Fw190D Best Model in 72nd Scale

[72nders]

Thank you very much for the link Mdriskill, Hobbykiller did a fantastic job and I agree with your and his thoughts about the Hasegawa canopy accuracy, even though I haven’t checked the lateral angles yet (another big difference between kits)

 

It seems the Hasegawa Dora has the best windshield/canopy accuracy of all Fw190s available but all the other contenders differ only in fractions of a millimetre and, personally, a fractional narrow windshield on a Fw190 detracts it more than a fractional wider one.

 

Coming back to the original question of Fishplanebeer, it seems that (as usual) will depend upon which kit has less mistakes that will really bother you; or which one will be the easiest to put together with better detail, giving you a final result that looks very much like a Dora!

 

I believe the undernourished windshield/canopy (and probably the skinny fuselage) will spoil the looks of the new IBG Dora (hopefully not, let’s see when the builds start to appear). The glass area only of the IBG windshield (without framing) seems very odd as well.

 

If we take the Hasegawa windshield as reference, the IBG FW190D is smaller in all dimensions and the Tamiya Fw190D is wider (fuselage) by almost the same amount of the IBG one but with a very close frontal section to the Hasegawa one.

 

If this can be of some help for your choice:

 

Accordingly with the excellent research of Hobbykiller (72nd website) the factory plans for the windshield quote:

 

- Width of the front panel windshield is 256 mm, giving us in 1/72 = 3,56 or 3.6 mm

- Complete Windshield width ( max width at fuselage) is 628 mm, giving us in 1/72 = 8.72 or 8.7 mm

 

1)  Hasegawa:  spot on!

 

 

 

2) IBG:    Front panel narrower 0.45 mm and windshield width (fuselage) = smaller 0.64 mm

 

 

 

 

 

3) Tamiya: Front panel wider 0.2 mm and windshield width (fuselage) bigger 0.7 mm

 

 

 

Again, all these differences are fractions of a millimetre and ultimately it will depend of the modeller’s preference and its perception of the model finished to decide which one is better (canopy wise), above everything build something and have fun!

 

I hope this can be of some help…..

 

 

[MDriskill]

10 hours ago, Icedtea said:

Well first, Any kit in 1/72 with rivets is going to look a touch overdone especially in photos, so I'll hold judgement on that if I may.

As to the Tamiya kit, I believe Tamiya fixed the wing issue on later releases around the time of the JV44 release in 1/48? Did they follow up in 1/72 I wonder, I have one of each...I should dig them out...and check.

Does anyone know aught of the fabled AZ D9 kits....they seem rare as unicorns?

Mr. Oompa etc.: thank you for these new photos! The thing I can't figure out is why my IBG windscreen seems a bit different from yours?

 

The issue that Tamiya corrected under the wing was the shell ejection chutes for the fuselage-mounted guns. The initial version had a single offset opening (per the D-13's engine cannon on the original swapped-out wings). The second version has the correct pair of MG 131 chutes, but still lacks the small recess between the wheel wells.

 

The AZ Doras are re-issues of previous kits of the 2-stage engined variants by "R.V. Aircraft," but with new fuselage sprues that correct some errors, and substitute the D-9 for the prototype-only D-12. Both series of kits are fully riveted and include resin parts for the open wheel well details. They have a certain reputation for being difficult to assemble (a friend described fitting the AZ D-9's resin as "requiring new swear words").

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by MDriskill

[HKR]

10 hours ago, Oompa Loompa modelers said:

I believe the undernourished windshield/canopy (and probably the skinny fuselage) will spoil the looks of the new IBG Dora (hopefully not, let’s see when the builds start to appear). The glass area only of the IBG windshield (without framing) seems very odd as well.

 

If we take the Hasegawa windshield as reference, the IBG FW190D is smaller in all dimensions [...]

 

1)  Hasegawa:  spot on!

2) IBG:    Front panel narrower 0.45 mm and windshield width (fuselage) = smaller 0.64 mm

And what now?

 

 

[MDriskill]

Thanks for that. Mine is the same: the IBG and Hasegawa windscreens couldn't be much closer to identical!

Edited February 4, 2022 by MDriskill

[72nders]

 

It seems the fractions of millimetre difference of the slightly narrow IBG front panel are accentuated by its wider lateral frames, making the glass area (without the frames) smaller than the Hasegawa one (assuming it as reference)

 

Related to the “what now” from HKR, the differences between the factory plans and IBG for the windshield are very small and probably will not detract the final model, for this, my apologies to the IBG team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Oompa Loompa modelers
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