Fw190A (early versions) Royal Class
Eduard 1/48 Fw190A (early versions) Royal Class by Jay Blakemore
T
hey say that men remain
little boys at heart, which
would explain the utter joy
one feels when opening a model
kit box for the first time and
excitedly perusing the contents
within. You can imagine then
my excitement upon receiving
through the post the big maroon-
coloured box that is Eduard’s
latest release in their Royal Class
series. Featuring enough plastic
to construct two early-version
Fw190’s, this duel-combo’
package is yet another treat from
the Czech manufacturer, who
since their conception in 1989,
has climbed to the very pinnacle
of model-making excellence.
Anyone who has already built
Eduard’s ne w-tool F w 190A-4
(released as a ProfiPak in October
2017) will instantly recognise the
two large frames that contain
the majority of the parts as they
remain unchanged from the earlier
release. The two wing-frames too
are unchanged. What are new in
this release are two of the three
fuselage frames included. These
contain fuselage halves featuring
the early slotted cooling grills just
aft of the engine cowlings, and one
pair featuring the curved aerial
attachment point on the top of
the tail, as opposed to the mast-
type attachment point. Meaning,
therefore, that it is possible to
build two models of most of the
early production-standard Fw190A
versions using just the contents
of the box. These include the: A2,
A3, A3/U3 A4, A4 Trop and A4/
U1. There are also a lot of extra
and redundant parts included
on the frames and which give
us a mouth-watering hint at the
plethora of Focke-Wulf releases
to come from this manufacturer.The highlight of any Royal Class
release, is for me, the Cartograf
decal sheet which is included.
Flawlessly printed and featuring
no less than 13 colour schemes, the
huge sheet is a joy to behold and
leaves one in a total quandary as
to which aircraft to model. There
is included the usual collection
of France-based, two-tone grey
airframes with yellow identification
panels, bands and rudders; field
applied two and three-tone green
schemes and one in temporary
white as featured on Russian-based
aircraft from JG51 and 54; aircraft
based in Norway and Italy bearing
yellow and white identification
colours respectively; Maj. H Graf’s
brightly coloured example from
his days in JGr. Ost; a Reich defence
example from JG1 with black and
white-striped cowling; and two
Africa-based aircraft – one in greyand the other with an upper surface
of sand (RLM79). The last aircraft
mentioned features tropical air
filters, and as part of the package
a pair of resin cowls so modified
are included. Other resin items in
the big maroon box include a pair
of wheels and inner undercarriage
doors, all of which feature sharper
and more refined detailing than
do their plastic counterparts
included on the sprue-frames. The
colour-etch frets and masks are
the same as those included in the
ProfiPak release, though doubled.
As is usual in a Royal release there
is an exclusively printed beer
glass, though disappointingly this
time around there is only a single
design rather than a collection,
and last but by no means least, an
attractive A2 art-print, featuring
one of the aircraft optioned on
the decal sheet. Unfortunately,the print is rolled rather than
flat-packed with all the inherent
problems of creasing so entailed.
The only other problem with
this latest epic release from Eduard
is that it has to be made, for as
always when faced with a Royal
Class package, part of me wants to
keep it in pristine condition in the
box and squirrel it away so that I
can occasionally get it out and just
admire it. I won’t do that of course,
I will build two Fw190A’s and I will
thoroughly enjoy the experience.
As I am already halfway through
building the ProfiPak Fw190A-4,
as I write this, I can tell you that
the surface detail of the plastic
parts is sublime and the level of
detail is stunning. I do not doubt
that this latest model incarnation
of Kurt Tank’s blunt-nosed fighter
is the best yet in quarter-scale.
My thanks to Eduard
for the review samples.WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • MARCH 2018 • 57
FIRST LOOK!
052-57-FirstLooks-0318.indd 57 09/02/2018 14:28