aslan

Any spare canopies out there?

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

figured I would post my gun hatch progress, worked on making the guns and a method of securing them and the hatch.

I made the barrels of the guns so they would slide into holes made in a webbing in the forward part of the hatch,I tried to simulate the guns in a photo I found of the MG131, drilled the vent holes in some alum tube, I then used smaller tube to make the flash suppressor, and guide tube through the fuse that I epoxied in place.
some small brass tubing for the barrel which also worked for the securing pins for the hatch, and some left over Robart wheel spacers I driled out to fit the tubing, not perfectly scale but they will do I think.

I will place hinges at the rear of the hood like the FS FW190.

I also strengthened the gun hood with a layer of epoxy and 2oz fiberglass cloth, then mixed some micro balloons and epoxy to hold the webbing in place, its a little heavy, but with out it I didn't feel comfortable with the condition it was in when I removed it from the fuse, and I figured I would make it more scale looking with a little bit of filler at the canopy side, since I knew I would need to paint it anyway.

so the first pic is my reference,

RoysterDW

Nice![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

SimonV6

Yeah nice one bigtim [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Redback

Same again, the guns look great.

Have finished the tail end installation on mine, so I have now moved on to the cockpit installation. After some contemplation finally got up courage to hack a bl**dy great hole in the fuse and rip out most of one of the ply formers. Tonights job is to glue some additional half formers behind the cockpit space (btw its a dynamic balsa cockpit kit).
Depth for the cockpit may be marginal, this is why I wanted to get the rudder and elevator controls in place first. The tailwheel is the supplied bracket fitted with a Dubro semi scale tailwheel.

After taking the picture I decided to do away with the clevises and connect the pull pull wire directly to the rudder horns, looks a lot neater that way.

Couple of pics below plus one of the engine install/throttle linkage.

Terry

kahloq

Those dubro tail wheel things sure do make a difference. Ive used them on the ESM Stuka, ESM ME-109, and CMP ME-109. Wish ESM would just start including them in the box since Hobbycity sells them for like $4

aslan

Hello Redback, if you want to scale up the cockpit, this site www.cockpitinstrumente.de/ is probably the best source for the instruments. I downloaded the ones I needed and resized them to fit. I also used the D/B cockpit,but it needed a lot of mods.

Redback

Hi Alsan,

Great website and just what I wanted - the instruments in the kit were very ordinary.

Terry

aslan

No probs Terry. It is a great site for sure.
Joe.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

thanks guys for the kind words

a little bump and post, I finally got my gun hood where I wanted it to be before I put the hinges on it,I used some industrial body filler( not bondo) but a really durrable and flexable spot putty, to do some shaping of the venting on the hood at the canopy and some blending of the bulges,so they have a slightly more scale look.

really a practice run for my kit build FW190A8 project, so any way I also shot the hood with RLM 74 which as you can see its a bit off the ARF's paint colors, I plan on reshooting the fuse so it looks a bit better than the 2 shades of grey they subed for the camo, just a little extra touch.

another thing thats bugging me is the yellow, or more precisely orange used for the cowl, and numbers,any one removed the ensignias with a chem like laquer thinner or such. I thought there was a post way back there in this thread about that but I figured I would ask first,I got some waterslide printable sheets from the art store to make some new # if needed to make it a bit more unique.

so a couple of progress pics

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

so I did a color comparison to model masters RLM 76, and my www.warbirdcolors.com 76 and neither was that close to the ARF both were quite a bit darker than the bluegreenish color that ESM uses, one observation was that the WBC and MM paints were a real close match not perfect but close.

my solution was to go to my paint dist. and have them match the color, there a top quality outfit and gave me a nearly flawless eye match, in Benjamin Moore Aura paint, its a very high quality material, with high hide ,basicly it covers without needing to over load the paint on, and literally drys in a couple of min since the material is sprayed on so lightly for coverage, no drips and it shot exeptionally well through my touch up gun at 50% water thinned.

I masked off the numbers and crosses and cleaned up the overspray of the black, and other paint on the fuse,with my touch up gun,if any one needs the formula for the color I will be glad to post it.

