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Focke-Wulf Fw.190A-6 (BF003) 1:35 Border Models via Albion Alloys Introduced in 1941 to combat the ever-improving Spitfire, the Fw.190 was intended to supplant the Bf.109 if it reached a plateau in development, or run alongside it as a stablemate. Its powerful twin-bank radial engine was installed with a close-fitting cowling and was initially equipped with an oversized, ducted prop-spinner to keep the engine cool, which was discarded early in development in favour of a fan that ran on the prop's drive-shaft to push air through over and between the cylinder heads, which also facilitated oil cooling. It was also given a wide-track landing gear, which reduced the likelihood of a nose-over, a problem afflicting both the 109 and Spitfire, due to their narrow track and poor forward visibility. When it first encountered Spitfires, it gave the RAF pilots a shock, as they were expecting 109s, not these agile new aircraft. It caused a frenzy of development at Supermarine, which was just part of the leapfrog game played by both sides throughout the conflict. The initial A-1 production version was equipped with a BMW 801 engine, and by the time the A-4 was signed off, it had two 7.92mm guns in the cowling, and a pair of 20mm MG151 cannons in the wing root, all of which were synchronised with the prop's motion, in turn mated to a more powerful version of the BMW engine. There were several equipment fits used in the many versions that gave the Würger (Shrike) additional weapons and capabilities, including a pressurised cockpit, rocket tubes and reconnaissance cameras. The A-6 was a natural progression of development that started reaching service in mid-1943, with an increased armament that included MG17s in the engine cowling, and two 20mm MG 151 cannons in the wing root as before, and another identical pair just outboard of the landing gear bays. The wings were also lightened whilst improving their strength, leaving space for extra ammunition for the two wing-mounted cannons, in an effort to increase their success in downing the bomber streams that were attacking German industry on a daily basis. The Kit This is a new tooling from Border that was released late in 2023 in their relatively new 1:35 range of aircraft kits. The kit arrives in a satin-finished top-opening box with a painting of an Fw.190 on the ground in a wintery landscape, with an Sd.Kfz.251 half-track in the background and some ground-crew working on the aircraft. Inside the box are nine sprues of grey styrene, two of clear parts, one of which doesn’t appear on the sprue map at the front of the instruction manual, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) and a pair of decal sheets, plus the afore mentioned instruction booklet. Detail is excellent throughout, including a full representation of the two banks of the BMW engine, a detailed cockpit, and gear bays with the distinctive dimpled surfaces, detail that is carried over into the cowling and bay covers that accompany the kit, some of which can be posed open to expose the structure inside. Construction begins with the engine, both banks of pistons made from front and rear halves, linked together by a set of seven pipes, and completed by adding fairings to the tops of the forward cylinder heads. Push-rods are fixed to the rear along with the intake “spider” of pipework, with the exhaust tubing interleaved between them, consisting of four sections that plug into the rear of the cylinder heads. A host of ancillary parts are fitted to the rear of the growing engine assembly, including ducting, support frames and a dozen other parts of various sizes. Another set of push-rods are fixed to the front of the motor, followed by the front bell-housing with magnetos and other parts dotted around it. The completed engine is a dense and well-detailed lump of plastic that will look great in the cowling, and begs to have some of the panels left open to see the details. Wing armament is next, building the breeches and ammo feeds for the wing-root guns, and the full cannons for the outer weapons, plus an ammo feed and box for each one, all of which is handed for each wing. Before installing them, the full-span lower wing is fitted with a spar section behind the bay door openings, adding a central support in front, the wing-mounted cannon assemblies behind, and drilling out several holes in the wings and centreline of the wing. The front gear bay walls with barrels for the root cannons are installed, then the outer wing cannons are fixed on a pair of pins in position, finally adding the combined ammo boxes and feeds for the cowling guns as a single part over the central support. The bays can then be fitted with four ribs each, and the central section is covered by the dimpled fairing that straddles the forward support and butts up against the cowling ammo boxes. At last we get to the cockpit, which is based on a detailed tub with the rear deck moulded-in, to which a PE lid is mounted for personal equipment