Eduard 1:48 Fw 190 A - what a dog!

About 13 years ago now, the Czech model concern Eduard released their first new-tool Fw 190 in 48th scale. I've avoided it - until now. Recently I (perhaps rather naively) imagined that I could complete it to a reasonable level and call myself a 'real' modeller! I'm working on one at the moment and I can safely say that it will easily make it into my listing of the Top 10 worst model kits ever released. In fact I'd go further. It is quite possibly the worst kit ever manufactured and sold to the general public. Of course some people on model forums and in blogs actually maintain that they have built it - to which I would say, not as the model company intended you haven't! There are a whole range of fit issues with it - from the small 'triangular' part that you must align and glue behind the wheel well spar to the wing root gun bays and covers, the upper cowl MG mounts -far far too large- which clip into the upper wheel well part and are supposed to represent the ejector chutes to the horrible horrible (yes, twice for emphasis..) engine assembly - so bad Eduard provide a 'template' for you to align the individual exhaust stacks to the multi-part cowling. I could not even get the wings together properly. To get anywhere with the kit you must immediately deviate from the instructions - glue the fuselage halves together and then slide the completed cockpit in from underneath - the fuselage halves are so thin and flexible doing it this way is fairly straight forward.Obviously checking all the while that the forward cowl cover and windscreen will fit without leaving a 'lip'. The way the instrument panel is supposed to be located - 'clipping' into the coaming - is dreadful, especially as the coaming doesn't even touch the sides but there is not a lot that can be done here, aside from super glue and clamp. That's about as far as I've got with the kit at the moment and while I never bin anything, I'm seriously contemplating doing it with this one. I'd been saving this one up for a long time as well - 13 years. I've read all the reviews, collected all the advice, from Fridell and others. Even Eduard themselves issued a page of guidance to 'help' modellers with the build - and it still didn't work for me. Do they not perform test builds at the factory before unleashing stuff like this into the modelling world? Evidently not as they managed to completely screw up the first new-tool '48th' scale Me 109s they released as well. No wonder both their 48th scale 109s and Fw 190s had to be re-tooled!

This is part 1 of this build report - who knows whether there will be a part 2.   

yes, if you want everything 'opened up' just follow the instructions. But those cowl gun mounts will look rather ridiculous if you do leave them alone. Part I21 is tricky (see image above). There is no indication at all where this 'sits' - a bit of trial and error and test fitting with the cowl cover and windscreen is the only way to do it, otherwise it end up far too high as well.. 

Below; Even if you do use the cowl part closed up then you will need to retain the bulkhead I4 onto which your suitably amended magazines will still need to be mounted. The engine mount struts fit onto this part as well but I'm not feeling at all confident that the engine assembly will 'work' as per the instructions. Well the wings are assembled and some filler at the roots will be required. The MGs have to be inserted into the bays before the top wing goes on, which, once again, is not ideal!

Build review IBG Models Fw 190 Dora-9 (Cottbus, early production) - finished

 

 ..first completion of 2022. IBG Models Fw 190 Dora-9. Great kit, loads of detail and options and fit was good for such a 'complex' kit. Finished as 'black 3' of 6./JG 26 with Xtracolor enamels.

A few views of the build, including the detailed cockpit and engine

.. building the IBG Models Fw 190 Dora-9 - in-box review/build Part 2

 

 The first new-tool IBG Models Fw 190 Dora-9 arrived a few weeks ago. The D-15 is released as well. I assume the D-11/13 is due later. A quick look at what's in the box. 

 

 

Part 1 of this build was posted on FalkeEins Luftwaffe blog here

The first half of the build involves construction of the cockpit and engine and the installation of these two components/elements into the fuselage halves.  Parts are so finely molded that this is all achieved in relatively straight forward steps. The trickiest stage of the build is removing the parts from the sprues and cleaning them up.

Once the fuselage halves are together the lower wing part clips into place and the firewall spar forms the back wall of the undercarriage wells. Again alignment is pretty hassle free. 

Stage 14 shows how the wells are built up with the photo etch parts, certainly the trickiest part of the build for me. 

