Fantastic work Louis! Some great schemes in progress and all the masking and tape use look familiair.

Louis, I was hoping! I didn't know there was such a scheme until recently, though it makes sense to me. Thanks!

Louis, is this the 190 from Otto Kittel you are doing, or is it another one?

That A-3 camo made me remind me my first build from Tamiya’s (then) new kit, made with the markings from J.Münchenberg, for which I used a patch of various decal sources to create it.
Your build proves that this kit still holds good against the test of time, especially in able hands like yours

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Louis,
That’s a piece of bad news... I saw that the image had the plane listed as an A-7 but didn’t give it much credit, since it’s often wrong and misleading labeling. However if you are convinced it was in fact that version and not the A-8... hope you find another subject to fit that model, but I’d say it’s no easy task. I’ll look at my small library and see if I can spot any useful image to help you with that.
The A-4 is begging for some nice weathering, looks great

There was a War on, what?

Bernie, as usual you bring the right mix of knowledge and horse sense insight to the table that brings welcome relief to the hobby (burden?) we have taken upon ourselves. The vastness of the War, the wide variance of materiel and contexts, the particulars of pilots and ground crews--all of these make the kind of precision some argue for elusive at best.

Louis, the planes you are building represent something--they are not the thing itself. Everyone has to work out for themselves what a satisfactory representation is. I, for my part, am amazed by your work.

"Replicate NOT duplicate." Now there's a keeper for ya...

I had never enunciated it quite so concisely, but "Replicate not duplicate" has been my motto for decades! Now I know! Love the work Louis - keep 'em coming!

Wow gentlemen ! What a reception !

You guys made my day. I think we may have stumbled upon the makings of another Imodeler T shirt. Replicate not Duplicate !

Pedro you have made me think which sometimes can be scary. 🙂

It's possible that the plane illustrated is not an A-7 variant. I have not seen enough of the pictures to make an accurate assessment. As a rule however, that particular artist has done a lot of homework/ research than most and is reasonably accurate with his illustrations.

I did find out that Otto Kittel was shot down and killed after combat with Il-3 Stormovichs. Kittel's wingman reportedly saw a flash or possibly flame inside the cockpit after a rear gunner from an Il-3 opened fire upon his plane at an altitude of about 450 feet. The plane hit the ground wing tip first.

If someone here is fluent with translation from German to English it would really be cool to know exactly what is stated in this report. I was able to pick out a few words.

Amazingly they may have found the crash site several years ago. Apparently Kittel's body was recovered and buried nearby during the War.

The Fw-190 he was flying at the time was an A-8 version. There is a werk number listed with it loss. I have verified the number on two different websites. It's listed as a Fw-190 A-8, "black 1" with Werk Number 690-282 or 960-282 with the first two digits reversed.

Either way I may just take up some "artistic license" and built it as the A-8, "black 1".

Meanwhile the Rudorffer plane is finally finished.

Here's a few pictures for you.

I hope that I can get the article posted in a few days.