Old Dog
Well-known member
This kit showed up a few weeks ago and I did a quick review for my site but before it got placed in the stash I couldn't resist building it. I was struggling along on some old kits and needed something easy to break the monotony.
The aircraft just looked bad ass to me and I couldn't resist. As usual HobbyBoss was a little loose on the accuracy side but close enough to suit me. The note on the lower left of the box states that the model may look different than the box art, and they are correct.
First a little history...
The Focke-Wulf 190 V-18 was one of five aircraft that were built as prototypes ( V18, V29, V30, V32 and V33) for the Fw 190C version which was to be a high altitude fighter with an exhaust driven super charger and a pressurized cockpit. All were powered by DB 603G engines driving four bladed Schwarz wooded propellers, and all had turbo superchargers in distinctive ventral housings which resulted in them being known as Kanguruhs (kangaroos). Problems with the superchargers plagued the project, most often failure of the pipes carrying the exhaust gases to withstand the extremely high temperatures. Eventually it was decided that the superchargers needed much more development before they would be reliable for service use and the 190C was removed from the RLM's list of potential service aircraft, although work on the superchargers continued.
Like most kits the build starts with the internal parts. The 190 has a very small cockpit opening so not a lot will be seen when closed up so I went mostly out of box. I used the supplied decals on both the upper and lower panels. They didn't line up all that well with the raised detail which is a little soft so it's hardly noticeable. I did add belts and harness to the seat and a throttle lever to the side console.
The main panel mounts to the fuselage below the cowl and will be hard to see. A PE panel would be wasted on this.
The kit includes an engine accessory section as it can be seen through the openings in the wheel wells. Probably could be more detailed with wires and hoses but it also will be difficult to see once assembled. The rather large piping is the duct work from the supercharger.
The V18 was not armed and though they got it right on the box art, the supplied cowling has gun ports, these will be filled and sanded down. Same for the gun ports in the wings. The photos I could find do not show the bulges on the wings for the guns either but I decided it was too much work to remove them so just left them.
Overall the fit was very good and I only needed to use a hint of filler, shown below it is ready for a coat of primer. The cowling is just pressed in place and will be removed for ease of painting.
Now in primer.
The gear doors fit snug enough I just pressed them in place to mask the wheel wells.
And done. All the markings except that swastika and werk number were painted on. I seem to always have silvering issues with the late war crosses and the kit decals had a lot of extra film on the code letters. The kit swastika was a multi part affair so I used one from an after market sheet I had. The work number was the only kit decal I used on the outside and it seemed to take an eternity to loosen up on the backing sheet but settled down OK. I used three different shades of alclad. the cowling and lower nose are aluminum, the area around the cockpit is dark aluminum and the cladding used to protect the airframe from the hot exhaust was steel. The cowling was buffed using some Hawkeye's aluminum polishing powder.
You can see the different metallic colors pretty well in the next photo.
The kit fit together very well and was a fun and relaxing build for a change, just the break I was looking for.
Thanks for looking !
The aircraft just looked bad ass to me and I couldn't resist. As usual HobbyBoss was a little loose on the accuracy side but close enough to suit me. The note on the lower left of the box states that the model may look different than the box art, and they are correct.
First a little history...
The Focke-Wulf 190 V-18 was one of five aircraft that were built as prototypes ( V18, V29, V30, V32 and V33) for the Fw 190C version which was to be a high altitude fighter with an exhaust driven super charger and a pressurized cockpit. All were powered by DB 603G engines driving four bladed Schwarz wooded propellers, and all had turbo superchargers in distinctive ventral housings which resulted in them being known as Kanguruhs (kangaroos). Problems with the superchargers plagued the project, most often failure of the pipes carrying the exhaust gases to withstand the extremely high temperatures. Eventually it was decided that the superchargers needed much more development before they would be reliable for service use and the 190C was removed from the RLM's list of potential service aircraft, although work on the superchargers continued.
Like most kits the build starts with the internal parts. The 190 has a very small cockpit opening so not a lot will be seen when closed up so I went mostly out of box. I used the supplied decals on both the upper and lower panels. They didn't line up all that well with the raised detail which is a little soft so it's hardly noticeable. I did add belts and harness to the seat and a throttle lever to the side console.
The main panel mounts to the fuselage below the cowl and will be hard to see. A PE panel would be wasted on this.
The kit includes an engine accessory section as it can be seen through the openings in the wheel wells. Probably could be more detailed with wires and hoses but it also will be difficult to see once assembled. The rather large piping is the duct work from the supercharger.
The V18 was not armed and though they got it right on the box art, the supplied cowling has gun ports, these will be filled and sanded down. Same for the gun ports in the wings. The photos I could find do not show the bulges on the wings for the guns either but I decided it was too much work to remove them so just left them.
Overall the fit was very good and I only needed to use a hint of filler, shown below it is ready for a coat of primer. The cowling is just pressed in place and will be removed for ease of painting.
Now in primer.
The gear doors fit snug enough I just pressed them in place to mask the wheel wells.
And done. All the markings except that swastika and werk number were painted on. I seem to always have silvering issues with the late war crosses and the kit decals had a lot of extra film on the code letters. The kit swastika was a multi part affair so I used one from an after market sheet I had. The work number was the only kit decal I used on the outside and it seemed to take an eternity to loosen up on the backing sheet but settled down OK. I used three different shades of alclad. the cowling and lower nose are aluminum, the area around the cockpit is dark aluminum and the cladding used to protect the airframe from the hot exhaust was steel. The cowling was buffed using some Hawkeye's aluminum polishing powder.
You can see the different metallic colors pretty well in the next photo.
The kit fit together very well and was a fun and relaxing build for a change, just the break I was looking for.
Thanks for looking !
Looks like we need a strange bird category. Gary S.