Focke-Wulf
Fw 190C-0 (V13)

by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

R.V. Resin Kit #4802

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Finding historical information in English on this prototype was difficult.

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 was a great fighter but its ultimate performance potential was limited by its non-supercharged engine. Above 20,000 feet the aircraft was decidedly non-maneuverable and the engine performance fell off rapidly. The Fw 190C was a projected high altitude aircraft.

To address the performance problem the Fw 190C-0 was re-engined with the DB603A inline engine. The V13 was the first prototype designed for the high altitude mission.

Even though marginally successful, by 1944 the project had been cancelled due to technical problems and opposition to use of the DB 603. The DB603 was needed for other aircraft, such as the Me-210/410 and the Do-335.

R.V. Resin kit contains some beautiful cast resin in a caramel color with some beautiful surface detail. A fret of photo etch parts is included for the oil coolers, seatbelts, and cockpit coaming. The landing gear is cast in white metal. A single one-piece clear canopy is crystal clear. Decals for this particular aircraft include all the national markings. The instructions are not very helpful. There are parts included in the kit that are not shown on the instructions.

The resin has a fine sheen of mold release agent on all the parts. There are some bubbles and mold imperfections, but the beautiful rivets and panel lines are absolutely exquisite.

Before I began, I washed the entire model with a Dawn dish detergent and warm water to remove the mold release agent. Once that was done it was time to test fit the major parts. I flat sanded the fuselage halves and wing halves. This proved that the major subassemblies fit very well, but when test fit together there was going to be some filling. The wing to fuselage join was a little off and the wings had no dihedral. These would be relatively easy to fixes though.

Fuselage

The fuselage, once flat sanded, fit beautifully.

I have a procedure that I do with all my kits, resin or plastic, and that is to apply a bead of superglue to the seam. I just find this as a way to save time in the construction. Think about it, you are going to sand it anyhow. Why sand and then find a pesky seam when you can eliminate it on the first sanding? Less sanding means less detail lost and the seam will be perfectly filled the first time.

I added the photo etched oil cooler to the inlet. I had to deepen the mounting area with a couple of swipes of an #11 blade. There is another oil cooler that is oval in shape but the instructions don’t show you were it goes. I used it after the wings were attached. Once cleaned up, a coat of RLM 66 was applied to the interior and the cockpit tub.

Cockpit

Assembly of the cockpit tub was easy and just like any other plastic kit. The seatbelts were bent to the seat and then painted Polly-S Dirty White.

A coat of Model Master RLM 66 was applied to the cockpit, followed by a wash of black and a dry brush of RLM 02.

Some detail was added with a silver pencil. The instruments were given a drop of Krystal Klear.

The whole assembly was inserted through the belly and secured with superglue.

Wings

The wing assembly begins with the landing gear well. It is a two-part affair. The wheel wells sit into the lower wing and are sandwiched with the top wing. It is essential that you check the fit prior to gluing the well. Ensure that the well is centered fore and aft, as well as, left and right. The wings fit beautifully and glue together with no problem. I used my normal bead of superglue again.

General Assembly

Now that the two major subassemblies were done it was time to join them. Here is where the first issue with the kit came. The wings had no dihedral and the portion that fits under the fuselage in the front and back was straight while the fuselage was angled up. What to do? First thing I did was get a good join at the front, apply superglue and let dry completely. Then I taped the back portion so that it was fairly close. The wings roots were flush with the fuselage so to get some dihedral I needed some room. I slowly and carefully scraped the wing and fuselage, while still joined, from front to back, ensuring that the amount of resin removed is equal, both front to back, as well as, from each side. The wings were then bent carefully and held in place with some tape.

Once that was done now came the hard part. I used an embossing heat gun (a hair dryer would work). Moving it continuously and working from the center out. Let the heat build slowly so that the resin doesn’t melt or crack. The heating will eventually set the dihedral. Now that everything was bent correctly, it is time to glue everything tight. The whole process took about 30 minutes. Nothing that any modeler couldn’t do. A little filler at the front and in the back and everything was fine.

OK, now we are starting to see the airplane take shape. The tail planes are thin and have no mounting lugs. I drilled holes for hypodermic needles and mounted the tail.

Flat sanding cleaned up the nose cooler. I cleaned up all the small parts. I had to fill some holes in the exhaust stacks and the landing gear doors. The model was now ready to paint. I rewashed the whole model with Dawn dish washing liquid and a toothbrush. I let it dry and then I used some Sylvan Resin-Prep. This ensured that all the oils were removed. I attached the white metal landing gear using five-minute epoxy. The epoxy allows you time to manoeuvre the landing gear to get it aligned.

Primer

The model was given an initial coat of Alclad Grey Primer. Mistakes (oh yes I make them all the time) were cleaned up and some pinholes were filled with 3M Blue Acryl. The whole model was sanded lightly and using a pin the rivets that I sanded off were replaced. Then the aircraft was painted again with the primer. The process was repeated three times. If done correctly the surface imperfections I mentioned disappear but the rivet detail stays. Once happy it was off to the paint booth.

Paint

The V13 was not a flamboyant aircraft. It was painted overall RLM 02. Using my Tamiya airbrush, I pre-shaded the panel lines with RLM 66. For this project I decided to use Model Master Enamel RLM 02. I like to use enamels on resin just in case the surface prep wasn’t perfect. Enamels bite more than acrylic and doesn’t peel up as easily. Once the paint was on I lightened the paint with some flat white and thinned it some more. Then I selectively painted small spots on the whole aircraft. Then I added some more white and painted the fabric control surfaces. This breaks up the monotone color.

