Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-6

by Roy Long

Tamiya's 1/48 scale Fw 190F-8 is available online at Squadron.com

In late 1943 a Luftwaffe unit was formed to conduct operational testing of "Sturm" tactics against the growing numbers of USAAF daylight bombing missions. The unit was designated Sturmstaffel 1. It was comprised entirely of volunteers equipped with Fw190A-6s and later Fw190A-7/R8s. The Sturmjäger tactics proved to be successful enough to form Sturmstaffeln within JG3, JG4, JG5 and JG300.

Many of Sturmstaffel 1's pilots went on to form the nucleus of III(Sturm)/JG4 and took the distinctive black/white/black tail bands with them. This model depicts one of the Fw190A-6s assigned to Sturmstaffel 1, flown by Irwin Bacsila.

I used the Tamiya Fw-190F-8 as the basis for this conversion. Cutting Edge Details' Fw 190A-4/-5/-6/-7/-8 Conversion Set provided the parts for the A6. A CMK "Rammjäger" Set was used for the cockpit and some of the Sturmjäger specific details. (Note: the term "Rammjäger" and its coännotations are not well accepted nor well liked by the former Luftwaffe pilot community, I only use it here as that is what CMK have titled their set.) The markings are from the outstanding EagleCals #7, "Sturmjäger part 1-Sturmstaffel 1 As".

Construction and Fw190A-6 Conversion

This is actually the first Tamiya Fw190A I've built and it did build up as reported. It was strange not to have to correct warped wings, fuselage, etc. The Cutting Edge set contains a whole bunch of parts which include early and late outboard armament covers, early and late ailerons, "flat" nose gun cover and the associated narrow gun trough insert and the smaller inboard main gear covers and linkages. The instructions were nicely done and showed which parts were needed for each variant as well as which panel lines needed to be added or filled in for each variant. Construction started by determining what parts of the CE set I would need and what panel lines would need attention to turn an F-8 into an A-6. I parts I used were the "flat" nose gun cover and the associated narrow gun trough insert and late outboard armament covers. Additional modifications included repositioning the pitot tube to the mid wing position, adding one small panel and filling in two.

I started as usual with the cockpit. The CMK set is quite comprehensive and contains most of what one would need to convert the Tamiya Fw190F-8 to A-8/R8 standards. Contents include a full cockpit and seat in resin with photo-etch instrument panels and acetate dials, parts for the outboard MK 103 30mm resin comprising of inserts for exposed cannon and their covers and the wing leading edge barrel fairings, inserts and covers for the nose mounted MG ammo boxes, resin frames and acetate "glass" panels for the canopy mounted armored "blinkers", photoetch fuselage armor panels and as a final nice touch, decals for two Fw190A-8/R8s.

Initially I was not planning to use the CMK cockpit, but I found that it had a spare instrument panel for the A-6. The cockpit parts were cleaned up and painted RLM 66, then given a wash of dark brown. When the wash dried, the parts were drybrushed and flat coated with Testors Dullcote. The cockpit was assembled and mounted in the fuselage.

The construction of the fuselage was straightforward until I attempted to add the CE nose gun cover and its associated narrow trough. I don' know whether it was self inflicted or the CE parts but after the removal of the kit parts I encountered some gaps which were filled with gap filling superglue, sanded out and the panel lines rescribed.

The construction of the wings was equally straightforward with the exception of the new outer wing gun panels. My guess is the CE set was patterned after the panels of the DML kit, which have a slightly different shape. I cut the panels out of the lower wing following the panel lines and when I fit the new covers in there were some gaps to deal with, out came the super glue, sanding sticks and the scriber and after a little work, every thing was OK again.

The rest of the main construction went with out a hitch and I was ready for the real fun stuff.

This particular Fw 190 was one of the very first to be fitted with the equipment that would be later designated "R8" on Fw 190-A7 and -A8s. It had full wind screen and canopy armor as well as applique armor on the fuselage. I started out with the windscreen that by this time had been mounted to the fuselage. I made a rubbing of the triangular side panels with a soft pencil and thin paper to make a template. The lines from the rubbing were cleaned up and the template was used to cut the add on panels from a sheet of .20 clear styrene. The panels were then masked off and were painted RLM 66 to represent the wooden frames that held them in place on the original planes. They were set aside until the model was almost completely finished and were fixed in place with a drop of Future.

