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John vd Biggelaar
42 articles

Focke-Wulf FW190A8, Airfix (A01020A) 1/72

March 10, 2024 · in Aviation · · 54 · 441

This kit was sent to me by Bernard @lis, it was a great and wonderful surprise. Besides the kit, other surprises were the included masking sheet for the upper surface camouflage scheme and a decal sheet with lots of various marking options. I decided to go for the aircraft of Walther Dahl, CO of IV.(Sturm)/JG 300 in December 1944.
Besides fit issues with the cowling, this kit is a real pleasure to build. Since the pitot tube and gun barrels are molded to the wings, you need to take special care to not knock them off. Of course with my clumsiness, I succeeded in knocking off three of them, better to cut them off at first and reattach them at the final stage. The camouflage masks from Eduard were very helpful. Using the decals from PrintScale was kind of a challenge, they are very thin and tend to fold easily. The swastikas were cut in half and did not join nicely so I chose to use some from the spare box. Also the spiral decal at the spinner did cooperate well, likely due to again my clumsiness, so I used the one from Airfix which was more sturdy and therefore easier to apply. The red fuselage band was provided as a decal as well, but I painted this one instead.

Extras done on this build are the antenna wire, Uschi van der Rosten, for which I drilled a 0.3mm hole in the canopy to apply the wire to the headrest at first and once dried to the tail. Also the FuG antennas are additional, for the FuG16 Modane I used a pole from the spare box and attached a piece of a twisted electrical wire. The FuG16 loop antenna is made from very thin solder wire. The FuG25 antenna is again a piece of twisted electrical wire. Please correct me if the naming of the antennas is incorrect.

Paints used are:
Lower surface, RLM76, Vallejo 71.257 (Light Blue)
Upper surface, RLM75, Vallejo 71.259 (Grey Violet) and my own mixture for the RLM74, a greyish drak green color.
Fuselage band, RLM23, Vallejo 71.003 (Red)

Although this scale is not my usual scale, it was a real pleasure to put this Fw190 together and add some extras to it. The decals and paint masks did help in getting a quite decent result.

Thanks to all who followed the building thread for your motivating comments and remarks. Special thanks to Bernard @lis who made it possible to give me this opportunity to work on this wonderful kit.

Build thread can be followed here:
https://imodeler.com/groups/imperial-german-air-service-luftwaffe-group-build-may-1st-1910-to-present-day/forum/topic/focke-wulf-fw190-a8-airfix-1-72/

Reader reactions:
24  Awesome 1  1 

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.


54 responses

  1. That is one fine looking build, John. Great job on the paint job. Well done!

  2. A very nice build, John.

  3. That came out really well, John, the camouflage is especially noteworthy, and the spinner transfer looks great.

  4. Excellent result, John. It was fun watching it come together.

  5. I’m really glad that You enjoy build! Result is fantastic!

  6. Excellent result, John!
    Congratulations!

  7. That is a really good looking Fw190 John, @lis. I like the overall finish you gave it, and the markings are great too, good color to make you take a second look. When looking at it I thought it was a 1/48th scale build.

  8. Excellent, John! Superb finish on this!

  9. Come on, that's really cool John. It looks really beautiful for this small scale.

  10. Not my scale either but you did very well with the camo

  11. John (@johnb), the end result of this build is outstanding. Always a pleasure to see well done models. I see that the aerial rigging worked out fine as well. Thanks for sharing your work on the build thread.

  12. It's a beauty John! All around great work.

  13. Nice piece of work, John! @johnb
    Definitely looks bigger than it’s scale.
    Drilling an .3 mm hole, you need a pair of good eyes for that …
    Think i’ll stick to 1/48 scale (coming from 1/32). 😉

  14. That's a super butcher bird John. Would have made my eyes boggle in 72nd. Great stuff.

  15. Great looking build, John. @johnb

  16. Very impressive work especially the aerials and spiral.

  17. Fantastic work John, great build and amazing camo paint.

  18. John, this looks fantastic! Great paint work!

  19. Great build. 190 is such a neat looking plane.

  20. Absolutely gorgeous build John @johnb. I followed your build, it was a pleasure. The colors are immaculate and intricate and the antenna is a great detail btw. Wish my clumsy fingers could do that! A fantastic build!

  21. Wonderful 190 build!

  22. Well, I guess since this isn't your usual scale, you just build it to look bigger! Had you not mentioned it I would have thought 1/48 for sure! Lovely 190!

  23. Your 190 is truly spectacular, John (@johnb), especially considering this is in 1/72. It was a pleasure following along in the build.

  24. That's a fine build, looks spectacular.

  25. Beautiful Wurger, John @johnb. One of the nicest looking planes you’ve built. Keep’em coming!

  26. Fantastic detail and control for this scale or any scale. Impressive. Thanks for sharing.

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