1/48 Tamiya Focke-Wulf FW-190 D9

Gallery Article by Murray Antill on Aug 12 2003

 

Yes, it's another FW-190... I love 'em! This is my first submission to ARC, A website of immeasurable help and inspiration.  This is also my first attempt at using resin to detail a model. 

 

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The Kit is a Tamiya Fw-190 D9 with an Aries detail set and Aeromaster "Operation Bodenplatte" decals.  I built the kits as per the instructions... the fit of the Tamiya kit?... Forget about it.  The resin?...  Some difficulties were encountered in fitting the gun bays, after finally sanding enough resin off to get the starboard one to fit I decided to leave the port side for another Fw-190 (I have 5 kits waiting to go).  Also, as noted elswhere by ARC'ers I found the gun barrels didn't line up!  So, I chopped 'em off and bought myself some brass tubing.  I liked the result - I'm using the tubing from now on.  Some parts of the engine had to be filed off to get it to fit against the firewall and look out if you do one - make sure you get it square, it doesn't look that bad until you put the wings and the cowling on. 

I recently built an F4U-A1 and I decided to use a technique I had experimented with on it - I first painted the aircraft's surfaces with MM Metaliser Aluminium, then a coat of future, then my Gunze-Sango Acrylic camoflage colours.  Using masking tape I began to pull away the surface paint to create chips.

A coat of Testors Glosscote went on next.  Time for decals... My first go at aftermarket decals, I'll never go back.  They are so thin!  I didn't use any setting or wetting stuff,  I brush-painted Future over the decals after a minute or so.  This sealed them for weathering. 

I used a wash of Chalk pastels in water and dishwashing liquid for the panel lines and then a coat of Testors Dullcoat.  Lastly I airbrushed G-S 'Smoke' thinned quite a bit for exhaust and gun stains.

CONCLUSION
Well, I've finally done it - I've submitted a model to the ARC gallery. Thank-you to Steve and all you other ARCers for all of your tips and inspiration, I certainly don't pretend to be particularly good at this, but I really enjoy building models!

I borrowed my friend Matt's digital camera to take the photos - I hope you enjoy them. Thank-you for reading. 

Murray Antill

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Photos and text © by Murray Antill