1/32 Zoukei-Mura Fw 190A-4 WIP (Fuselage closed up 6-28-24.)

[eaglecash867]

I'm ready to get started on this one early tomorrow morning.  Looking foward to venturing into uncharted territory with the subject matter and the manufacturer of the kit.

[handiabled]

This kit is on my want list down the road, it will be great watching you craft it

[adt70hk]

Dec 31, 2023 20:38:02 GMT -5 eaglecash867 said:

I'm ready to get started on this one early tomorrow morning.  Looking foward to venturing into uncharted territory with the subject matter and the manufacturer of the kit.

I would simply be terrified at tackling one of these....the thought of going wrong with such an expensive kit, doesn't bear thinking about!

Good luck with the build!

[406 Silverado]

The one good thing that you're going to like about this kit is that everything is there if you want to open it all up as the sky is pretty much the limit. Truly good kits and I'm looking forward to seeing this one built up eagle. 

[eaglecash867]

Thanks for showing up, fellas!

Got started on the engine this morning. Finding that there is absolutely no flash on anything, and even the push rods have no visible parting lines down the sides. Liking it so far...in the process of getting the parts for the engine all cleaned and prepped to start going together. Ran out of little bags I use for keeping things organized.

Here is a page out of the instructions to show how detailed Z-M instructions are, along with a pic of the engine parts sprue. It appears as if all of the parts needed for the engine are on one sprue, which is a really nice feature.

[thechaos]

Great Kit

[Joe Rix]

I am certainly looking forward to watching you build this beauty. Those ZM are certainly impressive. Good to see you off and running.

[kyledehart5]

Wonderful! This will be a joy to follow!

[TJ]

Oh yea I gotta keep up with this one

[M1Carbine]

Seat pulled up and watching intently.

-Bob

[Real G]

As one of Z-M's latest kits, I'll be watching with great interest to see how amazing the fit will be.  Their earlier kits had zero tolerance fit, which created problems if the mating surfaces were not lightly sanded or if some paint got onto it.

[handiabled]

These ZM kits are wonderful. If you need or want to reference a really good guide on the construction I am throwing this link your way. They are called "The Old Man Blogs" from the ZM website where President of the company blogs a build of the new products

www.zoukeimura.co.jp/en/sentiment/oyajiblog_128.html

[disc0stu]

I'll be watching this one with great interest. I have the ZM BF-109 on the shelf, but the complexity of the build looks like a project for future-Me. Very curious to see what you can do with their 190!

[406 Silverado]

ZM models are tha frickin BOMB!!!!! I’m SO looking forward to this

[hasenpfeffer]

Yeah, that looks pretty insane. I'm sure I'll pull the trigger on one of their kits in the near future. It's gonna be fun to watch you build this up.

[eaglecash867]

Thanks for watching guys! Week from hell last week at work, so didn't get much time at all to get much done other than getting all of the engine parts off the engine part sprue. But, I worked a lot on it this weekend.

Real G, so far I have found that zero tolerance fit to be a little bit of a thing on this one as well while doing dry fits of the major engine components. It was actually kind of a cool thing though. The front and rear cylinder block assemblies fit together so tightly, it was no problem getting them to stay that way while i did a trial assembly. Just had to press them together and gently work them apart after the dry fit was done.

Thanks for the link, Brent. I had actually been following The Old Man Blog on this one for the past couple of months...drooling over how detailed the instructions were since he has photos of the instruction manual pages on there.

So, this week I emptied the engine parts sprue and did an initial cleaning of every single part. Then I got the two halves of the front cylinder block, and the two halves of the rear cylinder block put together to start doing the dry fits. I found that the plastic oozing out of the seams of the assembled cylinder blocks wasn't even visible when the engine was mostly assembled, but I decided to deal with them anyway. Skinned a 320 grit sanding twig and used the skin as a belt sander. Just placed it over each seam and gently pulled it back and forth to sand each one smooth. The sanding left fine scratches and fuzz on the edges, which I melted down and smoothed out by brushing a little good old Tamiya Extra Thin on the surface. They ended up turning out pretty good. Here is the completed rear cylinder block with the baffle plates mounted.

[Joe Rix]

Sweet progress. The work so far is sharp. So glad to see you taking on this kit. ZM's are certainly a cut above.

[kyledehart5]

That is lovely! Great start

[406 Silverado]

These ZM kits are so dang bada$$!! I don't think they leave any stone unturned in terms of detailing. I had their Ho-229 in 1/32 at one point and simply could NOT believe all the detail that they had in the Jumo-004 engine let alone the rest of the aircraft. Just beautiful engineering on all areas of these kits. Looking forward to more on the BMW powerplant eagle.

[eaglecash867]

Got a little more done on the engine this weekend.  Managed to find some Testors square bottle Flat Brass paint for the pushrods.  Used square bottle Flat Aluminum for the connecting sleeves.

[Joe Rix]

Very good looking progress on your engine. Nice clean painting that giving it a realistic appearance.

[kyledehart5]

A beautiful engine.

[TJ]

Jan 14, 2024 15:26:03 GMT -5 eaglecash867 said:

Got a little more done on the engine this weekend.  Managed to find some Testors square bottle Flat Brass paint for the pushrods.  Used square bottle Flat Aluminum for the connecting sleeves.

Will it start when you're done?

[handiabled]

That's a wonderful looking BMW power plant!

[eaglecash867]

Thanks guys!

TJ, I sure hope it starts.  

Had the day off from work today, so I got the intake manifold painted and mounted.  It was a little troublesome...had to grind off a lot of the mounting surface to get all of the manifold pipes to fully engage with the cylinders.  They even had rivet detail on the mounting surface, which makes no sense at all, but that's all gone now.

[406 Silverado]

That right there is one good looking BMW 801 eagle. Lotsa detail on that one but I do hear you on detail that is either in the way or not necessary on some of the parts in a ZM boxing. Great progress on this man.

[Green KreationZ]

Engine is looking great so far!

[hasenpfeffer]

Geez.. with this kinda detail you feel almost obligated to have a panel or two open so you can see it. It's like building a full interior armor subject... LOL
Looks so good though.

[cbaltrin]

Wow, that's a nice looking engine you have there. Good Work!

[eaglecash867]

Thanks guys!

Hasenpfeffer, never built a ZM model before, so I'm not sure how well they display all opened up.  But, it looks like its designed for exactly that, so if it looks good, I'm definitely going to be leaving some panels off.

Got a little more done since the last update.  Exhaust pipes are all painted and mounted, along with the rear accessories cover and the engine mounting ring.