Get the 'sit' of your Fw 190 right..

An SG 3 Fw 190 A. Click to view in full screen mode. (ECPA-D KBZ 24 F327)

Most modellers know what a Focke Wulf 190 looks like, don't they? Why then do they go and do this? Beautifully finished in the makings of the 'Eismeer' Geschwader JG 5, but with nothing done about the ridiculously elevated stance. I don't even blame the modeller here really, this is down to the kit, probably another Eduard iteration.... 

Perhaps the thought of surgery on the gear legs was too awful to contemplate, perhaps the modeller had to get the kit finished for the table (photo taken at the IPMS West Norfolk show back in June) and put it together OOTB. Not only do the gear legs have to be shortened, they have to be raked forwards and obviously inwards. Looking down on the wing from directly above you should be able to see the wheels ahead of the wing leading edge. Yet model companies - especially Eduard - continue to produce Fw  (and Me 109) undercarriage under no compression - as if you ever see them like this ..anywhere.. All you really have to do is take a mm or three out of the leg and glue it back together, perhaps inserting a small metal pin. Easy enough to do using a hand-twist micro drill...If you need to slightly 're-position' the leg in the well to rake it forward use a small circular spare part, a 'ring' to locate it..the sort of part you attach to the back of a prop to stop it falling out of an engine. Small enough to sit in the gear well and take an undercarriage leg.

 Here's another recent completion of the Airfix 1:72 Fw 190. I used the EagleCals JG 5 Eismeer decal sheet. Obviously gear leg 'surgery' is a little less daunting in the smaller scale and probably isn't really necessary on the Airfix.. but I did it anyway...

    

Above; Fw 190 with Stammkennzeichen (factory radio code) TI+DQ was an Fw 190 A-1. In the sequential block allocations used by the Luftwaffe, this specific four-letter registration code was painted on the fuselage sides of the early A-series production model during its factory and acceptance testing phases before being assigned to a combat unit. It is part of the same factory code sequence that included nearby prototypes and early testing blocks, such as the TI+IG and TI+IH codes used on the Jumo-engined high-altitude Fw 190 V-prototypes. Note in this view the inward 'cant' of the starboard leg in particular. 

Below; A few more Focke Wulfs seen at the same IPMS show - what do you think about the 'sit' on these ?

At the ECPA-D photographic archive in Paris, the 'fonds allemand' (German collection)  has a host of PK images taken during early 1944 in the East. This image shows a Focke Wulf Fw 190 F-8 of SG 3 being bombed up. Click on the image to view in full screen mode. From the KBZ 240 files.