Last week we took a look at the new Fw189 kit from Great Wall Hobby, (if you missed it here is the kit review) this week we go deeper in and cut sprue, trim seam and fill injector pin marks!!
Great Wall Hobby
Focke Wulf Fw189A-1 “Nachtjäger”
Styrene Parts: 182 (grey and clear) on 6 sprues
32 P/E parts on one sheet
Canopy masks + Decals for one aircraft
Where I got mine: Airbrushes.com for £34.99
First of all I started with the cockpit – and being a bloke of course I was eager to get it all together and quickly! This kit however makes you really go by the book in the way that the construction of the twin boom/twin engine/glass cockpit is really easier done in a certain way. Great Wall’s instructions do this well and make you confident you are putting things in the right place – they make a white section in the spot where you need to add a part – so its child’s play really!
The inside of the cockpit though is a hurdle straight away – there are some injection pin marks in there that I attacked with both my rotor tool and some really excellent Alpha Abrasives sanding needles and files from Master Details of the USA anyway they come in a few varieties and this one I used here has a blunt and a sharpened head – it whittled down some of the ejector marks as you can see in this before and after here..
This worked to a certain extent to calm the lumps and bumps – there was however still some very odd shaped troughs to fill – these are really the biggest hurdle in the kit – and a wakeup call for those just starting the kit – the glass openness of the cockpit really does encourage you to fill these and not just brush over them – here are the parts joined together to illustrate the “trough”
– you can see as well how I had a little problem with the “Hotness” of the Tamiya extra thin cement – for some reason it just de-bonded when the superglue safety was applied over it to correct a crease – luckily patience won over!
So I went with pictures that showed it was a mix of both – “thanks gods for the internets!!”
Well I went with the kit and made the seams in the wing as small as possible – again I used Mr Surfacer in the gaps and some isopropanol to clear the excess and eliminate the need for sanding – I really didn't want to scar that lovely detail GWH have put into the wings!
The wings went together really easily – with some EXCELLENT joins of the wings which served as no problem at all to join, the rear joints for the moving surfaces were not secured yet so they could be installed – the leading edge went together first – nice! As you can see by the wing parts shown below there are a few simple parts that go together quite simply, as well as a photo-etched part which is the inside of the flaps – the only mark in this is the lower flap is styrene and has some injection marks in it. Well you can’t have everything they say!
The rear of the wing went together easily as well with some glue on the catches just before the tabs for the movable surfaces were inserted and clamped. This left me with outer and inner and flap surfaces that move and a nicely detailed and convincing looking wing.
Flaps up here…
Flaps down here…
You can see by the next picture that the seam of the wing goes together pretty well with the fuselage and if you are careful doesn’t have any large trough to worry about – this is a chore to fill these and thanks to GWH for making my job a little easier!
Here is the front on with a dry fit of the wings showing their angle which I think is pretty dead on. (Don’t believe the drawings I say!)
Next the wheels go together quite easily as well – although you should examine the drawing on the instructions so you don’t try to do it backwards like I did the first time! The wheels are reminiscent of the He 111 wheels in construction and although the instructions called for them to be RLM66 I gave these some black undercoat then some RLM02 interior colour then a lighter mix of white and RLM02 to bring out the highlights. Some dirt in the tyres was again RLM02 and the tyres were a dark grey from Vallejo “German Grey” 70995. This is the darkest grey I could find and was a good representation of the dark but not black tyre colour.
The rest of the sprue I painted in a black undercoat to help with dry brushing
The Engines went together next – and again this was an easy construction. The Argus As 410 engines are a pretty good representation of the real thing – and so I made mine an all-black affair with aluminium cylinder covers - then the exhausts in a dull aluminium colour, easy! –Then the hard part... The photo Etch that supplies the wiring loons is a BIT tricky – and the instructions in this instance do not help.
I found many pictures of the engine on line, but not definite as to where the wiring started and ended – I have found what I believe they should look like and after that it was plan sailing. Adding the Black/Green propeller was easy and it looks very nice built up I will say – I will make sure I open at least one of the cowlings on this build.
Lastly I will continue with the cockpit. After I sealed what I thought were the gaps I gave the cockpit a coat of RLM66 internal cockpit colour from Vallejo air – this went on nicely but only showed I had more gaps to fill! This I did and again till I was satisfied – I had however some help with the several instruments which were strewn about the canopy – the only scratch-building I did was to add some grey flare cylinder holders and dome throttle controls on the port panel .
Easy to do in this instance – I cut some thin strips of Photo Etch and coloured it black – got some super glue and dropped either end in the glue and used accelerant to dry it immediately, then repeat till I had some suitable sized “knobs” going on – which I painted an eye catching yellow to stand out a little – I will change the colours of these if someone can produce evidence that they weren’t red – or clear or black!!
Next my Xuron hobby kit came in use again as I cut then shaped the rudder pedals with nothing more than the P/E Scissors and the flat bending pliers – what a good investment! I had just a usual set of tols i begged borrowed or pinched before this - They are all i use now.
The rudders bent over very easily and I have to say that touch wood none of the P/E has snapped yet – and I have handled it a lot! – On with some RLM 66 and the cockpit was looking good.
The rudders bent over very easily and I have to say that touch wood none of the P/E has snapped yet – and I have handled it a lot! – On with some RLM 66 and the cockpit was looking good.
Next the gunner’s position goes together with some spare MG cartridges (frail in the middle watch out butterfingers) and the oxygen canister which I painted red. The padded mat for the gunner I gave a brown and then a faded brown effect and this looked quite worn and realistic I thought for scale – I like this kit.
The seat belts were then painted in a light brown colour then highlighted and almost off white to give the faded canvas look. Of course these are provided on the P/E sheet – but in this case I wish I had a spare! As I lost one of them to the carpet monster and I had to think of a replacement – try to work out which one I lost from this picture-
Till then have fun!
Adam Norenberg
My sincere thanks to Airbrushes.com who supplied this model to review
Click the banner below to go back to Osprey's site
