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Focke Wulf added many improvements to its
initial ducted spinner prototype of the FW190. Main characteristics of
the 190 A8 was its small frontal area, cooling for the BMW801-D2 being
effected by the addition of a fan ahead of the engine, which was rotated by
the propeller. Its light weight and high performance made it a favourite
amongst pilots, and its large number of easily accessible panels made it
simple to service. Armament for the A8-R1 included MG151 cannons in each wing,
and two MG131 machine guns in the forward part of the upper fuselage.
The WB151/20 gunpack mounted under each wing was the reason for its
designation as the R1.
The Kit:
The kit is moulded in light gray, with almost no
flash and sink holes. Construction was straight-forward and simple, there
being a choice between the A6 and the A8 versions, and in the R1 configuration. I
chose to cut the flaps out and show it in the open position, also the
elevator. I decided to scratch build the upper fuselage gun bay.
Construction:
The building part was easy enough, some parts
are a bit thick, but nothing that can't be settled by light sanding. The
panel lines are beautifully given with raised rivetting.
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With a lot of help from Wayne Bowman, I was
able to obtain sufficiently detailed pictures of the gun bay. Thanks
Wayne! The bay was detailed with scrap plastic and some electrical
wiring. As far as was possible, I tried to detail the rear of the
engine, so that there would be no void below the guns. It was
getting really cramped down there, so I've just added some vague bits of
plastic to make it look like the rear of the engine.
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The blades
of the cooling fan had to be sanded; I effectively decreased the radius of the
fan, for it to freely rotate on the prop shaft. The flaps were cut out from
the lower wing section, and the interior of both the flap and the wing was
detailed with stapler pins placed edge on. The elevator was also dropped.
The landing gear is represented pretty
decently in the kit, though the well should've been deeper.
Painting and Decaling:
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Frankly, the painting did not come off too well.
I sprayed the black green, and then hand-painted the dark green. I used
Humbrol for all the camouflage. The decals were really sad; they almost tore off each time I
touched them. Finally, the fuselage crosses settled on, and
I painted the '5' by making a mask of the '5' on masking tape, and then
painting on the mask. The spinner stripe was done similarly. I made
masks for the Swastika too, but they did not come out as well as
expected. The overwing crosses had to be cut out as each 'L' shape and
individually placed; done to avoid any silvering.
A bomb and a tank were given, but I just
added an empty ETC501 rack as well as the underwing gun pack.
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Weathering and Diorama:
Various tried and tested methods seen on the pages
of ARC were employed in staining the plane and weathering it. I still
find it the best to brush on slightly brownish dirty thinner using a 000
brush. Never throw away all that brush-cleaned thinner. They're
invaluable in these cases. As for the dio, I just found an old cement floor tile, stained it with thinner and
thinned black, to give it a tarmac-like look. I scribed out slabs with a steel
scalpel, and ran black as well as graphite powder through it.
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The oil
stains were added by dropping thin gloss black onto the slab from a height. I
then cut up some steel wool; spread glue over the slab, and sprinkled
the steel wool onto it. I then sprayed the steel wool in various shades
of green and yellow-green, to give it a grassy look. I used Fabric
paints for this, modelling paints are either too glossy or too
dull. I attempted to add some moss between the slabs, by
sprinkling fine green powder on a spot of glue. I made some drums
out of paper and added some thick stretched-sprue around it for those
ridges seen on drums. I also made an access ladder and some wheel
chocks from stretched sprue.
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Overall
a cheap and easy to build kit, very enjoyable and a very aggressive-looking
subject. My second favourite- after the Spit of course!
Thanks again to Mr. Raman for these awesome
photographs taken with his Minolta SLR, and to Wayne Bowman for all the
detailing help.
Sushanth
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