Italeri 1/72 FW-190D-9

Please see the many fine articles available on Modeling Madness for a thorough history of the Fw-190D-9.

The kit has 44 parts molded in dark grey styrene and 3 clear parts. I did not find any sink marks or flash in my kit. The surface details are fine raised lines whereas the control surfaces are deep recessed lines. Exhausts are molded to the fuselage halves whereas the rudder is a separate piece. A pilot is included but, unfortunately, suffers from a missing bowel and was quickly consigned to the sickbay. A bomb and bomb rack is available for one of the aircraft options. A clear stand for the aircraft is included.

 You get a reasonable clear windscreen and a choice of flat or blow canopy, both of which can be displayed opened. A choice of headrest/armour plate is also provided to match the canopy types.           

A complete cockpit consisting of a floor, rear bulkhead, blank side consoles, seat, control column, pilot and instrument panel is provided. Two inserts for the wheel well are provided. The main landing gears have very petit gear retraction arms. The gear doors are suitable thin. The kit can be built with gear down or gear up using the kit provided gear doors. For the gear up configuration, the instructions do not tell you to put the wheel in the wheel bay. For gear down configuration, you are told to cut off the top part of the gear door.

Instructions consist of 5 exploded diagrams and a sprue diagram. It begins with an introduction to the aircraft, something I miss seeing in some modern kits. Detailed painting instructions are provided in the instructions, but only generic names are given. More specific RLM colours are given for the external camouflage.

Decals allow one of 2 versions to be made. One is black 12 from 10/JG54 flown by Lt Nibel, and the other is yellow 2 from 2/JG26 flown by Nordhorn. Black 12 has a spinner stripe but no decal is provided. The picture on the side of the box has markings not supplied in the kit. No swastika is provided.