ProModeler 1/48 Fw-190D-11

KIT #

5969

PRICE:

$22.00

DECALS:

Two aircraft

REVIEWER:

C.Wayne Sharp

NOTES:

 

HISTORY

 Well, here we go sports fans and good time rock and rollers, almost everyone that builds toy aeroplanes, at one time or the other, has built or will build a German WWII model air planes. At least half of these builders, all claim to be experts in all the types, versions, colors and history etc. I have built a very few of all these “farm Tractors” over the years and lay claim to be neither an expert and / or a “good modeler” of the these things.. some how, I never figured out how we bombed the Germans, Japanese, and Italians back to the stone age and otherwise destroyed every thing that existed and yet we have all these experts that know more about all that German Nazi stuff etal ( Paint, nuts and bolts, exact rivet count etc. on every piece of equipment that ever existed even more than we know about all the Aircraft and equipment that we had.. all that can’t be true, period. I  can just see it  now, a bucket of green paint setting on the ground with a rag mop sticking in it and big letters on the side that says “# 81 turdalsnuffal”..”Directions for use, Use only on airplane number 65 with broungoofoff 98 on it on the starboard side if it is raining on Sunday”.. “ and, be sure and don’t use # 82 sickindorph , even if it is open on the ground next to it”. Yeah, right.

 Anyway, the main history has been told about these types of aircraft on at least, a hundred modeling pages, Contest, and web sites. I can’t add anything to all that, not being an expert and all, so I will just give a short basic intro history as it is related in the material I have on hand at this time.

According to the information I have, in 1943, Focke-Wulf finalized the plans to covert the FW-190A-8/9 airframe into a stop-gap solution for a high altitude fighter. To do this, it was decided to strengthen and lengthen the 190A frame so it would accommodate the in-line liquid cooled  Junkers Jumo 213A ( bomber) engine. This sub-type was designated FW-190D-9. The testing lasted most of 6 months and was then accepted by the Luftwaffe (German air force) during the early summer of 1944

The FW-190Ds were built by many sub-contractors throughout Germany. Approximately 1500 production numbers were allocated. Of these, almost 700 aircraft has been accounted for. (I don’t know) However, of the later sub-types like the Fw-190D-11/12/13/14/15 aircraft, with the Jumo 213E and F and the Daimler-Benz 603E and LA engines, very few were completed prior to the war’s end.

 

THE KIT

 Somewhere after Trimaster, and DML, Monogram got the dies for the FW-190D kit and decided to produce this variant they call, a FW-190D-11 and put it out as a Promodeler series kit . If anyone as ever built the Trimaster or DML kit, they will recognize  it right away as the ex- D9 kit but it does not have the “blown” canopy or the etched metal parts for the instrument, panels and antennas etc. and a different nose top panel without the guns. The purist will cry and moan about the –11 different engine “bulge” on the sides that is not there.. I did not care, it looked good to me and I saw a “corrected” version a while back, couldn’t see much difference to me and besides, for all it’s “correctness”, I could spit through the seam cracks and all the “correct paint” was “scale” 2 inch deep and  orange peeled so, big whoop..

But this kit was a heck of a deal when it comes to price and quality of total product when you got to remember the first time these kits were released by TRIMASTER in the early 90s, I think, this kit as a D-9 retail cost was high $$$ and was the rave of the nazzie model builders of the world and it was the greatest thing since peanut butter, there were people having organisms over those things.. obviously the market would not support that price for long. I would never buy one at that price and so did a huge amount of modelers that felt the same way and they, (Trimaster), rode off into the sunset and later, DML came out with some of the same thing and charged about half that price and it was good until the Tamiya kit came out and then the nazzie airplane builders went crazy again and said that that kit was greater than peanut butter and Jelly,  and NOW!! Guess what! The same experts now are crying that, that kit (Tamiya) is not “correct” either and it is just not worth building, ( mostly ACE opinions ), ( who do we believe ??), and there is some consensus  that  we need ANOTHER better kit.. oh plezzzzzeeee!!

