ICM 1/72 Fw-189C/V-6

Started by George R Blair Jr · 38 · 2 hours ago · 1/72, Fw-189C/V-6, ICM
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    George R Blair Jr said 2 weeks, 2 days ago:

    I decided to build this model to fill a little of the downtime in my Dr.1 model. I don't usually build 1/72 models, but this one looked so cool that I couldn't resist. The Fw-189 was designed early in the war as a tactical reconnaissance and army cooperation aircraft. It was very successful and was produced in large numbers. As the war continued, the Germans saw a need for a tank-busting aircraft. A prototype tank-buster prototype was created from the Fw-189 by swapping the large cockpit pod for a small, armored cockpit. In the end, the Fw-189C proved inferior to the Henschel Hs-129.

    I will be building this model at the same time I am working on my 1/28 Dr.1, so it will be a slow, but fun, build. Cheers.

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 weeks, 2 days ago:

    Excellent entry, my friend @gblair! The kit looks promising. Looking forward to your next steps!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 weeks, 2 days ago:

    Great entry, George @gblair
    Looks like to be a great kit. Never saw the tank buster variant as a model before. Looking forward to it.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 weeks, 1 day ago:

    Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). It looks really cool when I saw it. One of the online hobby shops had it on sale for almost 50% off, so I grabbed it. I have always avoided the original Fw-189 because I couldn't picture myself doing all of those windows, but this solved that problem.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 weeks, 1 day ago:

    @gblair, I have always liked the looks of the original 189, the C version looks a bit like a Transformers robot. Must have been a very tight cockpit.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 weeks, 1 day ago:

    I also chicken in tackling the classic Fw-189, my friend @gblair...

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 weeks, 1 day ago:

    Hi John (@johnb) and Spiros (@fiveten): The cockpit is very tiny in 1/72, and it was a 2-place cockpit.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 weeks ago:

    The 2-man cockpit module is very small in 1/72, just a little over an inch long. Surprisingly, when I test fitted the 2 sides of the cockpit together, they didn't fit well due to a warp. I glued the forward part of the module together, let it dry, and then clamped and glue the other end. Everything was good when I took the clamps off, but it need filler on every seam.

    I added the gunner's window to the rear of the module. This piece is one of only tow glass pieces for the plane. I also added the machine gun to the module, which will be inviting me to knock the barrel off for the rest of the build.

    I got the parts cleaned up for the center wing section, which is the other part of the kit that does not share common parts with the standard 189. The flaps are designed to display either up or down, but you have a pin in each end of the flap which is sandwiched between the center wing parts. I need to find some photos and see if the flaps were down on the ground. Leaving them down will complicate the painting later, so I will leave them off it they are to be posed down.

    Cheers

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 weeks ago:

    All looking excellent, my friend @gblair!

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 weeks ago:

    Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten).

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    Erik Gjørup said 2 weeks ago:

    Nice version that indeed eliminates a LOT of masking and detail-painting interior. Have fun George!

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 week, 6 days ago:

    Thanks, Erik (@airbum). I wanted something quick that I could do while working on the Dr.1. So far, so good.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 week, 6 days ago:

    Luckily I have been reading ahead in the instructions. The instructions wanted me to assemble the center wing section, add the seats and other cockpit stuff, then glue the cockpit cupola onto the wing, and finally add the pilot's windows. I was really worried about 2 things: first, having all of the fragile cockpit stuff sitting on top of the wing seemed like an easy way to knock stuff off, and second, if the glass needed any filler or sanding, there wouldn't be any room to do it with the tiny cupola sitting on top of the wing. My plan was to glue the glass to the cupola while it was still free of the wing. My test fit of the glass showed that it wouldn't be a good fit. I ended up adding some thin strips under the sides of the glass to bring it into proper position, and then added a bunch of acrylic filler around the front of the glass to fill the resulting gap. Once the acrylic filler is solid, I will deal with smoothing everything out. I am really glad that I didn't have to deal with this problem with the cupola glued to the wing. Tomorrow I hope to finally get the cupola sorted and glued to the wing section. Cheers.

    8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 week, 6 days ago:

    Excellent progress on and very nice tackling of the canopy's proper seating, my friend @gblair!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 week, 6 days ago:

    This is already an impressive start, George @gblair