1/48 Tamiya FW 190 with Citroen car and Support crew.

[strawnobi]

Here's another one. I've been working on this for awhile. Tamiya's 1/48 FW-190 F8/9 with bomb loading set. It was a fun build. It was my first attempt at mottling. The crew members and support equipment minus the bomb loading set are actually from a tank support crew. I just painted them in Luftwaffe colors. The uniform detail is basically the same as the Luftwaffe figures included with the kit. The car was a pretty easy build as well. It's the Citroen Traction 11CV staff car.

A couple of quick notes:

I really enjoy painting figures now. Each one takes about 4 to five hours. It is somewhat tedious. But, I enjoy it. Its a combination of hand painting and airbrush work. Incidentally, I've learned a couple of tricks by watching guys on you tube who paint warhammer figures. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to improve small detail.

The colors I used for the aircraft aren't the exact shades called for. For example, I used Japanese Army green for the dark green color. But, it seems to capture the feeling of the paint scheme used at the time. Tamiya's colors can be off a bit anyway. In doing some research on the internet, there were so many variations of paint schemes used with the 190 that its hard to be exactly accurate.

About the decals, in general, I'm not much of a fan of Tamiya's decal film. But, I did find that if you use mark setter first and really get the decal sealed before applying mark softer they work better. With larger decals especially Mark setter is a must. I did end up touching up some silvered spots on the wing insignias with the airbrush though. Also, with Tamiya decals, you will find that if you keep the water warm, warmer than room temperature, the decals will slide very easily and quickly.

In regards to the yellow, I painted a white base first before applying the yellow. Note to beginners: You can't spray yellow over dark colors because it will take on a slight shade of the color underneath. This also includes other bright colors that you want to paint. The pigment count isn't high enough to compensate for dark colors underneath. This phenomenon is why pre-shading works. Think of this as pre-shading you don't want. Reds are notorious for this. So if you every wonder why a bright red looks dark over a gray primer, this is the problem. Guys will often paint their own roundels with British aircraft. They make their own masks. I did this when I built the 1/32 Zero. I painted the Hinomarus with an airbrush. Even here, I had to paint white first over the green gray. This also has to be done painting the red circle on a British roundel. I've seen a couple of models where someone forgot to paint the white and any camouflage color will show through slightly. A great example being a Spitfire paint scheme. I'm sure this has been mentioned umpteen times by numerous modellers before, but I thought I would give my 2 cents on the subject. Anyway, I digress.

It is also, sometimes its good to mix in a little orange in yellow to richen the color tone a bit. I didn't use orange this time though.

The antenna was made using stretched sprue. Also, I cut out the Tamiya masks using cuticle scissors.


As always, it was painted with Tamiya and Mr. Color paints. Metallics and dry brushing was done with Mr. Metal Color paints. The base is just a piece of masonite painted with a little texture paint and Tamiya colors. I might do something fancier with the base down the road. But, I'm tired of working on this project. It's a future rainy day project. Hope you enjoy the pictures. (sorry about the blurry ones!)Happy modeling!!!

[heel]

That's a really cool piece. Congrats

[strawnobi]

That's a really cool piece. Congrats

Thanks for the comment. I enjoyed the build.

[UKguyInUSA]

Nice job all around mate! Great figures, great car and great aircraft!

[Pauljames]

look good when finished

[Avgas]

You have more patience than I with the figures! They look great. Impressive dio.