Revell Fw-190 A8 1/32

[KSaarni]

I was happy to find that pair of photos since both sides were photographed on the same day with the same camera, and you are quite right to point out the additional detail of the warning sign — I think this is an important element for consideration as well. I am enjoying your progress immensely!

Yes, I agree fully with that!

Good to see a build with this kit. I've build the Revell G-10 kit a couple of times and have thought that they were very good kits and built up nicely. Not perfect but a good mix of solid shape and decent details. Just curious... does the instrument panel photo depict the Bondic? It looks like the stage where you've put the decal solvent solution on the instrument decals.

Thanks John,

Indeed, the IP picture shows more or a less the huge amount of decal setting used, in other words I really let the decals soak in decal setting so the decals would sink in the "holes" of the gauges... I realise now that I never show clearly the effect of Bondic...

Unfortunately I did not take a pic before doing the weathering process, therefore the gauges are not shining that much. But you can see sort of "lens" effect.

Bondic as such is quite interesting stuff, as you can easily build up layers. The consistency of Bondic is like a little bit thicker glue.
I also use Bondic to support PE parts and other small stuff, it's actually very handy stuff to many things



Before deciding to buy the 190, I was considering Revells G-10 as an alternative. Good to hear it's a good one also!

- Kari

[KSaarni]

Inspired by the great pictures Bruce shared, I jumped directly on the tail-wheel, wanted to make it "turnable".

I spent some time on the internet, studying carefully exactly how the turning mechanism works the tail-wheel of an 190 A-8. Luckily the kit has two different sets of tail-wheel structures; one with slightly bigger and one with slightly smaller tail wheel. Must admit, from the instructions it's difficult to tell which one belongs to which version..


First interesting finding was the construction of the axel / cylinder... It should be more or a less round... But here Revell has made it to be more oval.. Well, not even "more" oval but very much oval...



Therefore, besides some surgery, also some re-shaping was needed.. But first, I let "the saw sing", as that was the name of the (first) song...



Here you see the two different tail wheel fork & shock assemblies; On the left the fall-back structure I could use if things would go totally bad and then the one to right.. the "turning tail wheel" project.....



Next challenge was to replace the oval piece with a round one.. Easiest and most practical approach was to find a suitable sized piece of sprue and use that...



I wanted to make the entire tail wheel construction "ready", which mean I had to figure out how to insert the wheel afterwards. As you see in the picture above, the fork pieces have already 50% of the axel in the fork pieces, meaning I would need to put the wheel inside the fork already now.. Something I definitely do not want at this stage.. So, solution, scratchbuild an axel so the wheel can be added in the final stages of the build...



The next step was to make the fork turnable, so again some sawing, sanding, glueing, sanding, glueing, drilling etc resulted to this...



Some additional detailing with streched sprue, looks pretty messy now, but some refining with a sanding stick and an x-acto knife + paint will improve the result later on...



After some additional work, a turnable tail wheel is now a fact... Looks a little bit raw still, but after paintwork I think it will be pretty good... at least I hope so... :-)





Now afterwards I might have done things a little bit too complicated... but was an interesting and enjoyable project nevertheless...

Let's see what next!

- Kari

[Stikpusher]

Very impressive micro work!

[speedgraflex]

Kari,

Looks incredible! Your photography is so beautifully composed! You have really captured the feeling of intention... the feeling that work is about to happen as well as has happened. This is not easy to do and I congratulate you. I agree with Stikpusher about your engineering! Truly. I was in suspense to see if you would pull this off—and you did! Congratulations to you!!! Do you happen to have a few tips about creating evenly stretched sprue sections? I think your sections look properly and evenly stretched! I end up with blobs and curlicues. Any advice would be most welcome, however my main point is to congratulate you. Job well done! Just keep on keepin' on. This is fabulous stuff!

[KSaarni]

Very impressive micro work!

Thanks Stik !

Do you happen to have a few tips about creating evenly stretched sprue sections? I think your sections look properly and evenly stretched! I end up with blobs and curlicues. Any advice would be most welcome, however my main point is to congratulate you. Job well done! Just keep on keepin' on. This is fabulous stuff![/i]

Thanks Bruce, well to be honest I just heat the piece of sprue under a candle and stretch it... Well, there is though a couple of details I have figured out during miles and miles of stretching.... But I am sure everyone has a little bit their own "rituals" to do it, this is my method and so far has worked pretty well..

First of all, I always try to use as thick sprue as possible. Revells FW 190 happens to have pretty thick sprues, perfect to use as raw material. Below to the left the Fw190s thick sprue and to the right more a traditional sprue thickness a la Eduard..



I heat slowly but surely, all the time turning the sprue stick, on a width of about 1 inch (in other words 2-3 cm), see below


I have noticed, by heating up a wider part, this gives more control in trying to strech the sprue evenly thick.

