1/48 Hasegawa FW-190 A-4 "White 10 + -"

[elger]

It was a beautiful clear and sunny day in the north of the Netherlands, January 27th 1943. For the first time that day American bombers appeared en masse over the skies of occupied Europe to bomb a large target in Germany: Wilhelmshaven. A group of B-17s reached the target, but a group of B-24s got lost on their first major mission and failed to reach the target. To add insult to injury, the formation was also attacked heavily by German fighters. One of the B-24s deemed it necessary to drop its bombs near the town of Lemmer - which fell in a field unfortunately killing a laborer.

 

As the formation headed further north, a single 190 attacked the B-24s. Riddled with bullets from the B-24s the 190 started spiraling towards the ground. The pilot, Ernhardt Bruhnke from Mackelsen, managed to escape with his parachute. The aircraft broke up in mid air, and the remnants came down outside of a hamlet called "de Hel" - most likely derived from an old word for hill - but the same word means hell in Dutch. With the velocity of the big pieces and the soft peat-like soil of the area, the aircraft disappeared deep into the ground - never to be seen again. Bruhnke survived the incident with minor injuries. As one local historian put it, never did a Luftwaffe fighter end up crashing in a more appropriately named place.

 

 

The American crews must have been pleased having shot down a German fighter. Unfortunately, a little while later the formation was attacked again and two B-24s were lost - both crashing in the Waddenzee between Harlingen and the island of Terschelling. The last of these was lost due to a collision with another 190 that had been shot by the B-24 gunners.

 

All in all, the first bombing raid by B-24s to Germany had been a bit of a disaster.

 

 

It's possible that this photo from the Collection Netherlands Institute of Military History is of Bruhnke's White 10 + -; the photo was taken at Woensdrecht where his unit was stationed at the time of the incident. 

 

All the cool kids these days build the Eduard A-4 kit, but I have a Hasegawa 190 in my stash. The box says A-3 but it has all the parts to make an A-4 as well.

 

 

After my fully riveted Lancaster build, I wanted something slightly easier as a bit of a sanity build, and this seems to fit the bill. Also, the Lancaster I built crash landed 4 days before this aircraft crashed only a little bit further from that location.

 

The Hasegawa kit is basic but quite nice. I'm using a little bit of aftermarket. For example, I'm replacing the cowl machine guns with items from Master:

 

 

The Master set also comes with replacement barrels for the 20 mm wing cannons but they don't fit the Hasegawa kit, so I'm just hollowing out the kit barrels:

 

 

I'm adding some Eduard PE to the kit - mainly on the undercarriage and the wheel bays. I'm also adding a brake line from lead wire, and I made a spring from some copper wire.

 

 

Hollow exhausts from Barracuda Studios:

 

 

And it's coming along nicely:

 

 

Next up, some paint work!

 

[Parabat]

Nice, the Hasegawa Fw190s are lovely to build with some nice detail.

[BKirwan]

Elger 

Great intro and backround.Am looking forward to see how this shapes up. 

Veel succes!

Brian 

[Retired Bob]

Hi elger, 1/48 FW 190 and not the Eduard kit, are you really calling me a cool kid? 😎

[elger]

On 4/24/2020 at 3:50 PM, Parabat said:

Nice, the Hasegawa Fw190s are lovely to build with some nice detail.

so far I'm really enjoying it!

[mick]

great start

[elger]

Finished painting the interior bits and I'm going to start putting it together next. Airbrushed with Mig paints, and details painted with Vallejo and Games Workshop.

 

Some enhancements from Eduard:

 

 

Undercarriage details:

 

 

A while ago Roy Sutherland pointed out that on early 190s the inner gear doors are actually closed when the aircraft is on the ground so I modified the kit parts so that they would fit closed:

 

 

Engine, which will be mostly invisible. Some colour modulation on the propeller blades with oil paints.

 

 

Ready for assembly?

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[elger]

Painting the exterior. Started with a coat of black primer:

 

 

This was followed by RLM 76 on the bottom, RLM 74 and 75 on top.

 

 

Assuming that the photo I found of that White 10 is the same White 10 I'm intending to build, the camouflage especially on the nose appears to come down much lower than on most JG1 aircraft of the period.

 

 

All paints are Mig Ammo water based acrylics thinned with Hataka thinner.

 

Next up: decals!

 

 

[RadMax8]

I’m working on an A-5 at the moment, although it seems like you’re making much quicker progress than me!

 

In my research, I found that the 190 engines and cowls were built as a complete, painted unit, then added to the airframe. Explains why there could be some variation between the camo line. 
 

Your build looks very nice so far. I too opted for the Master barrels, and made modifications to the wing root cannon to make it work. 

[elger]

Decals on. A mix of kit decals and stuff I had in my spares box. The number 10 is a bit too small and slightly the wrong font but I can live with it.

 

 

 

Next up: weathering and finishing!

[elger]

Finished!

 

 

 

RFI thread with a few more photos here: