This is
Eduard's 1/48 FW-190a-5 "weekend" kit in the markings of Hauptmann
Emil "Bully" Lang of 5/JG 54, November 3,1943. On this day, Lang
scored 18 confirmed victories in the Kiev region. Lang was credited with
173 victories when he was shot down by a Spitfire flown by Flt/Lt Terry
Spencer of 41 Sqdn, on September 3, 1944.
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The
Eduard kit is beautifully detailed, and the main components assemble with
almost no filler required. The fun begins if you decide to close it up,
however. Almost every panel and hatch requires trimming, fitting, routing
out, filling, sanding, voodoo and witchcraft. (not to mention, several
trips to the "shelf of doom").
The kit was
built using Eduard's "Zoom" photoetch for the
"weekend" kit, and I deviated from the assembly steps several
times, in order to build a closed up version (the aft bulkhead with
the machine gun cowl hinge was cut in half and the hinge cemented to
the cowl, for example), drilled out the exhaust stacks (cut down to stubs
and cemented to the fuselage) and machine guns, replaced the pitot
and cannon with hypodermic tubing, wrapped fine wire around a #80 drill
bit for the antennae tensioning spring, and painted with custom mix Tamiya
acrylics. Decals are from the kit and Aeromaster's stencil set. Weathering
is with oils, pastelchalk and prisma color pencils.
All in all, challenging, but
fun. Enjoy.
Colin Latta,
IPMS Winnipeg
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