Best 1:72 early Fw190A on the market ?

[KRK4m]

I can't find an answer to a (seemingly) simple question.

I miss in my collection some very early (first 2000 a/c) Fw190A, i.e. versions with an original short nose, type A-2/A-3/A-4.

Surgery on Eduard is out of the question - the fuselage panelling is totally different.

Which 1:72 kit gives the best chance of a decent score? AZ, Tamiya, Sword, Matchbox?

Or maybe someone heard about something new in the pipeline?

Cheers

Michael

Edited February 19, 2023 by KRK4m

[MDriskill]

I agree with you - definitely a hole in the market at the moment! For whatever my opinions are worth...

 

+ I'm not familiar with Sword, and no longer have a Matchbox but remember it as pretty crude...it's nearly 50 years old after all.

+ The Tamiya A-3 kit is the usual choice - crisp detail, simple engineering, trouble-free assembly. But, IMHO it has some rather weird accuracy issues. The cockpit is too far forward; the windscreen's base dimension is too short, making the front panel too vertical; the wheels are much too small; and the prop blades and spinner are not quite right. Easy enuff to fix the latter two with alternate parts, but this old FW nut can't get past the goofy glass angles.

+ The AZ A-0/1 kit is rather interesting. Better than the average older lim-run kits, but still fairly crude in some ways. It looks like Tamiya inspired some of its nicer details, and the cockpit is in the right place (fuselage pic below has Tamiya above and AZ below; overall lengths precisely match and you can see the cockpit difference). This kit mixed with Tamiya detail parts could be quite nice.

+ The Zvezda snap-together A-4 is really very good for such a simple kit. As you can imagine some deficiencies in detail, and minor ones in shape, but probably the most accurate early 190 at the moment.

+ Converting the Eduard A-8 would be a mess, but don't forget their A-5 kits, which have most panel lines in the right places. I don't think converting one of those would be out of the question, mostly a matter of taking out the nose "splice" introduced with this variant. 

+ The older Hasegawa A-5 is a simpler kit, so might be a simpler conversion. If you can find one, Hawkeye actually had a nice short-nose A-3/4 conversion for Hasegawa, that also included other details. It was mastered by Roy Sutherland; a friend built one years ago and it looks excellent.

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by MDriskill

[Michael louey]

I agree with MDriskill

 

The "easiest and nicest looking kit" is the Tamiya but the cockpit dimensions don't match the other FW190 kits. The AZ kits are a bit fiddly to build but looks ok once finished - I've only built the A-1 and had to do some work arounds and part replacements (e.g. Hasegawa clear parts) to get it finished to a nice enough standard. The Zvezda kits is good but it only represents a specific version of the A-4 and will be a bit of work to convert to an A3 or earlier version (i.e. no cooling slots). It also has a incorrectly shaped spinner which I replaced with a Barracuda item. Also watch out for sink marks in this kit and also note the canopy is made from some alternative material - won't polish up very well. I think I replaced these with more spare Hasegawa clear parts.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

Edited February 19, 2023 by Michael louey

[PatG]

From personal experience the Zvezda A4 is pretty good as is the Tamiya A3 so either would be a good start point. The AZ A0/1 is also a nice kit but not that easy to find these days so really depends upon what you want to achieve and how fussy you are about it being absolutely bang on 100% accurate.

 

But at least you have some options to have a go at, unlike me waiting for a Spitfire XII in 72nd scale - the wait goes on!

 

Pat.

 

 

[tempestfan]

There was an in-depth assessment of all (then) available 190 kits in German Mag ModellFan (pretty certainly there as they liked to do that stuff), probably well over 40 years ago. They said the Matchbox was very good in accuracy. If they based their assessment on the right data (--> Bentley's drawings should have been available by then), accuracy did not change in the intervening period. However it's of course, well, "unsophisticated"...

[MDriskill]

The online supplement to the original edition of Valiant's Airframe & Miniature volume on the Fw 190A/F/G/S also had a review of the Matchbox kit. They thought the basic shape was OK, but noted a lot of accuracy shortcomings with detail components, panel line locations, etc.; and a general lack of refinement and interior detail. 

 

From the same source, here is an image of Roy Sutherland's "Hawkeye" short-nose conversion for the Hasegawa kits, as noted above.

Edited February 25, 2023 by MDriskill