The penultimate development of the FW-190 was the Jumo 613 powered FW-190D-9. The addition of this large and powerful in-line engine really sparked the performance over the radial engined 'A' series. The armament in this version was reduced to two 20mm cannon and two 13mm machine guns by removing the outer wing guns. That improved maneuverability over some of the older versions. The aircraft reached operational status in mid-1944 and was used for protection of Me-262 units as well as standard fighter and fighter-bomber roles. Even though more than 700 examples were built, not all saw combat as the lack of fuel and trained pilots kept many on the ground in the last year of the war. Fortunately for us all, several of these fascinating aircraft are extant in museums.

When one opens the box, one is greeted by an old friend. Italeri's 190D-9 is one of their older kits, coming out at about the same time as the first Airfix and Hasegawa kits in the early 1970s. Of the three kits, the Italeri one seems to have caught the shape of the aircraft better than the other two, and was soon the one to have. Nowadays, there have been new mold kits from Airfix, Hasegawa and Academy that have managed to supplant this one in the eyes of modelers.

The kit comes on two sprues with the clear bits in their own bag. The parts are sill in quite good shape with no hint of flash. The only sink areas I noticed were opposite some rather thick alignment frames about midway down the fuselage. Ejector pin marks on the cockpit floor, inside the seat and on the pilot figure are prominent, but with so little of the cockpit actually visible once the kit is built, one could blow these off without any worry.

Though the detailing for the panel lines is raised, it is nicely done. Other parts detailing is well done for a kit of this age. A bomb and bomb rack is included as these planes were used as fighter bombers later in the war. The only real option is the choice of a standard or 'blown' canopy as used on aircraft produced around January 1945 and retrofitted to some earlier models. The appropriate head armor is provided for whichever canopy you choose.

Instructions are well done with color callouts by Testors paints and FS 595 colors. No RLM shades are given, for some reason. Testors does a full line of RLM paints so this omission is a bit puzzling. The small decal sheet provides markings for two aircraft. Not surprisingly, no swastika is given. One is the box art aircraft, yellow 2, from 2./JG 26 during 1944 with the standard canopy. The blown canopy version is Black 12 from 1./JG 54 in 1945.