Hasegawa 1/32 Fw 190D-9 Part 1

By Jeffrey Brundt

Once again Hasegawa has out done themselves. If you thought their Bf 109G was a jewel you'll be even more pleasantly surprised by the recent release of their Fw 190D-9. This is a completely new tool kit and it certainly shows. The detail is excellent. Recessed panel lines abound and the fit is near perfect. One nice touch was the inclusion of a PE fret on the initial release of the kit to the U.S. market. I used some but not all of the PE items. Quite frankly, with the exception of the seat belts, the PE set is not needed. I built the kit basically OOB.

The kit goes together very well and very quickly. The PE set gives you the instrument panel with the clear instrument dials. I opted for the easy way out and used the kit decals to represent these as well as the side consoles. I think these decals look very nice and are a lot less work. I used RLM 66 for the basic cockpit then applied an enamel wash of grimy black followed by a burnt sienna wash. The burnt sienna dries a bit lighter shade and gives the impression of dirt better. The cockpit is set aside and I went to work on the accessory unit. One thing about the Dora is that the accessory unit of the DB engine is visible through the wheel wells. Hasegawa did a very nice job here duplicating that unit and it has plenty of detail (most of which will not be seen unless you display the model on a mirror). Once this unit was painted and assembled it too was given a wash of grimy black and burnt sienna. The two assemblies are then glued to the fuse half.

The fit of the fuse halves is perfect and no putty was needed. Hasegawa has done a truly outstanding job in the engineering of this kit. I used another piece of the PE for the supercharger intake. Once the two halves of the intake were glued together the round screen was inserted and secured in place using liquid cement. Be careful of the two pins on the front of the fuse. These receive the front cowl and cowl flap assembly. The can break easily. I know cause I broke one of them and had to reattach it.

The wing is next. There is an excellent wheel well insert with lots of detail molded in. I sprayed all the areas RLM 02 and then applied a wash of grimy black followed by a light wash of burnt sienna. The wing fit to the fuse is perfect. I didn't even need to use putty here. The liquid cement filled the joints nicely. Not even a sanding was needed. How good is that? The tail unit is separate from the fuselage (similar to the 109 model). Hasegawa did this so they can put out future variants of the 190 and 152 that had different tail units. The joint is right on a panel line so you can't see it. In fact all the major joints are along panel lines.

Part 1 | Part 2

Hasegawa 1/32 Fw 190D-9 Part 1

By Jeffrey Brundt

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