Hasegawa 1/32 Fw 190A-5
By Jerry Crandall
I was anxious to try out our new EagleCals #83-32 especially to see how the checkerboard decals worked on this colorful Fw 190A-5. Everything fit perfectly but did require several coats of Micro Sol to make the black checkers snuggle down over the cowling bumps and gun troughs. The recommended sequence for the black checker on the forward portion of the port side cowling bulge is to use the black decal that is "U" shaped, then use the black scrap decal supplied to fill in the opening. Then apply several coats of Micro Sol. We are fortunate to have interesting visitors from time to time, one of our recent visitors was Dr. Ian Robertson and his family. We had a terrific time talking about airplanes, models etc. He made the mistake of bringing along one of his beautiful bases that he made for one of his models, which as we all know are museum quality. I managed to trade him out of it after I pulled out one of my Colt Single Actions and spun it around to impress him and he grudgingly agreed to letting go of one of his prize bases....it is pictured here under my Hasegawa Fw 190A-5!
This colorful Fw 190 A-5 does include some controversy. First is whether the base color of the cowling is actually yellow. Some feel it is yellow, others feel it is simply black checkers over the gray camouflage as there is some mottling showing on the base color. I chose to use the yellow option and applied mottling in the appropriate places. Another point of contention is whether this aircraft was "White 4" or "White 1". Our decal engineer, Tom Tullis plotted the portion of the number that shows in the photo by computer, and determined that it was actually a "White 1". If the shape was projected out it would be a rather strange "White 4" which is the number that some feel this aircraft carried. Unfortunately the loss records of this aircraft do not mention the tactical number, only the Werk Nummer. So, we supply both numbers on the decal sheet for the modeler's choice.
Due to the fact that the kit fuselage halves are carried over from their A-8 kit several panels need to be modified. Besides the panels that the kit instructs the modeler to fill in, there are two others that they neglected to mention. The large panel under the rear fuselage that was introduced on the A-8 series to accommodate the 115 litre additional fuel tank that was used for additional fuel or used as an MW 50 tank. The A-5 panel should be re-scribed and is a smaller oval shaped access door with six fasteners. The round primer filler point also introduced on the A-8 that is located just under the left side of the cockpit needs to be filled in also for the A-5 sub-type.
The A-5 kit comes standard with the A-7 and later solid wheel with smooth treaded tire which is not appropriate for the A-5 subtype.
EagleParts #53-32, pictured here, provides the corrected tire and wheel set for the A-1 through A-6 subtype.
© Jerry Crandall 2005
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Tuesday, May 30 2017