Eduard FW-190A5 Complete

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Eduard 1/48 FW-190A5 “Weekender”
OOB:
Xtracrylic, Gunze Mr. Hobby, Polly Scale, Testors MM, Vallejo Model Color

This is my fourth 48 scale aircraft - three have been made by Eduard. (P-39Q and LA-7 are around somewhere.) Obviously four models doesn’t make me an expert, but I am forming an opinion of Eduard and of serious aircraft modeling.

Eduard has developed a good reputation for value, accuracy, good detail and neat perks like cockpit masks and PE. Part count is pretty high for a plane too. Sounds good. They’re also extremely demanding. I don’t know what it is about Eastern European kits, but if there is an indirect way of doing something when a direct way is available, they’ll take the hard way. It’s no accident that Eduard fans tend to be good modelers. Someone down the food chain could really have his hands full. (Must say that both the others were easier builds than this one - I’d even say the P39 was pretty direct.) The idea here was to give the modeler a full engine and a gun bay. For reasons best left to Eduard, the engine is not meant to be revealed - the gun bay is. Phil Foley on ProModeller did some simple surgery to show the engine and left the guns open too. I wanted it buttoned. I don’t have a 48 scale FW-190 and it’s a drop-dead lovely plane. I wanted this one with the cleanest possible lines - no drop tanks/bombs, closed cockpit and certainly no engine. To give the modeler the detail needed Eduard came up with a very complex set of frames inside the fuselage and between the wings. If assembled exactly correctly, things will come together. (Or maybe not. I do not think the wings could be assembled without major surgery to the parts required. Even Phil Foley described that part of the build as “something of a nightmare.”) I moved slowly and dry-fit every major piece. The cockpit went in with little trouble. But the trouble with Eduard’s design is that if you make a mistake in step 3, you might get kicked in the shin on step 10. In other words, everything can look right, but still be off. And not being an expert, I was off. Now, had I decided to leave the gun bay open, there would have been no problem. Had I opened the engine, there would have been no problem. (Except for the very intricate exhaust - absolutely bewildering.) Trying to button everything up? Not a chance. Not until I used my Dremel with it’s coarsest grinder and cut hunks out of the gun bay and exhaust. Ironically, the engine, at the end of all of this framework, fit in nicely. Eventually, I got everything together: the landing gear was nicely done.

No neat LW greays and blues here. The “Weekender” came with an Eastern Front camo pattern unlike any I’d ever seen. It was over my head realistically, but I decided to try it anyway. (Going to present this kit along with a LA-5 in the Eastern Front Group Build, so I wanted a plane ready to fly over Kursk - that meant some kind of green.) What made it tough was that the tan color is not an integral part of the camo, but was painted over the standard two green upper surface. (Standard light blue underneath.) That meant a good part of the paint job was really a kind of mottle. So if there tan looks feathered over the greens, it’s supposed to.

You might have noticed that there are lots of paint brands employed. I’ve decided that I like modeling and that I need to learn paints. So I’ve collected Vallejo, Xtracrylix, to go along with my lovely Polly Scale. Naturally, I’ve got 20 jars of Tamiya, and several Gunze Mr. Color: but I wanted to try these others. Included were some Mr. Hobby Gunze, which are different paints indeed. I wasn’t sure what to do about the RLM, so I got RLM 70, 71 and 75 (dark green, black green, light blue) from Model Master. I checked a lot of colors and went with Mr. Hobby dark green, Xtracrylix green (which is RLM 65 I think) and kept the MM light blue. For the tan, I used Vallejo Model Color Desert Sand. I should note briefly that I made extensive use of artist acrylic mediums. More on this after my next kit which I’m going to try entirely with artist acrylics. For the moment, let me say that if you mess with the chemistry of the paint things happen. I put some hardener and extender in MM RLM 75 and the finish was rock hard - no chance of anything pulling off. Indeed, every paint laid down beautifully. Zero problems with clogging even with the tan which was done at very low PSI. The only down side was that you got a satin finish across the board - almost looked like enamel. But after using Tamiya flat base and Future at 3:1 I came out with a very flat finish. That was good because the colors on the plane were in too great of a contrast and needed toning down. Prior to weathering, I hand painted a couple of coats of Future and had what I thought was a nice smooth finish. Not sure if it was my experimenting, or bad luck - I did have trouble with Eduard’s normally terrific decals. (Wrecked a couple. The replacement decals worked very well. Not sure what went wrong. Next time I’m going to give the decal area a going over with 4000 grit sanding sponge - like you would with Alclad.)

I simplified weathering. It has passed my mind that there may be too much technique for its own sake on this subject. Normally, I would have been pulling out oil (or enamel) filters, washes, dry brushing and all followed by pigments. Instead, I did what some people do on ProModeller. First post shaded with Polly Scale Grimy Black (the two greatest colors on earth are made by Polly Scale - Grimy Black and Engine Black). That’s aggressive air brushing for yours truly, but I think it more or less worked. Then I used ProModeller dark and light washes. They’re a kind of water based pigment wash. Wish I’d had black. I’ve used them before, but only in “secondary theaters.” Found that they worked very well at giving a nice “well used” look to a fighter was I’m mentally sending to a dirt strip near Kursk. I supplemented it with Prisomacolor Verithin pencils for enhanced panel lines and a little chipping. Also used a little Doc Martins pigments to further tone down the differences between greens. But basically the Wash was it. It worked nicely and saved me at least a day of my life. I chickened out at giving the model a quick final blast of thin, dark colors for exhaust etc: settled for a little Tamiya weathering kit soot.

Here you go:

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Now thats nice. Great camo scheme. I like this alot. [Y]

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Very nice scheme…I see the “7” decals are out of register—not your fault. But those bottom wing crosses are way undersized. Are these the kit decals?

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I see what Manny is pointing out, the ‘7’ has more white on the one side. Too bad as it could have been trimmed with scissors before applying. When on the sheet sometimes its hard to catch manufactures mistakes.

The aircraft turned out excellent, the upper surfaces are hard to notice the panel lines yet that is due to the darker camouflage. The underside looks perfect![t$t]

It appears the yellow bands should have stopped on the wing and not across the control flap surface according to the Edward drawings.

All good and I am sure this Fw-190 will score high at any contest, not many will catch these discrepancies and especially without the Edward drawings for reference.

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Nice Build of a difficult kit. Looks great.

Regards, Rick

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Wow, looks like it’s ready to take off and chew something up! [Y]

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Those decals are from … a German plane of 72 scale. As noted, I demolished two Eduard Balkenkreuz - would have to be them natch. I had one in my mini-stash that could stand in on the starboard: had to trim a lot of film though. So it was not put anything underneath or use what I had. I used what I had and put them underneath because precious few people will ever see it. And they’ll stay there. I have a philosophy that may be off-center but makes sense to yours truly. I try hard to get things right. If I reach a point where there’s nothing more to do within the realm of reason I’ll go on. The errors I leave behind are a kind of history of how I’ve developed as a modeler. So I wouldn’t even consider putting in brass masts, rigging and PE railing on my 700 HMS Rodney, even though the kit would look a lot better. It’s my first ship and so it remains. (I might make an exception here. Yesterday I bought some Aeromaster 48 scale LW decals. Might get some US also. After the trouble I had, I can see the value in a decal “stash.” Over time I’ll get one. Right now, it’s extinct.) And yea, the 7 is a little off - but it was leave it alone or destroy it. I left it alone. The yellow theater stripe (carried I believe by all Eastern Front fighters) was moved on purpose because I didn’t want the stripe to go over the canopy - wasn’t positive that I wouldn’t leave the canopy open. I looked at a lot of LW photos and it appears that a large number of aircraft did it the way I did, the Balkenkreuz below/rear of the cockpit and the stripe nearer the tail. Considering the tan in there, I’m glad I did it that way. And true, the Mr Hobby dark green was dark. But it’s a close match to RML 70. I think the blues and grays you’d find on a Western Front fighter are neater, but they used greens in the Ost. Makes sense. In the West, the fighting revolved around the bombing campaign - that meant high altitude. So you want to make your plane look like clouds and sky: blues and grays. (The US decided they didn’t want to hide and took off the paint - supposedly to save weight. A prof of mine in the late 60s who flew LW fighters in 1945 told me that they hated American arrogance - those silver planes were saying “here I am, let’s fight.” As for the RAF, I think they just like green.) In the East, operations revolved around the ground war. There you want your plane to look like the countryside below - thus greens, and, as specifically noted by Eduard, orders from HQ to at least one squadron to overpaint with earthy tan blotches. (Wonder why they didn’t paint on a little cow on the wings?.) Winter called for some kind of white paint/wash.

