Starting up this thread to chart progress in my build of Eduards 1/48 FW190 Nachtjager Dual Combo kit, which has marking options for 6 aircraft.




You get three fuselages and sets of upper wings, two "A" sprues and one "C" sprue.

There is not a lot of difference between upper wings, just a bulge on the "C" wing



The "C" fuselage also differs only slightly by having a couple of extra panels on the left side and one on the right




4 options for lower wings


and two of every other sprue



one of the sprues has an additional set of parts for the wing mounted antennae required for marking scheme E.


There is only one set each of colour and plain photoetch frets, with parts being duplicated on each fret for the various build differences



Additionally you get a bonus little pin with a "Wilde Sau" emblem

I will be starting with Marking Scheme E as part of the Night Shift Campaign, as it has the most obvious physical differences, being the only option with the prominent wing antenae.

The cockpit went together quickly though I made the mistake of putting the instrument panel in before the side photoetch parts, as they will actually partly fit under the panel


The cocpit itself was easy to assemble and I chouse to use the plastic rudder pedals rathen than the etch to save som faffing about. I did have a slight accident with the superglue on

the right side console.



Getting the cocpit ionto the fusealge was troublesome and required initially glueing the tail together, then once that was dry, carefully clamping the cocpit and gun bay parts into

position before wicking tamiya thin cement into the areas around the joins. I reccomend not mounting the guns when the instructions say, but waiting till after the fuelage is together.



While that was drying I started on the engine which consisists of 20 pieces including 8 exhausts.
Rear cylinders and pushrods...


Front cylinders, pushrods, and prop axle...


Intake manifold(?)...



Annoyingly, the instructions show intake pipes going to each cylinder, however there are no parts for them listed in the instructions, and nothing on the sprues that I could identify.

There is also no mention of needing to scratchbuild them.

I may add these from some styrene rod if I can find some the right size in my supply box.
On to the wings.
On the lower wing, the gear bay went together fairly smoothly, and there were quite a few holes that can be opened up, so careful checking is needed to open up the right ones depending on chosen scheme.


The upper wing also needed some holes drilling, again, check the marking scheme for the correct holes. No drama attaching upper to lower, but care was taken to glue from the tips inward to try and get everything lined up properly.



The fuselage was too narrow at the bottom to fit the wing properly so I added a length of sprue and just moved it around to get the right spread before gluing in place

I have some suspicions that there may be some mistakes in the instructions, and that the instructions as to which fuselage to use for each scheme may be wrong.
For those that don't wish to hear my possibly hard to follow reasoning feel free to skip ahead to the next post, otherwise read on.


Marking scheme E is the only one in the instructions requiring Fuselage "A", the other five all call for fuselage "C", which means there is no choice but to do scheme E as one of the builds, because there is only one "C" fuselage. However marking scheme E also uses upper wing "C", and is again the only scheme to use that upper wing.



Going to the markings guide however, shows scheme E drawn with fuselage "C"


Scheme D is also drawn using fuselage "C", while schemes A, B, and F are drawn with fuselage "A". Here's an example with scheme F and fuselage "A", you can see it lacks the additional panels of fuselage "C".


Just to confuse matters, scheme C is drawn with the left side Fuselage "A" and right side fuselage "C" so who knows if the instructions are wrong, or if the marking drawings are off.

My suspicions came too late during assembly and I have built scheme E using fuselage "A". (There are other differences besides fuselage)

Without a definitive image of the specific aircraft in question I may never know which style fuselage is correct.

Fuselage attached to wings. My spacer wasn't quite right so there is a slight bit underneath that is wider than the fuselage, and I have ended up with a gap between the left upper wing and fuselage, and another at the back of the wing attachment underneath the fuselage. I have those gaps filled with some styrene strip, and I will trim it down once the glue has dried.

Ian,

Good work going on there, I’ll be following with interest, not only because you’re tackling a Wurger, but also because I might start one of those moulds soon, in the form of a Sturmbock A-6.

I feel your pain about the misleading and somewhat confusing manual instructions. Though I feel Eduard’s manuals are among the best, when they offer numerous subversions on the kit I feel they usually tend to be hard to follow without 2nds or 3rd readings.
Looking forward for your complete build on the campaign mate!

Cheers
Pedro

Iain,
I followed your explanation and I got confused as to which airframe goes with the E version. Hopefully it uses the A fuselage.

Joel

To try and simplify a bit, I think schemes A and D should use fuselage "C", as they also share a number of other sub options.

It doesn't help the confusion they use letters for marking schemes and sprues, but basically I think I am using the wrong fuselage.

Watching with interest , nice progress so far and I feel your confusion with Eduards choice of labeling. They got confused as well . Funny how they don't have the exhaust pipes and no mention of them in the instructions either .
Maybe send them an e-mail asking them about this ?






Terri

So after a bit of google based research I have come to my final conclusion, which is basically that the parts call out in the instructions is bogus, but the decal and painting diagrams are correct.

Here is my final summation on the issue of fuselage options.

Schemes A, B, and F should be using Fuselage "A".

Schemes E and D should use Fuselage "C".

