1/72 Tamiya Focke Wulf FW 190D-9 - Blue 12

Gallery Article by Eric BADE on Aug 23 2010

 

I sometimes like to try new topics and the Luftwaffe is one of them. I seldom build aircraft of the Luftwaffe and when I do, I generally build late war aircraft, mostly FW190 and Me109s so far as I get more and more interested in their camouflages that seem to vary from aircraft construction batch to aircraft construction batch.

I had tried the very same “Blue 12” FW190D-9 previously. It was built from the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale Dora and was featured some time back on ARC. Unfortunately at the very time I finished the model I knew it probably was not accurate as I found newer information on the aircraft.

http://www.arcair.com/Gal4/3001-3100/Gal3018_Fw190_Bade/00.shtm

“Blue 12” might be one of the best documented FW190 D as many photographs were taken when its pilot surrendered at the very end of World War 2. It was photographed from several angles including in color photographs. From a modeler’s point of view it provides the opportunity of an intricate late war camouflage with plenty of different hues.

This time I wanted to base my Dora on the Tamiya model. I searched my decal sheets for an interesting machine. After some searches, both for available decals and available information I decided that I should try “Blue 12” again, using available information from both the Japo and Crandall books on FW190 Ds.

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The Tamiya model was used and virtually no aftermarket details were added. I built it almost straight from the box, following instructions.

As it turned out, a very good modeler and friend of mine was building a FW190 D in 1/48th scale and pointed out the fact that the rear most part of the engine should be visible from the outside, though the landing gear well.  I therefore decided I should correct the Tamiya little kit.  The landing gear well center section ceiling was deleted, and the rear part of the engine and related accessories were built from plastic bits and stretched sprue.  

The Tamiya model contains a remarkably small number of parts for such a quality model and construction is straightforward and easy. Virtually no filling or sanding is necessary.

The major part of this project is painting. Due to color photographs being available for the real late war machine I would have thought that camouflage colors were easy to determine. Although I own both the very well documented Crandall-Eagle  and Japo books about FW190 D-9s, several essays and decal sheet about this aircraft I found out that no do source information agreed on colors. I first determined that the best decal source would probably be the Eagle Cal sheet.

For camo colors I mixed the Japo and Crandall - Eagle explanations. Wings and most rear fuselage are based on the Japo book, while front fuselage rather is from Crandall data. Most colors are from the Gunze acrylic range, some colors being mixes. Metallic shades that are from the Xtracolour range. Decaling and weathering quickly followed.

Some details were added later. These are antennas which are photo etched parts for fineness. Pitot tube is a metal part. Some other details are stretches sprue while brake lines are thin metal wire.

These details are added to complete the model. I finished this model with the strange feeling that some questions still remain in camouflage details but with the satisfaction of deeper research and a better model than my first try with “blue 12”.

Eric BADE

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Photos and text © by Eric BADE