Hasegawa 1/72 FW-190A-5 "J. Priller", previewed by Scott Van Aken

The FW-190A-6 was developed to address shortcomings found in previous "A" models when attacking U.S. heavy bombers. A structurally redesigned and lighter wing was introduced and the normal armament was increased to two MG 17 fuselage machine guns and four 20 mm MG 151/20E wing root and outer wing cannon with larger ammunition boxes. This was the last of the 'small' cowl gun 190s with later variants having MG 131s in that space, requiring the area above the guns to be bulged. At least 963 A-6s were built from July 1943 ending in April 1944, according to Ministry of Aviation acceptance reports and Focke-Wulf production books. In late 1943, the Erla Maschinenwerke's Antwerp factory designed a simpler rack/drop-tank fitting, which was more streamlined than the bulky ETC 501 and could be quickly fitted or removed. The type was used until the end of the war.

The Hasegawa 1/72 FW-190A kit is by no means new. I have at least three dozen different boxings of this and the 190D kit. This boxing is one of the second generation of 190 kits that Hasegawa has molded and is considered by many to be the best available in this scale. I've built several of these kits and they have been good builds with almost no hassle.

This issue is pretty much your basic A-5 boxing with fresh decals for the box art plane. The molds have held up extremely well and this kit had no sign of flash or sink areas. it does have ejector pin marks on the one side of the wheels, but those are easily handled and of no real consequence.

You'd also expect this one to have a decal for the instruments and you'd be right. Though the clear, two piece windscreen/canopy can be posed open, the cockpit of the 190 is so tiny that little will be seen. However, there are a number of nice aftermarket cockpits if you are so inclined to spruce things up. Your things under the fuselage is limited to a drop tank. You also need to open up some holes for the tank mount and for the upper wing cannon bulges.

The instructions are your basic FW-190A-5 with an addendum sheet included for the decals for this boxing. Josef Priller's plane, showed on the box art, is in a standard RLM 74/75/76 with a yellow lower cowling and rudder. The second scheme is for Walter Nowotney's JG 54 plane in Russia during October 1943. This one has a yellow forward spinner, lower cowling, lower rudder, lower wing tip, and fuselage band. While the wing and tailplanes were in RLM 74/76, the fuselage was in two greens. Decals are nicely printed though 'old school' with whites that are off-white.

Though not the most detailed internally, the kit is not difficult to build and makes into a very nice model. I've built quite a few of them and can easily recommend this one to any modeler.

KIT #:	00607
PRICE:	1400 yen when new
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2003 limited edition