A Fw 190 Zwilling (with jet booster): beauty pics & story on page 2

[Dizzyfugu]

This whif was inspired by the P-82 "Twin Mustang" (actually, the Israeli one that popped up here some weeks ago), and the result is a rather bizarre creation which would nevertheless appear plausible for Germany during the late stages of WWII. Actually, Arado's real paper project E.530 looked very similar to this creation, but it was a bigger aircraft and intended as a fast bomber.

Other Zwilling designs even entered the hardware stage or were very concrete: the He 111 Z bomber was built and used mainly as a glider tug, the Bf 109 Z and Me 609 were derivatives of their respective normal ancestors, there was even a Do 335 with two fuselages as a long range reconnaissance aircraft on the drawing board! With this real world background, the Fw 190, as a starting point for a Zwilling fighter, appears rather harmless...

Anyway, the resulting model is not the first attempt into this direction, though, just a personal interpretation of the basic idea. The kitbashing is based on two Fw 190 D-9 kits from Italeri. While the kit is some decades old it is IMHO still a good choice (despite its fine, raised panel lines), because you get it easily and with a relatively small price tag.


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Building the fuselages was straightforward, mostly OOB. The right cockpit was faired over with putty, and the fuselage machine guns disappeared (Fw 190 D-13 style) in front of both cockpit openings.


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Biggest challenge  were the central wing section that connects the fuselages. Just cutting the original wings and glueing them together was no option, since the leading and training edges would not be straight, and the wings have a slight anhedral. Additionally, I had to put the landing gear somewhere, and modify it, as the original Fw 190 landing gear is rather wide and it would make IMHO no sense under a twin fuselage aircraft, I have big stability doubts.

I finally settled on a scratched solution for both problems. For the landing gear, I took a look at the P-82 solution (new, single wheels which retract inwards, under the fuselages), and derived a totally new landing gear installation. It now features twin wheels (from the Fw 190 kits) in order to distribute the aircraft's weight on soft ground, mounted on new struts, taken from a Me 262. This new construction became so "thick", though, that it had to be retracted into the fuselage – the area under the cockpit was the only place to put it, but this is IMHO plausible since there is no radiator or other installment under the Fw 190's belly. There's no place for ventral hardpoints now, but that's a small price to pay for a pure fighter.

With that solution found, the original landing gear wells in the wings were filled, the "inner" wings were cut away at the wing roots and a new central wing section added. This consists of a an enlarged horizontal stabilizer from a 1:100 A-10 SnapFit kit - it was perfect in span, had both straight leading and training edges, and the central fuselage part was creatively integrated into an additional idea (see below). The wing was deepened by 14mm wide with styrene strips (several layers, 2.5mm thick), and some putty was needed to blend everything together.
The final span between the fuselages was dictated by the new horizontal stabilizer. This comes from an Airfix Fw 189, the tail wheel well was filled. The outer attachment points on the fuselages' outer sides for the original stabilizers were simply faired over and sanded even.


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


But back to the new central wing section: the additional jet booster was a spontaneous idea. Even though the Zwilling layout is odd enough, adding a podded jet would make it SO weird that it would look even more like a serious, futuristic German design! And the idea is not far-fetched: Luftwaffe's RLM actually worked on such podded jet booster designs, e. g. for the Me 410, Ar 240 or He 219 as well as for some paper projects with mixed propulsion.

The pod's place under the central wing section was just perfect, as the hot exhaust gasses would pass between the fuselages and under the stabilizer (without burning away the tail wheel, as on some early pod-and-boom jet fighter designs like the Yak-15). The nacelle itself comes from a leftover Hobby Boss He 162 fighter. It was taken OOB and just integrated into the lower wing. It looks so strange, but gives the aircraft a relatively compact look, too.


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 Z-17, aircraft ,,<1+–", personal mount of Leutnant Werner von Giesen, Stab of II./JG 53's; Kaufbeuren, late 1945 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


More to come soon, progress is FAST!  

[dumaniac]

nice concept - nice work

[PR19_Kit]

Tophe's just going to LOVE that Thomas! 

Looks a pretty complex engineering job you've done there, and it works a treat. Can't wait to see the finished article.

[Army of One]

Great progress....looks absolutely fantastic....!!!

[Dizzyfugu]

Progress on this is VERY fast, it is actually finished, pics are running up late. Did this whole thing in just three days(!) last weekend, from the kit boxes last Friday evening until matt varnish on Monday evening. Sometimes I get scared by myself...

Pics and infos from the painting progress come next, and beauty pics will probably be taken next weekend.

As a side note concerning construction: doing such a Zwilling is NOT as easy as one might thing, just take two (or more) kits, saw the wings off and glue them together. I experienced the same trouble as those engineers who created the P-82 - in the end, a lot has to be changed... What I really like is the podded engine - it looks so bizarre and natural at the same time, and is that extra feature that makes you wonder if it could not be real at all...  

Stay tuned, more to come soon - and many thanks for taking a look and the feedback!  

[JayBee]

Putting that jet engine in the middle is a stroke of genius. 

Looking forward to seeing the finished photo's.

[PR19_Kit]

As a side note concerning construction: doing such a Zwilling is NOT as easy as one might thing, just take two (or more) kits, saw the wings off and glue them together. I experienced the same trouble as those engineers who created the P-82 - in the end, a lot has to be changed... What I really like is the podded engine - it looks so bizarre and natural at the same time, and is that extra feature that makes you wonder if it could not be real at all...  

Too true Thomas, there's a lot of engineering has to go into twinning models, if only to stop the thing breaking in half once it'd done!

I'm not a fan of just joining the inner wings together as they come, if they'd done it for real it'd almost certainly be done like you just have, with a parallel chord centre wing. Twin Spitfires that still retain the elliptic wings in the centre just don't look right to me.

[Dizzyfugu]

Totally agree - even though the Spitfire and the Bf 109 are thankful twinning victims due to their narrow landing gear track - you can still use it without the need for bigs mods.

But the leading/training edges are a real challenge. I actually was close to butchering a Ta 183 from PM Models, because - despite having swept wings - its wings have parallel leading and training edges. The A-10 part was a lucky (and inspiring) find in the scrap heap, but this middle wing section is not as trivial as it might seem.

Similar drama comes to play when you want to mod a two-engined aircraft into a four-engined one, through extended wing span. Here you not only have the leading/training edge issue, you instinctively neglect half a propeller's diameter of wing span! 

[Spey_Phantom]

very nice idea 

[Tophe]

Tophe's just going to LOVE that Thomas! 

I do, I do!

[63cpe]

Brilliant!  looking for to see more of this project!

[kitnut617]

As a side note concerning construction: doing such a Zwilling is NOT as easy as one might thing, just take two (or more) kits, saw the wings off and glue them together. I experienced the same trouble as those engineers who created the P-82 - in the end, a lot has to be changed... What I really like is the podded engine - it looks so bizarre and natural at the same time, and is that extra feature that makes you wonder if it could not be real at all...  

Too true Thomas, there's a lot of engineering has to go into twinning models, if only to stop the thing breaking in half once it'd done!

I'm not a fan of just joining the inner wings together as they come, if they'd done it for real it'd almost certainly be done like you just have, with a parallel chord centre wing. Twin Spitfires that still retain the elliptic wings in the centre just don't look right to me.

I had to be quite creative while building this which has the same problem ---  (I was going to wait until I finished this before I posted something but your thread just screamed out to me)
I went with F-82 style u/c which retract into the center section and the center section is totally scratch built except for the leading edge radiators (from a Tempest Mk.I conversion set)

[PR19_Kit]

THAT'S the way to do it Robert! 

Cracking job there. 

[kitnut617]

Thanks Kit      

I'll now start my own thread for it but it seemed applicable here.

[Army of One]

That looks fantastic as well......!!!!