Decals

Now that everything was RLM 02 it was time to decal. A coat of Future prepped the surface for decals. The decals are ever so slightly out of register, but not to where it is noticeable. They laid down well, but a word of caution. Once the decals are placed they are done moving. HERE IS A TIP: Use some saliva instead of water on the model. The saliva allows you to slide the decal a little to position it. Once the decals were set in place I used some SolvaSet. The decals were very thin and looked great once dry. I attached the exhaust stacks after painting them with Model Master Burnt Metal Metalizer. The stacks were weathered with Burnt Sienna and orange pastels. Before you seal the nose section, add the oval radiator panel on top of the wheel well. It seemed like a natural place to put it. The instructions don’t show where it goes, but putting it here prevents you from being able to see through the model. Attach the nose radiator after painting it with Model Master Titanium then attach the nose to the model. The wheels were added at this time. They had some bubbles but they cleaned up easily. If you wanted to you could use True Detail wheels.

The prop blades had some pin holes but a little filler and they cleaned up nicely. The blades were pinned to the spinner and the assembly was given a coat of Model Master Black Green. This is the only “flair” to the camouflage.

Another coat of Future sealed everything. Allowed to dry overnight, a coat of Model Master Acrylic Flat prepped the model for weathering. A wash of Burnt Umber Artist Oil in the panel lines brings out the definition. Once it was dry I applied a dry brush of white artist oils over the entire surface of the kit, paying particular attention to the fuselage spine and wings. Silver pencil was used sparingly on the wing root and wing leading edge to simulate chipping.

The only two photos I could find of the V13 showed it after some testing and the exhausts stains were quite noticeable so I wanted to simulate this. I started out with highly thinned Tamiya Flat Earth beginning at the exhaust stacks. As I moved aft I pulled the airbrush away from the model. This gives the effect of thinning and expanding exhaust. Next empty the airbrush but don’t clean it out. Add some Flat Black and more thinner and repeat the process staying more towards the center of the exhaust streak. Finally, add just a little bit of brown pastel immediately aft of the exhausts and drag it back through the exhaust. Now another coat of Flat seals all the pastels.

Before you can attach the canopy you have to bend the anti-glare panel. This is actually fairly easy, but I had to think about how it would mount. I came to the conclusion that the two pieces that are obviously to be used for mounting would be bent so the panel sat on the edge of the canopy sill and not down inside the cockpit. Once that was done a coat of primer and flat black and it was almost time to celebrate.

The only thing left was the canopy. You only get one so, of course, I screwed it up bad. I would have liked to have had a second canopy. The clear parts are crystal clear and the plastic is thick. While trying to remove the canopy I slipped and scribed a huge gash in the side panel. Luckily, I wanted to pose the canopy open anyway and the Tamiya canopy fit well. I cleaned up the kit front windscreen and as I anticipated there was a large opening at the front. I used white glue and then some putty to fair it in. Overall the look is very good. As I said just a touch of glue will hold the Tamiya canopy in place. I’m sure I could have gotten a replacement canopy from the importer or a Falcon set or even the Squadron one. It is just a typical Fw 190 “flat” canopy. I used Black Magic canopy masks and painted it all RLM 66 followed by RLM 02. The canopy masks worked like a champ, even on the kit front canopy. I touched up the paint around the canopy where I had to fill.

Some white glue and Tamiya clear red and green formed the wing tip lights. The addition of an antenna and the model was complete.

As this was my first R.V. Resin kit, I was overall impressed with the surface detail, even though some of it had to vanish with the sanding and be replaced. All the “problems” I encountered (poor instructions, bubbles, pin holes, warps, and surface blemishes) are typical of all the resin kits I’ve ever built and are easily fixed. Even with the problems the total time spent on building this kit was no more than a “normal” plastic kit.

I recommend this kit to an experienced modeler or a plastic modeler looking for a challenge. It is a relatively easy build but not a Tamiya or Hasegawa but definitely buildable. This unique aircraft is not available in any other scale or media that I’m aware of. It offers a unique look to a classic fighter and even with the plain paint scheme it looks quite nice.

As a bonus, if you need replacement parts the kit seems to be based on the Tamiya offerings so if you screw up, like I did on the canopy, you can just use the parts in the plastic kit.

I can only hope that when R.V. finishes the Fw 190 prototypes they will tackle the Bf-109 prototypes. I’d be forced to buy the complete range of those, but based on my experience with their Focke-Wulf series, I purchased an R.V. Resin Ta-152C-0 V7. That should say something about the quality of the kit.

 

• Model Art #8-Focke-Wulf Fw 190D & Ta-152

• Focke-Wulf Ta-152- Der Weg zum Hohenjager, Ditmar Hermann, Aviatic Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-925505-44-X (I think this is available in English now)

• Focke-Wulf Jagdflugzeug, Peter Rodeike, ISBN 3-923 457-44-8

Thanks goes to Dave Cooper, US importer of R.V. Resin, for the review copy. The kit is USD$50.00 plus shipping and handling, and can be ordered directly at http://resin-plane-kits.com/ or by email at Airplane104@aol.com .
 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Page Created 20 March, 2004
Last Updated 20 March, 2004

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