Once again
Hasegawa has out done themselves. If you thought their Bf-109G was a jewel
you’ll be even more pleasantly surprised by the recent release of their
Fw-190D-9. This is a completely new tool kit and it certainly shows. The detail
is excellent. Recessed panel lines abound and the fit is near perfect. One nice
touch was the inclusion of a PE fret on the initial release of the kit to the
U.S. market. I used some but not all of the PE items. Quite frankly, with the
exception of the seat belts, the PE set is not needed. I built the kit basically
OOB.
The kit goes
together very well and very quickly. The PE set gives you the instrument panel
with the clear instrument dials. I opted for the easy way out and used the kit
decals to represent these as well as the side consoles. I think these decals
look very nice and are a lot less work. I used RLM 66 for the basic cockpit then
applied an enamel wash of grimy black followed by a burnt sienna wash. The burnt
sienna dries a bit lighter shade and gives the impression of dirt better. The
cockpit is set aside and I went to work on the accessory unit.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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One thing about
the Dora is that the accessory unit of the DB engine is visible through the
wheel wells. Hasegawa did a very nice job here duplicating that unit and it has
plenty of detail (most of which will not be seen unless you display the model on
a mirror). Once this unit was painted and assembled it too was given a wash of
grimy black and burnt sienna. The two assemblies are then glued to the fuse
half.
The fit of the
fuse halves is perfect and no putty was needed. Hasegawa has done a truly
outstanding job in the engineering of this kit. I used another piece of the PE
for the supercharger intake. Once the two halves of the intake were glued
together the round screen was inserted and secured in place using liquid cement.
Be careful of the two pins on the front of the fuse. These receive the front
cowl and cowl flap assembly. The can break easily. I know cause I broke one of
them and had to reattach it.
The wing is
next. There is an excellent wheel well insert with lots of detail molded in. I
sprayed all the areas RLM 02 and then applied a wash of grimy black followed by
a light wash of burnt sienna. The wing fit to the fuse is perfect. I didn’t
even need to use putty here. The liquid cement filled the joints nicely. Not
even a sanding was needed. How good is that?
The tail unit is separate from the
fuse (similar to the 109 model). Hasegawa did this so they can put out future
variants of the 190 and 152 that had different tail units. The joint is right on
a panel line so you can’t see it. In fact all the major joints are along panel
lines.
Jeff
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