A view of the completed wells which shows the 'see-through' effect as on the actual machine. The finely molded engine is more or less visible here, although the upper cowl MGs are not.

Prepping the completed build for painting. A little PPP required in the wing join. The control surfaces are all separate parts. There is a choice of four different canopy styles in the box - or are two of them spares?

The defence of the Reich bands are painted and masked and the RLM 76 applied (Xtracolor enamels) This view shows the superb rivet detail on the main parts -  the finish achieved by the mold maker. is superlative.  The flash has obliterated the pre-shading. 

Modelling nostalgia with the vintage FROG Focke Wulf Ta 152 H

I guess for those of us 'oldies' quite a lot of what we do in modelling nowadays is driven by 'nostalgia'. It has become something of trend on forums everywhere to revisit some of those golden oldies from the 1970s and 1980s; ‘a kit you built as a kid’ group build was running a while back on Britmodeller. I more or less remember tackling all of those kits in their day. Mainly because there wasn’t any internet and whatever the local newsagents or Woolworths had in stock was what you built back then. Although I always remember 'Airfix Magazine' arriving through the letterbox on Saturday morning each month and devoured Alan Hall's and Bryan Philpott's model builds - especially those Ju 88 nightfighter and Bf 109 conversions from Bryan Philpott. Of course parents and relatives were always ready to buy you a model kit since no doubt they saw it as a constructive way for a child to spent his time, same with books. No doubt one of the reasons why I've ended up with a huge collection of books ..and unbuilt models. I well recall building the Airfix 24 scale Harrier in about a fortnight aged twelve years old. I doubt if I could do anything like that today!

Still living the nostalgia. I saw a lovely thread elsewhere on BM where the modeller stated that what he liked doing was simply building what was in the box. No additions or new parts or vacuform canopy or after-market of any description - you just build what is in the box. Just to remind yourself how much fun it is not worrying about washes, detailing and all the other things we now tend to have to have these days in our modelling lives, living in an era of 'super' kits and hi-grade aftermarket.

But Airfix was the staple of those days and in the last couple of years before other interests took me away from the hobby around 1978/79 my passion was building Luftwaffe kits. This coincided with the discovery in the local library of William Green's massive "Warplanes of the Third Reich" book. It was a book full of exotic machines and far too valuable to be loaned out of the library - you were allowed to study it in a special room and I still recall spending at least one set of summer holidays taking copious notes from it into a small notepad - aged about 11 or 12. Well-known author and Classic Publications founder Robert Forsyth told me that his interest in the Luftwaffe was stimulated in similar fashion - but he actually got his mum to buy him a copy of 'Warplanes..' ! Who knew then that this huge tome would be so decried nowadays by the Experten.

Frog models featured a lot in my youth - their Blackburn Shark and Barracuda kits I remember well. One of the vintage kits I built back then was the 1970-release of the FROG Ta 152. I would have been around 10 or 11 when I first built this kit. Of course this original FROG kit has been re-boxed by Revell and is still easily available. I built mine a while ago but having a box of Eduard Fw 190 spare bits to hand I have been 'inspired' to do up my old FROG model.

This is the finished model. I've tried to update it a little. The engine cowl has had plastic card gill's added and a etch grille in the top section. The otherwise completely smooth nose and upper fuselage parts have been scribed and the canopy/late war head armour and wheels are Eduard left-overs. A gear bay has been built and gear retraction jacks added. along with foot-step and a FuG aerial. There is even a half-decent cockpit tub with side panels, instrument panel and control column in there. The armament has been replaced with metal rod. Aerial wire from GS-Hypo Cement - a new tube so very fine, barely visible. Decals from the Kagero "JG 301" Air Miniatures book - 'green 4' is the Stab./JG 301 machine supposedly flown by Walter Loos in the last few weeks of the war. Paints are Xtracolor and Colourcoats enamels - reading my reference it would appear that there is no known camouflage 'plan' for the Ta 152, but mine is taken from the Eagle Monarch book on the type, who incidentally don't feature Loos' 'green 4' but do illustrate an all-red machine, which in my view was probably an 'invention' of the vets for a little 'fun' at some-one's expense ...

