DML Focke-Wulf

[Ken Abrams]

Now I must admit to feeling a little out of place in here since I normally build armor/softskins but occasionally I do build aircraft. I do not however consider myself an aircraft builder, you guys that concentrate on the genre are way too good for me to insult like that.

B)

Looking back at the box art, the olive colored green around the cockpit looks right but it shouldn't be on the wings, it appears to be a dark gray color on the wings and tail. I'll go back and fix that but first I have to deal with a short shot on one of the sprues, and of all sprues to do that on, the clear parts.

:angry:

Feel free to voice your opinion on what's wrong color wise and if I can I will fix it. I slap these things together strictly for fun and as a break from my armor builds so not only am I less than informed about such things but I know they are most of the time fraught with mistakes. I have yet to paint the prop/landing gear/etc.

Here's where I am after the initial base coating. As I said earlier I'm already planning on correcting the olive green on the wings and tail. Fire away.

hmy:

Oh wait!

I almost forgot. If anyone has advice on tail swastikas I'd like to hear it. This kit didn't include any and I don't have any in the spares. I have other German aircraft in this scale so any advice/ideas/opinions would be most welcome.

 

[stitch_83]

I dont know about the Swastikas but I do know that looks very good. How did you get such a nice looking edge on the green cam?

thanks
Stitch

 

[Kreighshoer]

ouch! that looks nasty with the canopy! phew! i have the same issue with a pz4 fender but that's not as hard 'n heavy as your case since dml included a second set in the kit! (NOT because of the injection fumble!)

good job with the focke ken!

as for the swastikas, maybe you print out the following link and show it to your LHS, maybe they can order this sheet: http://www.peddinghaus-decals.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1767&category_id=12&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

or you send out an e-mail to mr peddinghaus directly, asking him on how to obtain:

peddinghaus-decals@web.de

 

[moon puppy]

He's a brave soul to leave his genre!

Looks good to me, you can always try one of the vacuum form canopy replacements, Squadron has them I know.

I really like the way you got the tail wheel swung around as if it has just been pushed into position.

Colors? Personally I'm not really that concerned with checking paint chips for you betcha matches, especially for late war German subjects as the colors were not that consistent. Before you get too far with the paint I'd look at the wing root again, just needs a little filler and you're golden...gotta love an open panel!

 

[Sharkmouth]

Ken,

I got the tail markings you need, e-mail me your postal address and I will send it out.

As for the canopy, I can check but I who knows?

Regards,

 

[Ken Abrams]

stitch_83 wrote:

I dont know about the Swastikas but I do know that looks very good. How did you get such a nice looking edge on the green cam?

thanks
Stitch

Thanks,

I would like to tell you that I have some magical technique but that would be a lie. For the small spots I used my single action airbrush with the needle dialed to the smallest amount of paint and just quickly moved around giving quick bursts. I went back and forth first with the green, then to the gray, then to the green again. I wasn't quite sure if I had gotten the effect I see on all the photos I looked at but your comment sure encourages me to think so.

Kreighshoer wrote:

ouch! that looks nasty with the canopy! phew! i have the same issue with a pz4 fender but that's not as hard 'n heavy as your case since dml included a second set in the kit! (NOT because of the injection fumble!)

good job with the focke ken!

as for the swastikas, maybe you print out the following link and show it to your LHS, maybe they can order this sheet: http://www.peddinghaus-decals.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1767&category_id=12&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

or you send out an e-mail to mr peddinghaus directly, asking him on how to obtain:

peddinghaus-decals@web.de

Thanks Laura,

for both the comments and the links.

You're the best! B)

moon puppy wrote:

He's a brave soul to leave his genre!

Looks good to me, you can always try one of the vacuum form canopy replacements, Squadron has them I know.

I really like the way you got the tail wheel swung around as if it has just been pushed into position.

Colors? Personally I'm not really that concerned with checking paint chips for you betcha matches, especially for late war German subjects as the colors were not that consistent. Before you get too far with the paint I'd look at the wing root again, just needs a little filler and you're golden...gotta love an open panel!

:woohoo: :woohoo:

Actually, just to prove what a moron I am, I guess I mounted it wrong. HAHA! It broke off during the painting and I had to drill a hole and mount a pin to get it back into place. I don't know if it was already wrong or what but thanks for the vote of confidence. LOL!

...and yup, I see the wing root gap too, if I told you the fit of this kit was absolutely horrible would you call me a whiner?

sharkmouth wrote:

Ken,

I got the tail markings you need, e-mail me your postal address and I will send it out.

As for the canopy, I can check but I who knows?

Regards,

Thanks Saul!

I will PM you the details in a bit. If you have the canopy awesome, if not still awesome, the Decal offer is more than generous.

Thanks again.

 

[Sharkmouth]

if you need a complete set of decals, minus stencils, let me know as I have spares. Let me know by e-mail though...

Regards,

 

[moon puppy]

Ken Abrams wrote:

Actually, just to prove what a moron I am, I guess I mounted it wrong. HAHA! It broke off during the painting and I had to drill a hole and mount a pin to get it back into place. I don't know if it was already wrong or what but thanks for the vote of confidence. LOL!

