Hasegawa 1/32 Fw190D-9

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The landing gear retraction arms have been spruced up with wire to represent the spring and electrical connections.


I had some left over wire strands so I decided to add one more electrical wiring line to the engine plug.


I purposefully flared the wire out from the plug because I remembered that this side of the fuselage wall was relatively bare on the last build and could use some clutter.


You can see what I mean on this next photo...


The supercharger cowling joint was filled in three stages. First was the White Milliput, which I forced into the gap and then removed the excess with a wet piece of paper towel. With the gap reduced to a shallow groove, I used Mr Dissolved Putty as a second filler and finally Mr Surfacer 1000 to finish it off. After sanding the joint, I shot it with Mr Surfacer 1200 to check the joint. The gap has been filled but there remains a subtle sanding edge on both side, photographically evident in the view from the bottom.



I did some additional sanding to remove the subtle edge. I'll shoot another thin layer of primer to check my work.



Final work for the night was painting the shiny metal on the landing gear legs. I like to use Alclad Chrome for this on top of a shiny gloss black base (Mr. Color lacquer). The Chrome is not the strongest finish so I want to make sure to let it cure completely before I mask it off to paint the landing gear legs.
 
After sanding, the supercharger scoop was given another spritz of primer. Some very minor touch-ups and it should be done.



Another minor detail that I decided to address was the cowl flap actuator rods. In reality, the Dora has a complicated network of pushrods and levers that control the cowl flaps. Very difficult to render accurately and since the view into the back of the flaps is very limited, I resigned myself to simply showing a rod for each flap. Better than nothing...


Finally got the nerve to rivet the wing bottoms tonight. To make it more manageable and avoid smearing of the pencil lines, I decided to attack it in sections. First I did the center...



And then the outer wing sections...


After the rivets were applied, the entire bottom was sanded with very fine sandpaper to get rid of the raised plastic above each rivet. The wing was washed with warm water afterwards. You can't even see the rivets from this distance but that is intentional.


The majority of the airframe has been riveted. I've held off on the rivet lines along the major seams. It'll be easier to do them after assembly.
 
It's finally time for a major construction step! The fuselage halves can now be glued together. First, I've glued the engine plug into the starboard fuselage side.


Tube glue is then applied to the edges of the engine plug that will be contacting the port fuselage side. The port side is then pushed into place, making sure that the engine plug contact points are pushed against the fuselage side. Then, I'll fuse together the fuselage seam one section at a time using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. Masking tape is used to apply pressure on the seam as the glue dries.


A view up from the bottom. The small wheel on the starboard cockpit sidewall has been glued into place. It had been knocked loosed during the riveting/sanding process.


The Aires resin cockpit assembly is pushed into place and secured temporarily with tape. I want to make sure that it fits properly especially in relation to the rear cockpit sill. Note the gap on the edge of the cockpit coaming where the Revi gunsight sits. This is incorrect and the coaming padding along the edge should be continuous.


A quick check to see if the clear canopy parts fit... no problem here.


Another check to see if the gun cowling and radiator cowling fit. I love the lines of the Dora and this build is finally starting to reveal some of the lines of this menacing fighter.



Here you can see the cowl flap actuators that I added. Still lots of painting that I have to do before I start gluing these components on but I like getting a sneak peak.


Putting the front end on the Dora made me think of the prop. This leads me to one of my favorite parts of any Luftwaffe 1/32 scale build... a Henri Daehne resin prop assembly.


Stay tuned...
 
The resin prop sets that Henri Daehne makes represent the pinnacle of enthusiast improvements that are available today. Incredibly well cast, his stuff just oozes with quality and precision.


The VS111 set for the Fw190D-9 comes with a complete prop, including a super-detailed hub, which, unfortunately will go mostly unseen once the spinner is attached.


The multi-page instructions are very well detailed with exact measurements for key pieces so there is none of the guess work and ambiguity that other aftermarket sets are afflicted with. The first order of business is to enlarge the opening in the radiator face to accommodate the brass tube that serves as the prop shaft. Luckily, I have a 3mm drill bit that can be used to for this purpose.


Once the hole is enlarged to 3mm, I can check to see if the prop shaft is perfectly centered. The brass tube is a tight friction fit, which fits my needs exactly since I'll be able to remove the prop for shipping.


Clean up of the resin parts involves removal of the casting bases and some trimming of excess resin. Most of the bases have pre-trimmed so only minor sanding is needed to get each part down to the exact prescribed dimensions.


Once the individual parts have been cleaned up, the prop is ready to be assembled.


I'm going to stop here with the HD prop for now, after verifying the fit of the pieces.
 
The landing gear legs with shiny oleos masked off and preliminary painting done. The basic RLM02 color of the legs is given some variation by painting some portions in a slightly lighter shade.


The ammo ejection chutes have been painted... black on the inside and RLM02 on the outside.


The radiator grill is painted. One of the rare times I've tried to do some dry-brushing.


Here's the cockpit coaming or hood after seam repair and some paint. I inadvertently braced one of my fingers on the wet paint... doh!


After sealing the paint with Alclad Aqua Gloss, I applied the data plate decals to the legs. These came from the EagleCal decal sheet.


Another gloss coat on the legs and I apply a dark pastel wash to highlight the details and dirty the legs up a bit. The legs are then given a flat coat to seal the effects. I've also painted and washed the retraction arms in a similar manner.
 
Time to install the completed cockpit into the fuselage. That cockpit has been sitting on my desk for months and months and it's finally going to put into place. I used JB Kwik, which is a two-part epoxy that sets very fast. It's perfect when you need a solid bond AND you could benefit from a bit of lag to be able to make fit adjustments as it cures.


The fit of the rear deck is checked as the JB Kwik is drying so I can make last minute adjustments.


The view into the cockpit is limited, especially since the canopy will be posed in the closed position. One of the reasons why I chose the simpler (and cheaper) Aires resin cockpit instead of the Eagle Editions.



The work on the tires begin by creating a flat spot. To simulate the weight of the aircraft pressing down on the inflatable tires, I simply sand a flat spot using a piece of coarse sand paper taped onto a small sheet of glass. It can be a fairly delicate exercise as it can be difficult to hold the tire perfectly perpendicular to the sand paper during each stroke. Constant checking and adjustments have to made to keep the flat spot on the correct plane.


Can you see the difference between the weighted and unweighted tire? I think it makes a lot of difference and I do this on all of my builds.


Here is the hood above the instrument panel after the fingerprinted paint was removed and the seam and panel line repaired.


Finally, the wheel well insert has been painted and weathered. Besides the minor modifications to the molded brake line and the addition of the Quickboost resin gun bodies, the wheel well is mostly the result of painting and weathering. Like the gear legs, I used highlights of lightened RLM02 to add some tonal variety to the wheel wells. I've tried to tone down the contrast between the light and dark RLM02 as I thought I was a little heavy handed with this variation on my last build.
 
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