Eduard Fw.190A Early Versions Royal Class Dual Combo (R0016) 1:48

[Mike]

Fw.190A Early Versions Royal Class Dual Combo (R0016)

1:48 Eduard

 

 

The Fw.190 came on-stream in 1941 and gave the RAF a shock with its superior performance to the older Bf.109 that it was mistaken for by many a hapless Spitfire pilot.  The visionary designer Kurt Tank stripped down the aircraft as much as possible to give it the speed and manoeuvrability advantage the German Luftwaffe needed, which resulted in a small but pugnacious design with a twin-bank radial engine buried in a close-fitting nose cowling that could out-fly a Spitfire Mk.V in most respects below 20,000ft.

 

The initial Fw.190A, they went from A-1 sub-variants, through A-2 with an improved engine and weapons, the A-3 with another power improvement and the ability to mount more external weapons, as the versatility of the airframe was realised.  The A-4 was little different, with more armament options that could be fitted in the field, and after that came the A-5 all the way up to the A-10, and in ground attack versions we had the F, with the high altitude variant designed D, with the G replacing some of the later A variants that had either long-range tanks or specialist armaments fitted.

 

 

The Kit

The newly tooled early Fw.190A series has added much to Eduard's existing line of Fw.190 variants, and with tooling advancement used to improve the model, it is an excellent choice for anyone wanting a Butcher Bird for their collection.   The Royal Class boxing offers the modeller a "luxury experience", and in this box you get two complete kits plus a selection of resin parts, plenty of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a rather attractive custom printed beer glass.  Inside the russet themed box are eleven sprues of dark grey styrene, two of clear, two sheets of nickel-plated and pre-painted PE plus a tiny sheet of bare brass PE, a sheet of pre-cut kabuki tape masking, a bag of resin parts, a large decal sheet with three smaller sheets of stencils and numerals, the aforementioned beer glass (tulip stemmed) and a rolled up print on thick A2 stock of an Fw.190A-4 sweeping low over a harbour in Algeria – quite a stunning piece of art!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We reviewed the A-4 ProfiPACK variant in November of last year, which you can find here, and the build will clearly follow similar lines to that, so we won't re-tread old ground.  Suffice to say that there are two kits in the box, and you have a three A-2s, four A-3s and six A-4s to choose from, of which you can of course only make two.  As you would expect there are two of all the ancillary sprues, but there are three fuselage sprues due to changes in the vents behind the cowling and aerial fit, and two different wing sprues that have variations between their armament bulges on the underwing, which means that you are limited to building one model from the A-H range, and one from the I-N range below unless you can lay your hands on additional sprues.

 

 

The resin parts include the two pairs of wheels for the finished models, which have superb detail, plus a pair of forward cowlings for markings option M, which have the tropical filter included with a PE grille at the front of the intake tube.  The final resin parts are the inner wheel bay covers that were only fitted to earlier models, so apply to the first three options, all of which are A-2 variants.  Various other adaptations are made to the plastic depending on which markings options you are using, so take care to choose your subject early to avoid confusion and possible errors in the details.  Some annotations to the instructions may benefit in this case, especially as many modellers will probably choose to build the pair up at the same time in a mini-production line.

 

Markings

The main sheet is around A4 size and full of markings for the 14 options offered in the box, with the main sheet printed by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  The two stencil sheets are printed in Czechia on a similar coloured backing paper, and are of similar quality.  There is another small sheet that contains just two decals of the number 16, and is quite easily lost so tape it somewhere conspicuous once it is out of the bag.

 