And Scheme C should us left side Fuselage "A" and right side Fuselage "C".

My research is limited and far from definitive, but based on images I could find of the different variants is at least partly correct, and matches what has been drawn by Eduard for the included marking schemes.

Iain,
I'm old, and I get confused more easily these days.

What your saying is that Scheme E should have used fuselage C not A, which is the one you used. Honestly, the differences are minor, and just not worth the effort worrying about trying to correct them at this point.

Joel

Not being able to leave well enough alone, I broke out the scribing guide



and made some panels



They are a little rough at the moment but a bit of tidying and some stretched sprue "hinges" and they should look ok under paint.
You can also see some damage that resulted while I struggled to get the fuselages together properly.

In the mean time I have continued with the engine.

A template is provided to align the exhaust stacks correctly, here I have attached it with some masking fluid.



Once all the exhausts are on the template is removed, and the gearbox installed.

While waiting for paint to dry (using Humbrol enamels on this build) I finished up the engine




And attached the ailerons and rear surfaces



The ailerons went on ok, but had to be inserted straight on (no up or down angle), otherwise they wouldn't fit.

Nice work on the exhausts Iain, are you going to expose the engine?

I won't on this one, I haven't added the intake pipes and the intake manifold is misaligned enough to make it too difficult to bother.

There is also some obvious seams right over the cylinders that would need careful cleanup.

Iain,
Nice job on the engine. Too bad most of it will never been seen.

Joel

Thanks.

True but it's all practice, and I'll know it's there!

A bit of jump in progress here, I forgot to get pics of the engine installed, and the cowling was a nightmare to try and get correctly in place requiring pressure in 3 different locations to get everything lined up while the glue dried.

I have added the PE vents just behind the exhaust outlets, attached the drop tank and installed the wing antennae. The wing antennae are much better the old Dragon FW190 I built many years ago, which were a painful experience of delicate plastic combined with insanely thin incredibly hard photoetch.

The fuselage gun bay cover required some careful shortening by scraping with a knife to get it to fit with the top engine cover.

And finally I have masked up ready for the first coat of paint, but I will go back over the instructions and make sure I haven't missed anything before spraying.





Also problematic are the wing root gun bay covers. There seems to be just enough misalignment that they can't be posed closed properly, so open they shall be.
It will be interesting to see if I can do anything differently on the next kit to alleviate some of these issues.


The eagle-eyed among you may notice that wing root gun barrels are missing. I kept breaking one of them off, and the other finally succumbed while I struggled with the engine cowling.
I will have to drill out and make some from some small brass tube I think.

Iain

Looking good and at a steady pace.
As I recall, I often read old Sumerian curses spelled by fellow modelers doing this “old” cast Wurger, namely about the areas you ran into problems, the nose (engine covers) and the open/closed gun bays near the wing root (servicing the MG 151).

Any advice about that 3 point pressure areas you mention to get a proper aligned and tight fit of the engine covers? That part worries me cause I only have tradicional clamps, nothing else, and those clearly will be insufficient.

Cheers
Pedro

The engine covers glue to the front cowl ring, and then that whole assembly attaches to the rest of the fuselage.
Basically I just had to squeeze and slightly twist the thing with my fingers till everything lined up right, and hold it till the glue dried enough to secure it in place. I am currently using a frightening blend of Tamiya extra thin and testors thin cements which is extremely aggressive but quick drying.

Coat of black primer



masked up the black parts



and first colour coat RLM 76

Iain,
Looking real good. Nothing like starting to get the color coats on to keep ones Mojo flowing.

Joel

Having spent most of the day getting my computer back in working order, I did manage to get the first upper camo colour on.



Using bluetac as a masking medium to try and achieve some of the semi random look that the painting diagram shows.

Hopefully before next week is out I will have started on decals.

So trying to get as much done before the weekend ends all modelling I masked up ready ffor the next upper colour



and managed to actually get the colour sprayed RLM74






Next up it the bane of modelling, trying to get a decent gloss coat before decals.

Iain,
I've managed to miss most of this build somehow. Glad to see it progressing so well.

Keep up the inspiring work!

Gaz

Iain,
Your top color coat really looks quite good.

As for the issue of getting a smooth and shiny gloss coat, I've also had many an issue with that exact subject. I tried just about every clear gloss coat out there with varying degrees of success. Sure, you could brush on Pledge and build up a gloss coat, but it will fill in all the recessed lines that you might want to add darker washes to.

What I found and now do is a two part prep. Before glossing, I rub down my color coats with a Micro Mesh 4,000 pad or as with the F6F-3 I tried and loved the Tamiya 2,000 sponge which is even easier to get all the convex and concave surfaces smoothed out. Go easy, and watch out for the high spots as you'll take the paint right off, but those really aren't part of the problem areas. Then I wipe down the surface with 70% Iso Alcohol,

Now apply your gloss coats. a tack coat or two to protect the paint, then a few wet coats, and a final coat really thinned out like 20/80 but go easy with it as it's almost all thinner. You should have a really smooth surface to decal on.

The final part of the 2 part prep is I rub out the Gloss coat just like the paint. Now you're talking super smooth.

Joel