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Kit:
Eduard 1/48 Focke-Wulf Fw 190-A8 8173
Construction:
I Came across this
great kit when I was checking out the Eduard site one night. After viewing the
finished kit on the site I knew I had to have one. I sent Craig at
Aerowroks an E-mail the same night and put an order in for this kit. When the
kit arrived I inspected the sprues, which contained many little fiddly bits.
The Kit contains two fuselage halves, upper wings, two propellers, wheels
engine cowlings and canopies for construction of two different
types of Fw-190. Eduard has included the BMW801D piston engine as well as
machine gun and cannon bays to be positioned open or closed, also included
in the kit are two different cockpit control panel with the choice of
plastic or PE. The amount of detail on this kit is excellent and there in no
need for addition parts to enhance the kit... well maybe the engine but not
much. I did however find the construction of the kit a little tricky because of
the fiddly parts, cockpit, 13mm machine guns, engine, exhaust and engine bay
where Eduard has supplied lots of little parts to make the model a little more
realistic. Not as hard as working with a resin detail set though, the rest of
the kit went together really well, the only problem as I started the kit
was which type of Fw-190 was I going to build? I looked through the great colour
Instruction book that Eduard has supplied with the kit for what option
markings I wanted to build A,B,C and D. The decals of option A appealed to
me which was an earlier version Fw-190. Now I could continue with building the
kit. The kit didn't required much putty with the construction everything
seemed to fall into place one way or an other. I had a little trouble with the
engine cowling not lining up, I wanted to leave one side of the engine cowling
open but doing this seemed to have an effect on the other two pieces of the engine
cowling not lining up. I found this to be the most frustrating part of the
construction especially since the kit parts had been painted. I had to use some
putty in the end to fill a gap left in the closed side of the cowling, I later
assumed that the cowling may have been out of alignment due to the 13mm machine
bay which must have moved out of position after gluing.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Painting:
Before painting I needed to get
the appropriate colours, I sent Craig at Aeroworks an another E-mail to
order the RML Model Master paints, the colours used were of cause Model
Master RML76, 75 and RML83. The paint scheme didn't turn out exactly how it
was supposed to, but it was close enough. Once the colours were dry, I coated the
entire kit in gloss paint ready for the decals.
Finish:
I chose the decals
that would represent Fw-190 flown by Walther Dahl commander of JG 300 Juterborg
Air Base December 1944. After the decals were applied I gave the kit another
coat of clear, when the clear was dry I followed up with a pastel wash to
highlight the panel lines, and finished of with a matt cote of clear. All that
was left was to add exhaust stains, I used the Tamiya weathering set
for the final wear and tear look with a light matt cote to seal them in. It was
time to finish adding the landing gear, propeller, drop tank and cockpit window,
the Fw-190 was now finished. I did however forget to place the two outer wing
cannons on. Overall great kit to build with great detail so much in fact I got
Craig to order me the Eduard BF-110E 8203 which also looks great.
Extras:
I threw together this quick
diorama using a piece of scrap wooden board, plaster of Paris, some old
wooden pegs for sleepers and fake grass. The tank is the 1/48 Tamiya
Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf.l item No 32524 (series 24) which was a joy to build.
I'm
not really into military ground forces, but it does make a change from planes,
and Tamiya has finally released some great 1/48 scale military miniature items
which I'm starting to collect. The tank is made up to represent Hermann Goring
Panzer Regiment 1942 Germany. I brought the Tamiya German
aircraft power supply unit and Kettenkraftrad item No 32533 (series 33) from
Craig, which adds a nice touch to the model plane. It comes with
Kettenkraftrad, power supply trailer 2x 45 litre drums 2x figures and
a tool box. I also added the Tamiya German Infantry on manoeuvres
Item No 32530 (series 30). Lots of detail with all the fiddly bits
that go together to make the German solders back packs etc, maybe to
much detail, and the rest of the figures are from the ICM 1/48 German
Luftwaffe pilots and ground personnel item 48082. Maybe the diorama is a little
over crowed but what the hay nothing is fixed down just throw a few things into
the mix.
Thanks:
To Craig at Aerowork
for getting me in the Eduard kit. Craig can be reached at aeroworks@iprimus.com.au for
any quires.
To Steve Bamford
Alan
Click on
images below to see larger images
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