didn’t have outer guns, so I had to
fill them using Apoxy Sculpt putty.
I used Mr. Paint RLM 02 in the
wheel wells while I had the wing
apart, as this makes it easier to
paint. I also remembered to open
up the hole for the bomb rack to
allow me to produce my tip and
run raider. Adding the wings to
the fuselage proved that Eduard is
a world-leader in fit and finesse.
The upper cowlings were
now added along with the nose
cowl ring, and again the fit was
phenomenal. I did have to use some
Apoxy Sculpt to fill in the cowl gun
troughs, as the A-4/U8 version
only had guns in the wing root.
All the flight controls fit perfectly
as well – in fact, I didn’t find a
thing that didn’t fit perfectly.
It was now time to add the drop
tank racks on the wings, but there
was a problem when I discovered
that the hole in the leading edge
was not the only thing different on
the A-4/U8. To allow the racks to
sit properly, the bulged doors on
the bottom of the wing are flat. Out
with the sanding sticks to sand it
smooth with the rest of the access
panel. Now the resin parts from
the Verlinden set were added, with
very little filler needed to smooth
things out. Simple and easy.
The inner landing gear doors on
the kit are incorrect; not in shape
but in orientation. Eduard shows
them as being extended, but on the
A-4 they stay closed and are only
activated during the retraction
cycle. This was easy to take care of
by simply snipping off the mounting
points and sanding the lower wing
slightly to obtain a perfect fit.
Adding the gunsight to the
cockpit and cockpit coaming is
a unique setup that is brought
together when attaching the
forward canopy, and the fit issimply perfect. The cockpit
coaming fits loosely until you get
the canopy attached with Tamiya
cement. (OK, confession time. I
screwed up and added the wrong
forward canopy. I tried to get it
off but it was stuck on good and
proper so there was nothing to do
but live with it.) I used the Eduard
masks and despite using the wrong
canopy they worked perfectly.
The rest of the airframe was
now masked off with Tamiya tape
where appropriate: the front of
the engine, the wheel wells, and
the aft portion of the canopy.PAINT AND DECALS
Assembly was very quick and in no
time it was time to prime and paint
this little jewel. Compared to the
older-generation 190 kits, assembly
was fast and very rewarding.
I started with the canopy area,
which was painted in Mr. Paint
RLM-66. Then the entire model was
primed with Alclad Grey Primer.
The only place I needed to do any
more work on was the filled-in cowl
guns and that was my fault. The rest
was perfect, which is a testament
to the superb fit of the kit.
I elected to paint and decal the
aircraft like the real thing, then
add the distemper black. Thatmeant painting the model first in
RLM 76 for the belly. Next came
the yellow under the nose (which
needed careful masking) and the
rudder. The fit of the rudder was
so good that I had forgotten to
glue it in place, so I just pulled it
off and painted it with Mr. Paint
RLM-04 Yellow, reattaching
it a bit later in the painting.
While I was at it I made a
mask from Tamiya tape for
the yellow “H” identification
letter on the aft fuselage. Once
this had dried I covered it with
more masks to protect it until
I was ready to apply the black
finish to the fuselage sides.
The camouflage colours were22 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
020-27-FEAT-Fw190-0818.indd 22 12/07/2018 11:36