Eduard 1:72 Fw190A-8 , building the "imperfect Beast"
a cantankerous build at best, but still a nice model which i'll build again in other versions as they are released. one online review called this kit as close as perfect as we modelers can expect, so i'll call this article "building the imperfect Beast".
as with most Eduard kits that i have built, this one requires careful dry fitting before applying glue to plastic. the kit instrument panel and side consoles need trimming to fit between the fuselage halves, and i found the wheel well roof interfering with the fit of the wings to the fuselage requiring trimming there. Eduard's seeming aversion to positive attachment points rears it's ugly head when positioning the main landing gear. already a tough area to get all the angles right, Eduard makes it no easier by supplying a shallow stepped butt joint.i assembled the landing gear and checked their placement before final assembly, it helped. i also found a rather large gap between the spinner and cooling fan, which i ignored, maybe to be replaced by either Eduard's or BarracudaCast's resin props.
a few additions for i wanted this to be a more or less, fast, OOB build. cannon and pitot tube were replaced with stainless steel tubing. i also replaced the kits blob of a wing gun camera with SS tubing. cowling guns are Quickboost resin bits. i made main gear position indicators out of stretched spruce and the antenna wire is .002" dai-riki fishing line with Vallejo putty for insulators. the kit supplied lap and shoulder belts were annealed then bent, painted and draped over the cockpit sills.
Paints are Mr. Color. markings are the kit supplied ones for Maj. W. Dahl, Stab/JG300. Kean eyes will notice that i used the wrong upper cowling /gun trough and students of the Fw will see two strange access panels on the left side of the fuselage which from my limited research, don't belong there. other then that, a very detailed kit
As i said, I'll definitely build more Eduard Wurgers. I doubt they'll ever be bested in this scale, and after all i've said i must add, i really enjoyed this build
Roger, wonderful looking FW. Thanks for the review on the build as I've been interested in this kit.
Roger- Kudos to you for a very, very nice job, particularly the finish and the great treatment of the harnesses. The trim tab decals must have been a ton of fun. 😉
Eduard's signature style seems to be a mastery of inconsistency- Superbly executed detail of parts that don't fit very well. I bought a half dozen of their 1/48 Wurgers and built one (which turned out well but- what a battle it was!). I'm seriously considering selling the rest. The 1/72 version seems to also suffer from the straight/tubular look of the cowling as it's bigger bretheren.
P.S. I'd give my eye teeth for some of that Dai-Riki .002 line... can't find it anywhere. 🙁
Beautifully done, sir...especially in that rather "small-ish" scale.
A nice one Roger, Beautifully done.
California Steve
Beautiful build Roger, wish I could make my 1:72 builds look as good as that.
I was very close to getting myself a Royal Class-boxing just the other day. I might reconsider that now and treat myself to a well-deserved New Year's Present! Beautiful build Roger!
Magnus
Great work Roger - thanks for the review - I have one of these to build this year so am keen to see how it goes!
Beautiful 190 especially for 72 scale! Just a great overall finish to the weathering, and the extra detailed touches you added really make it stand out. Well done.
Nice work (as usual). I'm doing one now and your advice about fit was extremely helpful.
Everything is there in the kit now to do anything from an Fw-190A-5 through the A-8. All you need are decals.
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
Roger ... you have done a spectacular job on this model. If one takes upon the fact that it is a 1/72 scale model and conceptualize what that is and means ... one will be at awe. Nice work.
"Fiddly" is one of the adjectives used to describe some of these Eduard kits.
I'm finishing up a Mig-15 and have gone beyond "Fiddly" into the four letter word category that doesn't use the word "Love" or "Hate". Regardless of the adjectives that can be used the details on these kits if left untouched are really impressive when finished. Roger, your Fw-190 plays the part very well regardless of all the fatal flaws you've pointed out. The word "Best" is subjective and some folks have a tendency to over sell the word for the benefit of the manufacture. However, you work makes that judgement call rather easy to do given the photo's. Two thumbs up on this one.