Jump to content

Fw 190A-6 JG 54 Eastern Front***FINISHED***


PeterB

Recommended Posts

As I only built the Ta 154 lower component of my Mistel in the prototypes etc GB, I still have the Fw 190 kit left. I fancy something a bit different, maybe on the Eastern Front with the improvised brown/green camo.

 

More when I have made my mind up.

 

Pete

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are the sprues.

DSC07544-crop

Although the first prototypes were probably in RLM70/71/65, the production machines were in the new grey scheme of RLM74/75/76 though there is some evidence of an “interim scheme” of RLM71/02/65 on some early machines. However, given the sheer size of the Soviet Union and the wide range of different climatic conditions, not to mention the considerable changes due to the time of year, some units, particularly JG51 and JG54 seem to have gone for a darker scheme. In summer they were often seen in two shades of green, sometimes with patches of a light brown on the upper surfaces and with RLM76 underside. As ever sources vary as to the paint used but the greens could have been RLM70/71 though Merrick mentions in his camo book in the Luftwaffe Colour series the possibility of them using the pre-war green and brown, which may have been either old stock or perhaps were being used as camo paint for buildings. There is also mention of the brown perhaps being RLM79 which could mean that RLM80 green was also used, whilst other sources say that they were quite happy to use captured Russian paint, so take your pick! In some cases patches of the original grey camo were left showing as well.

 

NB – this is based on my reading of various source books and articles and I do not claim it to be definitive – no doubt somebody will be giving me their views in due course which should be interesting! In winter they tended to overpaint their planes in washable white, and in spring they often went for a sort of “half and half” scheme using white or maybe grey over the dark base colours. It was only later that the Luftwaffe introduced the “greens” RLM 81/82/83.

 

Pete

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • PeterB changed the title to Fw 190A-6 JG 51 Eastern Front

The first 190 Airfix released was a Dora in the late 1950's, and they subsequently released a re-tooled version in 1976, followed a year later by this kit which has parts for an A-8 and F-8. They have since released a far better new tooling about 10 years ago. I will be building mine as an A-6 which was similar to the A-8 except for the MG17 in the cowling instead of the MG 131. I will be using the remains of a Master set of guns to replace the oversize kit ones.

DSC07669-crop

It has a very basic cockpit with just a ledge on the rear bulkhead for the seat and a sort of half floor created by the roof of the wheel well they provide for the centre section. I may do a bit of work on it but not much will be visible, so I may just make do with an IP.

 

Whilst looking at the 4 books in the Kagero series on the 190 I have found yet another suggested variation on the greens - they say RLM71/72! I had not considered the use of "maritime" paints but I guess it is a possibility so I will do a bit of testing to see what it looks like.

 

Pete

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally the 190A was armed with a pair of 7.92 mm MG17 in the cowling, a pair of 20mm MG151/20 cannon inboard and a pair of 20mm MGFF outboard, though when carrying bombs the outboard MGFF were sometimes removed to save weight. The slow firing MGFF were not popular and were replaced on the A-6 with another pair of MG151/20 and on the A-7 the cowling MG17 were replaced with 13mm MG131. The larger breeches of this weapon required large bulges to be added to the cowling which are present on the kit as shown in the pic below.

DSC07671-crop

This is the same kit reboxed in their run of "aircraft of the aces series" and in the markings of "Pips" Priller, but the plane in question was in fact an A-5 so the bulges were incorrect! I have removed them from the new kit and used Master MG17 barrels.

DSC07673-crop

There should be a pair of small bulges/blisters over the breeches which I may manage to fit later.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • PeterB changed the title to Fw 190A-6 (OR MAYBE A-5) JG 54 Eastern Front

I made the bulges from the warheads of some rockets I found in one of my spares boxes - probably from one of the Airfix multibuild Mosquitos I made many years ago - NFII, FBVI and FBXVIII. Filing/sanding them down was fun. I have given it a coat of primer to check the joints.

DSC07675-crop

Not bad but a little more work to do as ever! I will be doing it as Emil Lang's plane from 5./JG.54 in mid 1943 but the two illustrations I have found so far differ as to whether it was an A-5 or A-6 - the only external difference I believe is the outboard cannon. As they don't show the Wk.Nr. I cannot be sure but I think I will go for an A-6 anyway.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a bit more research I have found several minor differences between the A-4. A-5, A-6 and the A-8 which this is supposed to be. Of course it is complicated by the sheer number of both factory and field conversions/modifications that were common with Luftwaffe planes - the factory ones were denoted by a "U" for Umrüst-Bausätze and the field ones by an "R" for Rūstsätze. Sometimes the change was in the armament for example the Fw 190A-6/R1 had the outer wing gun removed and a fairing containing 2 x MG151/20 mounted under the wing instead. The A-6 had a modified wing which replaced the outboard MGFF with MG151/20 as I mentioned earlier and this in turn resulted in a different panel under the wing containing the cartridge case ejector chute, but fortunately it was the same as in the kit. Other differences involve the pitot tube which was much further inboard than on the A-8 and the A-4 and perhaps the A-5 do not seem to have the small D/F loop under the fuselage.

 

Anyway, this I where I have got to at the moment.

