Eduard 1/48 Focke Wulf Fw 190A-8/R2 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

For a description of the Fw 190A-8, take a look at our original Fw 190A-8 first look here. The Fw 190A-8/R2 was a special variant that placed the 30mm cannons outboard of the main landing gear and upgraded the armor plating around the pilot as well. Dubbed Sturmböck, these Fw 190A-8/R2 variants were designed to inflict heavy damage on allied bombers with fewer shots while enduring return fire from the .50 caliber machine guns around the bomber formation.

Eduard first released this variant in March of 2007 in their Royal Class edition. This subject is reissued in this release in the Profipack edition

The Fw 190A-8/R2 kit is presented on six parts trees molded in gray styrene plus one tree of clear parts, one fret of color-printed photo-etched parts, and one set of yellow tape (Kabuki) paint masks. Among the features and options in this kit:

• Choice of fuselages (two included)
• Beautifully detailed cockpit
• Positionable canopy
• Positionable gun hood
• Detailed main wheel wells
• Optional open gun bays in the wing roots
• Detailed BMW 801
• Special jig is included to install and properly position each of the eight engine stacks that exit along the sides of the fuselage
• The top and sides of the cowling are separately molded so you can pose the panels open, removed, or buttoned up (which would be a shame to hide all that detail inside)
• The main gear struts are molded to be fool-proof for getting the right 8 degree angle offset of the main wheels to the strut and for getting the struts positioned properly on the wings.
• Positionable ailerons
• Positionable rudder
• Optional centerline drop tank

The ailerons and rudder are separately molded and positionable, but the elevators are molded in place. You'll have to do some surgery to position these.

One comment on Eduard's packaging. Some of the parts trees are individually bagged while others are two-trees-per-bag. In the latter case, the engineering of this solution is elegantly simple. When two trees are designed to be bagged together, one receives four-to-six pins molded on the frame that plug into four-to-six holes molded into the other frame. The two trees are locked together so they won't rub together during shipping and damage smaller parts whilst inside the bags. Simply brilliant!

Markings are provided for six aircraft:

• Fw 190A-8/R2, W.Nr.681424, Green 3, Stab/II.(Sturm)/JG 4, Sept 1944, as flown by Hans-Günther von Kornatzki
• Fw 190A-8/R2, W.Nr. unk, Black 13, II.(Sturm)/JG 3, July 1944, as flown by Werner Gerth
• Fw 190A-8/R2, W.Nr. unk, Black 10, 8./JG 300, Dec 1944, as flown by Karl Spenst
• Fw 190A-8/R2, W.Nr.682641, Yellow 1, 6./JG 300, Oct 1944, as flown by Ewald Preiss
• Fw 190A-8/R2, W.Nr. unk, White 11, 5./JG 4, Jan 1945, as flown by Walter Wagner
• Fw 190A-8/R2, W.Nr. unk, former White 11, as flown by Leo C. Moon, 405 FG/9th AF, Feb 1945

Two sheets of decals are provided, one for the distinctive unit markings, one for the maintenance stenciling.

It is nice to see this variant reissued as a Profipack with six new decal subjects as well. This kit series remains one of the nicest Fw 190s in 1/48th scale and will make a great addition to your scale flightline.

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!