I decided to build this model to fill a little of the downtime in my Dr.1 model. I don't usually build 1/72 models, but this one looked so cool that I couldn't resist. The Fw-189 was designed early in the war as a tactical reconnaissance and army cooperation aircraft. It was very successful and was produced in large numbers. As the war continued, the Germans saw a need for a tank-busting aircraft. A prototype tank-buster prototype was created from the Fw-189 by swapping the large cockpit pod for a small, armored cockpit. In the end, the Fw-189C proved inferior to the Henschel Hs-129.

I will be building this model at the same time I am working on my 1/28 Dr.1, so it will be a slow, but fun, build. Cheers.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great entry, George @gblair
Looks like to be a great kit. Never saw the tank buster variant as a model before. Looking forward to it.

@gblair, I have always liked the looks of the original 189, the C version looks a bit like a Transformers robot. Must have been a very tight cockpit.

Hi John (@johnb) and Spiros (@fiveten): The cockpit is very tiny in 1/72, and it was a 2-place cockpit.

All looking excellent, my friend @gblair!

Nice version that indeed eliminates a LOT of masking and detail-painting interior. Have fun George!

Luckily I have been reading ahead in the instructions. The instructions wanted me to assemble the center wing section, add the seats and other cockpit stuff, then glue the cockpit cupola onto the wing, and finally add the pilot's windows. I was really worried about 2 things: first, having all of the fragile cockpit stuff sitting on top of the wing seemed like an easy way to knock stuff off, and second, if the glass needed any filler or sanding, there wouldn't be any room to do it with the tiny cupola sitting on top of the wing. My plan was to glue the glass to the cupola while it was still free of the wing. My test fit of the glass showed that it wouldn't be a good fit. I ended up adding some thin strips under the sides of the glass to bring it into proper position, and then added a bunch of acrylic filler around the front of the glass to fill the resulting gap. Once the acrylic filler is solid, I will deal with smoothing everything out. I am really glad that I didn't have to deal with this problem with the cupola glued to the wing. Tomorrow I hope to finally get the cupola sorted and glued to the wing section. Cheers.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

This is already an impressive start, George @gblair