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Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-11

Name: Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-11
Brand: HobbyBoss
SKU: 15031002
Availability: InStock

Kit Review
For years no historian thought that the production D-11 never existed, but recently images surfaced that showed two machines, '<81' (or '<61) and '<58' at Bad Wörishofen in April 1945, and it became apparent that a small number at least were completed. This kit from HobbyBoss follows on from the standard D-9 and it uses the same main components, but with new parts in the form of the propeller, supercharger intake and upper cowling. The kit also includes wing bomb racks and SC50 bombs, plus a generic sprue containing an AB250 container and 300lt drop tanks with their associated racks. As I was building the Ta 152C-1/R14 at the same time, you could see similarities in the breakdown of parts, but the details are all different and you really see the revisions in the C-wing when put alongside the D-series. The cockpit interior has good raised detail, with a decal for the main instrument panel, but oddly in this version there are no etched belts included?

There are some ejector pin marks to deal with, but only two are in areas that can be seen, so a little Mr Surfacer 500 will do the job. The rear section of the engine is there, as that can be seen up through the wheel wells and you don’t have the option to add the exhaust stacks later, because they have to be installed in stage 3 of the build; I tried masking them, but it does not work, so they have to be masked out and sprayed after the main colours are on, which is a bind. The tiny little intake on the upper cowling (#D37) only locates via a small raised line (ring), so hold it in place with a cocktail stick or similar, and let a little glue run round the base, otherwise it could ping off into oblivion. The canopy features the solid headrest and there is a nice rail unit that combines a tiny etched element at the front, it looks complex, but is actually quite easy to assemble. I painted up these parts separately, at the same time as I did the undercoat to the canopy and windscreen frames, as its all done in RLM 66. There is no wasted effort including the whole of the wing root cannon, you just get the barrels and I replaced these with lengths of aluminium from the Albion Alloys range. The bases of the plastic barrels (#E7 and E8) were cut off, drilled to accept the aluminium tubing, then painted and secured into the wheel well insert (#D1), so that the tubes could be slid into position at the end of the build. The pitot (#D16) was also replaced with aluminium tubing. Both flaps and ailerons are separate, but these were not defected and thus cemented in position. Don’t forget in stage 5 to open up the holes in the lower wing half for the bomb racks and the mid-span cannon barrels. You get the option of open or closed cowl flaps, so I went for them closed. The undercarriage correctly depicts the electrically operated retraction arms and you will need to re-establish the treads in each tyre once you have assembled them and then sanded smooth the seam. The DF loop itself was replaced with fire brass wire, reattached to the base of #D14, the IFF rod antenna (#D33) was replaced with thicker diameter wire and the FuG 16ZY ‘Morane Mast’ had the tip clipped off and replaced with wire to look better (the kit does not offer this part as an alternative etched components, as seen in the C-series kits). The nice wide-bladed propeller is well depicted and the ETC 501 rack on the centreline has separate sway brace arms. The smaller ETC 50 (or 91) racks for the wings are single-piece mouldings, but suffice. You will probably get fed up of assembling the two halves of all four SC50, but the sprues actually contain enough parts for eight, so don’t build them all. Really the fins on these could be replaced with plasticard, but I am lazy and just went with the kit parts.

The large supercharger intake is shown being installed at the end of the build and I felt this unit lacked any details, so once assembled, recreated a weld seam down the centre with a line of Mr Surfacer 500, applied roughly with a fine brush. The intake fits snuggly onto the large central lug, so this means you can add and remove it to allow the correct application of the fuselage mottling in this area. The tiny deflector plate (#PE3) pings off without warning, so I just sprayed it RLM 76, then added it at the end just prior to applying the exhaust staining, as it gets covered in that anyway!

Colour
HobbyBoss have opted for ‘<81’ for one of their options in this kit, although some claim it was ‘<61’, they also offer a scheme of ‘||>’, W/Nr.170526, but I have not seen any images of this machine so cannot comment on its authenticity. As you can guess, I went with the first option and pretty much followed the kit painting guide with a little deviation in the panels I painted bare metal on the wing underside. The upper colours are RL

M 74 and 75 for the wings, with the curved demarcations, then RLM 81 on the dorsal spine and RLM 82 on the gun access panel. There is not mottling on the fuselage sides and the dorsal spine areas of RLM 81 stop just behind the canopy, plus you only get a small mottle of RLM 81 on the vertical fin. This all makes for a nice looking machine, so when you combine it with a white band around the rear fuselage, it all looks very nice. The instructions hint at the white band being partially over-sprayed with RLM 76 on the side and top, but I left in intact, just because it looked better. I also differed in bow I painted the racks and ordnance, with the centreline rack remaining in RLM 76, but the wing ones done in RLM 66. The AB250 container was done in RLM 75, whilst the SC50s were done in a slightly lightened (with yellow) RLM 79.
Once all the colour was one and a coat of Humbrol Clear had dried, the decals went on and these were superb. They settled down with little fuss and about the only thing I should have replaced was the swastika on either side of the fin, simply because there are supplied in two halves and a real bind to locate accurately. I did think about rubbing off the carrier film with white spirit once the decals were dry, but I did not, mainly because the build and paint was looking nice and I did not want to mess it up! The whole model then go another coat of Humbrol Clear, which was left to harden for 24 hours, then a Dark Wash from the MIG Productions range was applied to all the panel lines etc., then after 30 minutes the excess was wiped away. The final coat was one of Vallejo satin varnish, which I think is a little too shiny and would have been better if I had gone with Xtracrylix matt varnish instead.?

Final Assembly
The various bits and pieces were attached, the canopy and headrest were assembled and then secured and finally each tip light was secured using a mix of thin Gator Glue and Tamiya Clear Red or Green. The aerial lead was added, this being made from the superb Uschi van der Rosten superfine rigging material that is available from Albion Alloys or directly from the manufacturer's own website.

Verdict
Lovely, I really did enjoy making this kit, it is a lot easier than the old Trimaster/Dragon D-series and available at a very reasonable price. I for one will be using it as the basis for many a D-series production and prototype before too long!
Highly recommended to all Luftwaffe modellers, regardless of experience.

Paints used;
Alclad II
Chrome
Jet Exhaust

Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Hobby Color
H65 RLM 70 Black Green
H66 RLM 79 Sand Brown
H68 RLM 74 Dark Grey
H69 RLM 75 Mid-grey
H70 RLM 02 Grey
H417 RLM 76 Light Blue
H422 RLM 81 Brown-violet
H423 RLM 83 Dark Green

Tamiya Color
X-1 Black
X-2 White
X-8 Lemon Yellow
X-25 Clear Green
X-27 Clear Red
XF-64 Red-Brown

Vallejo Model Color
Satin Varnish

MIG Productions
Dark Wash