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Thank you very much gents! If there is anything that I can throw in here that I think would help out anyone I'm always more than happy to. And your comments and compliments, well, they really do put the icing on the cake with the builds. Thanks again!

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  • 2 weeks later...

And the frustration grows...

This move hasn't gone at all how we had planned it... we're trying to make heads & tails of what is what, however a lot of things were damaged in the move - the Stuka included. Given that the house and everything else takes priority over building right now, I'm almost afraid to say it - but I don't think that the 190 is going to be finished in time. I'm hoping though that with another week or two like we've already put in, we can sort everything out and get things good to go. There is always Christmas leave and I'm hoping I can have work start up ASAP.

Just a bit of a vent...

Mark.

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Tough break Mark. Are you building a man cave in the new house with a modeling center?

It sucks, but it's nothing new I suppose. The Stuka made the move okay, but the guys hired to move us screwed it up once it was at the new house. I was livid when I saw rubber-maid containers stacked on the Airfix and Monogram boxes. The Stuka was in a safe place... but obviously not safe enough. The 190 parts faired well though.

With regards to the man cave, not so much with this place as it's only about 6-8 months of being here (mind you, that's on the weekends when I get down to Shilo, I'll be on course in January up in Winnipeg for 6-8 months). The new house though, it's either going to be a good portion of the basement or an upstairs room, or a whole new work shop. I know now what I want for a setup so I'm going to wait until the new place to build it. After 9 moves in 7 years, my wife and I are finally saying "that's it!" and putting our foot down after the next posting (hopefully on the East coast up in the Halifax area), and we're going to spread our roots.

Mark.

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Thanks Johnsan!

I did get some work done tonight. I did what I wanted to do tonight with the Stuka, and I found a baggie with the 190 engine parts in it. So, I figured, what the heck, let's get started on that. A LOT of work that will be done with this engine. There are a number of things missing, or done wrong as a whole, so, in a nutshell, here's what I did to make the BMW 801 as close to the real deal as possible - work on the cockpit will continue soon, but for now, this is what's being worked on.

Starting out with the basics, the first row of cylinders. The first thing I did was shave off the air duct off the top of the cylinder. You should see an opening on this piece exposing the top of the cylinders. There were covered vents, but that was a later variant of the BMW 801, and I can't think of the model off the top of my head, but IIRC, it wasn't even used on the 190's. Anywho, getting back to it, the push-rods and other works are far too thick, so that was going to get changed. As well, if you ask yourself how the heck is this wired, and where the spark plugs go... the 801 is one heck of an interesting engine. For starters, when you get it, two things to note about this engine - the engine is pretty much all silver (minus a few black details), and 2, the "flat/smooth" parts are all air/cooling ducts wrapped around each individual cylinder. Carrying on, here's the first thing that was done after the tops of the ducts were shaved off... two holes on the front of the first row of cylinders:

7A-1.jpg

These are the two plugs for the front row. The back row is completely different than the front, so one thing at a time I suppose... well, it's not completely different, just quite the opposite. So, more on the plugs in another update when I get to the wiring portion...

On the back side though, a single hole for the fuel injection line:

8A-1.jpg

On the sides of the clyinders, there's these two (and they're mirrored with the other side of the cylinder too). Ones a cap, the other is for the cross member between cylinders - the Airfix kit wont give you these...

9A-1.jpg

The only thing that will be used from the pushrods that come from the kit are the connections between the pushrods and crossmember. I've opened up these holes (as you can see) as they were quite prominent on the 801's. As well, you can see the difference with the brass rod going across. It might seem thin, but in all the reference photo's I have of the 801, this piece was surprisingly thin:

10A-1.jpg

Going back to the cylinders, the crossmembers between cylinders have been put in with the same brass rod and glued in plase:

11A-1.jpg

Next up was adding the front latch for the air ducts. A simple pin running across (the brass rod) with a thin black metal clip that held the duct down:

12A.jpg

And finally, the first of the pieces from the push-rod ring. The reason I'm doing it this way and mounting them on, is that they were all single cast piece, and in the silver it'll be VERY easy to see a glue/part line if you wait till later to glue these on.

13A.jpg

Hope this helps someone out there. Thanks for looking!

Mark.

