OK, now that Jessica has helped a computer illiterate modeller like me, I can post a few of my work from the last year or two. This one is ,as the title says, the fantasticly easy to build Fw 190D9. I did the cockpit out of the box as I intended from the start to do a quick build with the canopy closed. But I did put some scratch built workings in the engine bay, and removed the portions of the wheel wells as on the real Jumo engined late versions of the Fw 190. You can't really see it in the photos, but I also did the plumbing for the external fuel tank, and the gear retraction cabling, or what ever those tiny cables were. I also re-shaped the propellers, and did some detailing on the propeller hubs. And an apology to the purists, but the markings are a total fabrication of my somewhat bent and twisted mind .

Enough yapping. Here are the photos.













Thanks for looking.

Gary

Gary, your "somewhat bent and twisted mind" is more than welcome to just keep right on bending and twisting!

That is a beautiful build and a really good job on the markings, nicely done.

Cheers, D

Wow.......as a new guy. I am very amazed with how well you built this kit. Very good job. She is very pretty.

I hope mine comes out 1/10th as good.

Question: Being a new guy. How did you make/attach the aerial antennae? What gauge of wire did you use? Or did you purchase it as an aftermarket item? I dont think the kits come with them but I could be wrong.

Thanks
Spence

Hi Spence,

Welcome to Aeroscale

Usually we do antennae using monofilament or stretched sprue. It's attached with superglue or white glue (to avoid fogging up the canopy). Tightening it up can be done with a freshly blown-out match.

Gary,
Nicely built, and finished. I always appreciate a clean and neat build. Being a neophyte to German WW11 aircraft, I would have no way of knowing that the markings are fictitious, as they do look realistic. And to me, that's the bottom line. Congrats on a build very well done.
Joel

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. I mostly build armor kits, but I have also always liked building aircraft. I like them because to me, they are so easy compared to doing armor. Usually I don't put much more than 10 - 14 days to finish something like this Fw.

And Spence, Jessica got it exactly right. I always use stretched sprue for my antennas, and they can be tightened up with a match or even incense. Just stretch the sprue as thin as you can get it (I find that clear from the canopy sprue gets the thinnest strings). And then light a match, blow it out and hold the model about a foot above the smoking match, and get the antenna in the smoke stream. Then just lower the model and there will come a point where the smoke is still hot enough to tighten up the sprue without snapping it. When it happens it will go fast. Then it I paint them black, and add small spots of white glue to suggest the insulators, which I paint white.

And also if you glue anything to a piece of clear, just coat it with some liquid floor wax (I use Future floor wax) and super glue will not fog it up.

What happened to the aerial when the canopy was opened on the original aircraft? Did the aerial just "droop" until the canopy was closed.

That's exactly what happened. Early FWs with the flat canopy had a pully arrangement which kept the antenna tensioned properly, but with the blown canopy they decided to simplify the design. Here's one. Look for the antenna just visible as a curving line seen against the blue of the Hellcat's wing behind it.

Thanks for the reply Jessica. Before asking the question I looked a lot of pics of Fw 190D9s and some had aerials, some did not and some you could not tell.

The letting the aerial just droop seemed a very unsophisticated way of doing it. But upon reflection it is simple and appeared to work.

Jessica,
Thanks for posting that picture with an explanation. I never would have guessed that's the way it supposed to be.
Joel