Border 1/35 Focke Wulf Fw190A-5 Nowotny Double Chevron

[jkim]

Thank you Torben and Carlos! A-5, it is... I'll change the title of the build (if I can).

The best thing about this particular 1/35 scale kit is the mold quality and detail. It's amazingly good and the fit has been excellent so far. For those that are curious, here is a comparison between the 1/32 Hasegawa 190 wing and the 1/35 Border wing...



Continuing my work on the engines, I've decided deviate from the kit instructions and mount the exhaust collector stubs onto the exhaust collector ring instead of on the back of the cylinder heads. This will make painting easier and I can address the glue joint. Once the individual stubs are glued onto the collector ring and glue joint is still pliable, I mount the ring onto the cylinders to ensure that they fit together and let the glue dry like this.


Pay attention to these small parts that go on each cylinder head. They look the same on the exterior but the backs are different to account for half being mounted on the front cylinders and the other half on the rear cylinders.



Here is the one-piece prop. The hub is detailed very nicely. I thinned the prop blades, primarily from the back side .


Without putting any pressure on it, the prop shaft broke off. I'm guessing was under stress during shipping?


I re-attached it using CA glue and a short section of brass tube for strength.


Here are the engine parts minus the exhaust piping. I've glued together as many subcomponents as possible without getting in the way of painting.


I'm going to try and wire the engine so I've drilled small holes into the ignition harness tubing.


The tiny nibs at the spark locations have been cut off, drilled out and replaced with Anyz replacements for the front cylinders. These are 1/32 scale parts but close enough. I just drilled holes in the rear cylinders because they won't be visible. Actually... I don't think the front cylinders will be visible either once the cooling fan and prop is mounted.


Here is a dry-fit of engine parts, again without the exhausts. Amazing... I'm actually shocked at the amount of detail Border has been able to cram into an injection-molded radial engine, without resin or PE.

[Stikpusher]

Wowsers! That engine looks incredible! I do hope that the kit has an option to open up some of the cowling panels to show that off.
Oh yes, you’re going to “try to add wiring”? No need to be that modest, we’ve all seen you add wiring on other engines that you’ve built. Based upon your past works, I have no doubt that you’ll make the wiring happen.

[KSaarni]

Wouh John, what a fantastic kit!

Looks really as a good kit!

Now when I have the change to ask, I saw this on a social media site, but is it true or just one of those false information that every now and then pops-up on internet ?



- Kari

[tempestjohnny]

Wowsers! That engine looks incredible! I do hope that the kit has an option to open up some of the cowling panels to show that off.
Oh yes, you’re going to “try to add wiring”? No need to be that modest, we’ve all seen you add wiring on other engines that you’ve built. Based upon your past works, I have no doubt that you’ll make the wiring happen.

Yeah. What he said

[jkim]

Wowsers! That engine looks incredible! I do hope that the kit has an option to open up some of the cowling panels to show that off.
Oh yes, you’re going to “try to add wiring”? No need to be that modest, we’ve all seen you add wiring on other engines that you’ve built. Based upon your past works, I have no doubt that you’ll make the wiring happen.

Hah! I like to give myself some outs!

Wouh John, what a fantastic kit!

Looks really as a good kit!

Now when I have the change to ask, I saw this on a social media site, but is it true or just one of those false information that every now and then pops-up on internet ?



- Kari

Yes, it is true. The markings sections refer to this as a Messerschmitt! I think it put in a reference to that mistake in my first post.

[jkim]

Ok, I cleaned up the exhaust pipes and stuck them on the engine. Be careful when you are cleaning these up as they are connected together with very small tabs near the hollow ends. Luckily, the soft Border plastic helps us here by bending and not breaking.



I was curious about fit of the engine cowling components so I decided to try and dry-fit them together. Not including the fuselage halves and wing bottom, there ten parts that comprise the engine cowling. Even without the engine in place, I was able to tape together the cowling, which means that the fit between the parts is pretty darn good. Can't do this if the parts don't butt against each other with precision. It's difficult to make a call now without any glue involved but so far I'm very impressed with how these panels fit. Which opens the possibility of having some panels removable so that we can peek at the engine.

[Gary Brantley]

First, that is amazing detail on that engine. It is so impressive that it just begs to be seen. It would make a beautiful stand-alone display all by itself, mounted on some sort of engine stand!

And secondly, I was somewhat surprised by the significant size difference in your 1/35 vs. 1/32 comparison shot. The 1/35 model does seem more petite in that photo. But, I shouldn't be surprised having seen armor models in the two scales compared side by side to demonstrate the size difference. I guess I thought the difference too slight to notice in aircraft. I was mistaken.

It's shaping up to be another John Kim masterpiece and it's fun to follow your progress!

[jkim]

Thanks Gary! Yes, it is a surprisingly significant size difference between 1/32 and 1/35.

Some paint mule stuff to report on... The exterior colors of RLM 70 Black Green, RLM 71 Dark Green and RLM 76 Light Blue will be Mr Hobby Aqueous colors (H65, H64 and H417). Since there are no aftermarket decals available, the major markings will be painted with masks. Markings with narrow borders are very tricky to do so I wanted to test out the tail swastika and double chevron markings. There are a couple of ways to do shapes with a narrow border around it... one is to print the complete marking on a single mask. Using it would involve manipulating the thin border as a mask itself and this gets harder as the border gets narrower. The other way to do it is to print two masks, outer shape and inner shape and this is how I chose to test out the markings. The larger mask is placed on the model and the outer border color is sprayed first (in this case, being white). The mask is then removed and the second inner mask is carefully placed, trying to maintain a consistent border around the shape. Once the mask is in place, the black is sprayed.


I've also been trying to create a paint mask for the spinner. All of the existing scans that I have of 1/32 Dora spinner spirals did not work for me. Nowotny's 190 had a spiral that was restricted to the front half of the spiral. Based on the comparative shapes, I guessed that a 1/48 scale spiral for the Bf109 might work and so I found a scan of a likely looking 1/32 Bf109 spiral and scaled it to 1/48 scale. The mask was applied after a base coat of yellow was applied to the spinner.


The spiral turned out ok but with a minor but noticeable spot of paint leak.


I prefer to make these micro corrections using an airbrush, even though it takes extra work. Brush painting works for some situations but its hard to avoid leaving brush marks. Doing it with an airbrush results in a seamless repair. For a curved edge, I cut a curve onto a piece of Tamiya tape and fit that piece along the corrected curve line.


Yellow is one of the more trickier colors to repair due to its lack of opacity so I took the extra step of covering the black with a base of white before spraying on the yellow.


The spinner spiral is one of the visual focal points of any Luftwaffe fighter so it is worthwhile to remove any distracting paint imperfections.

[BlackSheep214]

[Gary Brantley]

For a curved edge, I cut a curve onto a piece of Tamiya tape and fit that piece along the corrected curve line.

Yes, I've used that same technique for cleaning up curved lines with errant paint. Tamiya tape is among my most used modeling tools!