The frames for the canopy panels were provided in resin in the CMK set, as were acetate "glass" panels. I found that the outline of the acetate sheets did not match the resin frames. To compensate for this, I traced the inside of the frame on paper and transferred that to another piece of clear styrene to my delight, after they were cleaned up it was a near perfect fit the first time around, I wouldn't have to cut any more clear styrene.

The frames were painted RLM 66 and the "glass was glued in with thinned "Micro Krystal Klear". These were set aside unit later as I had to tackle two of the many interesting points of "White 7". As its later brethren would be, "White 7" had some modifications to decrease its weight the first being the removal of the nose mounted machine guns, the second was the removal of the pilot's head armor. This is a fairly simple modification, as it only required the addition of a piece of brass rod to simulate the cross brace remaining in the canopy.

The second of the two points of interest in the canopy area was "White 7" was one of several Fw190A-6s in SS1 that was fitted with a reduced drag canopy. This canopy differed from a "standard" flat canopy near the front of the canopy in front of the antenna tensioning mechanism. The reduced drag canopy had a smoother profile in comparison to the standard that had a bit of a "hump" in that area. To replicate the reduced drag canopy I sanded the area nearly flat and then polished it out. Any lost detail was restored with paint when I masked and painted the frame (I wasn't about to rescribe the frame line to match the rest of the canopy). I didn’t like the rounded corners on the CMK supplied brass fuselage armor so I used it as a template to cut new ones from .10 styrene. I had them ready to be glued onto the model and something prompted me to check the pictures in the SS 1 book and I noticed that instead of the later 3-piece arrangement, the first A-6s equipped with them had a four piece arrangement. So I used the CMK supplied brass as a template again and made the four pieces. These were then glued to the fuselage with little dabs of superglue, working from the top so I could ensure they would conform to the curvature of the fuselage.

When this had dried, It was time for my favorite part, painting.


 

First, the gearbays, cockpit opening and engine opening were masked off.

I then sprayed the fuselage add on armor with a mix of Testors Steel and Burnt Metal Metalizer and masked them off with Parafilm (more on this later). I started the paint job by spraying the panel lines flat black for "reverse shading".

I also took the opportunity to try some thing I had wanted to try out. I had notice that many of the pictures of SS 1's 190s had a scruffy appearance possibly because they were mostly hand-me-downs from other Gruppen. In an attempt to replicate this, I sprayed random scribbles and blotches in medium gray and white, focusing more on the upper surfaces. I then airbrushed several very light coats of Model master RLM 76 on the undersides and fuselage sides and then sprayed RLM 74 and 75 in the same manner on the upper surfaces.

The RLM 74 and 75 were then thinned even more for the mottling. I then masked off the under side of the cowling and sprayed it with RLM 04 Gelb. The fuselage band was masked off and sprayed whit and then masked again for the black. The thin black "outline" bands came from the decal sheet. After the paint had dried for a while the model was clear-coated with Future. When it dried I started my second favorite part, decals.


 

The EagleCals were as usual for them, very well done and they went on with out a hitch. Once they were dry I filled the panel lines with artists ink heavily thinned with a non-toxic airbrush cleaning solution and then sprayed a few thin coats of Aeromaster Enamel Satin Clear mixed with a drop or two of Testors Clear Flat. When that had dried I went back to the fuselage armor panels and removed the Parafilm masks. I is believed that the panels may have been provided either primed in RLM 02 or in unfinished steel with a thin coat of RLM 76 for SS 1s crews to mount and paint them, either way the panels have a distinct shade to them. I opted for the unfinished steel. I then masked the area around them so I could spray a very thin coat of RLM 76 over them. At this point all the addition small details were added such as the wing tip lights, antenna aerials canopy and landing gear.

I continued with the scruffy theme into the weathering by airbrushing the areas the crew would have walked on with Testors Clear Flat. Pastels and staining with artists' ink thinned with a non-toxic airbrush cleaning solution completed the weathering.

• "Sturmstaffel 1: Reich Defense 1943-44 the War Diary", Erich Mombeek

• "Sturmjäger Band 2", Erich Mombeek

• "Focke Wulf Jagdflugzeug Fw 190A Fw 190 "Dora" Ta 152 H", Peter Rodeike

• Niel Page's "IV (S)/JG3 Site" at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/neilpage/homepage.html
   

Model, Text and Images Copyright © 2001 by Roy Long
Page Created 13 September, 2001
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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