The FW-190D-9 was an attempt at increasing the speed and effectiveness of the standard FW-190A by adding an inline Junkers Jumo 213 engine in place of the normal radial BMW. And it worked. The 190D-9 was a much better fighter than its earlier counterpart, much of this due to the more powerful engine. Many Luftwaffe pilots considered it to be the best German fighter of the war. Unfortunately, it was a case of too little, too late as though there were more than enough aircraft produced, the lack of fuel and experienced pilots severely limited their usefulness. Today, there are several airframes in various museums around the world.

SMER has recently been boxing other company's products and adding the superb Propagteam decals to the offering. In the case of the reboxed Heller kits this has been most welcome as Heller kits are superb, but really lack for decent decals. It was hoped that this would be a reboxed Airfix kit as the Airfix 190D is not that bad at all.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be any specific kit that I have seen before. The end result is a model whose only saving grace is the super decal sheet. This one has several things grossly wrong with it, but first some overall impressions. The kit has fully engraved panel lines, a plus. It also has a choice of canopies between the flatter and more bulbous type seen on the 190D. It also has a choice of bomb or drop tank. The grey plastic has a pebbly texture that has been seen on some Heller kits, but it should smooth out with a paint application.

Now on to the problems. The wings are square tipped, (see image to left) a feature not found on any FW-190 I have seen. Sure, they can be rounded off to the correct shape, but shouldn't be. Secondly, the fin and rudder are also square (see image below). No FW-190 I have ever seen has this feature. Again, it probably can be sanded to the proper shape, but this is another thing that shouldn't have to be done. The third glitch is the prop. It is no way the proper shape for an FW-190D. It should be a paddle bladed prop and this one is too thin. No choice but to hunt for another. There are other problems with the kit such as a drop tank that is the wrong shape, spindly landing gear, a prop spinner that appears to be the wrong shape, and underwing outer gun access doors that look like they were grafted on. You can add to that the fact that the canopy framework is molded into the fuselage, but there is no real interior to speak of anyway so that is no large loss. It also has a pebbly surface that may be difficult to cover with paint.

The instructions are more than adequate for assembling the kit. There are three decal options. One is the box scheme for 4./JG 2 with the yellow-white-yellow tail band. There are also decals for a 5./JG 26 Dora as well as one from 11./JG 54 with a yellow rudder. The decals are the kits saving grace as they are excellently done by Propagteam.

It is not very often that one runs into a kit that has so little to offer the builder. If you are like me and bought it just to see what it was like, then you have no real choice but to keep some of the pieces like the wheels and decal sheet and toss the rest of the kit into the trash. Or you could give it to a kid to build for the experience. Sometimes I wish I was 9 or 10 again and that accuracy didn't mean a thing to me!

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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