Hasegawa Fw190A-8/R2

[Wumm 288]

Well, the kit's not made of resin itself, but a good portion of the contents will be...

Standard Hasegawa kit, with added Eduard BMW801 radial engine, Eagle Editions Cockpit and wheels, Henri Daehne spinner and propeller set, and possibly some other assorted parts from the Aires D-9 super set. I had always wondered why no-one had bothered with an engine set for this kit, so now I guess we'll see if the Eduard motor will fit (my initial measurements say it will).

Work has commenced with the wing panel inserts for the gun covers, and about a half-hour's worth of rivets in the same area.

[JeroenPeters 3,594]

Liking this already!!

 

Coolest Fw190A version there is.

[James H 3,405]

.....and he's off!

The BMW does fit the Revell kit superbly, as Paolo Portuesi did a build on FB, so I hope all goes well for the Hasegawa.

[Wumm 288]

4 hours ago, James H said:

The BMW does fit the Revell kit superbly, as Paolo Portuesi did a build on FB, so I hope all goes well for the Hasegawa.

Saw that, great build...

The cowl panels will be left open, length-wise at the business end the Hasegawa and Revell kits agree, but there's a millimetre width difference at the top of the firewall... the Hasegawa is slightly wider here and the error runs the length of the fuselage down to the tail. It's hardly noticeable (I've never seen it mentioned elsewhere in the decade or more the kit's been out) but you'll see it if the Eduard cowls are buttoned up on the Hasegawa. 

But still, to put that gorgeous Eduard motor in and close it up would be criminal. 

S

[Wumm 288]

Anyone else hate adding rivets...?

 

So it's on to the resin components. This is the Eduard engine crankcase, removed from it's casting block and with a couple of ancillary parts also added. Painted with an undercoat of Tamiya AS12 spray Silver, it looks very bright at the minute but this will be the base for an overcoat of half Tamiya acrylic Black paint and half Black watercolour pencil mix, which will hopefully buff off to show highlights of Silver underneath. 

 

Shown in the top photo is the equivalent Hasegawa part, and the difference in detail that the resin allows is pretty amazing.

 

S

[mikester 1,526]

Wow, that is quite a difference.  Kind of make the Hasegawa part look like a blob by comparison!

[James H 3,405]

I'll be taking notes for when it comes my time to build the engine on my 190. You are trailblazing this for us....taking one for the team.  

[Wumm 288]

So, I got ahold of the Aires set No.2039 Wheelbay for Hasegawa kit, expecting it to be a simple drop-in replacement for the kit supplied parts. Once again, lovely detail here; much better than the kit part, and without the hassle of filling the latter's numerous sink holes.

However... once inserted, it becomes clear that the main resin part is short by a couple of millimeters at both ends. I make it 3.33% of the total part length, not sure if this is an acceptable shrinkage percentage but I wouldn't expect so.

Furthermore, it's clear that the mounts for the inner wing MG151's don't line up with the gun positions moulded into the kit wing parts. So if used as-is, either the existing holes will have to be filled with new ones drilled into the wing leading edge, otherwise the gun barrels will splay noticably outwards.

The Aires main part also requires a lot of cleanup on the reverse side, otherwise it won't fit under the top surface of the kit's wings.

Not sure if I'll be using these parts now afterall. Hmmm...

 

 

 

[DocRob 418]

Hi Wumm, to my eye that is to much shrinkage for a part specially made for your kit.

It's hard to tell on the pictures, but it seems to me that cutting the wells in the middle and insert some strips of evergreen could solve the problem of the gun alignment and shortage of the resin part (or mayby better two cuts, where the main pour casts are).

Cheers Rob

[Wumm 288]

Yeah, that's what I thought about shrinkage as well Doc. Especially as it doesn't seem proportional across the whole length; only the end sections seem short, because the resin part as moulded follows the curvature of the leading edge section of the kit parts. The cross braces that contain the wheel uplocks are also in the correct place.

I took one of the wheel bay parts from the Aires D-9 set (mentioned in post #1) and placed it against the A series resin bay for comparison. This piece is also 2mm short at the end!

It's not my imagination, the curves of the bay and the braces all line up where they're supposed to... but the part is still short in the same place.

Cutting the bay and adding a 2mm shim adjacent to the mis-alligned gun mount now becomes problematic, as it will affect the curvature of the front of the bay, and won't sit properly in the mating surface between the kit wing halves without further adjustment. 

To my eyes, it appears to have been deliberately made 2mm short at both ends, as this seems consistent with the parts from the D-9 set.

Steve

[mikester 1,526]

Airies can be so damn frustrating!  Beautiful detail that doesn't fit!

[Wumm 288]

Well kind of Mike...

It does actually fit where it's supposed to, all the mating surfaces line up and make contact inside the lower wing. An acceptable solution would be to add two small window boxes at the strut ends to fill up the see-through blanks, and to fill and re-drill the inner cannon holes so that the gun barrels run parallel to the centreline. 

But not on this build though... as I'm going to be adding the Eduard motor set the top side of the wheel will be well visible, and the amount of resin to be removed is just one last hurdle too many to clear.

The Aires D-9 resin firewall is exact for height according to the position of the kit wheel well. So that's the path I'm following for this build, the Aires bay can go to another kit in the stash.

S

[JeroenPeters 3,594]

Aires... yes. Lovely detail. Fit can be frustrating. 

[Wumm 288]

Added to the various Aires and Eduard sets going into this build, will be the Eagle Editions resin cockpit #EC51-32 specific to this kit. This set includes a resin tub, sidewalls and instrument panels; along with brass etched cockpit rear deck, rudder pedals and seatbelt details

Two seats are provided; one each with moulded-on seatbelts, and one without. For this build I've chosen the moulded-on option.

After a coat of Tamiya fine primer and two coats of Tamiya TS-67 IJN Gray (which is my preferred choice for RLM 66), the seatbelts and cushion were painted in Tamiya acrylics, with the shadows and highlights picked out using Artist's watercolour pencils.

The separate etch and belt approach is probably the more aesthetic option; but once squared away in the cockpit it will only visible through an inch-wide gap, so I'm going to call it fit for purpose.