Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9

Construction
The first three stages deal with building the engine and I did add some extra wiring and other detailing to this, which is probably why I then ground to a halt on it (too much too soon!). The interior is nicely detailed with the front element of the main instrument panel in clear plastic, behind which goes an acetate film of the dial faces etc., then a blank grey-coloured plastic bulkhead. The clear panel makes some sense, but as only the upper half of the panel is done in this manner, it seems rather a waste. The ammo boxes ahead of the front bulkhead are included and the pilot's seat has a separate cushion but no seat belts, which is odd considering the inclusion of etched parts for the control surface linkage? The biggest error with this D-9 though is the hinge along the upper edge of each side of the engine cowling, as its depicted curved, when it was a piano hinge, so it had to be straight. I simply removed the raised detail on the kit, then applied a thin piece of plastic square-section strip and once it was all dry, chopped little bits of it out at regular intervals with a razor saw to represent the elements of the hinge.
The wing root guns are separate multi-part sub-assembles, but the level of detail and accuracy leaves a lot to be designed, so its just as well the access doors in the wings are not separate to expose them (again, why add the whole gun?) The tailwheel has one side of the yoke separate, so this does allow you to just fit the main unit (E6) and leave the rest off until final assembly. The tyre and hub of the tailwheel leave a lot to be desired though. The rudder is separate and uses those awful metal rod and etched 'hinges', which are a real fiddle to try and get to stay in place and then join the fuselage halves around them. The elevators and ailerons use the same system, so by the end of it you will hate themas much as I did. When you build the wings the undercarriage bay insert goes into the lower wing half after you add the main oleo legs. This seemed like a really bad idea to me, so I opted to leave them out and see if they would fit after all the painting etc. Talking undercarriage legs, these operate, so have a little spring inside them and a pin that locks it in place, all very 'gimmicky' but made worse by the fact that once you put the built model on them they will compress to such an extent that the sit of the model is all wrong, plus, the hard black plastic used does not work with liquid cement, so you can't glue the moving strut in place - use cyanoacrylate as I did, as that will hold them! 
  
Colour & Markings
With the bulk of the model built, it was time to prime it, deal with any gaps etc. (there were precious few thankfully) and then get on with the main scheme. There are two schemes shown on the colour instruction sheet, neither of them identified. I decided I wanted something different, so went with a set of Montex masks instead. This set (#K24039) offered markings for 'Blue 9', of 8./JG6 at Halle-Nietleben in May 1945 and 'Black 4>' of Stab./JG 6 at Prag-Rusin in May 1945. I went for the first option and so applied an RLM 83/75 scheme on upper surfaces of the wings, tailplanes and fuselage spine, with a light mottle of these two down the fuselage sides and over the vertical fin. I did not go much on the prescribed scheme of RLM 81/82/83 over 76, so that's my excuse for the grey/green scheme instead. The lower surface colour was a combination of RLM 76 and natural metal panels, as by the latter stages of WWII many Luftwaffe fighters had large areas of the undersides of the wings unpainted to save on materials. All the colours came from the Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Color range, while the natural metal was via Alclad. Once these were applied, the markings were sprayed on using the masks from Montex and these went on very well due to the simple nature of the crosses used at this stage in the war. The '9' and horizontal bar on each side of the fuselage were also sprayed on using masks, although getting a fine white border was very difficult, even in this large scale, as lining up vinyl masks is not easy at the best of times. Once everything was applied, the paintwork was sealed with gloss and left for a couple of days to harden. The stencils all came from the kit and went on with no real problems, I opted to paint on the wing walkway dashes, what a mistake as I got their proportions all wrong and there is no way to redo it!
The final task once the decals were also sealed with varnish was to apply an oil wash along all the panel and rivet detail and this looked pretty good. The final spray job was an overall application of acrylic matt varnish from Vallejo's Model Air range.
             
Final Details
The windscreen and canopy had been masked and sprayed along with the main model, so the gunsight was painted and fixed in position, followed by the windscreen. The rear canopy had the internal structure and headrest added, then the little bulge for the aerial lead wire was drilled with a micro drill bit to accept the lead. The aerial mast on the top of the vertical fin was also drilled in a similar manner than a coil was made with very fine wire wrapped around a pin to create the lead-in/connector for the aerial lead. To this was attached rigging thread, although I admit I forgot to add the secondary one at mid-way, down to the fuselage. The undercarriage had been built up previously and I found the thread pattern on each type more akin to a tractor, so these were filled and sanded smooth. The leg did fit into the completed bay, you just need to leave off the door and rotate the leg so the tab at the back engages into the slot, then secure it with cyanoacrylate. The doors and wheels can then be added and if you have secured the sliding element of the oleo, this should have the model sitting correctly without the door bagging on the ground!
The propeller spinner was painted black then a decal applied to create the spiral, which worked very well to my amazement. The undercarriage position markers were painted red and added to each upper wing, while the tip lights have to be represented with paint, as even in this big scale Trumpeter did not do them as separate clear components. The foot step, pitot, DF loop and IFF antenna were all pre-painted before being attached, as was the ventral rack and 300lt drop tank. 

Conclusion
I actually enjoyed making this, apart from those silly operating oleo legs! The end result is a very impressive model and I have to say that having built it I went and dug out my Trumpeter 1/24th Spitfire Mk Vb to go with it (OK, I know that one has various shape issues, but what the hell!). With a current RRP of £89.99 you get a lot for your money and its easy to build as well, so I am really happy to have at long last removed it from the 'Shelf of Shame' and put it on display.

Paints Used
Alclad II lacquer:
White Aluminium

Gunze Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Color acrylic:
H69 RLM Mid Grey 75
H70 RLM Grey 02
H413 RLM 04 Yellow
H417 RLM 76 Blue
H422 RLM 82 Green

Tamiya Color acrylic:
X-1 Gloss Black
X-2 Gloss White
X-7 Gloss Red
X-22 Gloss Clear
XF-85 Rubber Black