On the Bench - GWH FW-189 Nacht Jager

Well, I don't always build armour, for me if it is plastic, I will build it, well almost.  Recently I had pulled the Great Wall Hobby German FW-189A-1 out of my stash.  I got this kit for Christmas a couple years back, and thought it would be a good time to start it.

With the huge amount of "glass" on the cockpit, I decided to add the Eduard coloured photo-etched set to the cockpit.  The Eduard set provided pre-coloured seat belts and dash panels, as well as some other fine detail.  The set is a nice addition to the GWH kit, you just have to watch your painting order, as you don't want to add the pre-coloured PE prior to airbrushing the interior.  I painted the interior with Vallejo Green-Gray, and weathering it with some black washes and drybrushing of  lighter colors, including steel.

With this amount of canopy glass, you want to be careful gluing it on as to not mark it up.  I used G-S Hypo Cement for this task, as it is strong, and dries crystal clear.

As you can see, there is plenty to look through and see inside.  The assembly of the interior went very well, no real fit issues.

With the cockpit assemble, time to move onto the wings, which don't go together as easily.  There is a bit of a fit issue there.  Note, the landing gear, bay, engines will have to be built and assemble prior to building the wings and fuselages.  There is nothing major in this assembly that a little putty won't fix.

A nice touch for this model, is the detailed engines, including PE plug wires.  A definite reason to leave the engine panels open.

The engine was airbrushed Vallejo Air Steel, and washed with Mig Cold Grey and different shade of black.  The exhaust header was done with  the True Earth Burnt Out package, using Burnt Metal and the burnt Rust colours.

So time to work on the seams and get the rest of the cool looking aircraft together.