stowage. Rudder pedal bases and detail inserts are added to the side consoles, then the pilot’s seat is fitted with a cushion, and the PE four-point seatbelts are folded into position before being glued using super-glue, after which the control column is inserted into the floor in front of the seat. PE straps are bent and fixed to the styrene rudder pedals, adding a lever to the port console, then the lower portion of the instrument panel is inserted into the console tops, adding decals to depict the dials, and closing off the footwell with a short bulkhead that is covered above by the floor of the gun bay. The panel also has a pair of styrene and PE levers fixed to it before it is glued in place, after which preparation for closing the fuselage is begun by adding the three-part gunsight to the upper panel portion along with more dial decals, creating the rudder from two halves, the tail-wheel from a two-part yoke and wheel, then making up the prop from the single-part blades and trapping it between the spinner and backing plate, adding the cooling fan and three more parts behind. Paint and a few more small parts are added to the side walls of the fuselage, then all the sub-assemblies bar the propeller are joined to the fuselage halves as they are closed. After you have dealt with the fuselage seams in your preferred manner, the fuselage is lowered over the wing, and the canopy is glued in place, first mounting the windscreen at the front of the cockpit opening, then making up a three-part headrest and armour assembly that fits inside the canopy, which can be posed open or closed as you wish. The upper wing halves have detail moulded into them in the shape of the main gear bay roof and the flap bays, which are filled with ribs that taper toward the trailing edge. The starboard wing has a hole opened to accommodate the pitot probe, then the uppers can be mated with the lower wing, adding the flaps to a hinge-point in the lower wing. Each wingtip has a clear light inserted into a recess once the seams of the wings have been dealt with, then the two halves of the ailerons are glued around their hinges to complete the wing planform. Two lower cowling panels are installed with piano-hinge fittings under the rear of the engine, and these have internal detail included, so could be left open if you chose. The root gun bay doors are similarly detailed inside, and these too can be left open or closed as you wish. The elevators are made by creating the flying surfaces from two halves, then trapping them in place by closing the two halves of the fixed portion along the hinge-line, each one plugging into slots in either side of the tail. The completed engine is mounted on a pair of zig-zag supports, which fits into the bulkhead in front of the cockpit, adding a pair of hoses between the engine and the bulkhead. Two cowling panels with cooling gills are fixed to the engine sides, and the front cowling ring is made from three layers, one in front of the other, fixing them in place along with two upper cowling parts that can be posed open and closed, adding PE support straps to both sides to hold them to the correct angle for maintenance. The top centre cowling section is attached, then the twin machine guns are made, each one a single part that is laid on a two-part mount, secured in place with a bracket over the breech, then fitted into the gun bay, adding the final bulged piece of cowling to the space in front of the windscreen, which can also be flipped up and to the rear, hinging against the sloped windscreen. The propeller assembly can now be installed in the front of the engine, taking care not to dislodge any open panels you have chosen to portray. The crew step, D/F loop and a short aerial are all fitted to the underside of the fuselage, although they are best left off until after painting. The Würger could carry various munitions, and several options are included in this boxing. A two-part fuel tank can be carried under the belly, mounted on a long three-part pylon with towel-rail anti-sway braces, and a pair of W.Gr.21 rocket pods can be fitted, one under each wing. These are built from a slide-moulded tube that has the supports slotted into grooves in the tube, adding a PE rear and a curved PE activation wire from there to the nearest support leg. The rocket is also provided, and is installed in the tube along with the three guide rails that helped it achieve some sort of accuracy, although it wasn’t all that successful in that task. Each completed assembly is fitted into the holes that were drilled out under the wings earlier in the build process. Strangely, the landing gear is only shown built up in the in-flight position, which has most of the detail hidden away under the gear bay doors, but as they hinge down simply from the outer edge of the bays, it’s not rocket science to pose the wheels down, but do look at some references before you apply glue, as the 190 should look a little pin-toed from the front. The struts each have separate two-part oleo scissor-links, plus