Fw-190 Marineflieger

[niki]

Well, it's the year 1952 according to glanini's "World War 2: 1936-1954":
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,25472.0.html

Nasty things are going on in SE Asia and some German Naval Aviation assets are at work.

[niki]

Enter the Focke Wulf Fw-190M:



The kit is the 1/72 Revell 04171 Focke Wulf Fw 190F-8 & Bv 246 "Hagelkorn" and it wasn't suppose to become a What-If at all!
Trying to get back into some model building after a couple of years, I set out to finish this kit as it was a recent birthday present. Ignoring the hood issue (Revell's laziness in engineering a proper canopy that can be posed correctly open), I had only the best of memories of the plastic inside the little box - many years ago, the same tooling became the first ever prop model that I built.



Still the same crisp details generally, but the high workload imposed on the moldings showed signs of aging: some flash, a sink marking or two and a couple of very fine pieces (i.e. landing gear actuators) that lacked the original finesse, instead being just mis-injected plastic chunks.



What tipped the balance in favor of going extreme What-If... ish   was the fact that no matter how hard I would have tried, that canopy was not going to sit flush with the fuselage: thin as hair (I have never seen injected plastic THAT thin) but also kind of short-shot, both in length and width. Blurry was that thing also, so I decided to go ballistic and keep it open. How to open Revell's canopy without major surgery? Of course, sideways!



Glanini's thread came here to the rescue and provided inspiration for the What-If scheme. I also wanted to use that huge winged bomb found in the kit therefore, if anybody asks, you can tell them it's a smart weapon optimized for use against surface vessels and harbor installations  



I added a tiny arrestor hook in front of the tail wheel and a comm antenna behind the cockpit.
Painting was accomplished via the old-school brush using Revell (8, 12, 36 and 74), MM (1730 and 1780) and Humbrol (34) colors. I also employed some varnish (Revell and MM) in a few places which didn't turn out quite right but, again, if anybody asks, it adds interest in the form of weathering and patchwork undertaken in theater... Speaking of weathering, panel lines were highlighted using a 0.5 pencil.



The most rewarding aspect of this build was perhaps the fact that a couple of "expired" decals proved themselves one last time after some 20 years (!). I'm talking about the "Marine" titles and badges which came from the 1/144 Italeri 879 Tornado IDS kit. Never thought they would come easier off the backing paper than some younger cousins (German flag and Iron Crosses - 1/72 Italeri 1223 F-104G Starfighter)   The fox biting away at that ship is from the 1/72 Italeri 053 Messerschmitt Bf-109F2.



That's about it, I guess.
A big thank you to glanini for the inspiration provided by his stories and artworks!
Greetings to all of you: keep modeling and - most important - don't stop dreaming!

[NARSES2]

Firstly wellcome aboard  Secondly that's a really nice clean build - like it a lot 

[matrixone]

Nice work on the 190!


Matrixone

[Spey_Phantom]

that is what i call a spectacular entrance, i love what you did to the FW190, might have a go at it myself 
that paint reminds me of the Sea Fury 

[ysi_maniac]

Very believable! Love it!

[Army of One]

Great build of the Wurger there....liking it lots.....

[Maverick]

Looks really snappy in the scheme.  I always liked Revell's little birds.

Welcome aboard.

Regards,

Mav

[niki]

Thanks guys! You're all too kind!

Best wishes,
Niki

[pyro-manic]

Very nice indeed! Some Suez stripes would really make it look like a Sea Fury. Great build, and your solution to the canopy problem is clever.

[Taiidantomcat]

Welcome aboard!! Very nice work, clean mean machine 

[GTX]

Nice.  Now do a Ta-152 or Fw190D-9 in similar.

Regards,

Greg