SPA Modeler

Ken, Thank you so much for your words. Your projects as well as your aesthetic approach have both been a benefit to me to follow and participate with your breakthroughs.

An interesting behind the scenes peek at a restoration project...

https://www.collingsfoundation.org/airc ... w-190-f-8/

First belt.

Lap belt looks good, Bruce! There was a previous question about when to put on the photoetch bits in the cockpit. Ideally, if you want a good bond, the PE pieces get glued in prior to painting. But since the pieces are so small and light, you CAN get away with gluing them in after painting. I like putting them in before because I don't like dealing with the blobs of shiny CA glue that might show up after gluing them in. If the parts are unpainted, I can even use debonder to clean up the CA glue prior to painting.

Now your picking up speed on this lol. I also like to put the belts on before painting since most of the time the paint will flake off the PE belts anyway while getting them to lay right. The fabric belts that you can get now I will put on after painting, of course my favorite is the ultracast seats with the belts molded in they always look great.

John and Clint, Thank you so much for your support, gents. I know I am slowly moving along. My plan was to build all the belts tonight, but it's better for me to build one lap belt tonight and the other tomorrow. I am also working on a film this weekend and free time is almost non-existent. I am keeping the lap belts as "floating elements" while I finalize the cushion color. I found this extremely low-resolution image on another aircraft building forum...



... apologies for such a low resolution image, but this is all that was available online. I am not sure where it comes from—I was hoping that this was an image of an actual Fw190 A metal seat and leather cushion from a collector's... collection, but I am not sure. To use this image as a color template, the cushion must be several shades browner and possibly a pinch... redder? I think so. Also the colors of the lap belts pop out so much more—and the scheme becomes much more realistic and less harmonious. I was still being governed by color theories and playing it safe with a light brown leather. The reality of a dark brown seat makes more sense.

I will be off grid until Monday. As my grandpappy used to say, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Looking good so far Bruce. Those detail photos should come in handy.

Ooooh that’s great work on that harness so far and the seat looks fantastic in there! Very good!

190's are always busy looking in the pit, Bruce. IMHO I doubt that you will not have any problem making this look the part. This is one of my faves and I always enjoy a good 190 build. I especially like the blown hood variants.

Carlos, Ken and Paul—Thank you so much for your comments and support. I sincerely appreciate having you fellas to bounce ideas and images onto/off of/through the ether. I have been thinking of the details. I know Barracuda makes a cockpit placard set for their resin Mustang P-51A and D cockpit, so I thought somebody out there would make something similar for the Anton’s pit. And Lo, Eduard does.