The Big Question ?

[Don Fry]

I have just tidied (mined and tunnelled the junk room.,
I  been drooling on these. Which one, both, one, I need one.

These are photos of my stash. Note the 5 litre fuel bottle on the left for scale. The wing against the wall, just to the right of the fuel bottle wall is 86 inches, 

Get thee behind me Satan.

[martin collins 1]

Is that Dr1 tailplane/fin Don? 😁

[Don Fry]

1/4 scale Flair DV job, 20 cc Zenoah. Nice flyer. I built it in 2015, not a regular flyer, but I acquire a VW Transporter van this winter, for home conversion to a camper van, but I would be surprised if the design doesn’t feature folds away furniture, so it happens to fit a couple of these fully rigged. Please no grassing to SWMBO. Or I loose brownie points for doing her a camper van.

[RICHARD WILLS]

Right , so this is where we bypass the pesky air brushes and expensive aerosols . 

You will remember that we had a fairly bland Fw190 , lighter underneath and darker on the top sides ?

Well Luftwaffe fighters have a rather predatory animal look about them . The finish is also very "animal " . Think Leopards / Cheatahs and even some fish, like sharks . 

It doesn't have to be spot on (see what I did there ?) , but it does have to look believable .

You will see that the darker upper sides are roughly in a line from the gun deck through to the lowest point of the spine where it meets the start of the fin . 

Its not set in concrete , but in that ball park . 

It looks a bit patchy , but thats because the paint is still drying . 

To create the soft edge you must use a small fine haired brush about 6-10mm across . All you do is hold the brush at 60 degrees and in a series of little "stabs " you draw the still wet paint towards the edge . I have made a little video clip but havent figured out how to load it yet . The brush is carrying very little paint and is almost dry . Its dead easy and doesnt require much thought . 

Ive tried different ways of doing the mottles , but the best method seems to be - with a piece of sponge screwed up in your fingers . Again , you keep a little puddle of paint on a card and just lightly dip in . You can unload the paint on paper first and when its quite faint then attack the model . Its actually very easy and if you aim to build up rather than go in heavy , its not daunting at all . If you do cock it up , just paint over with the base colour . 

[RICHARD WILLS]

Here are some better shots of the Mottling . Its quite fun when you get the hang of it . Can be pretty random so there isnt really a wrong way to go . 

Because Im having a red band round the rear fuz , I have masked off that bit. As it happens I used a red solartrim decal so neednt have bothered . 

[RICHARD WILLS]

Now , Ive gone bit dark on my final dark grey . My choice as I'm confident it will look nice in the end . You will probably go a bit lighter .

 

OHHH! Looks a bit harsh doesnt it ?. 

Am I bothered? Can you see my face ? 

Well no I'm not . That's the thing , German camo is so layered that there is always room to change as we go . 

My intention is two really dirty up the lighter areas to bring it all together . 

 

[RICHARD WILLS]

Needs a bit of colour now doesnt it ? 

So , I was going to paint some red , but then thought it would be more like your build (with decals ) if I made up some decals instead . They will go over the grey with nice solid colour so no need to mask anything . 

First a close up of the soft edge as described earlier .  Then on with the numbers and fuselage band . Canopy just resting on at the moment . 

 

 

OOhh ! 

Suits you Sir !

Something for the weekend Sir ?

[Ron Gray]

Very nice Richard.

[leccyflyer]

Looking better and better with each stage of the painting - and so quick, economical and straightforward. Can't wait for the flying shots. 😎👍

[Graham Bowers]

Looking forward to this - all new to me.

 

PS Are we doing a guessing game about the plants ?-)

[dan h]

Richard yes I'm liking that alot !

 

I reckon you have achieved what you set out to do and more..

Brilliant !

 

 

 

 

[Don Fry]

Yea, fair do, that works. I’ll store it away in the brain cell.
Satan, I’m still not a customer. 

[RICHARD WILLS]

Fair comment Don . I did speak to Satan the other day ( he prefers "Lucifer" , or Lucy nowadays ) . He said that he'd never been interested in the British Kit manufacturing business anyway . (Apart from the odd prop strike , not enough blood or gore) 

He went on to say that what with his current obligations , punishing the fallen etc , and with the extra workload imposed with Jimmy Saville now coming under his jurisdiction , that he simply wasn't getting down the shed like he use to . Shame really .

[Jonathan S]

Richard,

For us relatively newbies can you provide a bit more detail on covering.  What you have provided so far is gold.  My particular confusion is covering the fuselage.

 

I.e. how how many sections and what sections? 

Some photos of each piece as you apply would be great so we can see the steps. 

 

To claify do you cover the whole bottom first and if so how high up the fuselage do you go?  Is the tail plane done separately? How much of an overlap do you have between sections? Any many other questions on the dark art of brown paper....

 

 

On the p51, I muddled through but was not that happy with my effort.  

 

Thanks 

Jon

[RICHARD WILLS]

Hi Jon , 

            I didnt take any more pictures of the covering but I can talk you through it . If you get the right paper and use glue that is only very slightly watered down (10%) 

its pretty easy . But as a beginner then I understand that you need to be confident . 

In my example , I covered the bottom of the wings and fuselage first . You can trim the underside covering flush with all the edges because you want the upper covering to wrap over and under . That way , you won't see the join and the wind cant get under it . 

I do each wing in one panel and therefore 4 panels does the whole wing including tips . 

Having said all of that Jon , dont start doing it like me if you have messed up before . Go for much smaller panels . doesnt matter about the joints , Camo would hide it . 