Nice to say this would be looked at kindly at a show. I think the real world, they’d cancel the show if it got entered. However, it was the most complex aircraft I’ve done and better than any I’ve built in the past. I’ll take that as good news.

Eric

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The plane belonged to JG54 which had a very unique way of marking their a/c…the plate is accurate in the placement of the theatre band and cross…JG54 was also the only fighter unit at that stage of the war to camo their a/c in greens…Nowotony is perhaps the most famous ace to come from that unit…first to reach 250 kills…

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Very nice indeed[Y] pity about the decals it would have looked even nicer with the greenhearts on the fueselage…I’m doing the same kit right now but mine is the Profipak version and marked for JG1…

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Heh I know exactly were you are coming from, I can identify at least 10 flaws in every build I have done sense ‘returning’ to the hobby.

Of course its up to the judges to find them on the contest table, ask me no questions & I will tell you no lies.

Any critique I may have noted is meant to be constructive. I take great care as to word it to sound this way, I am sure you know the difference.

At the end of the build the most important modeler to impress is yourself!

Besides your Fw-190 turned out excellent with a complex camouflage scheme.

Cheers[t$t]

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You can note on the Eduard markings that there’s a green blotch that is supposed to show a heart underneath - more over-spray. (I passed on that embellishment - as I did with a little gray mottling in the front. Somehow I managed to forget to weather the prop. Live and learn.) It’s a neat squad marking and I certainly would have used it. You may be right about that being the only unit using greens in 1943. Do believe there were never a lot of FWs out there, except for some Fs to keep the Wehrmacht happy. By the summer of 43 the bombing offensive was just getting off the ground and nobody - Berlin included - had any idea what would happen. For morale reasons alone, this forced the FW to station the bulk of its fighters in the West. And in 1943 the Rooskies started fielding some very good planes like the LA5 in large quantities. Citadel and the Soviet counterattack out of Orel not only shattered the German army forcing a general retreat (hurried too), but also cost the LW the ability to claim air superiority in the East except in very small areas where German spoiling attacks were attempted. Indeed after Orel it was the VVS “Air Armies” that would dominate large portions of the front. Germany’s downward spiral was underway.

Eric

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[Y] nice build .Ron

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Not true…JG 54 and JG 51 converted exclusively to the type on the Eastern front…there were also 190’s used in the groun-attack role—as you pointed out, and in some other units in the east, such as JG5…

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Good job & I really like the green& brown/tan camo, just a little different. Does anyone know if his is the same kit that was re-boxed by Accurate Miniatures? I spotted one at the about-to-close LHS, passed on it & am now regretting it, may have to leave a message for him to put my name on it when he opens up on Tuesday!

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I said not very many. Different from only that one. Over 13,000 were FWs produced after 1941 - that’s a lot of fighters. (Don’t know if any single US type reached that figure. 30,000 109s though. Even more Il2s - one reason for LW uber aces in the Ost.) The FW was in action for a year fighting the RAF in a nasty little war over France before the first one deployed East. I’ll stand correction, but I don’t think the numbers of FWs in the East ever approached those in the West, although perhaps parity was reached around Citadel. This would be especially true if the F model was consider more of a Jabo than a fighter. All of this is relative of course. The often chronicled failure by Goering, Hitler and others to prepare the infrastructure for a much larger fighter command gave the German efforts of 1944-5 a kind of ad hoc character with entire squadrons often being entirely “recycled” in a few months. Indeed, if the Germans had not been fighting over their own lines for the most part after 1943, the fighter arm would have ceased to exist in short order. Odd when you think of it. Say “Luftwaffe” today and most people would think of their sleek and very good fighters. At the time, the fighter arm was considered secondary to the “offensive” bomber effort despite the fact that the LW, outside the JU-88, didn’t really have a bomber worth a bean. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys. At least the German fighter pilots always had a “target rich environment.” Made for some big-time aces, but I’m sure the men involved would have settled for even odds or, better yet, empty skies. (I interviewed several US airmen - pilots and crew - that did their tour in late 44-war’s end and rarely saw a German plane. The flak and weather were always there to keep things ugly, but very few fighters. No German pilot would have said that.)

