Doras Galoras - Unofficial GB

[Crimea_River]

Nothing you can't handle Wayne.

I still think Eduard is my favourite manufacturer, despite what it might look like. I would not recommend these kits to a beginner though.

 

[A4K]

Why do you have a D-11 sans 'most' of the nose? hahaha (The nose is incorrect on that kit anyway!)... If worst comes to worst, I maybe able to cut parts out and fit in 'bits' of the donor... Most worried about the under wing area tho PM'ing now BTW....

A mate started the kit and planned to do open cowls using home cast accessories (professional caster). Got as far as assembling fuselage and wings, and starting firewall details, then stopped. I bought the remains off him when he was selling his aircraft kits to fuel his 1/16 RC tank fascination... most nose parts had disappeared in between.

 

[Zaggy]

Sweet - On this end, the affected surfaces seem to be hardening up So it just depends now on how much damage the solvent has done to the surface and how much can be recovered, verses just using a new Donor kit. Maybe this is one way of telling me I need to practice my engraving skills, although after the nose, I must admit, Im a bit over engraving (due mainly to having to work with different materials along the length of the engravings)...

 

[Zaggy]

Oh and for those of you who like to diorama, a friend of mine has begun selling some Rasensteine pavers (in 1:48) that the Luftwaffe used to pave/camo Taxiways and Revetments, from 1943 onwards; most notably in dispersals set up for 'Silber' (Me 262), such as those at Grove. Both of us were a bit sick of seeing the 'parked on planks' type Diorama (of which when we started looking we could find little photographic evidence of, spare a Bf 109G in the east and some Fw 190D's TAXIING over some boards), however the Rasensteine was used all over the place! Even today, ppl dig them up from old airbases and use them to pave things!

For those that dont know, these things were hexagonal concrete pavers, with holes molded into them - they were laid on a base of (normally) gravel (for drainage) and then 'backfilled' with earth, allowing grasses to grow up through the holes, eventually almost obliterating any visible concrete in many areas, but still providing a solid, non-boggy taxiway/hardstand area... Slioghtly more over grown that luftwaffe would have let the go, the following shows how easily grasses camouflaged the taxiways and revetments (from an awesome web site, run by a great guy I know called Michäel - http://www.gyges.dk/):

And this is what my buddy is making:

Initially he is selling packs of 6 sprues (72 pavers, which will cover about a 15 x 18cm area, unless you get tricky and use some cunning to model more over-grown areas), and currently modelling some 28 x 28cm diorama bases (which will be the cheaper way to go I'd say) in the near future (see pic of prototype below). His stuff isn't cheap, but the resin used is incredibly good (denser and nicer to work with than Verlinden or even the CMK or Aires stuff in my opinion) and of the test shots (and even the rejects) that he gave me the other day, I cant find a single, visible air bubble!

Prototype Rasensteine base:

Rasensteine can be found here --> Scale Solutions ; the aforementioned 'diorama bases' can be found here --> Scale Solutions


Dan

 

[destrozas]

I've been looking planes d-9 to remove or place the paneling and remove both what I comentasteis and another, just beyond the landing gear well brought a bulge and a hollow mg, which is not so I have seen so delete them also.

 

[Crimea_River]

Some good progress Sergio.

 

[Wayne Little]

Yep, doing good...

 

[dneid]

Hey, Guys (Andy and Zaggy),
Andy, I discovered those two little plates and their size issues during the construction of the cockpit. I had those sanded down before I started fitting the cockpit. What I did find involved those two ribs under the cockpit rear deck (see pic1). I cut back the ribs on the cockpit deck by about 1.5 - 2 mm and that seems to have solved that problem. It seems the cockpit is fitting much better now. Just a tiny tad of a gap at the rear of the deck now. I think I will fill that with a dab of CA.
Pic 1

Now, a new question for all of you building the eduard kit. I have decided not open either canon bay (I just cannot find any GOOD reference pics of the bays, so I will close em up). I am trying to build up the wing prior to final fuse closing for dry fitting purposes. The instructions show that the canon bay floors and wall(s) are lined up with the inner opening in the wing. However, there is a molded "hump" there. The simple closed bay assembly does not seat well with that alignment. If I push the well forward just a tad to allow the front of the well wall to slide in front of that hump, the assembly appears to fit much nicer. See pic 2 and the red arrows for a better understanding of what I am poorly describing. The question is, just where should the front wall of the simple well align to?
Pic 2

Thanks in advance for the assist guys.

Dale

 

[dneid]

OK, the confusion continues. Looking at the instructions, Eduard indicates an area to remove on the wings if I am closing the canon bays. The picture below shows what I think is this area in cross hatch Sharpie. My question arises from looking at the canon bay cover. It seems that there is more to be removed than indicated in the instructions. I have this area high lighted in Sharpie. Any guide lines guys?
Pic:

Thanks,
Dale

 

[Zaggy]

My advice, GO SLOWLY! Also, chamfer the lower half of the edges of the gun cover (makes it easier to spot how much extra you need to take off) - do this before you glue in the gun bay. Also, once you have the gun door fitting nicely, you may want to edge the inside with some sheet styrene, thin the door down and not even use the gun bay part; that way, when the door is just 'dropped' into place, with less fiddling later on. For me, closing the wing guns up is probably the hardest part of an Eduard build, primarily due to the cut/trim/sand/fit/sand/fit - sand/fit/repeat, that those doors require.

