Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8 Yellow 14 by Ian Robertson (Hasegawa 1/32)

Yellow 14 in 1/32 scale
Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8

by Ian Robertson

Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8 with ER 4 bomb rack

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

Introduction

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8 served as a ground attack counterpart to the Fw 190A-8. In most respects the F-8 was identical to an A-8, but with its outboard cannons removed and the ETC 501 fuselage rack included as standard. In addition, many late F-8s had the “blown hood” style canopy rather than the flat style common on A-8s.

Here I present “Yellow 14” (W.Nr. 584592), a colorful late-war Fw.190F-8 from SG 2 or SG 10. There are two photos of this aircraft sitting in a scrap heap on page 78 of Squadron’s “Walk Around Fw.190A/F”. A color profile of the aircraft is presented a page earlier, and on Eagle Strike decal sheet #48-028. While no markings are available for this aircraft in 1/32, suitable decals can be scrounged from a number of sources (see below).

Construction

Hasegawa’s F-8 kit
(and an alternative way to make one)

Hasegawa’s newly-tooled 1/32 Fw.190F-8 kit is substantially more expensive than their A-8 kit owing to the resin bomb that is provided. However, there is a cheaper way to make an F-8 (without the resin bomb of course) if you are also planning on building a Fw.190D-9. Here’s how:

Hasegawa’s 1/32 Fw.190D-9 “Rudel” kit contains all the parts needed to convert an A-8 kit into an F-8 (blown hood, underwing bomb racks with 4 SC50 bombs, and appropriate underwing panels). The only catch is that if you use these parts from the D-9 kit you will be constrained to building a D-9 with a flat style canopy. The good news is that there are many decal options for such a D-9 (e.g., EagleCals #21-32, 58-32, 60-32, 61-32; Eagle Strike # 32012, 32014; Cutting Edge # 32033, 32034).

Numerous build reviews for the Hasegawa’s 1/32 Fw.190A-8 kit can be found in the Hyperscale features section, so I will not revisit the details here. Suffice it to say that after building three 1/32 Hasegawa Doras, one A-5, one A-8 and two F-8s, Hasegawa’s Focke-Wulf Fw190s are among my all-time favorite kits.

Modifications

For interest I added a resin Einhängerost 4 (ER 4) multiple bomb rack from J.Rutman Products, and I used eight SC50 bombs from two Fw.190D-9 “Rudel” kits – two on each wing and four mounted on the ER 4 rack. Other modifications included a Cutting Edge resin seat with molded seat belts, treaded tires from Eagle Editions, brake lines made from wire, and a loop antenna made from a strip of metal. I removed the lower undercarriage panels as was sometimes done on aircraft operating in muddy or snowy conditions (note that the photos of “Yellow 14” do not show this modification). I also repositioned the elevators and tail wheel for added interest.

Painting and Markings

Interpretation of “Yellow 14’s” Colors

The photographs in Squadron’s Walk Around book (pg 78) show that “Yellow 14” has a striking camouflage scheme. However, caution is warranted when interpreting colors from black and white photographs because speculation always plays a role. Here is how I arrived at the scheme on my model using the Squadron photographs for reference:

It is clear that the rear half of the wing undersides on “Yellow 14” were natural metal, whereas the ailerons and forward half of the wings were RLM 76. It is also clear that the tail was a replacement (or a subassembly) because the colors and camouflage change abruptly where the tail attaches to the fuselage. Note that the tail spine has a thin band of darker camouflage (RLM74/75 or 75/83?).

Camouflage for the remainder of the aircraft is less obvious, but some reasonable guesses can be made. The low contrast between colors on the upper fuselage suggest RLM81/83, as indicated in both the Squadron and Eagle Strike profiles. (According to Jerry Crandall of Eagle Editions, many late-war aircraft which appear monotone in photos may actually be RLM81/83, owing to the low contrast between these colors. This effect is demonstrated by taking a color photo of a model with RLM81/83 and converting it to gray scale).

Both the Eagle Strike and Squadron profiles suggest a continuation of RLM81/83 on the upper wings. However, this interpretation seems unlikely to me given the pronounced contrast visible between colors on the upper wing. In my opinion a more likely combination is RLM75/83, since these colors exhibit greater contrast and are considered by many to have been common on late war German fighters. There also appears to be a small, slightly darker, patch of RLM81 on the port wing beneath the cross and on the aileron. This patch gives further support to the notion that the upper wings were not predominantly RLM81/83. An alternative to RLM75 on the wings is a lighter grey found on some late-war fighters (Jerry Crandall – personal communication).

The sides of the fuselage also present some difficulty (and thus provide the modeler with artistic elbow room!). The cowl and tail appear to be standard RLM76, as does the area around the Balkenkreuz. However, the rear spine and the area around the yellow bar appear slightly darker in the photo, particularly when compared to the light color of the tail. Therefore, I have interpreted this as an area of “straw” colored RLM76. The same rationale was applied to the area in advance of the “14”.

Paint and Decals

Polly Scale acrylics were used for all painting except RLM81 (AeroMaster acrylic) and natural metal (Alclad duraluminum lacquer sprayed over Mr. Surfacer base).

·        Cockpit – RLM66

·        Wheel wells, landing gear, internal surfaces of flaps – RLM02

·        Spinner - painted white, masked with a curved strip of Tamiya tape for the spiral, and then painted black.

·        Propeller blades – RLM70

·        ID bands – painted yellow over a light grey base and then masked for duration of painting

·        Camouflage – see interpretation provided above

Once the paint was dry, I sprayed a thin coat of Future floor wax over the model to give it a glossy finish in preparation for decals. The national markings and stencils came from spare EagleCals sheets, whereas the yellow “14’s” came from Eagle Strike sheet #32052, and the yellow bars from EagleCals #78-32. Once the decals were dry I applied a 50/50 mixture of Polly Scale clear satin and clear flat as a top coat.

The werknummer was applied using dry transfers.

Groundwork

A wooden cutting board was used as the base for the model. Celluclay was used to make the basic ground cover. The celluclay powder was mixed into a paste with water and white glue, tinted with brown acrylic paint, and then spread thinly over the cutting board. Note that the cutting board had previously been treated with several coats of clear lacquer to prevent warping while the celluclay dried. While the celluclay was still wet I added pieces of Heki grass mat (item # 1574 - Wild Grass Savanna). Heki products are available for purchase in the United States at “Scenic Express”.

Introduction

Images were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5400 digital camera. The “sharpen edges” tool of Adobe Photoshop was used to restore some of the clarity and crispness lost during image compression.