There is another advantage to use as thicker piece of sprue, it's easier to feel or to see when it begins to soften to the correct soft sprue "consistency"... or should we say correct viscosity...

Remember, time is the ally here, use rather 10 seconds more turning the stick slowly next to the flame, than rushing through and trying quickly soften it up by keeping the sprue very close to the flame.

Now comes the the critical step, the stretching process itself.

Previously I thought one need to be very quick in this part of the process, quickly stretch it.
But I notice that pulling out quite slowly the sprue, it stretches out more evenly. Thicker sprue, again, helps! You have like quite much more time to strech it, the plastic stays softer a longer time (as also a wider part has been heated). So, you can pull out really thin and long strings, easily!

Of course, there are also differencies in plastic types. Some you can hardly stretch, while others become like melted cheese on a pizza.... Just keeps on getting longer and longer and longer...

I hope this helps a little bit. The key for success is to do everything in almost slow motion !

- Kari

[Duke Maddog]

Great tips Kari. I also stretch mine the same way. In fact, a lot of times, I'll collect a whole mess of sprue and then stretch it all out at once. I also practice making different thicknesses as well and then cut them to length and keep them in a small tackle box.

Congrats on some incredibly fine and complex work too. You are quite the innovative modeler.

[speedgraflex]

Well, there is though a couple of details I have figured out during miles and miles of stretching....

Best. Step by step process. Ever.



Thank you so much for your expertise and your ability to create a narrative; plus your skills are off the charts. When I am excited I am excited, and right now I am very excited indeed, so bear with me. I had no idea—not one idea at all—but of course diameter, the thickness is a variable of critical importance. Diameter and consistency of the styrene are both factors. My only test for the consistency of styrene is a “sprue bend test,” which is simply taking a straight section of sprue and bending it until stress fractures appear. This gives me a general idea of how brittle the plastic is or how resistant the plastic is “under pressure.” Surprisingly the age of the kit seems to be less of a factor; specifically adding “old” as a description to “brittle” when it comes to describing plastic does not apply: there are old kits with supple plastic that would be the envy of new production.

Rather than ramble even farther afield (colors of plastic, for example), I want to thank you for your thoughts on sprue stretching, because your thoughts are terrific and I will implant the ideas of diameter and slow heating in my frontal lobes.

[mostrich]

Kari,
like Bruce I'm very excited about this WIP and the way you're presenting it to us. It's easy to see that the mojo is strong in you again. Isn't it a fantastic hobby we've chosen, in which we can lose ourselfs for hours on such grey January evenings.

You gotta love it!

[KSaarni]

Great tips Kari. I also stretch mine the same way. In fact, a lot of times, I'll collect a whole mess of sprue and then stretch it all out at once. I also practice making different thicknesses as well and then cut them to length and keep them in a small tackle box.

Congrats on some incredibly fine and complex work too. You are quite the innovative modeler.

Thanks Duke, that is actually a very smart idea, to have readily made "stretchies" of different thickness and lenghts in a box! I always do them fresh, but your way is much more practical!

Well, there is though a couple of details I have figured out during miles and miles of stretching....

Best. Step by step process. Ever.



Thank you so much for your expertise and your ability to create a narrative; plus your skills are off the charts. When I am excited I am excited, and right now I am very excited indeed, so bear with me. I had no idea—not one idea at all—but of course diameter, the thickness is a variable of critical importance. Diameter and consistency of the styrene are both factors. My only test for the consistency of styrene is a “sprue bend test,” which is simply taking a straight section of sprue and bending it until stress fractures appear. This gives me a general idea of how brittle the plastic is or how resistant the plastic is “under pressure.” Surprisingly the age of the kit seems to be less of a factor; specifically adding “old” as a description to “brittle” when it comes to describing plastic does not apply: there are old kits with supple plastic that would be the envy of new production.

Rather than ramble even farther afield (colors of plastic, for example), I want to thank you for your thoughts on sprue stretching, because your thoughts are terrific and I will implant the ideas of diameter and slow heating in my frontal lobes.

Thanks Bruce and like the "sprue bend test" and the analyse of different plastics used. An excellent future (rather near than far) discussion topic in Free discussion group, what people do refer.. So many different plastic types... and the material in "our business" is actually pretty signifcant!

Kari,
like Bruce I'm very excited about this WIP and the way you're presenting it to us. It's easy to see that the mojo is strong in you again. Isn't it a fantastic hobby we've chosen, in which we can lose ourselfs for hours on such grey January evenings.

You gotta love it!

Thanks Torben, absolutely! :-)



- Kari

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks for the compliment Kari! One day I just got tired of having to pull out the candle and light it every time I wanted to stretch something. The next time I pulled out the candle, I also just pulled out a bunch of sprue and sat and stretched it all at the same time, one by one.

I have another large bunch of sprue to get to again. Time to start stretching again!