• Fw 190A-2, W. Nr. 120282, flown by Fw. K. Nowak, 9./JG 2, Théville, France, May 1942
• Fw 190A-2, W. Nr. 120206, flown by Fw. W. Grünlinger, Stab III./JG 26, Wevelgem, Belgium, September 1942
• Fw 190A-2, W. Nr. 120325, flown by Ofw. J. Heinzeller, 3./JG 2, Trickqueville, France, June 1942
• Fw 190A-3, W. Nr. 132259, flown by Uffz. G. Josten, 1./JG 51, Lyuban, Soviet Union, Autumn 1942
• Fw 190A-3, W. Nr. 135313, flown by Oblt. A. Faber, III./JG 2, Morlaix, France, June 1942
• Fw 190A-3, W. Nr. 125425, flown by Fw. K. Kundrus, 12./JG 5, Herdla, Norway, December 1943
• Fw 190A-3, W. Nr. 130541, flown by Oblt. A. Dickfeld, CO of II./JG 2, San Pietro, Italy, November 1942
• Fw 190A-3, W. Nr. 130541, flown by Fw. E. Mayer, 9./JG 5, Herdla, Norway, March 1945
• Fw 190A-4, flown by Maj. H. von Bonin, CO of JG 54, Pskov, Soviet Union, Spring 1943
• Fw 190A-4, W. Nr. 140581, flown by Lt. E. Burath, Stab I./JG 1, Deelen, the Netherlands, April 1943
• Fw 190A-4, flown by Hptm. H. Philipp, CO of I./JG 54, Krasnogvardeysk, Soviet Union, January 1943
• Fw 190A-4, W. Nr. 140634, flown by Maj. H. Graf, CO of JGr. Ost, Toulouse – Blagnac, France, April 1943
• Fw 190A-4/Trop, W. Nr. 145614, EKdo 19, Benghazi, Lybia, November 1942
• Fw 190A-4, W. Nr. 142317, flown by Fw. L. Seif, 11./SKG 10, Sidi Ahmed, Tunisia, January 1943

 

 

 

 

 

Can I Interest you in a Beer?

The beer glass is found in a thick white cardboard box, wrapped in some crinkly paper for a bit of added protection.  It is a really nice shape that's quite pleasant to drink from (speaking from experience), and will match the other beer glasses from the Royal Class series if you have them.  If memory serves, you can augment your stash of them from Eduard's website too.

 

 

The Print

As already mentioned, the print that is included in the box is a handsome addition to anyone's collection of aviation art, depicting a flight of Fw.190s attacking shipping at Bona Harbour, off Algeria in 1943, flying at low level after releasing a bomb from the centreline station.

 

 

 

Conclusion

With a superb selection of decal options, highly detailed plastic and some really nice resin, PLUS a beer glass and a quality print, this is a lovely package that will give you plenty of modelling fun.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[Gorby]

@Mike the 'Available here' link isn't working.

[Julien]

28 minutes ago, Gorby said:

@Mike the 'Available here' link isn't working.

Try it now, looks like an extra character or two slipped in.

 

Julien

[Mike]

Not feeling too good today, so I'm fairly relieved that's all that's up with it!

[Gorby]

Nice review Mike on a fantastic looking kit, although the Profipack are more my price range, it's interesting to see what you would get for the extra money.

[Mike]

That's the great thing about the range - you can go Weekend, Profipack or Royal Class, and even then you can go bonkers with all the aftermarket you can lay your hands on

[Threadbear]

Fantastic package and the contents look stunning. The provided colour schemes all look great and I really wouldnt mind doing a couple or three but I cant really justify the cost of the whole package. Kit looks a lot simpler than the original Eduard 190s. 

[Masinissa]

On 2/4/2018 at 11:25 PM, Threadbear said:

Fantastic package and the contents look stunning. The provided colour schemes all look great and I really wouldnt mind doing a couple or three but I cant really justify the cost of the whole package. Kit looks a lot simpler than the original Eduard 190s. 

Yes it's a very stunning package of Fw-190A-2/3/4s. I purchased two of these from Eduard during their Black Friday Sale. One for me and one for a friend. Shipping from Eduard to California was free.

 

If you are a Bunny Fighter Club Member with Eduard you may purchase the decal sheet from this Royal Class kit for $25. Then you can purchase Overtrees and build what you want. The decal sheet includes decals for the cockpit and instrument panels that look really nice. The kit instructions tell you not to use parts C-41 which is the throttle and C-42 and C-47 which are the parts for the canopy cranking mechanism.

 

So you really don't need photoetch for the kit.

 

I'm really very impressed with the refinements Eduard made to their Fw-190A. 

 

Also if you purchase the Fw-190A-2 Overtrees that kit contains the Brassin inner gear doors that are specific to the A-2.

 

The kit you have to buy to become a Bunny Fighter Club Member is a Dual Combo Bf-109G-6 with Brassin prop, tires, cockpit, canopy masks, and photoetch to complete two kits. So if you use the Brassin cockpit then you'll have a photoetch set for another 109G-6 build. The kit runs $75 (which is insane, since a Brassin Cockpit alone is $39.95 and a Bf-109G-6 kit is $49.95), but they're out of stock at the moment.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Masinissa

[corsaircorp]

Hello dears,

Hooray, finally some good early version !!

Will have it...

Thanks Mike for the review !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp