1/32 Hasegawa Fw 190D-13 Yellow 10

[BlackSheep214]

Incredible stuff....

[KennyX]

John, I really like the cockpit work you’ve done on this bird, it’s great.

I recall back you saying somebody on another forum had mentioned that your cockpits seemed “too pristine” or some such thing. Now, I’ve always enjoyed the work you do on cockpits most especially, and I myself wouldn’t have offered that as a critique at all. But you know how it goes with subjective opinions. At any rate, I’m quite enamored with this cockpit. It is difficult to articulate this “idea” or methodology and end result I’m going for, but I’ll try. “Smooth depth.” There is depth here, and it gives a nice sense of character to the office. But it doesn’t look heavy handed, as oil paints or pigments or even many layers of paint from an airbrush can look when weathering. I’ve been eschewing things like pigments for dust and so forth in interior surfaces because let’s face it- pigment dust is the same “scale” or whatever, as the real life dust that accumulates on real surfaces and I can NEVER get it to look right. It always seems too large for me. Oils do that to me too sometimes. What you’ve achieved here is something I’ve been trying to shoot for myself. A nice harmony of lights and darks which gives the appearance of natural wear, without looking abused. And it isn’t heavy handed at all.

I enjoy this very much.

[jkim]

Thanks guys! And thank you Kenny for that detailed analysis! I really appreciate your positive support for my work. I ping-pong back and forth when it comes to weathering the interior parts. And I've received comments on both sides of the fence: too much weathering and too little. In this case I've really held back on the weathering. It is a little bit of laziness and an acknowledgement of the eventual closure of the cockpit into the depths of the fuselage. I've restricted my chipping to the seat, the rear deck, the upper side walls in the vicinity of the canopy rails and a little bit of dry brushing on the floor components. No staining yet but I'll probably dust the floor with a bit of dry pastels to get some dirt effect.

What do you do when Mr. Jerry Crandall says the seat back should have not silver-colored wear because it is armored? (a) Come up with a dismissive retort like, "Yeah right! Like you know what a real Focke-Wulf 190 seat looks like. Psssh!"? (b) Continue the build, pretending like you never saw the comment? Or (c) Wipe it and start over?


Of course, with all due respect to Mr. Crandall's undeniable expertise in the matter, I chose (c).


After I sprayed the seat with some appropriate shades, I thought I'd delve into the engine compartment and try to get the MG151 fitted. Here is that "cover" that I was talking about in the previous post. It has a hole drilled into it to accept the MG151.


The stub of the MG151 barrel can be wedged into the hole.


Since the gun protrudes past the resin bulkhead supplied in the Grey Matter resin set, I cut out a hole in it. In reality, the gun body goes all the way back into the front of the cockpit but since there is no visibility to that area, I am not going to cut a corresponding hole in the cockpit tub bulkhead. I'm just going to trim the gun body to allow the cockpit tub to fit.


As you can see, the gun is visible but obscured. It will be even more obscured once I had additional pipes and wiring. I'll also have to add a chute for the expended ammo. If possible, I'll try and incorporate the resin ammo container as part of the chute. The real ammo containers in the D-13 were located above in the space where the D-9 cowl guns were.

[Floki]

Looks great John! You are right if anyone would know exactly what anything on a 190 looks like it would be Mr. Crandall. I'm so excited about the MG151 fitting so well and seeing the engine plug come together.

[KennyX]

Huh. I always had a cognitive bias against chipping paint on the seats -and inside the cockpit in-general- of German warbirds. I’ve done it with nutty, reckless abandon in American aircraft, but never German.

I will say that pre-redo, that chipping pattern looked hella cool. I’d like to see a pattern and diffusion like that on a Birdcage Corsair seat, it’d look AWESOME with that green.

Also, who is this Crandall fella? I’d like to know more about this guy. He seems like the kind of dude I could drink a few root beer floats with.

[jkim]

Jerry Crandall played a large role in the re-discovery and subsequent restoration of the Fw190D-13 which is the subject of this build. He also authored one of the definitive references on the Focke-Wulf 190 D-series: a glorious two-volume set dedicated solely to the D-9, D-11, D-12 and D-13. I'm a proud owner of this book and am utilizing it heavily as a resource. And finally... Jerry Crandall is the owner/operator of Eagle Editions, whose resin cockpit set is being used on this build. So that's HIS seat I am painting! I'm quite sure he owns a real 190 seat or two, the fact of which is supposed to make the retort funny. I think it's pretty damn cool to have people like that chime in on the build.

[jeaton01]

Cool indeed!

[Stikpusher]

You really can’t top such subject matter expertise John. That is a superb luxury to have in this hobby.

[jkim]

It's great to have access to such expertise but it's also good to remember that there is a lot of speculation in this hobby and not everything that the "experts" say is necessarily true or accurate. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go against the analyses found in both of the noted Dora references (Crandall and JaPo) when it comes to the camouflage of Yellow 10. I think there is room for a different interpretation and this is what makes, for me anyway, the subject of late war Luftwaffe schemes so enjoyable.

But when it comes to the seat, I'll accept Mr. Crandall's assessment as accurate. I've redone it using a base coat of Alclald Steel on the armored backrest and the Tamiya AS-12 silver for the frame of the bucket. Yes, I've chipped it again but there is very low contrast between the dark steel and the dark grey RLM 66.

[Floki]

Seat looks great John, really like the wear on the cushion.