Also, dont glue the door on a) before attaching the wings to the fuselage (yes, I have tried that once - bad move!!!) and b) til you fix up the wing root seams (the gun doors rarely fit 'snug' or 'flush', so it doesnt matter if you leave a little step once you close things up)...

Dan

 

[Crimea_River]

With Dan.

The inner gun bay walls don't seem to do much. Mine got misaligned bit stuff still fit. I almost think you could leave it out, except that it does form a spacer to ensure the upper wing half doesn't bend down when you glue on the cover.

The cut out that Eduard shows and that you've hatched in makes no sense to me for the closed hatch. It does nothing. However, I think they might have mixed up the instructions and meant that you do this for the OPEN bay so that the wing plastic more realistically resembles the sheet metal in this area.

The covers are a PITA and need to be trimmed down a fair amount to fit flush. I'll be working on this tomorrow and can post some pics. Dale, if you PM me your e-mail address, I can send you a detail pic of the gun bay if you still want to pose one open. That's what I'm doing - one open, one closed.

 

[Wayne Little]

That all sounds interesting.....taking notes...

 

[tigerdriver]

same here lol

 

[Zaggy]

Actually, the eduard wing gun opening is in fact the correct shape - hence why I said, those things have a STEP in them. You have a lip of metal on the outboard and rear of the door fairing that sits flush on top of the wing metal (hence why the ProfiPack also included masks for these area (in RLM02 on early a/c and Bare Metal on later builds). Thus the Sharpie-hatched area is quite correctly left in place for open. The problem is molding plastic realistically thin is impossible, thus you need to remove the sharpie-hatched area (slowly) and attach the gun cover with a bit of step; a decent reference is the DML/Dragon kit, which gets this step pretty much right...

As for the wing bending down, by the time you attach the doors the wings are well and trully attached to the fuselage side - so there is little chance of chance of that. Using the Gun bays does however produce a degree of rigidity and reduces flex. As above, these things are pretty light (ie, my Noseless DML/Dragon D-9/D-11 weighs about the same as a complete Eduard D-11); they do work though. But again, the wing gun doors are probably the hardest part of the kits - but in my view it kind of balances out. In the case of the DML/Dragon, the wing roots are the hardest part to sand/polish; with the Eduard, the seams are quite easy (as the door is out of the way), but getting that door closed in place is a Mission! Chamfering the edges where you need to remove plastic on both the wing and the door, is the key, I think.

In all honestly, I rate the Eduard kit much easier to work with than the DML/Dragon... But its not a REAL Fw 190D/Ta 152 if there arent a few hurdles, challenges and modifications!

If we wanted things easy, we'd all be building Hasegawa/Fujimi Bf 109's!


Dan

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far guys!

 

[woody]

Nice work guys.

JV 44 red red 3 got the under side sprayed now i need to repaint RLM 02.

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice Jerry!

 

[Crimea_River]

Below is a shot showing where I stand with the closed gun bay cover on my Eduard Dora. There's a small spot at the top of the white filler strip that still needs to be touched up before I try a shot of primer on here. The filler strip my fix for the slight misalignment resulting from the problem I described earlier.

On the other side, which will be displayed open, more filling can be seen including the front wall of the gun bay which is yet to be painted. This piece also serves to straighten the misalignment. Boy, my next Eduard Dora build will be done differently!

And finally, the painted prop. The blades were polished up a bit with newspaper to give the sheen.

 

[dneid]

Hey, Dan,
Your write up makes sense to me after reading it while I was at the bench. Test fitting and reading really helped. So, time to break out the sanding sticks and slowly and patiently remove material and dbl check, dbl check, and dbl check. BTW, I do have the plug about sorted out. A little filing and sanding have worked miracles. All in all, a somewhat tedious process, but it is an enjoyable challenge. I decided, after Andy sent me a great reference photo, to build one bay open and one closed. So, progress will be slow.

I do like the Eduard kit. I have a couple of A/F variants and a late D-9 on the to be built (TBB) stack. Two are Eduards (an A-8 and late D-9), one is an Accurate Miniatures (Priller's A-8), and a Tamiya (the F8/9). I figure this build is prepping me for the other Eduard kits.

A HUGE thanks to you and Andy for all the help and explanations. Your write ups have taken time from each of you and I so appreciate you both taking the time you have taken to help me out.

Andy, LOVELY work there!!! I am about a week behind you on my build. Hopefully, I can avoid the alignment issues you mentioned. Ok, here is THE question..... just how would you approach the Eduard kit now? I am very curious to hear your thoughts and compare your ideas to my notes. Yes, I actually do keep a notebook handy when confronting challenges (mine is now electronic) with my photos added in to the notes.

Dale

 

[Wayne Little]

Good work Jerry, and your forging ahead there Andy!

My first Eduard kit is going to be a D-11 possibly with R4M rockets (57>) or D-13 (836016 >>)...so just need to find some time to get it in the mix...