a styrene brake hose that runs up the leg to the wheel, adding a small PE bracket near the top of each one. The wheels are two-parts each, and these fix to the stub axles at the bottom of the struts, and as mentioned are shown placed flat in the wheel wells glued by their single pivot, with no mention of parts G34 and G35 that I think are the retraction jacks that should keep the legs at the correct angle. This boxing seems to have a step missing where the gear down option is depicted, but the box art shows them correctly installed, albeit in deep shadow. The cover of the instructions also mentions clear cowlings for the engines and cowlings, but they weren’t present in my boxing, and it only mentions two decal options when there are in fact seven. Maybe an errata sheet will be produced for later batches? Markings The decals are printed anonymously on blue backing paper, and a generous seven options are included, the profiles for which have been penned by artists from AMMO, using their brand codes for the paint call-outs along with the colour names. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are in good registration with sharp detail and colour density, with one sheet covering the stencils, instrument panel and smaller markings. Conclusion It’s a nice rendition of the infamous Butcher Bird in 1:35, with a few slip-ups that shouldn’t cause too many issues for a modeller with common sense and a little bit of skill. It’s still a relatively new scale for fixed-winged aircraft, but should be a welcome sight for anyone wanting a common scale for their AFV and aircraft builds. Highly recommended. Available in the UK in all good model shops. Review sample courtesy of

Just spotted on Scalemates, Border 1/35 B-17G 2024. New Tool. There is only a black silhouette, but it is clearly a late B-17G. I have my fingers crossed. Cheers Jeff

"The Mule" (Late Autumn Ost Front) Hey All. I just finished a repaint of the Border Models Panzer IV J late. This was my first Border model and I have to say, it was pretty awesome. Not perfect, but well detailed and for a Panzer IV, relatively stress free. Anyone who's built a P4 knows they can be quite complex. This was my first J model and I think it's one of the coolest looking vehicles in the German army. It just looks so "tank". I had actually finished this last year and painted and weathered and just wasn't happy with it. So, I decided like any good modeler to redo it. Truth be told, I really like repaints. Sometimes you work so hard and long on the build and then immediately paint and weather and you just get burnt out. Letting it sit and fester for some time or even years, waiting for re-inspiration allows you some new perspective and time for exploring options as you're not as worn out from the build process. Anyway, I gave it a quick once over with some primer and then base coated it in my standard mahogany color for shadows. It was going to be tri-camo and then white wash, so undercoating wasn't too important. The build was mainly out of the box and then later jazzed up with several accoutrements, bits and bobs. This of course was the fun part. I also outfitted it with T-Rex Ostketten tracks, which were a giant pain in the butt and very, very, very delicate. In fact I believe I had to use TWO batches of the tracks to complete as so many were broken OTB and broke during assembly. I'm not sure they were my favorite tracks, but so few options for metal now, that 3D and resin are taking over. Not sure how I feel about that. Now, NOTE--Yes, the ostketten tracks were on J's. Now the bracket for the Schurtzen really needs to be set up in the OUT position so they can get on, BUT of course, there is no option for that and although I could have scratched them, to be honest I didn't know they needed to be like that till after the build and it just wasn't worth it. So, I improvised and damaged one as though it was bent out of shape to fit (entirely plausible) and second, i fashioned my own schurtzen. Why the heck not. These Panzer IV's were the most used tanks in the German army. They of course were also the major "homes" for many tankers and used extensively for everything. Hence the "mule" moniker. I added every type of P4 tracks I had. Obviously, crews wanted to "up armor" whenever they could. I weathered them more gaudy and rusty with flash rust than I usually would to make them pop. It goes well with the Eduard PE leaves, which are just awesome, although a tad large for the scale. But, they still work. I imagined this tank in late Autumn in the Ost front where snow would often come very early. Hence the haphazardly painted white wash the crew did with minimal paint and time. I mainly used oils for this after some basic hairspray chipping. I had fun with the barrel and the weathering. That's all my friends. I could say more, but it's too early for a beer. Enjoy and comments and criticisms welcome. I'll defriend you, but criticize all you like. 😘 COMPLETED MODELS: Panzer IV J, STUG III G, Panther G, STUG III B , Type IX U-Boat