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Thanks Mike! I'll have more on tonight showing the painted front row of cylinders and push rods along with the front plug wires. Not sure if I'm going to get the front of the crank case done though. We'll see.

Mark.

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Work continued with the front 7...

I went back and added the rubber connectors on the pieces between the cylinders:

DSC04518.jpg

...And then shot it with silver:

DSC04519.jpg

The first of many black details were painted on:

DSC04520.jpg

Once dried, the first wash was applied - dirty, dirty used bird she is:

DSC04522.jpg

Quick bit of dry brushing with various metals (testors steel, aluminum, and silver in various locations):

DSC04523.jpg

The pushrods where then put in... yeah, individually. Each one being a long piece of evergreen rod, and the "rubber" piece at the bottom is brass pipe:

DSC04525.jpg

And what I finished with tonight:

DSC04540.jpg

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I then started the forward crank case. This is the original piece:

DSC04517.jpg

The kit makes absolutely no provisions or parts for the plug wires or ring... so, using brass pipe I threw it in. I also added the "groves" for the bolts:

DSC04527.jpg

From there it was a combination of kit parts and scratch building a bit too...

DSC04531.jpg

Thank using two pieces of thicker solder I added the two lines on each side going down to the ring:

DSC04536.jpg

More later on this... I'll be adding some colour and other items soon, and then it'll be the fun task of wiring. I miss the Jumo 211 for the Stuka... at most, things were only done twice... this bloody radial has me doing everything either 7 times... 14 times... or 28 times. Meh, at least it's not a 2800, right?

Thanks for looking.

Mark.

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Thank you Rick.

Work continued to plug away. Uknown at the time but discovered when I - dare I say it... - looked at the instructions, this portion of the engine assembly is all just "Step 5". Good I thought. I'll finish this step in the instructions, cross it off, and move back to the cockpit as I've now unpacked everything. Made for a long night, but, I'll be back at the cockpit soon enough. I want to get that fuselage finished ASAP. But, back to the build.

Here's what the pieces were after the first shot of paint:

DSC04545.jpg

I mixed in Euro Gray (RLM 02) with a little flat black and dark green/grey to get this colour. I looked on a number of reference pictures and sure, most of the museum pieces are all a lovely silver and gloss black. Boy oh boy, this was definitely not the case. Not a single used, or war time colour photo - or even a good B&W - consistantly showed this on the BMW 801's used on the Fw 190 A-6 through A-7's. So, I tried to match the colour as best as possible.

Key components were then painted the flat black (as per the pictures) and the ignition wire "butts" were added:

DSC04546.jpg

A little bit of dry brushing and some light pastel work overtop of the ring:

DSC04548.jpg

I added missing connectors to the front end that were quite evident in a number of pictures, as well as provisions for the two hoses that connect up near the bottom:

DSC04551.jpg

DSC04552.jpg

Those two hoses were then added:

DSC04554.jpg

Right now the front end received a bit of a dark wash to add depth around the ring. Once dried, I'll add the front 14 spark plug wires, and then the rear 7 fuel injection lines. After that, it's back to the cockpit.

Thanks for looking!

Mark.

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Work moved quickly here with the last bits of "Step 5" finished. Added the front 7's spark plug wires (the back 7's will get theirs once they are ready to be mounted to the front 7). I opted to leave the fuel injection lines out for now, no need to leave wires hanging. I also added a couple of ID plates to the front, as well as the number '128' to the case. I saw a lot of pictures with a lot of different numbers both "chalked on" and sprayed on. I found a number of A-7's undergoing maintenance, and wherever I could find that same area, there were usually 3-5 digit numbers. The numbers put on are a bit worn, as the whole goal is to get a worn look. The spark plug wires themselves are just 4 thin strands out of some extra speaker wire, tightly twisted to give the look of the silver braided lines found on the BMW 801.

Well, less chatting, more pictures:

DSC04562.jpg

DSC04561.jpg

DSC04560.jpg

DSC04559.jpg

DSC04558.jpg

With step 5 complteted, there are only a couple of small things left on this piece - the BMW logo on the bottom, and the wiring going back. All that though, and the rest of the engine will be done up once things in the rest of the build are complete. I'm starting to feel the pinch of the clock...

Next up will hopefully be continuing with the cockpit build. The RH console, rest of the floor parts, etc., etc., etc... but the RH console first.

Thanks for looking!

Mark.

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