John Symmons Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Another Relaxing Build After the Airfix Graf Spee I’ve decided to try the Academy’s version of the same ship, the standard version with the plastic railings. As I’ve always wanted to build this ship in a larger scale ever since I made my original Aurora one why back in the 1950’s. Well I’ve started it but soon got quite disillusioned with it, would you believe they’ve got the masts wrong again. Recently had a chance to check out the Trumpeter model of the same ship and they’ve also got the masts wrong. I’m sort of wondering if I’m the only one in-step with the Graf Spee but checking my reference photos of her I know I’m correct. In the Premium Edition Academy (Yes I do have both.) they have added the main mast stays in photo etch but have made no attempt at correcting the mast itself. End of rant and back to the subject the Fw 190 gift set. I’ve been looking for the Airfix Fw 190 for some time but it seems to have been dropped except for the Gift Set or Starter Set with paints, brush and glue, so I’ve never considered it as I have plenty of glue, paints and brushes. But finally I had to bight-the-bullet and get the set. The kit itself is quite nice some-what simular to the old Heller one only with a pilot. The only thing wrong with my one was the flat topped canopy was cracked down the middle, luckily they supplied both the flat topped and blown canopies so I used the blown one. The suggested construction starts with the cockpit then the fuselage and wings and finally the undercarriage, canopy, drop tank and engine front. I changed that after reading some reviews in this and other forums, to building the complete fuselage, then the complete wing and undercarriage but with out the drop tank. All went well with the exception of the gun-sight again like the Me 109 the part seems to bare little or no relation to the drawing I fitted mine after the joining the fuselage halves but ended up having to cut a bit of the cockpit coaming away. The cockpit tub can’t be fitted after the fuselage halves are joined but has to be fitted before joining them. Also if you wish to add the pilot he also can’t be added later as he’s too wide to fit through the cockpit opening; I left him out, he’s joined the Me 109 one in the spares box. Other wise I had no real problems with this kit. The fuselage I glued the rear part first then joined the nose with the help of some clamps, as it seemed the fuselage halves had warped a touch. (after ready several reviews it seems to be common fault with this kit, but it is easily overcome.) The fitting of the cowling two top panels needed quite a bit of feting and sanding after they were finally glued in place, Just remember to dry fit and check and check again. The kit was brush painted using the supplied paints and brush. Now normally I’m a bit sceptical of supplied brushed as they may look good in the packaging but I’ve usually found them to be very cheap and nasty and soon becoming next to useless, but I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the Airfix offering and if this is indicative of the rest of the Airfix range of brushes I can thoroughly recommend them. Well done Airfix. Thanks to the transparent paint pots I could see the paints had settled out, So some vigorous shaking ensued to try and mix them. This tended to rub off the numbers on the pots which in this case wasn’t much of a problem but stick-on labels would be much better as in some models with more than four colours it could cause confusion; Airfix hint - hint. The paints themselves; once I’d opened the pot without throwing paint all over the place, boy! are they awkward to open. Had to use a knife and a pair of pliers to ease to lid off, I wonder how many customers have shot paint all over the place trying to open them. The paint I found to be very thick, too thick to use without totally obliterating all the detail so added some thinners and retarder; I seem to be using acrylic retarder quite regularly now even with Vallejo; more shaking and tried it on the model. What can I say, the only colour I ended up using was No 27 as I hadn’t got a Vallejo equivalent, The other colours were replaced with Vallejo as I found the supplied one a bit goopy and rough even with thinning. I used the RLM 75 Basalt Grey and RLM 76 Pale Grey Blue which I found to be and improvement over the supplied paints, in both colour and texture, the cockpit interior I finished in RLM 2 Grey Green, prop and wheel in RLM 70 Dark Green, tyres in Black Grey with various gun-metals and smoke at various parts where needed. The decals were as supplied with the addition of an after market swastika on the tail. The cockpit framing was done with painted decal paper cut into fine strips and applied over a glossed canopy, except the rear that was easily hand painted. Again I even managed to apply the spinner spiral, this was done before adding the glossed spinner to the propeller, and using hot water with setting and decal glue solutions. I was going to add a few of my own stencil marking, but in the end couldn’t be bothered. Also painted the trim tabs red./media/tinymce_upload/db807c25add341e0e7b6155c63fe5100.jpgCockpit framing using painted decal paper. Adding the wing to the fuselage did require some thought as the front didn’t match up to nicely with the engine cowling. (See Photos) Ended up just gluing the rear part then when set gluing the front cowling part, again with clamps then added the engine part after lots of sanding to make it fit into the hole without splitting everything open again then lots more sanding to mate the two cowling parts and engine ring match up with the rest of the model and then having to repaint the nose. The wing fuselage join was left unglued. Again I’ve read that this is quite a common fault with this kit, Maybe the far east manufactures are ejecting the sprues out the mould before they’re sufficiently cooled and the larger parts are warping. Anyway the fault is again easily cured, isn’t that what model making is about/media/tinymce_upload/d1a0796544cb41f6952516d70552eb6c.jpgSome rough paainting there looks better on the model though/media/tinymce_upload/43269b26431904fcda3cbf7dc121b7c3.jpgTwo shots of the cowling fit.You can just see a very out of focus Graf Spee waiting in the back ground I’ve made several FW 190’s over the years and always found the undercarriage to be very fragile, (I’ve just used an old Lindberg Fw 190 D and a Revell A-3 as a paint exercise and both ended up with broken undercarriages.) but this Airfix one is the sturdiest I’ve seen. Again well done Airfix and it’s nice to see the retracting mechanism included. My only criticism being some guide as to the correct angle the undercarriage legs would be appreciated, I think I’ve set mine too fare forwards anyway it’s going to stay like that. The only things I added was the antenna wire, the small aerial under the fuselage and a DF loop scrounged from the spares box, it’s a bit to big but it’ll do. All-in-all I quite enjoyed this build and can recommend it. It it does have some traps for the unwary, but forewarned is fore-armed, it was far more relaxing than the Airfix Me 109 with decent sprue gates and no broken parts when detaching them. It makes up into a very nice little model of the Butcher-Bird, even if it is a bit mono-chrome looking being basically a three tone grey model, but makes a nice change from all the RLM 70 / 71 schemes. A few photos below of the finished model, together with the airfield hack opal blitz seen in the Me 109 build. hope you enjoy as usual all comment welcome. /media/tinymce_upload/b23ad7283bef33437f1d5d7b4e25cca5.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/8d452b571f8da6aafada9ee5fc2380c1.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/28685190ce4ec2266286828f14e4fc07.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/dfdcb7cc85573a6f98cdd4abee0fcc92.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/c040f72ab71df96fbe6d178f0be98737.jpg Remember we do this for fun John the Pom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenneth ONeill Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Well, it's not a comment on this specific kit, but it's quite common* for sink marks and warping to be caused by ejecting mouldings from the tool before they've cooled. *For values of "quite common" relating to the actual causes of the moulding defects rather than to any individual brand name's output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2B Posted April 20, 2018 Share Posted April 20, 2018 Looks a nice kit and a decent quick build. Your diorama looks good in the sunlight! Did you use the kit decal set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidJC Posted April 20, 2018 Share Posted April 20, 2018 Certainly a nice looking build there, the diorama is good and sets it off really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Symmons Posted April 21, 2018 Author Share Posted April 21, 2018 Thanks Guys.It's actually the same piece I used with several of my models to pose them on. In the Me 109 I added some figures but didn't bother with this one.Remember we do this for fun John the Pom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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