sharkman
Master at Arms
A what?
This was an idea I came up with early last year. I was hoping to start it sooner but other builds and life put this project on hold. I'm going to post it here and poke away at it for 2013. My plan is to finish it in the new year if I can.
When the great Wall Fw 189 A-2 kit came out I thought it looked really nice and was itching to get it. At first, I wasn’t going to because I try to stick to modelling 1/48 seaplanes and flying boats (with a few exceptions). Then I decided that its such an interesting design that I should get it anyway.
While waiting for the kit to arrive I was checking out the history of the 189 and found that there was a proposed float training version, the FW 189D. Well, that got the gears spinning and I began wondering what this craft would look like if I put some floats on her. That got me playing around in Photoshop to see what she would look like with floats. I thought it looked pretty good (IMO) so I decided to go ahead. Shortly after when I picked up the Squadron reference book I realized that the float version was based on the FW 189 B body style. I still thought that the regular “A” version would make a pretty cool floater and a very unique plane, so I’m calling it a FW 189 D-2. Someone suggested it looked like a big angry dragonfly so I'm also going to nickname it the "Libelle" (Dutch/German for dragonfly I believe, please correct me if I am wrong).
I even came up with a little backstory:
"In the late summer of 1941 as the Germans pushed forward into Russia, the German Luftwaffe had an interest in adapting a Fw 189 for surveillance work that was able to operate from small lakes and reservoirs in the forested terrain of the northern sector along the Eastern Front. One FW 189 A-2 bearing the brown and green splinter camouflage common over forested areas was fitted with a pair of Arado floats and re-designated FW 189D-2. Tests were successful but no further aircraft were converted as flights from existing air bases proved sufficient."
I searched the internet looking for some suitable aftermarket float kits that would work. While coming up short I checked some of the kits I currently have. The two that looked good were from HiPM’s Arado Ar 196 and from Planet Models Arado Ar 95. Both of these kits are a little on the costly side so I didn’t want to buy an additional kit and rob floats from either. I decided to write Planet Models and see if they would sell me just the floats from the Ar 95. I drafted an email up to them and they had no problem with it. 10 euros and a couple weeks later, I had a suitable set of floats to use for this project.
Well, i broke some ground this evening and started the basics of the cockpit. Not much but wanted to get a start on this.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this whiffer!
This was an idea I came up with early last year. I was hoping to start it sooner but other builds and life put this project on hold. I'm going to post it here and poke away at it for 2013. My plan is to finish it in the new year if I can.
When the great Wall Fw 189 A-2 kit came out I thought it looked really nice and was itching to get it. At first, I wasn’t going to because I try to stick to modelling 1/48 seaplanes and flying boats (with a few exceptions). Then I decided that its such an interesting design that I should get it anyway.
While waiting for the kit to arrive I was checking out the history of the 189 and found that there was a proposed float training version, the FW 189D. Well, that got the gears spinning and I began wondering what this craft would look like if I put some floats on her. That got me playing around in Photoshop to see what she would look like with floats. I thought it looked pretty good (IMO) so I decided to go ahead. Shortly after when I picked up the Squadron reference book I realized that the float version was based on the FW 189 B body style. I still thought that the regular “A” version would make a pretty cool floater and a very unique plane, so I’m calling it a FW 189 D-2. Someone suggested it looked like a big angry dragonfly so I'm also going to nickname it the "Libelle" (Dutch/German for dragonfly I believe, please correct me if I am wrong).
I even came up with a little backstory:
"In the late summer of 1941 as the Germans pushed forward into Russia, the German Luftwaffe had an interest in adapting a Fw 189 for surveillance work that was able to operate from small lakes and reservoirs in the forested terrain of the northern sector along the Eastern Front. One FW 189 A-2 bearing the brown and green splinter camouflage common over forested areas was fitted with a pair of Arado floats and re-designated FW 189D-2. Tests were successful but no further aircraft were converted as flights from existing air bases proved sufficient."
I searched the internet looking for some suitable aftermarket float kits that would work. While coming up short I checked some of the kits I currently have. The two that looked good were from HiPM’s Arado Ar 196 and from Planet Models Arado Ar 95. Both of these kits are a little on the costly side so I didn’t want to buy an additional kit and rob floats from either. I decided to write Planet Models and see if they would sell me just the floats from the Ar 95. I drafted an email up to them and they had no problem with it. 10 euros and a couple weeks later, I had a suitable set of floats to use for this project.
Well, i broke some ground this evening and started the basics of the cockpit. Not much but wanted to get a start on this.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this whiffer!