Eric

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Catchy scheme. Hey what’s not to like, it’s a 190.

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Excellent Built ! A nice Butcherbird !

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Actually over 20,000 units were produced and almost 35,000 109’s…190’s were by no means rare on the Eastern front…

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Rare? No. Re-fueled & in the air… now that was rare towards the end!

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I’m sure neither of us has the time to track down stats on this kind of thing. I’ve gotten paid to do such work, and its beastly hard to get it right. (Doesn’t help that so many German records were “destroyed” at the end of WWII.) I was checking good old Wikipedia which has a list of all of the Luftflotte and many of the major subordinate units. Counting Flotten doesn’t mean much (2 of 7 in 1944 were in the East) because it’s safe to say there were more planes in Russia than Italy. However, I stand by my argument that defense of the Reich sucked German fighter units almost dry and that the FW was always a plane much more commonly found in the West. Wiki points out that JG54 received their first FW in February 1943 - two years after the type’s debut in the West. JG52 never got them. As for the fighter arm in the Ost, let me quote Wiki’s piece on JG52:“The withdrawal of JG 3 in August 1943 left JG 52 as the sole complete fighter Geschwader on the Eastern Front. Constantly on the move, JG 52 now operated from makeshift and temporary airstrips close to the rapidly contracting frontline, often in danger of being overrun by Russian armoured spearheads.” Might also point out that JG54 lost a good hunk of its planes to the Reichsflotte - and a good hunk of its pilots when they got to the West and confronted 8th AF and the RAF. If nothing else, Russian aircraft didn’t have 12 .50 caliber MGs on them: the fighter had the edge over the unescorted bomber but only if the fighter did things right. And even then it was dangerous attacking a “box.” Add escorts in, and you’ve got trouble.

I’m not sure where Wiki got their loss figures for JG54 - they are the thing of fancy - the sort of stuff I’d expect from the Japanese. For one thing, they have almost as many pilots KIA as planes lost - nuts for a unit that did its heavy lifting fighting over friendly lines. And it was possible to get a 9-1 “kill - ratio” - you simply claim far more kills than you get. (Again, the Japanese were masters of the art. I was told by an Enterprise ace, who strangely served on the E in both 1942 and then again in 44, that Navy pilots always considered “kills” a relative term.) The areas where we have examined kills/losses in detail (like parts of the Pacific War and the Battle of Britain) a pretty obvious pattern emerges. First about half of friendly losses come from non-combat causes, mechanical or weather related. This was especially high among fighters because of their shorter range and single engine. I say “about” because a missing plane could well be a combat loss, or it could have simply disappeared. That was literally an everyday event. Second, maybe 60% at most of kills claimed were kills achieved. Probably 50% is closer. There were a lot of “double claims” - very common for several planes to take a shot at one that went down. There were many “killed” planes that actually were damaged and got home. Or a pilot shoots his guns and sees an explosion - doesn’t matter that the explosion was a friendly blowing up, it’s an explosion and if one mate sees it, its a kill. I don’t think it was often a matter of lying - although that obviously happened too - more a reflection of the extremely rapid helter-skelter nature of WWII air combat. (BTW: I’m not arguing that the major LW aces weren’t major aces - just that their totals would not have been as high as claimed. I doubt anyone will ever be able to compare daily or weekly unit reports to get the real numbers. The LW aces got big scores because they had so many targets. Joe Foss claimed 26 kills in less than 60 missions - run that out over two years and you’re talking huge numbers. But after Foss left Cactus, he never saw another Japanese plane in the Pacific War - not unknown among Marine pilots who’s war almost ended in December 43. Germans didn’t run out of targets.)

Eric