Main parts of this kit were/ are, nicely engraved but the cockpit has a lot to be desired but painted plastic looks as good as painted metal anyway. I added etched metal seatbelts. You can pose the engine flaps open or closed and you have the choice of a centerline bomb or a centerline fuel tank, so I used the tank..

 The decals are not to bad and you have a choice of two different aircraft and a good bit of stenciling.. 

CONSTRUCTION

But, yes, I do like to build Nazzie a airplane once in a while just to aggravate my friends and model building buddies, they all know I am a nazzie challenged kind of guy but will take one to the contest once in a while just to get my jollies and listen to the quotes of “correctness” and the fire storm on “exact color(s) etc. Always good for a laugh.

 I used mostly the kit cockpit even though I did have a True Detail set but it was not used as it was not as good as the kit stuff in my opinion.. As per instructions, all interior color was painted a dark gray, as most German aircraft were painted during WWII. (experts choice is RML 66—duh, “dark gray”). All instruments were picked out by using black red, white and yellow. All these items were dry-brushed with lighter shades of grays etc. after a wash of Raw Umber.

 I never put a Tri-master kit together so I don’t know how the fit was with the early molds but this one was not a clean put together. A little filler was use on parts of the fuselage and leading edges of the wings of which they were the worse fitting parts of all, but over all, not to bad. Actually, this was a fairly easy build and I did it in between some other projects I was working on and only worked on this while the paint was drying on something else.

CAMOUFLAGE & MARKINGS

Well, this is the part I like the best so I just decided to use the kit decals they were pretty good actually. But first, the paint job, well, I did take the time to look up a little information on this aircraft which is talked about on several sites and a picture or two in a couple of books I have. I seen at least three “experts” give this same airplane 3 different  paint color schemes (by the numbers) or paint jobs, so I said, “to heck with it”, who knows? Someone went so far as to say, his color scheme “could not be disproved” ( whatever that means), the box instructions said one thing and then some build-ups on the net said something else so, I went and looked up the same paint  scheme / Airplane, in the Squadron “Walk-a-Round” book and decided to use that one and if it is not right, then sue the book maker. The book called for the colors; 75 – 83- 76  ( I used Model Masters) I had all that so I just “smeared”  it on and highlighted some panel lines with a raw umber wash.

At least it was a little different because of the red and white stripes to add some color to the always drab looking German airplanes which mostly just look alike to me. I did not have any black green for the prop so I just mixed my own and the same with the red. I just mixed some British crimson with some normal “square bottle” red and weathered that with a mix of tan/brown to help out. The decals went on very well with a mild decal solution and plain water .

CONCLUSIONS

This was really a very easy build compared to a lot of things I have fooled with lately and was a good addition to the display case. I have wanted to build the AR-234 by Hasegawa so I thought I needed a companion and just to show that anybody could build one of these things if they like.

Anyone who knows me knows this was just an attempt by me to be a exercise in Satire.. (IE. Screw’em if they can’t take a joke) and also I forgot to put some “scale” bullet holes in it and a big bullet hole in the forehead of the damned paperhanging toy pilot.

REFERENCES

 There is nothing like a good cat fight and flame war over the exact colors, tires, wheels, paint schemes, who shot who. And “my daddy can whoop yo’ daddy or yo’ momma”, over all the Nazi airplanes during world war eleven.. I certainly don’t know, and will never argue any of the finer points. I will leave that to all the “experts”. But I wanted to do this just like I build all the other toy stuff that most of us enjoy doing from time to time.. so, as the only references I used to do this was looking at several of all the nice build-ups on Hyper Scale, Modeling Madness and / ARC. And several other historical sites and the only book reference I have is listed below.. ya’ll have fun.

WALK AROUND for the FW 190D-  Number 10-  Squadron / Signal Publications

Focke Wulf  FW 190  IN ACTION   Number 19  - Squadron / Signal publications

September 2003

C.Wayne Sharp

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