DSC07676-crop

Not quite in focus I see. I have 3 colour illustrations of the plane I hope to model and there seems to be some difference in terms of the yellow theatre markings ranging from the dark Gelb RLM 04 to the lighter RLM 27 version. I don't use yellow that much so my choice of paint is rather limited. I started with RAF Rescue helicopter yellow over a white undercoat but that was too orange so I then added a couple of thin coats of Hu 24 and it now looks about right - somewhat more orange than in the photo. Once that has had time to dry I will mask it up and start the camo scheme.

 

For anyone building this particular vintage kit, Airfix have got the u/c wrong in the instructions, the drawing showing the legs to be vertical and perpendicular to the wing as happened I think on their 190D. Fortunately the parts allow the correct inwards and forward slope though the wheels needed a bit of help to get them vertical.

 

So far so good. Now the fun is about to start, but more on that next time.

 

Pete

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • PeterB changed the title to Fw 190A-6 JG 54 Eastern Front

This aircraft had the 3 colour top surface camo - light green/dark green/brown. I will use 70 and 71 for the greens but the brown is slightly problematic. Some sources say RLM 79 but also note it faded rapidly whilst others suggest Russian paint. When I was building my Pe-2 in a previous GB a couple of years ago I was advised that the Colourcoats Russian Yellow grey (a light brown) was a bit too yellow and it was suggested that the Sand Grey used on Israeli armour was a better match. Whilst looking for the latter I came across some Colourcoats Afrika Korps Sand Grey which looked a slightly better match in this case and so working on the principle of lightest on first, here it is.

DSC07683-crop

I could say it is captured Russian paint or maybe just well faded RLM 79. Anyway, next up the RLM 71 and then the RLM 70.

 

Pete

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice progress there, Pete. I think it's safe to say that no one can conclusively prove your choice as being incorrect, so run with what feels right to you. I like the colour you've gone for, something a little different

 

James

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, PeterB said:

This aircraft had the 3 colour top surface camo - light green/dark green/brown. I will use 70 and 71 for the greens but the brown is slightly problematic. Some sources say RLM 79

That was one of the Kookaburra books  from this

Focke-Wulf-Fw-190A5-5.JG54-(B5+-)-Max-St

 

Which is a bit weird colour wise

 

This almost certainly taken at the same time.

Focke-Wulf-Fw-190A5-5.JG54-(B5+-)-Max-St

 

Shows a darker brown, similar to the pre war RLM 61

 

A case has been made for the use of RLM 25, the markings green  note the similarity to the green heart

 

 

Focke-Wulf-Fw-190A6-JG54-information-Imm

 

The Fw190 salvaged from Russia and very carefully restored had these colours....

Airworthy-Focke-Wulf-Fw-190A5-4.JG54-Whi

 

So there is some leeway on interpretation....

 

HTH 

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Troy,

 

As I mentioned earlier Merrick does suggest the use of the pre-war camo paints but I found them a bit too dark. That said some of your pics do show dark colours and the restored one does look as if the brown was RLM 79. The lighter of the greens is also problematic as it does at times look lighter than any RLM 71 I have seen. Several sources say the colours faded fast, but the camo schemes were changed on a seasonal basis and the one I am doing is the "summer/autumn" one so it probably only had 6 months at most in which to weather down.  I mentioned earlier my Pe-2 and here it is in my interpretation of the Russian colours.

DSC05690-crop

As they were flying over the same sort of landscape perhaps it is not surprising that the Luftwaffe adopted similar sorts of colours on some of their planes. Many Russian planes were in green/black (or very dark grey) so 70/71 would be quite similar, and in some cases a brown was used as well. As the combat moved into Russia the Germans went from grey to green in some cases, and as it moved further West towards the end of the war the Russians went from green to grey, though it was a balance between visibility both in the air and on the ground which is said to be why the Luftwaffe switched to 81/82/83 as their airfields came increasingly under attack - camo is a complicated subject as we all know!

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still a bit of work to do but it has come out pretty much as intended.

DSC07684-crop

It is actually a bit darker in real life. I do sometimes wonder why they went to the trouble of putting camo paint on when they the totally compromised it with the yellow or white fuselage bands etc - presumably to guard against friendly fire!

 

Makes a change from the usual 75/75 or 81/82 I guess. A bit different to the 109G I did in the same unit's markings in Russia.

DSC05448-crop

I think that was 70/79!

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have glossed it and got the decs on.

DSC07707-crop

I may replace the green heart Geschwader badge as it looks a bit small! This is a plane flown by Lt Emil Lang of 5./JG 54 in summer and autumn of 1943 according to my sources. At the start of that year instructions were sent out that to deny information to the enemy the unit badges were to be overpainted - some units delayed doing this but JG 54 seem to have obeyed fairly quickly. Previously this plane would have carried the badge of II./JG 54 - the "Lion of Aspern" which is on the Bf 109G-6 I showed you earlier most illustrations show this to have had a yellow and red background as on my Gustav but my book on Luftwaffe emblems says red and white and contains a colour photo to prove it! Anyway the badges on the cowling has been crudely overpainted with patches of RLM 25 This machine retains the heart but it has been overpainted to remove the usual white outlines and for some reason a few blotches of 25 have been put on the tail as well.

 

I had to use a little filler at the front of the canopy to fair it in as a result of filing down the bulges over the MG 131.

 

Pete

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • PeterB changed the title to Fw 190A-6 JG 54 Eastern Front***FINISHED***

Finally found time to spray it so I will post in the Gallery shortly.

DSC07805-crop

Nice simple build and a bit of fun. Thanks for the GB - I have enjoyed my one and only entry!😆

 

Pete

 

Pete

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...