Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-11

by Charles Silverlight

Tamiya's 1/48 scale Fw 190D-9 is available online at Squadron.com

The Long Nosed Focke-Wulf is one of my favourites, I think it stems from reading Pierre Clostermann's 'The Big Show' too often when I was young. The JV44 Dora's are particularly fascinating with their varied camouflage, markings and slogans painted on the side (in this case - probably rude!).

I used the Tamiya 190D-9 with the Eagle Editions D-11 conversion kit. The interior has been detailed with an Eduard 190D-9 set. I don't know of any information on the D-11 interior that would indicate a difference to the D-9. The Tamiya kit goes together nicely, despite the criticisms of the undercarriage. Although I opened up the wheel well, there's no engine (shame!), I hadn't heard of the engine insert.

The Eagle Editions D-11 kit was fairly straightforward. Lining up the 30mm cannon fairing panels took some care. They were then filled with Squadron Green Putty and sanded.

 Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

I also built up the engine cowlings with green putty to give them a bulge around the Jumo 213F mountings used on the D-11. I wasn't entirely convinced that the Eagle Editions D-11 supercharger intake was the correct shape, I prefer the intake that comes with the D-13 kit.

The 'cowl flaps' were also something of a concern. On the D-9 the cowl flap on the starboard side is de-activated (something to do with exhaust gases and the supercharger intake). On the D-13 they all opened. What about the D-11? I plumped for de-activated, as it looks this way on the only photo of this a/c I know of in Brown and Wadman's Experten No.3 book.

I used Hannants Xtracolor in gloss for the paint job. I like the colours and decals really go on well without the hassle of having to use a coat of clear gloss, which to my mind is just another chance for more dust.

I used Tom Tullis' camouflage pattern from Jerry Crandall's book. Robert Forsyth (Classic 1 - JV44 The Galland Circus) has argued that the >58 would not have been visible when the plane was in service, but I liked the look of it so I added it, and lightly oversprayed it with 76. This nearly went horribly wrong when applying the final Red 4 decals, the MicroSol softened the underlying >58 decal and the oversprayed 76 paint cracked, but it settled down OK and with a very light touch-up was OK. The only exception to the Tullis interpretation was, having looked at photos, the 0.5m extension was left unpainted aluminium.

The decals were again Eagle Editions from their brilliant JV44 set. I finished it with Aeromaster (now Polly Scale) flat acrylic. I only added light weathering, as I'm a chicken about overdoing this! 

I thought the final result was okay. I hope you like it.
 

Model, Text and Images Copyright © 2001 by Charles Silverlight
Page Created 23 August, 2001
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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