SPA Modeler

I can do two. When one requires drying/curing time, I can jump over to the other one. But with three, I find myself waffling and not sure of which one to work on. And since all three are Luftwaffe subjects, I don't want to get confused and make a G-14 error on my D-13 build. Since the D-13 is my newest build, I think its best to pause this one until I can get Tank finished.

jkim wrote:I can do two. When one requires drying/curing time, I can jump over to the other one. But with three, I find myself waffling and not sure of which one to work on. And since all three are Luftwaffe subjects, I don't want to get confused and make a G-14 error on my D-13 build. Since the D-13 is my newest build, I think its best to pause this one until I can get Tank finished.

Good idea!

With the stop-and-go work happening on the 262B build, I thought I'd dust off this one from the shelf. You can tell I haven't gotten very far since all of the parts still fit into the original box.


I had to review my build thread to determine where I stood on this build. As you may recall, having access to both the Real Model and Grey Matter (J. Rutman) Fw190D-13 conversions in hand, I decided to go another route and sculpt my own cowling bulges on the Hasegawa plastic based on photos and cross-section drawings found in Jerry Crandall's Dora Volume 2. I deviated from the Grey Matter rendition, which elected to graft a longitudinal bump along cowling hinge line, by feathering in the bottom edge of the bump completely and leaving only the top edge depression as the sole visual cue to the modifications. The major sculpt work has been finished and I've given the major engine cowling components a thin coat of Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 to help check the work done so far.

So here is what the nose area looks like right now with some of the major components taped into place. The top cowling will be Grey Matter resin part and the supercharger intake will be from the Real Model set (which I think is a cast of the Z-M Ta152H intake).

Similar views but photographed in the light box...






It's good to know that the build was left on a positive note and that the sculpting for the bulges came out relatively well. I think it has a more integrated appearance compared to the obviously grafted bulge featured on the Grey Matter resin fuselage.

I think I'm going to have to re-read through this thread John as I've lost track of which build this was!

It looks like you've come back to it with a good starting point though.

Thanks Stuart! I'm pretty full-bore on my other build right now so it has been hard to squeeze in work on the D-13. The one thing I managed recently was to address the wood flaps that were used on this aircraft.

Compared to the kit flaps, the face of the wood flaps, as provided by Eagle Editions, is flat.


Eagle Editions provides a decal for the wood finish but I am not particularly liking this rendition.


Instead, I am planning to use a wood grain decal sheet by HGW.


These decals are transparent and, according to the instructions, you can vary the tone of the wood by varying the background color. I've used the Silhouette Portrait cutter to provide masks for the different panels. Since the decal film is so delicate and prone to damage, even when dry, I've reversed the masks so they can be applied to the back of the decal sheet. The masks serve as a cutting guide.


Using white as a base, the flaps are painted in different colors. Looking like the Partridge Family bus!


The decals are cut out and positioned one at a time, varying the orientation so the grain isn't going in a uniform direction. This is what the flaps look like after the HGW decals.

Looks like the Partridge family bus... that’s something I hadn’t thought of in ages...

But IT DOES!!!

John you did a great job on the wood flaps I had to look up what a partridge family bus was and you are right lol

You kids don’t know what you missed...