Don't tell anyone, just act like it as a well planned modification and they will not know the difference.

Ken Abrams wrote:

...and yup, I see the wing root gap too, if I told you the fit of this kit was absolutely horrible would you call me a whiner?

Would you call me on not mounting a PTO leaver on a Halftrack with wench, or mine racks on a 75mm M3 GMC?

Bad fit is just like mounting plates on the front bumper of the Halftrack, just something we have to deal with.

 

[tomwes]

Looking good, those Fw 190 Dora's are mean looking. As MP said the colors aren't super critical, in the time frame that this Fw was built any paint was good paint. And as far as weathering these aircraft were not in service very long because of the war ending.

Tom

 

[moon puppy]

Tom check the wing span, that's the little brother of the Fw 190, the Ta152. About the only way I can tell them difference. BTW Ken, I just noticed the scalloped leading edge. REALLY NICE job.

 

[G Cooper]

Hi Ken.

That is a great looking Ta 152. The build looks great to me. Except of course that I can't see the engine under those beautiful open panels .

And if you are going to do any repainting there are only about 273 things to remember when it comes to late war Luftwaffe paint jobs :laugh:. But the most important is to do what you like the best. Personally I would suggest that the top side be only in two colors. So if you want to keep the light olive green that is around the canopy, keep it on the wings also. But if not , then the Luftwaffe was using mostly grauviolet/RLM 75 as the grey topside color. Also they were using quite a bit of lichtgrun/RLM 83 to replace the dark greens that were common earlier in the war. Then, just to make things really confusing, they also were using braunviolet/RLM 81? when they had it in stock and other colors were not available. Also the later in the war they went, the more common it was to see panels in unpainted bare metal, or panels with completely diffrent colors, because the Luftwaffe was doing a lot of field expedient "cut and paste" jobs using two or three damaged planes to make one that could fly. And they weren't concerned about making paint jobs match up. So there were a lot of opportunities for some crazy looking paint jobs that you could come up with.

But in the end, it is really all a matter of what you like the best, because it is your model and you can do what you want to with it.It will still end up looking cool.

Gary B)

 

[moon puppy]

I've seen pictures where the plug that extended the fuselage was bare metal and the tail was from a different airframe. It's a crazy mixed up world!

Gary was the Ta152 an actual production aircraft or were they modified from the Doras?

 

[Sharkmouth]

The Ta-152 was a production aircraft and Kurt Tank was honored as a designer by having his initials (Ta) in place of the usual Fw for Focke-Wulf.

[Edit - Ignore what I wrote, I see you were asking Gary! ]

Regards,

 

[moon puppy]

It's hard to ignore what you write Saul!

They must have used earlier Fw190 fuselages because of the extension plug. I know the wings were redesigned and the cockpit was pressurized but the fuselage looks almost exactly like the Dora.

 

[mlp]

Hey, good one. The green looks good to me. Leave it as it is. Some washing and its perfect.

I once had an everlasting discussion on right RLM colors cause I couldn't stand those sentences like "looks fine, only your RLM(what ever) is not correct" (it was the time when I couldn't just shut up). This discussion ended when a guy came up and presented 8 different greens all of the same RLM code so your green is right OK.

Try to contact DML, perhaps they send you a new canopy.

 

[Ken Abrams]

Thanks for all the responses, advice and encouragement guys. I really enjoy building aircraft from time to time, they challenge my abilities and force me to think outside of the ground vehicle only box that I usually model within.

Gary, the only reason I mentioned the three colors on the top side was because the model on the box shows this. The only real reference I have for this is the internet and Squadrons in action book. As far as the engine, I will show close ups once it is painted as right now it's just one boring base color. Any reference/guidance as to colors of the engine and it's components at this stage would be most appreciated.

moon puppy wrote:

Tom check the wing span, that's the little brother of the Fw 190, the Ta152. About the only way I can tell them difference. BTW Ken, I just noticed the scalloped leading edge. REALLY NICE job.

HA!

I know it's the Ta-152 because that's what it says on the box yet you know it just by looking at it. Awesome! Aircraft details are to you what half track details are to me, glad to have you aboard.

Thanks again all for commenting and as I mentioned, any help with engine color details and other info would be very much appreciated at this 'prior to messing it up' stage.

B)

 

[moon puppy]

Ken Abrams wrote:

HA!

I know it's the Ta-152 because that's what it says on the box yet you know it just by looking at it. Awesome! Aircraft details are to you what half track details are to me, glad to have you aboard.

B)

:woohoo:

I'm hardly an expert in anything, besides, I cheated. I saw the tag on the clear sprue...

 

[Ken Abrams]

Double HA! then.

I am an expert on many things:

1. Procrastination
2. Pissing the wife off
3. Avoiding household chores

to name but a few.

 

[moon puppy]

Well those are givens, given the fact that your male and married.

 

[tomwes]

MP you are correct!!! I focused on the long nose and fuselage extension and thought "Dora".
Ken, everyone's comments are spot on other than mine , so you really do have a winner there, looks great!


Tom