Trumpeter 1/24 Focke Wulf Fw 190D-9 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Fw 190D series was a development of the successful Fw 190A/F series powered by the air-cooled BMW 801 radial engine. To answer a requirement for a high altitude interceptor, Kurt Tank realized that the radial engine was going to have cooling problems operating at combat power in thin air. The answer was to adapt a liquid-cooled engine and his first choice was the Daimler Benz DB603, but was forced to use the Jumo 213 instead. While retaining the appearance of an air-cooled engine (and a long one at that), the new cowling housed the V-12 engine with a round radiator occupying the entire face of the cowling intake.

The first full-production of the 'Dora' series was the Fw 190D-9, armed with a pair of MG131 13mm machine guns above the engine and two MG151 20mm cannons in the wing roots. The Dora was a formidable fighter, though it came too late in the war to make a significant impact. Many of these aircraft were lost to pilot inexperience coupled with the aircraft's stability in certain flight regimes (especially at take-off and landing).

This one was a bit of a shocker - given the size of this aircraft and the scale of 1/24, I was expecting a huge box! Even though the size of the package is more managable, don't let the size of the box fool you - Trumpeter has done a nice job on this kit!

Molded in light gray styrene, the kit features finely scribed details on all of the visible surfaces. While someone will no doubt offer a resin cockpit tub, the kit's tub is comprised of nine detailed parts, capturing look of the cockpit quite nicely. While there is no photo-etched parts to detail this kit save the photo-etched hinges for the flight controls, they've done a nice job with offering acetate instrument faces under a clear instrument panel that you can mask and paint.

When I saw the early test shots of this kit, I was concerned that Trumpeter was doomed to repeat the Trimaster/Tamiya wheel well error by fully enclosing the main gear wells. Since that time, they've corrected the parts and now the main wheel wells are open into the engine compartment, and in true Trumpeter fashion, the kit comes with a highly detailed Jumo 213 on engine mounts that will give you something to see from below.

The MG131 machine guns are nicely done under gun hood (and your choice of two styles of gun hood are provided). The MG151 canons are also nicely done even though you'll only see the barrels portruding through the main wheel wells.

The main landing gear struts are molded in black styrene and are designed with spring-loading to articulate with weight on the gear.

The main wheels are styrene, not rubber, but like the rubber-wheeled kits, the tires and hubs are separate parts, making painting and weathering much easier.

Two types of canopies are provided in the kit. The streamlined canopy with early styled armor plate frame and the blown canopy with the complete armor plate support fairing are included.

All of the flight controls are positionable - rudder, elevators, ailerons and landing flaps. In addition, the access panel in the left side of the vertical stabilizer is molded separately, allowing you to pose the aircraft under maintenance.

Markings are provided for two examples:

• Fw 190D-9, Yellow 11, JG 2
• Fw 190D-9, Black 12, KG(J) 27

I'm impressed! While I'll leave it to the luftexperten to comment on specific aspects of its accuracy, from where I sit, this looks like a very nice piece of work that will fill a nice void in the 1/24 flightline.

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!