Sturmbock: Hasegawa's 1/32 Fw 190A-8 Converted to an Fw 190A-8/R8
By Tim Clark
Just about everyone has heard about Hasegawa's most recent 190 release so I won't go into any reviews about the kit itself except where doing so will convey a point I may be trying to make about the Sturmbock aircraft that I've constructed from the basic Fw 190A-8 kit. Suffice to say that it takes from it's elder relative, the recently released Fw 190D-9, the wings, tailplanes, main landing gear struts and wheels, windscreen, canopy and cockpit. Everything else is all "A" model and to my surprise, a new tailwheel and strut assembly was also included as part of the "A" release. I had either been unaware or had forgotten that the Fw 190A-8 had a smaller tailwheel than did the Dora neun.
For the benefit of those of you who may not know what the name "Sturmbock" implies, it is the name given to a very heavily armed and armored Fw 190A-7, 8 or 9 series aircraft that was modified specifically to engage and destroy Allied heavy bombers. From my understanding of the historical record and information that's been given me, the R8 conversion was a field-installed kit and then a factory installed option. According to a Focke Wulf document I read (in English), there was no Fw 190A-8 aircraft built as an R8 by any factory producing 190s. All Fw 190A-8/R8 conversions were done as field conversions. (I don't think this means that they were done at frontline airfields across occupied Europe and Germany but I don't know that) Factory production of the R8 subtype began and ended with the Fw 190A-9.
The pilots who flew these aircraft probably had nerves of steel since scoring fatal hits with the Mk108, 30mm cannon required flying extremely close to the target aircraft bristling with defensive armament. I have read in such a manner as to consider it true, that it generally took three hits from a 30mm cannon, in a vulnerable area, to bring down a B-17. Scoring three hits in a critical area on a B-17 must have required both patience and a whole wheelbarrow full of courage. These guys weren't just flying past in high speed, head on attacks; they flew right up the bombers six and pounded away with everything they had in order to stop them. These Sturmbock aircraft were also much heavier than the normal Fw 190 fighters so they were often intercepted by the escorting Allied fighter screen. However, when they did get through and score close range hits, Allied bombers would literally fall apart, or blow up, in mid air from the murderous fire from the heavy cannon on these Focke Wulfs. One good pass was all it took. In an attempt to decrease the weight of the Sturmbock aircraft, many had the cowl 13mm machine guns removed and the troughs faired over. I also suspect that the continued use of these cowl machine guns was like trying to kill an elephant with a peashooter and I don't mean the little Boeing built, between the wars, fighter.
I thought this brilliant artwork by Keith Ferris sums up the courage of the Sturmbock pilots without words.3 There are at least twelve .50" machine guns from the three forts that can be brought to bear on this lone attacker, against his four, slower firing rate, machine cannon.
The kit was constructed primarily out of the box incorporating those additional, scratchbuilt, items needed to build a Sturmbock aircraft. I did replace the kit seat with a seat from Cutting Edge. The seat is available by itself with molded on seatbelts and it is a vast improvement over the kit-supplied seat without any seatbelts. I constructed only those modifications for the Sturmbock that would be visible on the finished kit. They include: faired over 13mm cowl gun ports, windscreen 30mm armored glass panels, 30mm canopy armored glass panels, 5mm steel armor plating (3 piece installation) on the fuselage in the vicinity of the cockpit and lastly, the ominous 30mm Rhienmetal-Borsig Mk 108 30mm machine cannon and associated shell ejection chutes.
Now without further distraction, let's take a look at my little Sturmbock from a photographical point of view. Each photo may be accompanied by a caption (or more), drawing attention to a particular item in the photo that I tried to recreate or felt was important. Construction photos are the same ones as under the "in the works" forum. My computer suffered a huge cranial flatulence recently, so I copied and pasted those pictures into this article. Sorry for the duplication.
