Has anyone seen or know where there is an actual photograph of an A8 Focke Wulf that has the 30mm cannon pods under each wing? I have an old Otaki kit and spares left over from my last Tamiya A3 build, and I would like to build this version. The one I’m referring to is the one that has 2 cannons per pod under each wing. I’ve already tried a web search and came up empty handed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
There is an Academy 1/72 kit: Fw-190A-6/8, with this kit you can build a version with these gun packs… but in the info in the instructions sheet say that these gun packs contains two 20 mm cannons each… I think this might be right… well, it’s very difficult to find photos of aricraft like this you want, but I’ve found a pic from luftarchiv.org:
Hope this helps…
The only photo I can find of the R-1 (2 MG 151 20mm cannon in pack under each wing) installation is a picture in Green’s The Warplanes of the Third Reich. It’s actually one of the two prototypes of the installation (FW 190A-5/U11). According to Green the system was installed on the FW 190-A6/R1, FW 190-A7/R1 and the FW 190 A8/R1. The system cost 25 mph in speed and 19 miles in range.
According to Green in the same book there were two different set ups for the MK 103 30mm cannon. The R-2 had an MK 103 (short barrel) under each wing and was fitted to the FW 190 A-6, A-7 and A-8 models. The R-3 mod had an MK 103 (long barrel) under each wing and was fitted to the FW 190 A-8, F-3 and F-8 models. There is a photograph of the R-3 (long barrel) prototype installed on an FW 190 A-5/U11.
Unfortunatly, I have seen a photograph of a FW 190 A8/R1 in an operational unit but can’t remember where I saw it or what unit it was.
No picture, but it does say in “Fighter the world’s finest combat aircraft” book I have that the FW 190 A8 was the most numerous model of the aircraft, with a variety of weapons options that included pods with paired 1.18 in (30mm) MK 108 cannon, making those aircraft so equipped the most heavily armed single-seat fighters of the war.
In one of the definitive English language books on the Fw 190 for modelers,
“Focke-Wulf Fw 190: From Poduction Line to Frontline” (Osprey, 2003), there is a photo of an A-5 test plane mounting a single-gun, long-barrel, pod mounted Mk 103 30 MM cannon under each wing, replacing the outboard wing guns.
More relevant, on the same page is another A-5 with the twin MG 151 20 MM cannon pod-mounted under each wing. Though developed on the A-5, it was slated for use on the Fw 190A-8/R1. According to this source, some 60 Fw 190A-8’s were fitted this way. How they faired in comabat, I do not know.
Just as a footnote, if you want to find the most beautifully turned metal gun barrels you’ve ever seen, go the HobbyLink Japan site and look up a/c accessories. They have several suppliers, like the FineMolds line of metal parts, for these things. I’d never seen any model parts even approach this level of realism until I saw what’s on offer at HLJ. I got me a bunch of them and expect to get more. Most recently, I got the barrels for the cowling-mounted guns for the my 1/32 Hasegawa Fw 190A-5 which is about to get the full AM and scratch treatment, and those barrels will really help dress it up. For Japanese planes, the muzzles are flares and hollow, and not a seam anywhere since these are turned.
TOM
Thanks everybody for your input. I definitely know more now than when I started!I’m thinking maybe an Eastern Front paint scheme, or maybe an desert type of camo. I can only assume that this was for going after ground targets. With the extra weight and reduced performance I don’t think it would have fared to well against bomber streams at altitude. Thanks again everybody!
here is a picture i think
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/neilpage/sturmstaffel.html
Thanks willuride! You know the more you dig the more you find out about the FW 190. This is one plane that had sub-variants of variants. I kind of wonder if the version that I want to build was a factory job or were the gun packs a field installed deal. There were only 60 built so it makes sense. Thanks again. Alex.
Didn’t JG11 use the twin MG151 trays operationally?