Curt B Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 (edited) Hi All, I searched for threads or posts on this topic but didn’t find what I was looking for, so... I am getting close to needing to install the antenna on my 1/48 Eduard FW190 A-4, and despite knowing that the A-4 variant has the antenna mount on the tail and has the distinctive ‘T’ antenna, I haven’t found any other details. I understand that the antenna was ‘slack’ even at full tension. Is that true? Does anyone know precisely where the T part of the antenna enters the fuselage? What does the intersection of the main length of the antenna and the T section look like? And, lastly, what does the mount on the canopy look like? I’ve read that there was some type of pulley system for maintaining some level of tension, but that seems to be contrary to the slack antenna concept. Are the antenna lines supposed to be ‘slack’ when the canopy is open, (I am doing my build with an open canopy)? I’ve never seen any photos or even drawings on any such tension mechanism, so any help would be GREATLY appreciated!! I am going to use EZ Line for the antennas, if anyone has any thoughts for me. Edited October 13, 2019 by Curt B Spelling Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Curt B Posted October 14, 2019 Author Share Posted October 14, 2019 Oh....as long as I'm talking about an Eduard kit, I'm wondering if any of you had any problems with the kit decals for this plane? I built the Eduard Spitfire VIII first, and the decals for THAT plane were ideal, thin, and laid down great and went down over rivets and panel lines with some 'regular grade' Tamiya decal solution. I used everything I had on the FW190 kit decals, and they just SUCKED! Those decals, particularly the smaller ones, would not be compelled to lay down well no matter what I did. Oddly, the larger crosses, etc., seemed to tay down well, without any significant silvering, but the smaller ones were completely impervious to any setting solutions, and they would not lay down themselves AT ALL. It seems Eduard must have changed their decal methods between these two kits, and I'm hoping that the FW190 was the outlier, as I'd really want to replace any future kit decls with aftermarket if I run into this problem again. However, while I'm sure that he big markings can be found for an FW190, I'm not sure that the stencil decals, which were the problem ones for me, are available aftermarket. Anyone else encounter these problems? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jester292 Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Was the 190A-4 the ProfiPACK kit or weekend kit? ProfiPACK kits have two decal sheets in the 190 kits. Larger markings of units and balkenkreuzes and a smaller stencils sheet. The large sheet is printed by Cartograf and the smaller sheet by Eduard in house. Hence the larger decals go down with a bit more finesse. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jester292 Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Hi All, I searched for threads or posts on this topic but didn’t find what I was looking for, so... I am getting close to needing to install the antenna on my 1/48 Eduard FW190 A-4, and despite knowing that the A-4 variant has the antenna mount on the tail and has the distinctive ‘T’ antenna, I haven’t found any other details. I understand that the antenna was ‘slack’ even at full tension. Is that true? Does anyone know precisely where the T part of the antenna enters the fuselage? What does the intersection of the main length of the antenna and the T section look like? And, lastly, what does the mount on the canopy look like? I’ve read that there was some type of pulley system for maintaining some level of tension, but that seems to be contrary to the slack antenna concept. Are the antenna lines supposed to be ‘slack’ when the canopy is open, (I am doing my build with an open canopy)? I’ve never seen any photos or even drawings on any such tension mechanism, so any help would be GREATLY appreciated!! I am going to use EZ Line for the antennas, if anyone has any thoughts for me. I’d keep the tension on the antenna from canopy to tail per this photo: http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/fw190/fw190a4.html Later versions seem to have lost the tensioner which allows the wire to hang down over the fuselage. I couldn’t say which versions have the tension mechanism and which ones don’t. I just started browsing photos and came across that A-4. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Curt B Posted October 14, 2019 Author Share Posted October 14, 2019 Was the 190A-4 the ProfiPACK kit or weekend kit? ProfiPACK kits have two decal sheets in the 190 kits. Larger markings of units and balkenkreuzes and a smaller stencils sheet. The large sheet is printed by Cartograf and the smaller sheet by Eduard in house. Hence the larger decals go down with a bit more finesse. Ah, excellent point! My kit was the ProfiPACK, so that explains a lot. I must be getting old. I would have noticed that a few years back...thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Curt B Posted October 14, 2019 Author Share Posted October 14, 2019 I’d keep the tension on the antenna from canopy to tail per this photo: http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/fw190/fw190a4.html Later versions seem to have lost the tensioner which allows the wire to hang down over the fuselage. I couldn’t say which versions have the tension mechanism and which ones don’t. I just started browsing photos and came across that A-4. Thank you, sir. While I’m interested in the actual mechanism, that detail may not have been captured anywhere. I’ll just try to model the antenna with tension... and hopefully won’t mess it up too badly! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
seawinder Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Thank you, sir. While I’m interested in the actual mechanism, that detail may not have been captured anywhere. I’ll just try to model the antenna with tension... and hopefully won’t mess it up too badly! There used to be at least one diagram of the pulley system posted to some forum somewhere, but I'm not finding it anywhere online at this point. In any case, there were two pulleys, one in the small fairing on top of the canopy, the other under the hood at the rear of the canopy. The wire went around the pulley on top, through a slot in the support brace, back to and around the rear pulley, forward to an attachment point on the rear deck, and then down to the radio(s) in the fuselage. The pulley system was not fitted to the later blown hood that appeared during A-8 production, so antennas on those planes would be slack when the canopy was opened. There is definite documentation of some A-8s and F-8 fitted with the flat sided canopy for which the pulley system was either removed or not installed, but basically any A-4 would have had the pulleys and therefore a taut antenna with the canopy open. As to the T wire, there doesn't appear to be any lump or fitting where it joins the main wire, so you'd probably want simply to butt join it with CA. The T wire entered the fuselage slightly to the right of center. There are plenty of diagrams to be found showing its position fore-and-aft. Here's a link to one. Scroll down to the A-4 diagram: https://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/11/stuff_eng_fw190_01.htm p.s. I found several pics I'd saved some years ago. I've got to upload them to my web hosting site before I can post them here. I'll do so ASAP. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
seawinder Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Okay, here are some pics. First some photos and a diagram of the pulley system: ... and a couple of A-4 photos showing the small conical things attached to the main antenna wire. Not sure exactly what their function was — I'm sure others will know more. In the top photo, you can make out the kink in the main wire caused by the tension from the T wire: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Curt B Posted October 14, 2019 Author Share Posted October 14, 2019 WOW!!! FANTASTIC!!!! This is the kind of stuff I had been hoping to find all along, but couldn’t find ANYWHERE!! SPECTACULAR, kind sir! Thank you SO VERY MUCH!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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