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

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

Wheel differences starting with the later smooth hub:

Need this type:

I'm going to try making my own spoked wheel by sacrificing a pair of my spare smooth ones and drilling holes in them

Gear doors:

I can make these using the partial moulding from the kit parts and adding extensions.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[Airframes]

Good work there Andy. I was going to dig out a spare prop and fan, but I see you're covered.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Well, I'm dealing with some conflicting info on the wheel. One book I have says the spoked wheels were on the A-1 thru A-5 and another says the wheels were changed over late in the A-4 production run. More digging needed.

In the meantime, I worked on the wheel well this afternoon, scratching up the ammo boxes with plastic card after having removed the bogus linkage details and then also making up some ejection chutes using brass sheet. The latter took 4 tries to get 2 chutes that are more or less identical. The first one was bent after scoring the brass at 1 and 2mm intervals and the second was made by crimping the brass around a form cut from card.

Off to my other books to look at more wheel pics.....

 

[Airframes]

Nicely done on the ejector chutes.
I've had a look at my other FW 190 books, but didn't find anything conclusive regarding the wheels for the A5 variant. Most photos had the wheels either obscured, or in shadow, although some appeared to have the 'plain' wheels.
However, I did find a pic of the A5/U13, prototype V42, W.Nr 151083, with the edge of a wheel partly visible, showing the plain wheel. This is a crop of the pic from the Kagero Vol. 1 book.

 

[turbo]

Nice work Andy, wheely well done.

 

[Crimea_River]

Make sure you don't take Terry's coat Kirby...

Thanks for the pic Terry. The Kagero Volume 1 book also has this in the plans section:

 

[Airframes]

Tricky one.
I seem to have misplaced Vol. 10 of LCA, which has pics of the A-5 that landed at Manston, which I'm fairly sure show the wheels.
I think I know where it may be hiding, so if I can get to it, behind a pile of boxes etc, I'll check it out tomorrow.

 

[JKim]

Lots of great work happening on this build! I like the work on the landing gear. I'll check my stash but is pretty limited when it comes to 190 Anton stuff as I am more of a Dora dude. I'm pretty sure I have some spare smooth hub tires but probably not the spoked wheels.

 

[fubar57]

From Aero Detail 6 Fw 190A/F

 

[Airframes]

Found those pics.
This is the FW190A-5/U8, W.Nr. 152596, of 1/SKG 10, which landed in error at Manston, Kent, on 20th June, 1943, flown by Uffz. Werner Ohne (umlaut over the 'O'), seen after being painted in RAF colours.
It would seem to have the later-style wheel, with the bolts around the circumference clearly visible. Note also the similar wheel on the other (unidentified) FW190 in the background, in the second pic.

 

[Crimea_River]

Ah yes, thanks Geo. I have that reference too and it's yet another version of the facts.

Thanks for all the input and offers guys. I scoured through both volumes of my Smith and Creek tome and must say that, if the captions are true, it would appear that both types are possible though the what-I-call "spoked" style is more dominent on the A-5. I'm seeing the possibility that both styles of wheels may have been provided as spares to the units and that some 190s that originally rolled off the line with the factory wheels may have received other types during maintenance in the field. Heck there was even a picture of an A-8 with spoked wheels! The caption for the spoked wheel picture in the Squadron Walkaround book says that the spoked hub had a snap ring on the rim that was an injury risk so maybe that style was unpopular with the black men.

I've looked at my spares again and one of the smooth-hubbed wheel pairs is noticeably smaller in diameter that the others so I won't use those. I have the kit wheels and two other pairs in my unbuilt Eduard 190. I'll sleep on it and decide if I will try to make the spoked type from the kit part and, if it fails, steal a flat one from the Eduard kit and go with that. I've seen only one pic of Philipp's rig and it doesn't show the wheels.

 

[Crimea_River]

I crossed posts with you there Terry. Thanks for that. Confirms that both types are possible on the A-5 as I stated above.

 

[Airframes]

I'm wondering if the later, 'plain' wheel was perhaps stronger (or perhaps easier and cheaper to produce ?), as the wing spar and armament changes from the A-5 onwards might have required a newer / stronger wheel ?
Just a thought.

 

[Crimea_River]

Probably just more economical. Plus the snap ring rim style just means another part that needs to be accounted for.

 

[Airframes]

True.

 

[Wayne Little]

Looking good Andy....

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wayne.

Still tweaking the cannon blisters and am not yet satisfied. I'll show pics when I'm done. In the meantime, I got on with the IP and cockpit but first off, I painted the revised wheel well. Note that I chopped off the plastic cannon barrels and left the spar mounts. The well has been given a gloss coat to accept a wash so appears a bit odd here.

The kit instrument panels are provided as thick PE. The upper and lower panels were connected with two tabs which were supposed to be foldedso the the panels are properly spaced. Yeah, says I, that ain't gonna work so I cut the tabs and left one so I can handle the upper panel while painting. The panels were shot with primer, then RLM 66 and he instruments were picked out in black. At this point I realized that the bomb panel should be removed as I'm building the kit with no center stores.

After scoring the panel and dulling my x-acto blade in the process, I snapped off the bomb panel and painted the instruments with white and the various colours. This was followed by creating the lenses with a dab of clear parts cement. Far from perfect results but it's more than adequate in 1/48 and the fact that the panels are tucked far up into the tub and I'm modelling the canopy closed.

The tub was painted 66 and got a heavy chipping treatment before the panel was added and the PE belts were installed and painted. I like to have the lap belts standing up a bit as in reality they were quite thick and stiff.

DML took a lazy shot at providing the throttle handle as a moulded part on the side panel. I contemplated leaving this as is for the reasons mentioned but I don't think it will do. I think I'll add a piece of rod to improve this a bit.

And you are once again up to date. Thanks for following.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy. I agree about the throttle handle. Below the throttle, on the sidewall, there was a throttle friction adjuster (white arrow in the pic below, A-3 cockpit, but the same layout)), easily added if you wish to do so, by drilling the sidewall from the outside and inserting a length of plastic rod or stretched sprue.

 

[Crimea_River]

Yeah thanks. I was aware of that but had shrugged it off as it's far down on the floor. An easy add though so I may do it.