Start at the back and work forward . That means that the overlap will be down wind and less likely to lift . 

So to answer your main question about the fuselage .  Underside rear first . Fuselage sides from back of cowl to tail . Then cowl , two pieces . The canopy and the gun deck dont need covering so there actually isn't much wood to cover on the 190 . 

How does that sound?

 

[RICHARD WILLS]

After the paint had properly dried , I realised that I  would have preferred the middle grey colour to be a little darker . 

No problem though , three more blobs of black in the middle grey pot and a quick stir . I coated all of the previous middle grey areas with a quick top up . 

That is the beauty of mixing just black and white . Its easy to modify and even if I'd left it alone it would still have looked good . Its just that I wanted more contrast .

You can see as the model develops that being entirely monotone with just one other colour (red ) for high lights , the model will always look right , because all of the greys are related like first cousins!

[RICHARD WILLS]

Although the Fw190 is a wonderfully clean design, there a few "signature features " which if you showed someone in isolation , would be immediate clues as to its owners identity .

The canopy (obviously ) , but also the Gun deck , spinner and supercharger bulges (what I call hamster cheeks) . 

Now while Ive been busy in the workshop , I've got our very own Paul Johnson on the case with 3D design of the gundeck and the Hamster cheeks . 

My model has a vac form of the gun deck based on a 3D design Paul did to my spec . He has sent me through the other items in 3D print which I will prep and add in the next day or so . 

The kit version will have all Vacformed "character" parts as the finish is ready to paint so ,much quicker . 

There will also be a complete decal set with a few options too . 

[RICHARD WILLS]

Oh , and before all you smart Alec's comment (Ron ) .

The shirt is from my house breaking career , the book is to make me look clever , the hairspray is used as a fixative for my home made decals , I always put salt and pepper on my models (dont you ?) The table is Ikea and the photo copier HP .

I think thats it . 😜

[leccyflyer]

Mmmmmm - moules frites - very classy for a Sunday afternoon. 🙂

 

Butcher Bird is looking very fine there.

[Ron Gray]

28 minutes ago, RICHARD WILLS said:

because all of the greys are related like first cousins!

I can vouch for that.

[Ron Gray]

19 minutes ago, RICHARD WILLS said:

Oh , and before all you smart Alec's comment

As if (he was a good school friend), but what are the 2 LPs on the table?

 

PS have you completed the one on page 37 yet, it's a bit of a bugger? I've reverted to the small book, as a) it cost less (well actually I got it from the library - the librarian left it on her desk) and b) and it's easier to hide from the wife. Yep, never a cross word between me and the mrs.

[Paul Johnson 4]

53 minutes ago, Ron Gray said:

PS have you completed the one on page 37 yet, it's a bit of a bugger? I've reverted to the small book, as a) it cost less (well actually I got it from the library - the librarian left it on her desk)

Huh the hard one on page 37..... i bet you waited for the librarian to finish it first!

[Ron Gray]

Gosh, how did you know, were you there? now I remember I think I spied you in the 'DIY Electronics' section, weren't you looking at the book 'How to create a bird's nest from your wiring'?

[RICHARD WILLS]

Ok , so here are a few more small steps . 

Exhaust stains without an airbrush are possible and I think models look weird without them . The Fw190 was particularly messy . 

I used the darkest grey as a starting point then added a little bit of dark earth brown . (Just a cheap tester emulsion from Band Q) 

Paint from the exhaust outlet at the rim of the cowl outward  to make a pretty solid triangle for the first 75mm. 

Then using the flat brush unloaded , brush out that paint towards the tail so that it is fading as you go . 

Finally , put some more paint on a card and dab lightly with a sponge . Sponge dab onto spare paper until its almost run out then stipple round the perimeter of your exhaust stain . If you cock it up , wipe off quickly with a damp cloth . 

You can also see that I've fitted the "Hamster cheeks" with epoxy . Elastic bands went round the cowl till it dried . 

 

[RICHARD WILLS]

A lot of people might stop at this point and its certainly ok to do so . If you look back in the thread you can see a typical ARTF  190 from Eflite which is finished in quite a basic fashion . I think we have already exceeded that level of finish and of course out model is made of light stiff wood , not polystyrene . 

Win Win in my book . 

This model is 54" span and with no hardware in it (like motor , battery or radio ) it weighs 2lb 7oz . I did weigh it before painting and all of the paint and decals added only 2oz. There isnt much more to do to the airframe , But for those that are interested I will be doing the usual panel lines and weathering . 

I will also show details of radio installation including pushrods . 

I have to say that this probably should be my Warbirds Replicas "series one entry level model " . It really is a vey quick build and makes an interesting comparison with sport kits in that we normally expect any element of "scale" to slow down the build and add complications over a say Gangster/Acrowot etc . However  ,in this case the distinctive features actually seem to aid the build and automatically provide the right spaces in the right places !

I'm going to have few days out of the workshop before I finish the weathering next week . 

As we all agreed earlier in this thread , it wasnt worth producing a foam only kit or cutting corners from my usual approach to save maybe £20 . So the price of the 190 or the Tempest will be £139 . 

I will only make batches nowadays so there will be no permanent stock . I will have a count up with people next week so I know how many to make . If you have any friends on the edge of this thread or in the club please explain that "Johnny come latelys " will miss out, since the only chance of getting one after the first batch would be to rally enough new interest for another ten . 

Anyway , lets not worry about that for a week . 

Honest thoughts chaps ?

This set of decals could be offered as the standard set but perhaps with other options . Red 23 a good choice or something else ?