Building the Focke Wulf Fw190

Compiled by Andy Evans

Model Aircraft Extra No. 1

Reviewed by Graham Carter

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This book is a product of the Model Aircraft Magazine group so modellers should be familiar with the wonderful skills of the modellers whose works regularly adorn this monthly publication.

This is an 80-page A4 ‘bookazine’, case-bound with good quality glossy pages and a gloss card cover with an image of an FW190 radar fighter model on the cover.

There is no editorial introduction but the title and author should give the theme away - this is a modelling guide to building a variety of ‘Butcher Birds’, arguably one of the top five most modelled aircraft of WWII.  The volume goes straight into a six-page overview of the development of the aeroplane and then gives a two page tabular summary of the different variants and their salient features, engines and weaponry.

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The major part of the volume, 70 pages, is then occupied with fourteen builds , one of which is in 1/72. If the modeller is looking for a detailed step-by-step ‘How To’ guide, then he/she will be disappointed as the featured builds tend to be more of the “this is my model and some of the things I did to achieve this finish were . . .” style of presentation. The finished models are quite fabulous and show great skills in construction and finishing the kits, and some techniques are described along the way but not really elaborated upon or illustrated in most cases. Some specific products and their uses are discussed in a couple of cases.


The 14 builds are:-

1. Revell 1/32 A8/R11 by James Ashton

2. Eduard 1/48 D-9 by Chris McDowell with some explanation of techniques

3. Dragon 1/48 A-5/U14 torpedo carrier from James Ashton

4. Revell 1/48 D-9, again from James  Ashton.

5. Revell 1/32 F-8 by Christoff Theunissen , including some step-by-step construction notes

6. Hasegawa 1/48 A-5/U12 from Sun ick Roh.

7. Revell F-8  from James Ashton with some painting and finishing hints

8. Eduard 1/72 A-8 from Mario Serelle with quite bit of painting and building information.

9. Combining the 1/48 Eduard and Tamiya D-9 kits to produce one special model by Marek Vrzak in which he describes how he did it.

10. Eduard 1/48 A-4 Profipak by Jay Blackmore with an explanation of his painting techniques and construction issues and solutions.

11. Eduard 1/48 A-4 Weekend Edition by James Cann with detailed painting and finishing info

12. Eduard short-nose A-series Royal Class 1/48 combo double build by Jay Blakemore again with a good description of painting and finishing methods but few pictures.

13. Eduard 1/48 A-8/R2 from the Limited Edition Reichverteidigung dual kit ( also containing the Bf109 G-6) by Jay Blakemore explaining how he achieved a well-weathered finish.

14. Eduard 1/48 A-4 in Desert colours from Erich Rudorffer

All builds are accompanied by excellent large images of the finished masterworks but there is scant imagery of construction and techniques in most cases. 

Eduard’s wonderful range of kits is clearly in the ascendancy in this collection of builds with 9 of the 14 being from this manufacturer.

If you are fan of the ‘Butcherbird’ and enjoy admiring the work of some great modellers who share their finishing skills with you, then this one will really appeal. A “How To Build  the FW190” it is not, and it would have benefitted from more step-by-step coverage.

Thanks to Creative Models Australia for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2019 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 13 Septembert, 2019
Last updated 12 September, 2019

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