Airfix 1:24 FW 190 A-5: Fuselage Gun Cowling

Hi guys – time for an Airfix 1:24 FW 190 A-5 update I think!

I’ve been only working on ONE item at the moment and that’s the cowl over the machine guns. For some reason known only to Airfix and the gods of plastic kits, Airfix decided that the whole cowl should be covered in rivet detail, lots and lots of it!

After looking at what resources I could find, it was obvious that this wasn’t right. So out came the Tamiya masking tape.

I sliced the Tayima tape into 2mm wide strips to cover over the detail I wanted to keep. (This amounted to the fasteners plus I decided to keep a line of rivets around the cowl.)

I then carefully wiped putty over the rest of the cowl to fill in and cover the rivoting details I didn’t want to show. Sanding followed, lots and lots of it.

Be Careful What Putty You Use

While I was sanding the Italeri brand putty I’d been trialing, simply cracked off and fell away!

It went on beautifully – flowing around the contours of the cowl, “This looks great!” I thought!

However I found that unlike squadron green putty which I usually use, it didn’t actually bond to the plastic. Rather, the Italeri putty formed a hard shell over the cowling. So when I sanded the dry putty it cracked and just fell off!

Note to Self:

“Don’t waste money on Italeri putty”

So out came the tied and true squadron green putty along with my trusty silicone paint brushes which I use to apply it. I smear the putty on, smooth it into the areas I’m filling and leave to dry.

Now with the Squadron Green putty in place it was back to sanding, which went off without a hitch this time.

Here are some pics of the Airfix 1:24 Focke-Wulf FW190 Gun Cowling Photos to see for yourself.

Post Tagged with 1:24 scale,Airfix FW 190 A-5,Airfix model airplane kits,Focke-Wulf FW 190,FW190

by NZ Fly Boy

Avid WW2 aviation enthusiast and modeller. Been making model kits since age nine and I now model mostly ww2 model airplanes. (my wife is an understanding one!)