tigertc

Hope you don't mind me asking, but what is the cost so far of your 190 project?
(It's looking gorgeous by the way)

Bunkerbarge

Thanks for sharing the pictures of the ducted fan model. It looks amazing and will look stunning in the air.

It would be a shame not to enjoy flying her when she’s finished and I can understand your apprehension but maybe you could use a “Buddy” system and get some time at the sticks before you part with her.

Thanks again for sharing the pictures, the 190 is going to be a stunning model as well.

Glider Guider

Things have progressed with the FW-190, albeit slowly, so an update is due I think.

I was puzzled at the differences between the fuselage as it is and the plan on two counts, the nose is longer and the fuselage has been lengthened by a short section that has been added just forward of the tail unit, this can be seen on the photo above. This extension doesn’t ‘look right’ as, viewed from the top, the fuselage tapers to this extension, the extension itself is parallel and then the aft section of the fuselage tapers to the rudder post, it’s as though the tail was cut off and the extension inserted. On querying this with Phil, the builder of Phase 1 of this model, I learned that it was modified to model the FW-190 D-11 (Dora) which was one of the last versions before the end of WW2.

Revell did a 1/48 version of this mark but it is now out of production, however I managed to track down ‘the last one on the shelf’ and bought it, I will use this for panel lines, hatches and various lumps and bumps when the airframe is completed. I encountered a problem with this plastic kit in that there was an appreciable ~1mm gap between the wing and the fuselage. Now I’m sure of two things; Focke Wolfe didn’t build this gap in and neither did Revell, as the rest of the model fits perfectly I can only presume I did something wrong but I can’t imagine what as the wing has a one piece bottom and the wing tops don’t overhang the wingtip. Maybe someone with more experience in plastic kit construction could enlighten me – my last one has to be almost 30 years ago.

The suggested colour scheme is strange, camouflage top and red and white stripes below – hardly camouflage! The reason is that this fighter was used to defend Messerschmitt 262 airfields and the airfield ack-ack guns were manned by schoolboys who, in their excitement, would shoot at a FW-190 as readily as a P-51 Mustang, hence the red and white stripes.

Glider Guider

The retract legs came with a standard air up/air down control valve. On completing the plumbing it was time for a test. The tank was pressurised to the recommended 80psi and with the wheels down, the control valve was actuated and the legs retracted – in about 250ms with such a thump that sounded as though they where coming through the top of the wing, down was, if anything, quicker; definitely not scale speed. To correct this I bought an adjustable control valve from Fighteraces and the legs now take about 5 seconds to complete their travel, which looks far more realistic.

The tail surfaces are now largely complete so I’ll post some photos in a bit.

Greyhead

David

Looking at the Dora it certainly seems a bit of a “botch” job.

They extended the nose to accommodate the larger engine and for aerodynamic reasons needed to lengthen the fuselage tail section. Presumably because of the necessities of war they literally chopped off the tail and inserted a parallel section ignoring the “look” of the modification; a typical pragmatic German approach to the problem.

The longer nose will certainly save on nose weight to get the C.G. correct but I prefer a standard 190 from an aesthetic point of view, but it’ll make an interesting topic of conversation at the flying site, I just hope you can convince the sceptics that it was a German “botch” and not yours!

As for retracts I agree with you that the usual “bang bang” system looks terrible, almost as bad as leaving them hanging down permanently; I’m just glad I concentrate on “golden oldies” with fixed gear.

Grahame