I have been using Benjamin Moore paints for many years for my buisness and this material is pretty impressive stuff, now I can shoot the actual camo color for the upper fuse area, I also plan on spraying the upper wing as well with this material.

I will post some pics later

fearless fly

Hi Tim,thanks for that 'warbirdcolors' link.It's gone straight into my favorites.

Cheers,
Fly

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

no worries fly, I think there is a guy down under that sells it for Chuck also if you need to get some.

I got some paint work done on the fuse so here is my progress in pictures.
masked off and sprayed with matched color.
RLM 75 on the tail area.
then RLM 74 shot in a random wave pattern.
then the unmasked sides.

I still need to mask and shoot the cowl, and do some wheathering and light random pattern work.

fearless fly

You've done a top job Tim,with the paint and the removable,(now),gun cover.Pity ESM didn't think of that when they made them.Now hides all those unscale bits.Well done!

Cheers,
Fly

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

so I was working on the fuse tonight and noticed the firewall was a little flexable in the front of the fuse, not totaly coming off or any thing like that but there is some room for strengthening, any readers have any trouble with it and what did you use for strengthening the area, my intuition tells me to go with either a epoxy and micro baloon mix or a foaming glue like Gorilla Glue to keep it light and strong.

I also started fitting the elevator halfs to the fuse, some minor sanding and they slipped right over the tube,I am definatly going to repaint the camo the 2 tone grey is just not working for me at all, I had already masked and touched up the cowl, there was some areas of missing paint, not big, but small little areas where it looked like bubbles formed and popped, and will shoot the RLM74 and 75 to finish off the top of the cowl.

when I fit the wing to the fuse I will also flair the color of the camo onto the wing fillet

aslan

Hello Tim.Yep,I had the same problem and warned of it much earlier in the thread.I used epoxy and some hardwood blocks jammed and glued between the firewall and former 1. While you're in re-spray mode, have you thought of a different scheme? A site called Wings Palette has plenty of options if you're interested. Here's just one sample.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

thanks I will add some wood as well thats a good idea, you know I was thinking of a totally different scheme but I didn't want to reinvent the wheel with this one just a improvement over the two tone grey that wasn't very accurate, for FW in general, I am working on a 60 size FW190A8 that will recieve the royal treatment.

I also brought some samples of the colors down to my paint store for matches,since i am going gas it doesn't need to be fuel proof so I can save the fuel proof paint for my glow projects,then I can paint the camo on the tail and wings this weekend,I would like to get it ready for flying in a couple of weeks time.

I kind of like the stripped nose cowl look, but am a bit partial to the pips priller scheme, my son has the model of yellow 11 that I am using as a general reference for ideas along with my numerous documentary books, I also use wings pallete, some nice art work on that site

airfix

Hi,

Here are a few airborne shots of my electrically-powered FW190. I've been flying it for over a year and this is the first time anyone got any shots of it.

Al

Bill Rademacher

My Feedback: (77)

Airfix, looks great man!

I am just about to mainden mine. I want to be sure of the CG. Can you or anyone recommend a measurement from the root leading edge?

thanks!

Bill

airfix

Bill,

The CG on mine is 14 cm aft of the root leading edge.

Al

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

these planes sure are nice looking in the air there Al, is that the composite version

airfix

bigtim,

I have the composite version, I gather that in the more recent kits the wings are all wood.

BTW, there are several airborne movies of it in my Youtube page, which I posted many thread pages ago.

Here it is again:-

http://www.youtube.com/user/alfoot

Scroll down the list on the right.

Al

aslan

Hello Tim.Like yourself I have a great selection of media on the same subject, so if you don't mind, I would like to recommend this site http://www.clavework-graphics.co.uk (unless you have it already) He does great work. Apologies again if you have it, but just thought I'd throw it out there.........
Joe.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

I haven't seen that site thanks,
mine is the built up wood wing version, the top of the wing is fully sheeted and the inderside has open bays, the fuse is quite light as well, mabee a little too light since I need to strengthen the firewall,overall still a nice model for the price, finally got some flying in yesterday a little rusty but I did ok

SimonV6

Nice pics man where did you get your tail wheel from?

I had some nice flights today, between the showers, here are some shots

I really need to change my tail wheel to one like yours, or proper retract like the one here (photoshop btw)