"highly detailed and accurate model built for sale " - built models sold on Ebay

There are a fair amount of built models offered for 'sale and display' on ebay. I'm not sure I could ever part with some of mine like that but there are plenty of people who have no qualms about offering their latest 'creations' for sale.  At first sight this one is neatly finished for example;

  " ..A beautifully finished 1/72 scale model of the Focke Wulf FW 190 A-4 as flown Maj. Walter Dahl, Stab/JG 300, Jüterbog, Germany, December 1944 with some light weathering to depict in service use..."

"...its built to a high standard.... Guns are realistically hollow and the propeller rotates by simply blowing gently on it!..Compare this to many others with crude finishes and poor paintwork currently on eBay...."


Unlike this guy I feel a little uncomfortable about criticising the work of other modellers. But, well, I can't help but point out that this is the Zvesda snap-fit Fw 190 A-4 kit as the modeller acknowledges himself. Walter Dahl was of course NOT flying an A-4 in December 1944  but an A-8 with the bulged cowl MG cover (..larger calibre guns of course....) and with the fuselage extension of the later Fw 190 variants. ( I guess we won't mention the absence of the outer wing MGs, the upper wing bulges, the grossly over-scale head armour and support, the 'unpainted' cooling gills of the BMW radial etc etc..).

Of course as an Experte (note spelling and capital letter..) I can't help but 'whine' about details like this. And while the model sales pitch above could be seen as no more 'accurate' than plenty of others out there on ebay the model sold for £99 ! ....so good luck to him I guess. And here's one of those examples referred to above...which incidentally is posted up by Ebay at the bottom of the 'Dahl' modeller's own auction! ..That must be irksome! At least the write-up tells it like it is ...

"...A 1/72 scale assembled painted model of a Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft...

Assembly has imperfections, a ridge along the fuselage joint, some glue marks, undercarriage is off upright. The prop turns and is a loose fit. Paintwork has some marks on the underside.

Except for the central bomb, the aircraft appears to be complete, although some smaller details may be snapped off/not present...."


My own build of the Zvezda Fw 190 A-4 'snap-fit' kit is here

Eduard & Revell new issue Fw 190 A-8/R2

Box-art by Piotr Forkasiewicz for the new Eduard 1/48 scale ProfiPACK Edition kit of German fighter aircraft Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8/R2 (cat. no. 82145) released June 2019. Markings research by this blog for Eduard. Hans Weik's machine pictured on the 18 July 1944 Memmingen airfield raid..

New issue 32nd scale Sturmbock A-8/R2 from Revell. Unbeatable value for the money. Markings research assistance to Andreas Klein for Revell provided by this blog.

Hobbyboss Fw 190 V-18 build in box review (3)

Despite my gross 'hamfistedness' in a number of areas my Hobbyboss Fw 190 V-18 is almost at the decaling stage...nice kit, albeit somewhat inaccurate in a number of areas, especially the cockpit which appears to be a little over-size and rather toy-like..

..and Gary 'old Sarge' - if you're reading this, thanks very much for the comments, really appreciate you dropping in here regularly. I'm writing this here since I don't seem to be able to comment on your excellent blog posts on your blog. Unfortunately I don't know why, but rest assured I always drop in and would suggest anyone else reading this and not familiar with Gary's 'old sarges aircraft' go straight over to his bit of the internet here

Hobbyboss Fw 190 V-18 build in box review (2), stash additions Tamiya Bf 109 G-6, Eduard Royal Class Fw 190 early versions - 48th

Still not really convinced by the Hobbyboss V-18, but it has assembled easily enough and finishing is underway. First coat of Humbrol's 'new' RLM 02 - very thin poor coverage, needs a second coat. And while I had the RLM 66 in the airbrush I started painting the cockpit parts of two fantastic new additions to the stash - the Eduard Royal Class Fw 190 'early versions' and the Tamiya Bf 109 G-6.

 Yes, the new Tamiya Bf 109 G-6 was about twice the price of an Eduard 48th 109, but then the pound sterling isn't worth much against any of these currencies nowadays! Worth getting though - it really does appear to be on another level in terms of plastic kit 'engineering' as you can see from the youtube build below (via 'Andy's hobby Shop')