1/48 Tamiya Fw-190D-9

Gallery Article by Lorenzo Cassinadri on Feb 4 2013

 

 

Hi everybody!
This is my 1/48 Tamiya Fw190 D-9 that I built some years ago.  The kit is already very well known.  Despite a few inaccuracies (e.g. landing gear bay), it builds into a nice rendition of the "Dora" right out of the box.  I built it that way adding only scratchbuilt details in the cockpit (gunsight and seatbelts), brake lines to the landing gear and replacing the cannon barrels with hypo needles.

 

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I painted the model with Humbrol enamels (Dunkelgrun and Grauviolet) and Gunze RLM76 for the undersides.  All the markings but the blue "15" and the white spiral on the spinner were masked and sprayed.  Weathering consisted in a wash with black and burnt sienna oils and a post shading of the panel lines with a very thinned mix of Humbrol Matt Clear tinted with black/dark brown oils. The same mix was used to spray exhausts and gun chutes stains.

When time came for the final protective coat, disaster struck.  In my quest for a tough and reliable protecting varnish, I used an acrilic satin spraycan from a local DIY store.  I did test it on a scrap model and the results were encouraging, so I gave it a go on the Dora.  

I don't know what went wrong, but the stuff created a heavy orange peel effect only in part toned down by spraying a very wet final coat.  Although the final finish was "heavier" than usual, I thought it was still passable so I proceeded attaching the final bits to wrap the thing up.  

Problem is, the livery began yellowing in a matter of weeks.  Past the initial anger at myself for having ruined a good and fun build, I wasn't able to muster the stamina to strip the thing bare and repaint it so I sadly relegated "Blue 15" in the darkest corner of the lowest shelf of my display case. 

A few weeks ago, I found the inspiration to try and rescue my poor Dora from the dark corner of shame, though without repainting her completely.

I removed the fiddly bits and began to wet sand the surfaces with fine grade sandpaper to carefully remove the yellowish layer without damaging the underlying paint.  The sanding process went well, having removed most of the yellowed coat. The upper surfaces look almost as good as new, while the lighter RLM 76 still has a greenish hue.  Incidentally, this color is similar to the yellow-green paint sometimes seen on late war Luftwaffe planes which has the (speculatory) designation of RLM 84.
It may not be the correct color for this specific airframe, but it can't be considered outright wrong either.

I added some paint chipping with a silver pencil, repainted the drop tank with Gunze RLM76 and lightly retouched the weathering and staining with my usual method plus some "soot", "rust" and "mud" from the Tamiya weathering master set.  A light coat of the now combat proven Gunze Flat Clear ended the restoration process.

My "Blue 15" will never be a contest winner, but at least she won't be the Queen of the Dark Corner of Shame, either.  I hope you like her, anyway.

All the best, 

Lorenzo

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