Hasegawa 1/72 FW-190A-5
| KIT #: | 51307 (AP7) |
| PRICE: | 1300 yen when new ($8.00 at the base exchange) |
| DECALS: | Four options |
| REVIEWER: | Scott Van Aken |
| NOTES: | 1993 limited edition |
| HISTORY |
The FW-190A-5 was developed after it was determined that the Fw 190 could easily carry more ordnance. The D-2 engine was moved forward another 15 cm (5.9 in) as had been tried out earlier on the service test A-3/U1 aircraft, moving the centre of gravity forward to allow more weight to be carried aft.
| THE KIT |
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 was
considered by many to be the best available in this scale until some of the
more recent releases from Zvezda and Eduard. 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. The kit is nicely molded to Hasegawa's standards of the time, though 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 do some trimming depending on which markings option you'd choose.
There
are four markings options, all of them in RLM 74/75/76 with yellow
rudders and yellow lower cowling. You get the box art plane of Herman
Graf, Priller's black 13, Walter Oseau's aircraft, and the plane of Emil
Lang with JG 54. The latter one is not only heavily mottled, but has
yellow lower wing tips. Decals are old school with white areas that are
off white. There are a lot of aftermaket sheets if one is so inclined.
| CONCLUSIONS |
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.
| REFERENCES |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_190
January 2023
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