1/32 scale Hasegawa Fw 190A-8
Rauhbautz!

Hasegawa's 1/32 scale Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8 is available online from Squadron.com

Rauhbautz.

This means "tough guy" in German - definitely appropriate for a pilot who agrees to ram his enemy if he cannot shoot him down!

Klaus Bretschneider's Red 1 of 5./JG 300 is a long-time favourite aircraft of Chris Wauchop. Although he had just finished painting a 1/32 scale Hasegawa Wurger as a Sturmbock, his enthusiasm was not dimmed. Next model off the rank would be Red 1 in 1/32 scale.

For specific details and photos of kit contents and basic construction, check out our recent Sturmbock Construction Feature.

Chris did not use any after-market conversions or correction sets on this model. He did, however, make a significant number of detail improvements during construction.

Before starting assembly, Chris added subtle rivet detail to the fuselage and wings. On the fuselage, including the side armour, Chris used a needle in a pin vise to individually drill each rivet hole. He used a small Pounce Wheel to speed the process on the larger wing surfaces.

With the surface suitably prepared, construction commenced with the following additions:

• Armour plates added to fuselage sides using .020" plastic sheet. The armour plates were bevelled on the edges in accordance with reference photos.

• The cowl gun troughs on this aircraft (and other Fw 190A-8/R8s) were faired over. Chris used stretched sprue for the basic plug, then shaped the piece to fit by sanding.

• Ejector chutes opened on lower wing for 30mm cartridges.

• 30mm gun barrels from brass tube

• 20mm ejector chutes closed on lower outer gun panels

• The kit cockpit was used as supplied, but a harness was added from lead foil (for the straps) and wire (for buckles and attachment points). The gun sight reflectors were replaced with clear acetate cut to size. The missing section of instrument coaming crash-pad (behind the gunsight) was filled with a short section of stretched sprue.

• Canopy rail guides were engraved with a scribing tool..

• The drop tank was replaced with the item from the 1/32 scale Bf 109G-6 kit. Plumbing and locking pin details were added using brass wire.

• Exhausts and gun barrels were hollowed.

• The gun camera port in the leading edge of the port wing was enlarged and a lens was added using Krystal Kleer and Tamiya Smoke acrylic paint.

• Landing gear hydraulic lines were added from fine wire and solder. Tiny actuator wiring is stretched sprue. The landing gear indicators on top of the wings were represented by fine brass wire.

• The trailing FuG aerial was made from brass wire.

• The metal section at the end of the Morane mast was replaced with fine brass wire.

• A staple from one of Tamiya's clear plastic bags was used to form the DF loop.

• Aerial was sourced from smoke-coloured invisible mending thread. The isloators were built up from drops of Krystal Kleer then painted.

• A lens for the gun camera was added using Krystal Kleer.

• The flaps were modified to reduce the angle of droop.

• The tail wheel was retracted slightly.

• Prior to painting, Chris spent some extra time cleaning up the join line between the upper wing halves and the fuselage wing root.

Camouflage

The model was painted using the Testor Aztek A470 airbrush fitted with the fine tan tip.

Chris used Gunze acrylics - RLM 74, 75 and 76 - for the camouflage colours. The RLM 75 was lightened slightly with white to increase the contrast between the two upper surface shades.

Tamiya Flat Yellow acrylic, mixed with a drop of Gloss Red, was sprayed on the lower cowl..

The armoured glass panels on the inside of the windscreen were simulated by painting wide, dark grey frames on the inside of the kit part. These were further emphasised by painting a fine light grey line around the border of the frames on the outside of the windscreen.

The front sun shield on the Revi gunsight was painted Gunze Clear Green mixed with a drop of Gunze Clear Red to reduce the bright tone.

Chris used his usual weathering techniques, including post-shading panel lines with a thinly sprayed mix of Tamiya acrylic Red Brown and Black. Wing walks, cowl panels and the canopy were also "chipped" using the point of a silver artist's pencil.

Prior to applying decals, Chris polished the surface of the model with a fine cloth. This removed some paint from the raised lips of the rivet holes, adding subtle emphasis.

Markings

Eagle Strike Decals #32-061 was used for the markings.

Although references state that the colour of the markings was a dull dark red, Chris thought that the decals looked a little too dark and brownish. He cut a stencil to paint the number 1 on the fuselage side, and repainted the horizontal II Gruppe bar decal in the same colour.

A background of RLM 74 Grey Green was sprayed prior to applying the fuselage crosses.

References were carefully consulted to ensure that many interesting one-off stencil variations were accurately depicted on the model.

The spinner spiral was masked and sprayed. The white section of the spinner is noticeably wider than the black base colour.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Modelling Manuals 20 US Price: $17.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date:  May 25, 2002 Details: 64 pages; ISBN: 1841762687 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model by Chris Wauchop
Text Copyright © 2004 by Chris Wauchop & Brett Green
Images Copyright © 2004 by Brett Green
Page Created 23 October, 2004
Last Updated 26 October, 2004

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