that thick duct/pipe that abruptly ends at the edge of the opening?

I've trimmed away a portion of the duct closest to the opening.

Then I glue in a small section of brass tubing to accept a piece of lead wiring.

Maybe not a 100% accurate fix but I think it will look a touch more realistic. More importantly, it will quiet that niggling little voice in the back of my head. The wiring will be added after I paint and assemble the wheel well area. The photos of this area reveal a nasty sink hole on the wing gun mount that I'll need to fill.

The engine plug components have been painted but not yet weathered. The components are dry-fit so I can see what will be visible and what will not so that I don't waste time detail painting something that won't be seen. You can see the holes that I've drilled in the false bulkheads to accept additional wiring to represent the maze of piping and ducts.

The resin tail wheel components have been painted and weathered. I am getting closer to the point where I can glue the fuselage halves together.