As mentioned ad nauseum by myself and others, the FW-190 was the second most important Luftwaffe fighter of WWII. The number of variants produced is matched only by the Bf-109 and Ju-88 series of aircraft. In many ways superior to the Bf-109, Kurt Tank's design was further developed into the superb Ta-152 aircraft. However, like many fine late war designs, it was too little and too late. It was the 190 that fought until the bitter end.

Make no mistake, this is not a new mold wunderkit. Even the engraving is marked Italierie, a spelling that was changed at least 15 years ago to Italeri. It has raised panel lines and minimal detailing in the cockpit and wheel wells. It is also infested with ejector pin marks, some of them quite large, which is also typical of older kits. What detailing exists is a bit soft and not exactly accurate. For instance, the upper wing inner gun access panels are a sort of oval amorphous blobs and there are no outer wing upper gun bulges or lower wing shell ejector chutes. This basically limits what you can build if you are a stickler for accuracy. It means you must do the F-8 version or an A-8 that did not have the outer wing guns.

The interior consists of an instrument panel, side consoles seat, floor and stick. The side consoles are separate items with no detail. The seat is just a shape with a very large ejector mark on the bottom of it. At the time this kit was produced, you were supposed to install the pilot figure to cover this. You do get both drop tank or bomb for the centerline rack and you get two styles of canopy and interior armor plating. As with the Hasegawa 190 of more recent vintage, there is no exhaust detailing, nor is there any engine face detail. This latter situation is not a problem as the cooling fan will hide the fact that there is no engine detail. I also think that the blades of the prop are too skinny, but it could just be me.

Those of you looking at the sprues may notice that there are no wheels or tail gear. The downside of buying kits at a swap meet. :o(  However, there are aftermarket replacements available so it isn't a major disaster. One final thing about the kit, there is some flash that will have to be cleaned up. Not a huge amount, but it is most prevalent in the wheel wells, cockpit area of the fuselage, and the alignment holes in the wings and fuselage. These last parts must be trimmed back or the parts won't mate cleanly.

Instructions are quite good as they are for all Italeri kits. The decal sheet is well printed, matte, and in register. Colors all have FS 595 references. Actually, I'd have much preferred these to be RLM numbers, considering the subject. The markings are for two planes. First a FW-190A-8, red 19,  of II./JG 300 in 1944. This plane is in RLM 74/75/76; a pretty standard color scheme for the 190 and shown on the box art. The other is a FW-190F-8 fighter-bomber of an unknown unit in early 1945. It looks to be in late war colors of RLM 74(or 75)/82 over 76. I'd question the grey nose stripe and rudder shown on the scheme. Much research has been done recently that shows the nose stripe is probably yellow and the rudder could be yellow, red, or green. As mentioned earlier, the kit won't build the 190A-8 shown as it lacks the proper outer wing gun components, but it will do the F-8 variant.

Now the question is if you should buy it when there are newer Revell and Hasegawa kits in this scale. Personally, I'd go for the newer kits, but this one is not unbuildable and has the benefit over the Revell kit of being able to display the canopy open!

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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