Exploring the Dora

So back when I first started going to model shows with my Modeling Mentor, I was stocking up on cheap kits (long term retirement planning of the less practical kind) - 5 bucks or so, often multiple kits jammed in to the box. Eventually I came to realize that you get what you pay for - lots of detail-less, raised panel, poor fitting etc. junk.

However, once I decided to actually start building the kits I had accumulated, I realized that some of these could be useful for practicing techniques. (The Mentor calls these "mules").

So anyway, the Mentor was coming over to give me advice on airbrushing, so I quickly threw together wings and fuselage on a couple of the cheap kits, no filler.

The Italeri FW-190 D, actually turned into a pleasant experience, given the low expectations. Maybe I've become a recessed panel line snob, but the raised lines on the Italeri kit aren't too conspicuous, and the kit started looking not half bad.

The main focus for this exercise was making my first try at Luftwaffe mottling (since I built a Ta-152 when I was 12 and mottled it by stippling with a hardened paint brush). Pretty happy with how that turned out.

Italeri made the terrible decision to mold the very thin cannons right into the wings, so they didn't last too long. As another experiment I replaced them with wound guitar strings, unwound slightly at the tip to represent the muzzle. Paint pretty much filled in the grooves in the winding. Ditto for the pitot tube. Unhappy with a stretched sprue antenna, I went back to guitar strings, this time an unwound light gauge electric "E" string. Also replaced a lower fuselage antenna with guitar string.

Now I'm wishing I'd actually filled the seams to bring it more up to standard (most noticeable on the underside, which I'm not going to show you.)

Despite the seams, I think it looks half decent, and I can use it as a platform for practice in weathering.

On to the next project.

Happy modelling.

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.