I wanted my machine to have something just a bit different than what you'd normally see hanging off an Fw 190A. Instead of the ETC 501 rack and the 300l drop tank, I thought that a krebs-gerat rearward firing WGr 21 mortar would be just the thing. This was a weapon mounted underneath the Sturmbock that was intended to, if you will, be a parting shot as it flew away from a bomber formation. Again, relying on one Mr. Jerry Crandall, and his almost infinite store of knowledge on the subject, I found out that using these things was a complete failure and was downright dangerous to the pilots of the sturmgruppen and were dropped from service before seeing any real usage. Being that I am more stubborn than I am practical, I just had to have this "whatchamacallit" hanging from my 190. Undaunted and having a copy of Eagle Parts, krebs-gerat in 1/48 scale, I embarked on a very rewarding, remarkably short and easier than I expected, session of scratchbuilding. I basically copied the 1/48 scale unit up to 1/32 scale. The unit itself is 1300 mm in length (1.6 inches in 1/32 scale) and since the WGr 21 mortar is 210mm in diameter, the launching tube couldn't be much larger. I scrounged up some ¼" tubing for the mortar and some 5/16" outside diameter tubing for the launcher and cut it to the appropriate length. As it turns out, my launcher tube is just a tad too long being slightly more than 1.75" long. I cut and sanded a trapezoidal chunk of plastic (the whoozeewhatsis) and glued it on, along with a two lengths of plastic strip, one for the aft band and one for the front post. (The latter sanded to an airfoil shape cross section) I have no idea what the "whoozeewatsis" actually is. I then glued a short section of .008" solder on the forward mounting post (forward and aft gets confusing when the thing is mounted backwards on the aircraft) to serve as the electrical firing connection between the aircraft and the rocket with foil clamps superglued in place on the post.
The hardest part of the whole project was figuring out how to turn a hollow piece of ¼" tube into a solid looking rocket. What I ended up doing was supergluing successively smaller and smaller diameter tubes into each other until one end was closed. This end would be the warhead (the part that goes KABOOM!) For the propulsion end I used a simple piece of .040" plastic sheet superglued to the other end of the tubing. This was sanded flush with the outside diameter of the tube. For the propulsion ports (which I assumed were six in number, equally spaced in a circle around the circumference of a smaller raised circle {remember I'm using a 1/48 unit as a model, I'm not making it up}), I remembered a lesson from my high school geometry class on how to make a hexagon using just a compass. At my age, that, in and of itself, was a feat worthy of patting myself on the back. Email me if you want specifics on how to get the six evenly spaced holes using only a regular compass. After drilling the six holes in the plastic, I cut out the circle and glued to the back of the rocket so that both were concentric. To get the "pointy" end, I gently chucked the rocket assembly in a cordless drill and at slow speed, used a coarse sanding stick to shape the warhead. When I was satisfied with the result, I chopped the very tip off and glued a small plug on the end to represent the fuse (I think) at the end of the rocket. I stuffed the rocket into the launcher and was completely amazed that the thing actually looked decent, so I glued it in place before I could improve upon it until I ruined it. I drilled a small hole in the center of the rocket engine end and inserted the firing wire that I previously installed on the launcher.
The tube and associated parts were painted RLM 76 and the rocket itself I decided to paint a dark grey color, not knowing the actual color of the rockets. Now, on with the pictures!
Well, this is the end of my article on my interpretation of what a JG300 Sturmbock might have resembled (sans the wrong shade of red RVG band) including some minor weathering details. Oh yeah, the model was painted with ModelMaster RLM 74, 75 and Floquil 76 with a Gunze Red RVG band and 02 fuselage armor, ModelMaster RLM 24 Blue numeral 7. I penciled in the panel lines using 2H lead in a .5mm mechanical pencil. I have tried but I just cannot use the panel line wash, it just doesn't work for me. I sprayed Floquil Crystalcote as a gloss under decals I robbed from an Eagle Strike Fw 190A8 sheet as well as the kit decals; finally overcoated with thinned Testors Dullcote.
This plane probably did not exist in history but who knows, it may have. I based the entire model scheme on the Eagle Editions, Walter Dahl's, Blue 13 as a spin off of one of the builds posted on this site and others by, you guessed it…Jerry Crandall. Thank you very kindly for all the help Mr Crandall. You are an inspiration, a invaluable resource, and I am very glad you choose to make yourself available for folks, such as myself, to benefit from your research and dedication. If anyone has any questions about my little one-ninety, please don't hesitate to contact me, I'll be glad to answer.
Current project? A 1/32 Star in Afrika… Ooooooo…a Marseille 109F you say? You're right! I'm not letting the cat outta the bag as to just which one though…stay tuned to LSP, it'll show up soon.
Best Regards, and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.
1: Jerry Crandall, who we all know, as a recognized and acknowledged Luftwaffe expert, informed me through a web based forum, that this is the correct term to use when referring to the Fw 190A-8, 9/R8. The term Rammjager, is apparently viewed with contempt by former members of the Sturmgruppen. I will not use it here out of respect for those who flew the aircraft and perpetuating an historical inaccuracy.
2: This is my understanding as Fw 190A-7/R2s carried some of the same equipment but the term is more generally associated with only the A8 and A9 series aircraft.
3: I intend no copyright infringement and am only using this small picture to illustrate my point. A lithograph of this painting can be purchased at www.keithferrisart.com and all rights remain the property of the artist and/or any relevant parties.
© Tim Clark 2004
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016