Magnus, they both look great! I really am partial to the H model! Good job, can't wait to see them done. Russell

Russell! I am nearing completion now so with a bit of luck I will be able to fulfil your wishes before the end of May

I have been Focke-Wulfing (is that a real word by the way, I doubt it...) heavily the last few days. Too bad there weren't more mottling to do on these, it is great fun! I think I'll have to do more Luftwaffe subjects in the future...

Ta 152-C:

The german crosses will be painted over the dark patches on the sides.


This one also had a natural metal wing centre section...


Wing root needs a bit of a touch-up...

FW 190D-9:

I don't have a photo of this machine so I have been following the profile from the Aeromaster sheet.


That same sheet also shows a natural metal fuselage insert sloppily overpainted with dark paint. I added a drop of black to my RLM75 mix...







Magnus

The paintshop has been busy tonight cutting masks and painting crosses! Tomorrow they are going for the black ones!





Magnus

Wow! Your FW's look superb Magnus!! Good job there. Russell

Russell! Thanks for keeping me company !

A bit more cutting, masking and painting!


The letter "C" is one that I really could do without. It will need a bit of a touch-up later...



Magnus

Looking good!
Can't wait to see them finished.

Great work Magnus.

I'm really inspired to build my own Ta152C in 1/48th now.

Can't wait to see the finished models.

Up to your usual standards of excellence, Magnus- cheers! You get an extra cookie for those hand-cut masks.

Eetu and Matt! Working hard to finish them !

Chuck! More work than I thought to do masks for all three of them. Finally finished with that now though! And thanks for the cookie, I'll save it for my kids !


Using a copy of the Dragon instructions for cutting the masks.


Applying the masks to the wing.


Painting...


The finished result!



Magnus

One last masking that I forgot yesterday, the spinner...





Once again I used a decal as a master to cut the tape over.



Magnus

Time to breathe a bit of life into this build again! This should be a fairly quick process. Didn't I say that back in May last year by the way?


Detailing... I added the cylindrical "core" to the wheels. The Dragon wheels don't really look like the real thing but that bit of tubing was at least a step in the right direction. There is some prominent brake tubing on the inner faces of the wheels that I am in the process of adding. One end glued...

I also added some brake tubing along the gear leg. Wire was slightly on the thick side, I had forgotten that I have three spools of delicately thin transformer wire... I need to do more of this kind of detailing!



Magnus

Great working with the masks, that is a great skill of careful cutting!



Jelger

Jelger! Thanks!

This is one of those activities that are a bit tricky but can still be considered as "low risk": it all happens away from the model using stuff that are cheap and in almost unlimited supply. It also can be done very slowly! It is more tedious than difficult and something that I think more modellers ought to try!



Magnus

And looks better than decals

I've been Focke-Wulfing a lot lately but progress is slow when you have to do triplets of everything ! Landing gear are nearly finished, wheels painted and so on. Lost in detail, I felt that it was time to use the broad brush for a while!

I have started weathering on the Dora. I don't think Luftwaffe was a very happy ship in early 1945 so I'm going for a doom-and-gloom look with toned down colours and a quite heavy weathering.


This is a start and as usual I get a bit chocked by the way it looks in the photos in this magnification ! The splotches shouldn't be there but I find them quite hard to avoid. They will be toned down with the airbrush later though!

Doomy-and-gloomy enough?



Magnus

A further few small steps towards completion...







Magnus

Great progress!


That big matt propellor will look great on the plane. The work on the engine exhausts also looks nice.



Jelger

Hi,

They are Really impressive...!!!

Very enjoyable...

Thanks

Diego

Fantastic work, I have to keep reminding myself that the kit is 1/72 not 1/48! Bravo!!

Mark

Jelger! Thanks! The exhausts are really simple: I painted them with Vallejo reddish brown mixed with black, when still sticky I added red pigments. Easy!

Diego and Mark! !!!

Finally on it's own wheels! And since I have never built an FW-190 (OK, a prototype way back then but anyway...) I had a terrible case of slanted wheels since I had mounted the wheels to the struts before attaching the struts to the model. The axle stub on the Hasegawa kit isn't of any help (it will locate the wheel parallel to the strut) but luckily I had used CA glue for the wheels so I was able to snap them off and re-glue them without any damage to the rest of the structure.






Note cleverly chosen photo angle: I am sure that there are some angles that are wrong and assymetric (gear location wasn't all that positive...) but unless photographed from dead head-on it is impossible for any of you to prove it. Ain't I a stinker !

I bought a huge set of PE (of which I will use close to nothing) but I did find a few parts that will come in handy. Most important it contains a nicely done head armour.

And now it is time for the traditional PE-rant: I hate the stuff! I dislike so much that it is hard to describe the amount of disliking I feel when working with it! And often this work would have been unnecessary if the parts had been designed only a little bit more clever! In this case, the head armour and it's supporting frame could have been made as one part that then simply could have been folded to shape. That is NOT the case: the supporting frame has to be glued to the head armour. It has a tiny attachment point. It will consume just about all of your early morning modelling time and more than it's share of your good mood...

Apart from that, the structure isn't strictly authentic either since the head armour structure is attached to the canopy and not to the rear fuselage decking. I think that I will get away with this though and this method is less likely to ruin the canopy! Head cushion shamelessly stolen from from original Hasegawa part.



Magnus

Cannon barrels, canopy and antenna left to do... And I'll have to do something about that big black prop also, it is hard to weather dark objects. I have tried but it still looks freshly off the shelf!









Magnus

Have you tried various greys and light greens? Making dark things look oldish often involves lightening them up.

Magnificent Magnus, really good looking FW there. You should be proud to add it to your display shelf. Russell

Jessica! I'll try that tonight!

Russell! Thanks!



Magnus

Definitely a very light coat of highly diluted grey should do the job. Or you can either try to drybrush it with some other shade of black or very dark grey.