Thanks gents for the kind words...
The 190 has been sitting on the back burner lately. 🙁 🙁 🙁
Unfortunately we have had some other "life" things come around that has limited the time I would like to spend at the work desk... plus I have been concentrating on finishing up several other builds that are almost completed.
My goal is to complete as many unfinished projects I can before the New Year starts.
Meanwhile, Andreas Fey and I have decided on what markings to use for the planes we will be building.
Both planes are from JG 2.
I am going with "Black Double Chevron"...
while Andreas is building Erich Rudorfer's plane, "Yellow 1"
I did manage to get a little done on the Butcher Birds...
Started painting the black dials in the cockpits
I have 3 out of the 4 cockpits painted to this stage. Believe it or not, Tamiya has made a few small changed to the cockpits. The 3 on the right are for the earlier A-3 / A-4 builds.
The differences are with the side console panels, and a very subtle change on the main instrument panel shape. The A8 / F8 has a more rounded look along the lower edge. had I not placed them side by side it would hardly be noticeable... but it's there.
While the one that has not been finished with the dial painting is for a later A-8 / F-8 variant.
I found this very good picture showing the restored cockpit of the NASM's FW-190 F-8. It was in one of my books about how they restored the plane in the museum's workshop. It also went into the actual history behind the plane and how it had been "recycled" by the German War industry several times after being damaged in combat.
This picture came from the book called "Famous Aircraft of the National Air and Space Museum, #9, Focke - Wulf Fw-190 Workhorse of the Luftwaffe.
The amazing thing about this restoration is the attention to details during the restoration. They actually used various methods of photography and scientific sampling of the various colors of the paints used to obtain the most authentic colors.
They even sanded the paint off the exterior of the plane, a little at a time, to expose the various layers underneath. By doing this, they revealed some very interesting markings and camouflage combinations that were used during the service history of the plane as it was assigned to various Luftwaffe units.
This NASM plane served in the Mediterranean Theater and wore Sandgelb RLM 79 with RLM 80 Olive Green blotches at one time. I don't remember if it had a RLM 76 or 78 light blue undersides though. It ended the War in Hungary with SG2... and had an amazing service history.
I heartily recommend this book if your a die hard 190 fan...
One more day until Christmas...
Merry Christmas everyone.
As per my usual sign off, comments are encouraged.