Eduard 1/48 FW 190 A-5 with Details

[PeteG]

Hello Everyone,

My son started an Eduard’s FW 190 A-5 Light Fighter in 1/48 scale before COVID. But since then he only completed a couple of sub units before he stopped and the kit sat for 6 years. He purchased the Big Ed accessories that included the engine, panels, flaps, seat belts, and instrument panels. He had cemented the piston portions together and bent the flaps. So there will be no unboxing other than the boxes themselves.


I found a BMW 327 cabriolet in 1/48 scale at a cheap price with a KA accessories for the car for the same price as just one kit. So… Priller’s car and plane it is. But I didn’t want to just do the same famous scene. Plus finding the figures to replicate the scene is a journey in itself. So the diorama I am creating will be in July 1943 instead of June 1943 when the photo was taken. Same airfield (so I need to make a WW2 Western European tarmac). The plane has seen a lot of combat in the month of June and July as the Americans ramp up their bombing strategy.



I will have his car at one side and the plane both pointing in a V. Priller figure will be in the center with the mechanics working on the plane, conducting the next maintenance and the panels are open and the engine exposed. The plane will have “some” weathering but more dirty than anything (Priller being the Commander of JG 26 in France at this time, his plane was well looked after).

I will start with the BMW 801 engine sub unit. There were some complications with the piece that my son did was squashed and needed some repairs. The other issue was that the cylinder parts were cemented together without adding the appropriate accessory PE pieces. I separated the pieces and scratch built some of the exhaust pipes that were damaged. Then I started installing parts, but I found the casting of the cylinder heads was not up to Eduard’s usual high quality detailing. Luckily, I have some extra PE parts that mimic the top of the cylinder heads and had the realistic engineering look.



I painted the base pieces in NATO Black and then with aluminum drybrush the engine pieces. I wanted the darker vibe with the black because the BMW 801 engine notoriously leaked oil like crazy.



I used AK interactive rust paint on the exhaust pipes after laying a base red/brown coat. I finished off with rust colored and cordite like soot weathering powder for texture as those exhaust pipes reach super high temps performing high speed maneuvers in the aerial combat arena.



Then I adding the rest of the resin and PE parts to finish out the engine. Instead of using the flat “pipes” that connected the heads and its supports brackets that was integrated into the engine, I substituted both .20 mm and .30 mm metal wiring to replace the flat pieces. I also added some extra wiring with the engine assembly. Connecting items like the fuel pump and fire extinguishers lines to the heads.



I finished the final assembly and here we are



Next will be the cockpit, flaps, and other sub units before bringing everything together.

More later and Happy Modeling



























View attachment 642406

 

[PeteG]

The Cockpit
I will use the Big Ed kit details along with other PE from Eduard’s to detail the kit’s original cockpit flooring.

I started both kits flooring pieces and painted them Tamiya silver for future weathering. I will used Vallejo’s German Luftwaffe set 1939 through 1945 paint set. I painted the cockpits with RLM 66 as the base color campaign



Then I started the weathering process with scratching the floor metal sheet panels with a toothpick to show wear and tear from the American’s bombing campaign in the summer of 1943. To me, the plane will show 6 weeks of heavy combat but not a scratched and used up derelict as in the spring 1945. This is the Group Commander’s plane of JG 26, and I am sure it was maintained with better care than the other aircraft of the unit. But the dust off the French airfields was heavy and coated nearly everything. That’s the look I am going for!

I added the foot pedals and the rudder controls next.



I then started detailing with the pre-colored Eduard’s cockpit dash. I installed that piece with the better of the two cockpit flooring parts. I then installed the pre-colored PE parts to the arm panels and added the seat. I will install the PE colored seatbelts after the fuselage is completed.



I detailed the walls and floor of the cockpit cabin with some additional 20 gage (0.022 mm and 0.03 mm wire) as seen in research images. I added more detail painting and small (very small) PE parts to flush out the dash and arm panels.



Next was to dry fit the cockpit and engine assembly onto the fuselage pieces and ensure a nice tight fitment. The offending angles on both the cockpit and the fuselage were grinded with 400 grit.



Once I was happy with the completed sub assemblies fit it will be time to cement them in along with the cockpit gun bay that I will complete next.

Thanks for reading and happy modeling - Pete

 

[PeteG]

The Gun Bays and Wing Flaps
As you can see that my son started the gun bays and I finished the detailing from my last post.

I wanted the flaps, hoods, cowling and any other cover opened for viewing. In addition, Priller's machine was well used by August 1943 and I wanted the look of use in the wing and cockpit gun bays.

I started the rebuild with the untouched MG 151 20 mm cannons from Eduard’s Big Sin kit. I add .2 mm and 3 mm wire at the rear firing solenoid and electronic bolt.




I then added the cannons to their respective gun bays.



I did have photos of me detailing these gun bays but I must have deleted them because all I have is the finished bays. But I have to say I like how they came out.



I used black panel liner for the oil stains and soot (black pastel) weathering powder as cordite residue all inside the bay.



Next I tackled the MG 131 13 mm cowl/ cockpit machine guns



So I had detailed all the guns at the same time and those photos are gone too

But you can see that the guns came out pretty good too. One thing did was to use a syringe needle to bore out my barrels for that sense of realism.



So in order to dry fit the fuselage and wings, I needed to install the wing and cockpit gun bays. Also because the photo etch dorsal wing flaps will butt aside of the wing gun bays and fuselage, I needed to install them too. You can see that my son had bent the PE flaps but not installed them because the wing kit parts needed a lot of modifications to fit all the pieces. I accomplished this with a lot of patience, and part by part fitting and grinding material until they nicely fit. The tolerances/ width of the plastic in order to fit the pieces was very thin. You needed to go slowly and used s sander and not a grinding bit because you can easily melt the thin material and destroy all that Eduard’s beautiful surface details.



Finally I was able to fit the fuselage with cockpit machine guns, wing gun bays, and the dorsal flaps together and dry fitted




More to come and happy modeling - Pete