Hasegawa 1/72 FW-190A-5/6/8 'Priller Combo'

Josef "Pips" Priller (27 July 1915 – 20 May 1961) was a German World War II fighter ace. He has become famous because of the publicity regarding his Focke-Wulf's Fw 190A-8's single strafing pass attack on Sword Beach on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), accompanied by his wingman Heinz Wodarczyk. This act was first brought to the world's attention by the book, and then the film, The Longest Day. Contrary to popular belief, Priller and his wingman were not the only Luftwaffe forces to attack the beachhead on 6 June 1944. Both Luftwaffe Hauptmann (Captain) Helmut Eberspächer, leading a ground-attack four-plane element of Fw 190As of SKG 10 which was responsible for downing a quartet of RAF Avro Lancasters at 0500 over the invasion area, and the Luftwaffe bomber wing Kampfgeschwader 54 made several attacks on the British beachheads on D-Day. Priller was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves and Swords was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Josef Priller flew 1307 combat missions to claim 101 victories. All his victories were recorded over the Western Front, and consisted of 11 USAAF heavy bombers, 68 Spitfires (the highest Luftwaffe ace's tally for these aircraft), 11 Hurricanes, 5 medium bombers, and 5 USAAF fighters.

The Hasegawa 1/72 FW-190A kit is by no means new. I have at least three dozen different boxings of this and the 190D kit. This boxing is one of the second generation of 190 kits that Hasegawa has molded and is considered by many to be the best available in this scale. I've built several of these kits including the FW-190A-7 from which the parts layout image was pinched (you don't get the resin bits in this boxing) as well as the 190F-9. They have been good builds with almost no hassle.

This issue is pretty much your basic A-8 boxing with the flat top canopy and an additional upper cowling gun panel to do the earlier versions. The molds have held up extremely well and this kit had no sign of flash or sink areas. it does have ejector pin marks on the one side of the wheels, but those are easily handled and of no real consequence.

You'd also expect this one to have a decal for the instruments and you'd be right. Though the clear, two piece windscreen/canopy can be posed open, the cockpit of the 190 is so tiny that little will be seen. However, there are a number of nice aftermarket cockpits if you are so inclined to spruce things up. Your things under the fuselage is limited to a drop tank. You also need to open up some holes for the tank mount and for the upper wing cannon bulges.

The well done instruction sheet offers 7 nicely illustrated construction steps and I can tell you that the parts fit well and the kit will build quickly. Since basically the same kit is used for three different variants, you'll have to do some filling or removal of bits to properly model a specific variant. There are a number of small detail drawings that show you what to do for which version.

All of the markings options are for when Priller was the Kommodore of JG 26 and this ranges from mid 1943 until mid 1944. During this time he used three different variants of the FW-190A. All are in RLM 74/75/76 with a yellow lower cowling and yellow rudder. Only the last option does not have his Black 13 and interestingly, it is an A-6 version. All have some variation of the black exhaust marking and all have the 'Jutta' marking on the fuselage. The decal sheet is nicely printed and provides sufficient data markings for two planes.   

Despite their being newer kits of this aircraft produced, many still consider the Hasegawa 190A to be the nicest one in this scale. While the cost of these kits has reached levels many consider far too high, when one can find them on sale, as did I, they become a better value for the money. There are lots of aftermarket options for these aircraft so finding kits like this is a good deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Priller

December 2013

Thanks to me for the preview kit.

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