**** DONE: GB-36 1/48 FW190A-5 - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

[Crimea_River]

Username: Crimea River
First name: Andy
Category: Judge – Non competing
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: DML
Model Type: Focke Wulf FW190A-5 "Special"
Aftermarket addons: Kagero Decals, possibly parts from Eduard A-8 kit

My second model in the GB will be the FW190A-5 "Minke Pinke" flown by Maj. Hans Philipp, Gruppenkommodore of JG 1 based at Jever in the summer of 1943

The "Minke Pinke" moniker referred to Philipp's two pet dachshunds.

The kit that I will use is the 1990's vintage Dragon FW190A-5 boxed as the "Special" version with the high altitude air scoop modification and with rather dodgy looking decals for Hermann Graf's aircraft. The kit comes with the regular air ducts, which I will use, and the decals will be relegated to the stash and a set from the Kagero Topcolours No. 35 booklet will be used instead. If the regular air duct inserts don't fit well, I may try using the spare cowl pieces from my unbuilt Eduard A-8 kit. (I was actually thinking of doing that kit but it decided not to as it promises to be a long build given its notoriety for complexity.)

I bought this DML kit some years ago and have heard of some fit issues that require careful attention but that these can be overcome to produce a pretty decent model. I hope that's the case. Over the years, I have spray painted a few of the parts on the sprue with left over paints from other projects but have done nothing else. Hope you guys don't see that as an issue as I'll probably redo those parts anyway. I'll post some sprue shots before launching into the build.

 

[rochie]

Interesting subject Andy

 

[Wurger]

 

[le_steph40]

Good choice Andy . As memory serve, the access hatch for MGFF have a wrong shape for an A-5. The sprue in the box is for the A-6 and later series.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Steph. I have begun to look at those kinds of details and wasn't aware of that one so I appreciate you pointing that out. I know that there is a filler hatch moulded in behind the cockpit on the port side and that I'll need to fill this in as it's for the tank introduced on the A-8. The other thing I need to check is the positioning of the cowl fasteners on the upper forward engine cowl. Some plans I've seen for the A-5 show them extending down from the seam and others show them extending upwards. The kit has them downward like the pic on the right below.

 

[Airframes]

Should be another good one.
As far as I know, the cowling latches were 'downwards' on all 190's, as the side cowl panels hinged downwards, and the latches can be seen hanging down from the cowling panel in most photos of open cowls. But of course, I could be wrong, so worth checking.
EDIT :- disregard the above re the cowl latches. I've just checked the pics I took of Cosford's A-8, and the latches are on the upper cowl. Pics of other FWs show them on the top, and on the side cowl, so perhaps variant related, or perhaps a detail from different production sources ?

 

[rochie]

Look here Andy.

Going by these drawings upto the A4 version the fasteners went up, A5 version onwards fasteners go down ?

Modeller's Guide to Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Variants - Radial Engine Versions - Part I

 

[Airframes]

Here's what I meant by the fasteners being on the upper cowl on Cosford's A-8.. They're attached and hinged on the upper cowl, but fasten into the slots on the side cowl, so would appear as engraved lines on the side cowl on a model.
Karl's reference diagrams show the same arrangement from the A-5 onwards.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Nice!

 

[rochie]

like this

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Yes, that's the issue. I came across that link in my searches as well Karl and it's a useful one. I just want to be sure as there are other good looking publications out there that show them the other way. One does need to be careful with all the crap that's on the net sometimes though I'm reasonably confident that the IPMS site has it right. I have the Smith and Creek FW190 volumes and will leaf through them for photographic evidence. I suspect that the latches were modified along with the lengthened nose cowl that began with the A-5 series.

As for the access hatch for the MG FF, here's a pic of the model's detail. As far as I know, this is correct for the A-5 and am not sure if Steph may be referring to a different kit?

 

[rochie]

"I suspect that the latches were modified along with the lengthened nose cowl that began with the A-5 series."
thats what i think may be the case Andy

hoping to set up my old PC to get all my PDF's onto a hard drive.
got a few Fw190 books on there so will see what else i can find.

 

[Wurger]

As memo serves the kind of bottom access hatches was used for MG 151/20E and started being used with the A-6. The A-5 armed with the MG FF had them as the early variants I mean the more bulged hatches without the ejector slots at them.
If the Wurger was the A-5 armed with the MG FFs I agree with Steph.

Here is a shot of a such hatch..

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wojtek. Don't you think the hatch in y picture is correct for the MG FG?

 

[Wurger]

You mean the MG FF don't you?

 

[Crimea_River]

Yes, FF sorry. Steph said the kit part is for the MG 151/20 but I don't think he is right. The kit part to me looks correct or the MG FF. The large ejector chute is missing as it should be.

 

[Wurger]

If the part can be seen in the pic of the model wing you posted above I would say Stepch is right. The kind of the hatches was used with the MG 151/20. The profile in your first post and the one in the Kagero Topcolors 14 show the plane with the MG FF as the outer wing armament. The Kagero booklet shows also the undersides just with the bulged hatch seen in the image I posted above and here below. But also you are right. There is no large ejector chute ( if you mean the hole for the shell casing ejecting ) what is correct for A-5 and the ealy versions.

Here is a diagram ...

 

[Crimea_River]

I'm confused.....I'm going to look for more info.

 

[Wurger]

IMHO the reason for that is that there aren't the large holes in the wing cover next to the hatches. Am I right?

The different shape of hatches are because of the ammo feeding system for the MG FF, MG 151/20. The MG FF cannon was fed with the revolving cylinder while the MG 151/20 was fed with the ammo belt. The revolving culinder kept the shell cases after firing and there was no need to eject them. The MG151/20 needed that because of the ammo belts. The different matter was the MK-108 30mm cannon. Although it was fed with the ammo belt its shells were more large and therefore the large slots appeared. However the hatches looked almost the same like those for the MG 151/20.

 

[Wurger]

Andy, I have to say it isn't easy to find images picturing the hatches clearly. Most of them are not of good quality. But I hope the set of shots can be useful.

Here are images with the bulged hatches used with the 20mm MG FF cannons. In the case it is of the Fw 190A-4. But it was exactly the same type of the hatch used for the A-5.

The hatch type seen below, was used with the A-6. It is the same type that can be noticed in the pic with the plastic bottom part of the model wing. I would like to pay your attention to the shape of the hatches for the starboard and port wing. These look the same ( of course these are left and right ) with the different in shape, ejector slots. The starboard one was like a box ejecting the shell case down while the port one didn't have the outer wall. The shell case was evacuated not only down but also to the side.