Fw 190 A-8
Weekend Edition

Eduard, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

Eduard's 1/48 scale Fw 190 A-8 Weekend Edition
is available online from Squadron.com for just $22.46!

I bought the Weekend Edition of Eduard’s 1/48 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8 kit from my local hobby shop when it was first released in 2008.  In contrast to most Weekend Editions, the kit offered markings for an aircraft not covered by the earlier Fw 190 A-8 Profipack boxing – ‘Yellow 11’/W.Nr.170393 flown by Alfred Bindsell of 6./JG 1 in spring 1944.  Otherwise, however, the kit followed the then-standard Weekend Edition formula of black-and-white (rather than colour) assembly and painting instructions, and no pre-cut canopy masks or photo-etched details. 

Eduard did offer these sets for sale as separate items, which I eventually bought before swapping the kit several years later.

Eduard is now re-releasing its 1/48 Fw 190 series kits.  Some, such as the Fw 190 A-5 Profipack, have been re-issued with the same markings as the initial boxing.  Others, such as the Fw 190 A-8 Profipack, include some new marking choices.  Now Eduard has re-released its Fw 190 A-8 Weekend Edition kit, also with a few tweaks from the original.

The first change is in presentation.  Eduard has replaced its previous white, blue and yellow Weekend Edition box with a two-tone blue design overlaid with an aircraft painting.  This was one of the first Weekend Edition kits released in the new garb, and it’s an attractive package.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 

Thumbnail panels:

The changes are more than cosmetic.  Last year Eduard introduced full colour, four-view marking guides in its Weekend Edition instruction booklets, replacing the earlier black-and-white guides.  Now the company has gone a step further by including a set of seat harnesses, an additional marking option and a sheet of stencil decals. 

A glance at the Eduard website shows this enhancement to be standard for all new Weekend Edition releases, with prices remaining the same as earlier releases in the line.

Keeping this in mind, the Fw 190 A-8 Weekend Edition kit contains the following items.

• Six sprues of blue-grey plastic parts.  The moulds for this kit have been in use for nearly ten years, but the parts are of high quality with no apparent flash or blemishes.  Before you start, however, remember that Eduard’s Fw 190 A kits are not ‘shake and bake’ and demand careful and patient assembly; I definitely wouldn’t try to complete one over the weekend.  Brett Green included some construction tips in his original Fw 190 A-8 review, and there are plenty of online build logs that reflect a range of experiences with the kits.

• One sprue of clear plastic parts.  Again, these are excellent mouldings that enable you to easily and accurately depict your Fw 190 model with an open or closed canopy.  You will also be left with two spare bulged sliding canopy sections, as the kit’s marking options were both fitted with the earlier straight canopy.

• Pre-cut and pre-painted seat belts.  These are a welcome inclusion, because they address what was for me the only real shortcoming of Weekend Edition kits.  Painted and weathered, the plastic cockpits of current-generation Eduard kits look good out of the box, but still need harnesses for that final, convincing touch.  Eduard is sourcing its Weekend Edition belts from fellow Czech company HGW, whose microfibre and photo-etched sets assemble into very realistic harnesses.  However the HGW belts in this Weekend Edition kit are made not from microfibre but a flexible, rubbery material that is easy to stretch and has enough weight to drape convincingly.  The four straps come with buckles and clips in situ, and are easy to damage if you are not careful removing them from their backing cardboard.  (Why do I know this?)  They are pre-coloured and look accurate compared to their full-size equivalents.  I don’t think they are as good as microfibre or photo-etched belts, but they’re considerably better than nothing.  The only negative I could find was that some of the stitching on the harness straps had been printed out of register, but this is not particularly obvious.

• A4 instruction booklet with full colour painting and marking guide.  Weekend Edition painting and marking guides have always been available to download in colour from Eduard’s website, but it’s good to have them in the box.  There are four-view drawings of each aircraft, with paint colours and decal locations clearly signposted. 

• Decals.  Two decal sheets are provided:  a large sheet containing national insignia and individual aircraft markings, and a smaller sheet of airframe stencils. 

Both are Eduard productions and have been reasonably well printed, although the stencils aren’t quite as crisp as they might be and there are registration problems on some of the black and white and blue and white decals. 

 

 

The inclusion of spinner spiral decals for both marking choices is a welcome touch.

Marking Options

Markings are included for two interesting Fw 190s, both finished in RLM 74 Grey Green and RLM 75 Grey Violet over RLM 76 Light Blue:

• Bindsell’s ‘Yellow 11’ has been carried over from the first release of the Fw 190 A-8 Weekend Edition.  This is a colourful machine with its RLM 23 Red RVD band and RLM 04 Yellow codes and lower engine cowl.

• ‘Blue 8’/‘Erika’ of IV./JG 5, abandoned at Herdla, Norway, in spring 1945.  The Fw 190s of JG 5 were also distinctively marked, with their blue codes, cowl rings and in some cases spinners.  ‘Erika’ is a well-known machine that has featured on a number of aftermarket decal sheets, and was one of the new options included when Eduard re-released its Fw 190 A-8 Profipack kit in 2013.

Eduard’s Weekend Edition makeover blurs the distinction between these budget kits and the more luxurious Profipack line, but in a good way. 

The changes aren’t dramatic but will make Weekend Edition kits a more attractive option for modellers, particularly if Eduard keeps the price down. 

This Fw 190 A-8 kit is a good example of what can be achieved with a sound base kit and some well-considered enhancements. 

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Eduard for the sample

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2015 by Brad Fallen
Page Created 16 January, 2015
Last updated 16 January, 2015

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page