As the Osprey Modelling series continues, this one is #27 on the FW-190A,F&G. Basically all the radial engine versions. The book falls into the now-standard version of an introduction with some commentary on the aircraft and some kits, a section on tools (which I think could probably be eliminated by this time and brought up in the write-ups when they are used), several build articles, a section on 'Special Modelling Ideas' (which is just a cover for some short build articles), then the usual references, museums and collections and available kits. This is all finalized by the less than useful color chart. I say that as the printing process for these books does not really do these color sections that much good. One would want actual color chips as a reference and those are just to costly to reproduce. I'm thinking that Osprey could save some money by eliminating this end page. For example, the RLM 24 blue looks like dark grey and the RLM 76 looks like a light green, at least to my eyes. This doesn't detract from the overall book, just something that isn't really that useful to a dedicated modeler.

OK, so the meat of these books is the full build articles and there are quite a few. The author claims right off that he is a fan of 1/32 kits and so the articles are weighted in that direction. To his credit, he does do several other scales and does an admirable job of them. Here is what is covered and his difficulty level:

1.    Revell AG 1/72 FW-190A-8/R11 - Intermediate
2.    Hasegawa 1/32 FW-190A-5 - Intermediate
3.    Dragon 1/48 FW-190G-3 - Advanced
4.    Tamiya 1/48 FW-190A-4 - Advanced
5.    Hasegawa 1/32 FW-190F-8 - Advanced
6.    Hasegawa 1/32 FW-190A-8/R-8 - Master

The filler stuff is building a wood plank base, some building tips and a listing of accessories, including the models of his friend Mick Pitts.

Overall a very nicely done book and one that 190 fans will enjoy. As usual, the models are pretty liberally filled with aftermarket and some scratch-building as one would expect. I also found a few things that I thought required some comment. The skill levels seemed to me to be differentiated only by the amount of aftermarket installed. I also found that there was not much difference between some of the advanced builds and the Intermediate ones, though as one went along in the book, the amount of 'stuff' increased.

I found it quite unusual that the Hasegawa 1/72 FW-190 line was not mentioned or included in the kit chart. Though not in the current 2006 Hasegawa catalogue, they are not difficult to find and a look at the local hobby shop showed several on the shelves. As nice and inexpensive that the Revell AG kit is in this scale, it is not my personal first choice due to the problems that the author described during his build. The new Hasegawa 1/48 FW-190s are missing as well, but this could well be due to timing as anything else. One thing about books is that the time between having the finished product in hand and the book on the shelves can easily be 6 months to a year.  I also found that there were a lot more photos and a lot less build description than I've seen in most others of the series. These are undoubtedly the writer's style and it is somewhat different from mine and others so that is why I even commented on it at all.

Everything of import is covered and the photo coverage is quite good, showing some of the more difficult steps in the sort of detail that most of us appreciate when trying to duplicate it. Overall a good book and one that I'm sure that Würger fans will find much to their liking.

August 2006

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