Revell / MPM / Italeri 1/72 scale
Fw 190A-5/U14

by Glen Porter
 

images by Brett Green
 

Here is some thing a little bit different from the usual Focke-Wulf Fw A-8 / D-9 -  torpedo carrying FW 190 A-5 prototype called the U14.

About eight or nine years ago I bought and built the MPM kit of the same aircraft. It utilised the horrible Academy A-8/A-5 kit with a new fuselage, torpedo and associated parts. Although I was reasonably happy with the results, the inadequacies of the Academy Wurger stood out like udders on a bull.

Then, about four or five years ago, Revell released a 1/72 scale Fw 190 A-8/R14 and R15.

Although the U14 prototype was considered a failure, they thought the torpedo degraded its performance too much, near the end of the war the authorities had a change of heart and built several R14s and R15s. The R15 was a similar concept but carried the glider-bomb. By this time the U suffix had been dropped and only the R suffix used.

With the release of this Revell kit, I decided it was time to have another go at the A-5/U14.

The main problem was converting the Revell A-8 back to an A-5.

First thing to tackle was the gun cover in front of the cockpit. I tried several parts from other A-5 kits, Hasegawa, Academy and a resin item from Hawkeye Designs, but none was a good enough fit. I them decided the kit part was thick enough to file it into shape then simply add two drops of epoxy for the gun blisters.

The balance of the conversion was mainly filling panel detail that shouldn't be there such as the radio hatch on the starboard side, fuel filler on the port side and latches at the top of the cowling side panels and so-on. The pitot tube had to be moved from the starboard wing-tip to just outboard of the same-side wing gun but, of course, the U14 didn't have wing-guns so those details also had to be removed.

One of the big problems with the otherwise nice Revell 1/72 scale Fw 190s is that the sliding canopy frame is moulded onto the fuselage halves. As I like to have my 190 canopies open, the canopy frame had to be cut off. Not a problem with a sharp scalpel and a steady hand. A replacement canopy and windscreen from an Italeri kit was installed.

The tail-wheel radius arm in the kit is a bit on the basic side so I scratch-built one from plastic rod and stretched sprue along with some torpedo steadying details.

I have seen some good close-up photos of the rear of the Aerial Torpedo on this aircraft but I didn't have access to them for this project and I wasn't sure how accurate the MPM parts were. Under the circumstances I decided to leave it as it came in the Revell kit.

I'd picked up a second MPM kit at a Swap and Sell so I was able to use these decals on this model along with some from the good old spares box.

This model really was a pleasure to put together and especially with such a satisfying result.
 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

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Model and Text Copyright © 2006 by Glen Porter
Images Copyright © 2006 by Brett Green
Page Created 03 April, 2006
Last Updated 21 February, 2007

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