1/72 Revell Germany FW 200

Gallery Article by Alvis 3.1 on July 26 2011

 

So, you're wondering, what did Alvis do to this model to make it silly or weird or whatever? Well, I hate to tell you, but the ugly truth is that I didn't do  a thing to mess with it, it's straight out of the box, no aftermarket, no scratchbuilding, no fuzzy dice or space aliens.

The kit was actually pretty straight forward to assemble and paint, lacking only swastikas for the tail. Fortunately, I was able to access a huge variety of swastika decals from aftermarket sources to find one the right size and style.

The interior is actually very detailed, sadly, you can't see much once the model is buttoned up. Did I take pictures of the inside before I closed it? Nah, why be that organized? I did leave the aft door open and scattered some papers on the desks inside.

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 The most  difficult part of the model to assemble was the landing gear. Compare this to a B-17, and you can see it's a mass of struts and pipes and tubes and stuff, making a slightly complicated buildup, but hats off the Revell Germany, not only did it all fit nicely, it was robust enough to survive my ham-fisted attempts to insert into the gear bays at the end of the buildup.

 The anti-shipping missiles, the Hs 293s were nice little kits into themselves, and slotted perfectly into their cradles. They were painted RLM 65, which doesn't really look a lot different from RLM 76 in these photos.

 I found the nose mounted antenna to be a tad overly thick looking, but for injected styrene, they do the job ok. If I was a sticklere for accuracy (which if you know me, I'm  most defintely not) I'd replace them with etched metal.

I built this for a friend, and he requested I do the squiggly camo. How hard could it be, I thought? Good thing the wife and kids weren't home the day I did it, as it took a tad longer than the hour I had anticipated I also got to practice my German swearing...never again will I try squiggle camo with Model Master acrylics, or any acrylic for that matter. The paint kept drying on the tip of the airbrush, and splattering was a constant occurance. I had to repaint several sections of fuselage several times before I got it kind of done. It still isn't as good as I'd like, but done is done. The majority of the plane is the suggested RLM 72/73 over 76. The kit decals went on great. Overall, I liked the model, hated the painting.

Alvis 3.1

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Photos and text © by Alvis 3.1