1:72 MPM Fw 189 C/V-6

Luftwaffe enthusiasts spend a lot of their time (I would imagine) lauding the brilliant designs and innovative engineering of much of the Third Reich's aeronautical output. Only there were a lot of 'duds' among them. And, despite the fearsome MPM box-top art, the Fw 189 C/V-6 was just one of these.

First flown in early 1940 the C/V-6 was the 'ground-attack' variant of the Fw 189 with the original fuselage nacelle replaced with an armour-plated 'nacelle-type' structure for a pilot and rear gunner. Both crew members had strictly limited views outside of the machine. The aircraft was powered by two Argus inverted V-12's of around 460 hp each. By way of comparison, the Hs 129 had two 691 hp Gnome-Rhone engines, while on the Allied side, for example, the Bristol Beaufighter and Douglas A-20 both had twin engines of 1600 hp. That the Germans would design aircraft around the Argus V-12s and French-made Gnome-Rhone radials obviously indicates the limitations of their aircraft engine production. The Germans did not have high-horsepower engines available in the quantities the Allies could produce. The smaller engines resulted in severely under-powered machines but did at least have the advantage of being of small profile. The Germans did of course have warehouses full of captured engine stocks that they wanted to use, some obviously state-of-the-art… in 1937. This resulted in many unsupportable design compromises..

The Fw 189 C/V-6 was entered into the competition for a new ground-attack/close-support aircraft that the Henschel Hs129 eventually won, the unconventional Blohm-und-Voss Bv 141 having already been eliminated due to its unproven asymmetrical form. Two prototypes of the -C were manufactured for testing, the V-1b and the V-6. The V-6 was designed to be armed with two MG FF 20mm cannon and four MG 17's firing forward and a twin MG 81Z for the rear gunner. The rear armament was optimistic at best given the gunner's restricted field of vision, especially when compared to the original Fw 189.

The kit was a straight forward build albeit rather lacking in detail - no gun barrels (I used Master), no bombs or racks - which I intend adding from an old Airfix Fw 190 kit. And the glazed parts of the cabin - except for the windscreen- were solid and had to be cut out.  The best part of the build for me was exhuming some old unused Aeromaster 'Warbirds' acrylics from the back of the paint 'stash' which I used for the 70/71 segmented finish - they went on beautifully, despite being, what, 30-40 years old?! Whatever happened to these paints and why has no-one kept the formula in production?