36: Focke-Wulf 190-A9

CET appareil, dû à l’ingénieur Kurt TANK, fut produit en 1941 et mis, en service dans la LUFTWAFFE au cours de la même année. Construit dans treize usines différentes dont les principales se trouvaient à Marienburg, Halberstadt, Wismes, Cassel, Sorau et Schwerin, le FW-190 avait été conçu comme un chasseur d’interception, à grande vitesse ascensionnelle ; il fut incontestablement une réussite. Rapide et bien armé, cet appareil se révéla capable d’accélérations étonnantes, et son piqué rapide joint à sa grande souplesse lui conféraient un net avantage dans les combats sur le plan vertical. En revanche, il virait moins bien que les chasseurs alliés de qualité, ce qui équilibrait les chances. Il est vrai que grâce à sa puissance d’accélération, le FW-190 gardait toujours la faculté de rompre le combat à sa guise…

 

Entièrement métallique et convenablement blindé, cet avion (qui, selon certaines sources, dérivait du chasseur français Bloch MB-157) était considéré en 1942-1943 comme le meilleur chasseur allemand. Les aviateurs qui l’ont monté s’accordent à en faire l’éloge. Non seulement le pilote y était assuré d’une excellente visibilité, mais il jouissait même d’un certain confort, les pieds assez haut et le corps en position adéquate pour résister aux effets de la force centrifuge à grande vitesse. Sa maniabilité dans les man’uvres rapides faisait de cet appareil un chasseur redoutable. Le FW-190 donna naissance au chasseur à grande altitude 198 D-9 dit ” long nez ” qui se révéla vers la fin de la guerre un adversaire coriace. Il fut d’ailleurs souvent opposé aux Tempest britanniques qui possédaient, eux aussi, de solides qualités.

 

Caractéristiques : Envergure : 10,50 m. – Longueur : 8,84 m. – 1 moteur BMW 801 TS/TH F de 2.000 C.V. – Armement : 4 canons de 20 mm. + 2 mitrailleuses de 13 mm. – Vitesse maximum : 680 km/h.

The finished model:

The video:

The kit:

• Fw190 D-9 “1945 Germany” (by Platz)

The vision:

If I’m honest, this one was largely an exercise in practicality. I needed to build a 1/144 scale FW 190 for my Leiji Matsumoto-inspire build, The Black Knight of Berlin, so it just made sense to “kill two birds with one stone” and build this one alongside it.

The build:

Honestly, I’m not sure why, but my Voir et Savoir 1/144 project always seems to take a bit of a backseat to my other builds, but once I get into them, they’re so pleasing. Like a little aperitif before I tackle a main meal, or sometimes, like in this case, a bit of a side-dish served alongside the main course.

I hadn’t really been planning another Voir et Savoir project, but when I got started on my The Black Knight of Berlin project it just made sense to tackle both this and the P-51 Mustang at the same time. That’s not to say, of course, that there were finished at the same time – in fact both Voir et Savoir projects sat on the bench for months as I toiled away on other builds. But when I finally picked them back up again, I was wondering what took me so long.

The Platz kits are so nicely detailed, and fit together so well, they’re really a pleasure to build. However, if I have to guess at what it was that gave me pause, it was probably the camouflage. As you can see from the reference image at the top of this page, the Voir et Savoir Fw190 is a combination of light (“German style”) grey and a mottled green effect. Not an easy thing to accomplish in 1/144 scale. First I had problems with my airbrush flow rate (mostly due from apparently a slightly dirty airbrush) that made it difficult to do the fine detailed work necessary for the tight camouflage pattern at such a small scale. However, I think I also chose a grey and a green that were too close together in share. At first they just blended together almost invisibly. However a little over aggressive spraying on my part meant I had no choice but to wipe the plane clean and start over again. Not easy when you want to make sure the fine panel lines don’t get clogged up with paint.

Anyway, I’m not sure I completely succeeded on that front, but close enough I guess. I also didn’t really have the appropriate decals needed for the build. On the one hand, this meant I had to mask and paint the yellow stripe/chevron on the side of the fuselage – which was a bit rougher than I would’ve liked around the edges. It also meant that I had to do surgery on the kit-provided decals to remove the red colour scheme that it was originally intended to supply. They weren’t quite as razor sharp as I would’ve liked either… but it it was it is. I don’t have any spare 1/144 scale German WWII luftwaffe decals in the spares bin.

All in all, I’d say I’m happy with the build and glad I didn’t let it anguish unfinished any longer.  Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what you think.