Fujimi FW-190D-9 “Black 10″

I bought this old Fujimi 1/48 kit at a model close-out at a Michael's store many years ago. Since I only paid a few dollars for it, when I finally got around to building the plane, 15-20 years ago, I decided to try a bit of customizing. The exhausts were originally molded into the fuselage sides. These were cut out, the opening squared and cleaned up and the small vertical braces added. The exhausts were taken from a Pro-Modeller Me-410. I rather clumsily opened up the cowl flaps and added the deflector above the starboard exhausts and fabricated another small scoop for the upper fuselage and the retracting footstep and radio aerial. The "down gear" indicators were also added to each wing, and brake lines were added to gear legs. The cannon barrels are hypodermic tubing from the farm and ranch store. The decals are from AeroMaster Reich Defense Pt.VI-Doras 48-109.

I added a bit of detail to the cockpit, including cutting the characteristic hand-holds on the sides of the instrument panel cowl, added seat harnesses and a placard for the pilot's headrest.

"Black 10" of II.JG26 was abandoned at Celle, spring 1945. This aircraft wears an unusual scheme of RLM82 and RLM81 over RLM75. The paint is all Model Master and Humbrol enamels shot with my Paasche H. I've read some scathing criticism of this kit on the 'net. Some comments said it was under-scaled (1/50?) and suffered from shape issues as well. That is all probably true but it does look okay on the shelf with its Luftwaffe siblings. It was photographed Friday, out at the Cameron airport. Thanks for your interest.
Gary

10 additional images. Click to enlarge.