Tamiya 1/48 Fw-190 A3

[jeaton01]

To warm up for the Butcher Bird GB I started on this one, with the intent of having it done before January 1.  It's the motorized version and came with a plastic base which is supposed to hide the battery and switch but after starting I thought it would be more fun to run the wires to a German style battery cart, which I thought I had.  Nope, only British, but Sprue Brothers is saving me on that score as Tamiya makes a Kettenkraftrad/battery cart set.  I thrashed around until I found a picture of a 190 hooked to a start cart so I would know where to bring the wires out, but I needn't have bothered because the Tamiya box art for the set mentioned has the cart hooked to a 190.  I am putting the pilot in, and I painted the instrument panel which looked pretty good, but of course it is so far under the glare shield no one will ever see my "fine" work.

 

 

I glued the wheel well firmly in to the lower wing, but next time I will let it rest on the pegs without glue as it caused difficulty fitting the
wings to the fuselage. The dihedral was too low which made me work too hard to get a good fit on the upper wings to the fuselage.

 

 

I brought the wires out through the spot where the APU plug was on the Fw190. The canopy will be closed. Without a canopy molded for the open position it cannot be
posed open as there was a hinge in the top of the canopy forward of the radio antenna connection that allowed the real thing to narrow as it slid back so it would always
conform to the taper of the fuselage opening.

[TJ]

Well it went together quickly

[406 Silverado]

Dec 29, 2023 4:11:06 GMT -5 TJ said:

Well it went together quickly

 That's what happens when it's a Tamiya kit involved Johnny.  I built a Tammy D-9 a while back and couldn't believe how quickly as well as easy it was to build. 

Great idea on the APU wiring going into the fuselage for the motor John. I hear you on the instrument panels for these aircraft. LOTS of eye candy in the cockpit while it's out in the open but once those completed pits are sealsed up not a whole lot can be seen. Lookin' SWELL man.

[kyledehart5]

Incredible!! This will be an excellent and quick build.

[jeaton01]

I should get the power cart kit tomorrow, painting has ensued.



This is the photo I found with the 190 hooked up to the power cart.



Model Master RLM 74/75/76. The horizontal tail and upper fuselage await more paint. The pitot tube was in this inner position until the A-8 when it was re-positioned to the right wing tip. I replaced the kit plastic with music wire.

[kyledehart5]

Nice! Really coming along. Can’t wait to see it hooked up to the cart. What a cool photo.

[handiabled]

This is "flying" along John! The splinter looks excellent

[Green KreationZ]

Looking good so far!

[moparmadness]

Very cool John! 🍻

[Joe Rix]

That is indeed a sweet warm up John. Very fine work on it so far.

[deafpanzer]

It will be a cool diorama when it is done!

[thug626]

Clear Prop! This is coming along nicely.

[jeaton01]

Slowed down a bit to do some work on my website, and also to keep myself from messing up on the paintwork. I'm down to the mottling and I'm happy with the right side but the left is not yet ready for prime time. One thing that confused me was Tamiya's painting instructions for this airplane. It called for a mix of 2 parts white and 3 parts XF-22 RLM Grey for some areas on both sides around the insignia. I looked up other builds of this kit and it was all RLM 74/75 for the mottle, nobody had this strange color on their models. I think the situation might be that the insignia had been changed on this airplane and the old was covered up with RLM 02. To my poor color vision it looks like close to 02 and my wife agreed so it must be right, right? I wish model makers would name colors! And perhaps no one else was brave enough to put this strange color on their model of this 190 A3. Whatever, I think it looks cool.

I made a start on the power cart, and found a 1.5 volt silver oxide button cell that will fit (barely after making the area paper thin) where the real battery was. If I understand it right this cart could have a battery, or a generator, but not both at the same time. I tested the motor powered by the button cell and it seems to work, which is good to know at this point.  Still a little more carving to do so I can put the battery in from the bottom of the cart which will make contact with some tin plates in the cavity that the wires will be soldered to.

[handiabled]

Interested to see how the cart looks all wired up. The mottle looks great John, not sure about why they wanted the rlm02 on but painting around markings was pretty common place

[Tojo72]

Moving fast John looks good

[TJ]

Great scheme. The mottle looks really good

[Leon]

This is looking really good John!

[jeaton01]

Got the base coat and yellow trim on, and the cart and kettenkraftrad assembled and also painted with the base colors.

[speedgraflex]

Bravo, John! The black-and-white reference image is top notch and your execution is on point with a very nice camo!

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Bruce. Good to hear from you!

[handiabled]

The cart looks great John. It doesn't look modified in the least.

[406 Silverado]

Now THAT' frickin' cool right there. No trace of any mods done. Your Fw190 is lookin good too John and you're flyin' through this is seems like....but....it IS a Tamiya kit.

[jeaton01]

I put a clear coat on, and then decided I'd rather paint on some of the markings. I wanted to try using a stencil to paint on the walkways because it is hard to get the decals for those on straight and the amount of clear often leads to silvering on my builds. The left side fuselage cross was going to be a problem for a decal because the APU connection is right in the middle, touching on part of the cross, so it was safer to paint it as it was a simple white marking. The walkway markings are a little iffy, I'll just say they are wearing off. The small size of each dash is getting close to what my Silhouette Cameo is capable of.

 

[TJ]

The insignia paint came out great

[handiabled]

You are just across the finish line with this John! The markings turned out really nicely

[keavdog]

Can't wait to see it fire up! Gotta post a video John.

[jeaton01]

Yes, Virginia, there will be a video!

Decals are on. I was concerned about the black eagle decals because there was a lot of surface detail they had to settle over but with very warm water, Microset, and Microsol they went down very nicely.

[406 Silverado]

That looks GREAT John! I’ve not tried the stenciling method yet for insignia but you make it look all too easy. Some very good work on those eagle decals as well.

[brandonk]

You are screaming through this one. Holy cow, I almost missed it all. Great work, John.

[kyledehart5]

Outstanding work on those decals!! This is looking wonderful