Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3

by Tim Both

Tamiya's 1/48 scale Fw 190A-3 is available online from Squadron

Here is my 1/48 scale Tamiya Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3 marked as the aircraft flown by Oblt. Armin Faber when he landed by mistake in England on the 23rd of June 1942.

I based my colour scheme on that provided in Volume Section Four of the Classic Publication "Jagdwaffe, Holding the West". On pages 38 and 39 there are several views of the plane in its original Luftwaffe scheme. The text goes on to describe that there were two reports of the colours found on this plane. The authors based their colour profile on the one from an RAF Intelligence Report that being of RLM 02/71/76.

This is how I chose to represent my model.

Aftermarket items used:

• Aeromaster 48-139 Early Butcher Birds.

• True Details Fw190 Early pattern wheels.

• CMK 4028 Fw190A3/4 cockpit set.

I wont dwell on the construction suffice to say everything went smoothly and the CMK cockpit fit well after removing the locating lugs in the kit fuselage halves.

Paint

I began painting the yellow ID markings with a base coat of white followed by Gunze yellow with a drop of red to make it more accurate for RLM04.

I then painted the lower and then the top two camouflage colours with my Tamiya Sprayworks airbrush. I carefully applied the mottling along the fuselage sides constantly referring to the colour profile I had.

I then post shaded the panel lines with heavily thinned gloss black and Gunze smoke.

Once done I sprayed Testor's Lacquer gloss coat and waited for it to dry ready for decaling.

Decals

As stated above I used Aeromaster’s excellent sheet. They call for the colours to be RLM 74/75 which is understandable at that stage of the war but nevertheless I used RLM 02/71. The decals went on flawlessly. I used Aeromaster Fw190 stencils as the main sheet had only a few of these markings.

Finishing Touches and Weathering

I sprayed another light coat of gloss to seal the decals. I ran a very thin gloss black along the panels lines being careful not to overdo it and wiped of any excess. I tried two new processes for weathering my paint scheme. The first was to spray very, very quickly and close to the surface of the model a thinned black mix in the direction of the airflow over the wings to create a subtle wear pattern. Secondly I lightly dusted on some dark brown pastel to create further wear along the wings and fuselage. I kept this pretty light so not to spoil it. I also used gray pastel on the black fuselage exhaust panel to show up the exhaust stains.

I assembled all the little bits and pieces and finished off with several light coats of Testor's Flat. I applied some more pastel afterwards which makes handing difficult. I left a fingerprint in one photo but fixed it later for others.

Can you spot it?

This was a great little project and I was very happy about how the paint scheme looks. It makes a change from RLM74/75 Fockes which is what I am about to build next.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy my Fw190A-3.
 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Production Line to Frontline 5 Author: Malcolm Lowe US Price: $21.95 UK Price: £14.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date: February 19, 2003 Details: 144 pages; ISBN: 1841764388 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2004 by Tim Both
Page Created 06 February, 2004
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

Back to HyperScale Main Page