Hello all, I have rolled across from Armorama where I spent quite a lot of time , but the siren call of warbirds instead of targets has got a hold of me.

My preference in the world of armour has always been late-war tanks, particularly the King Tigers and Panthers in Berlin in the final days. I find the whole 1945 period fascinating. Tanks were often hybrids, using parts left lying around from older variants. Combined with field modifications and with the shortages of paint this gives the modeler a lot of options. They also typically were only gently weathered (as gently weathered as 60 tonnes of metal sitting in a pile of rubble can be).

Sticking with this theme, I have decided to stretch my modelling and painting skills in the warbird arena.

The FW190 has always been my favourite plane. The big brutal radial engine, the array of variants and weaponry, and the diverse range of paint-jobs make it the logical topic for me. It is after-all basically a flying tank (and it was designed by a chap called Kurt Tank too!).

I see I have come to this side of modelling at a good time, with both Eduard and Hasegawa releasing 1:48 A-9's which would be perfect for my taste.

These A-9's saw hard flying, flew off improvised runways, were hidden in the woods, used whatever parts were lying around to keep them air-worthy and were painted (or partly at least, not painted) using whatever paint could be found.

Long gone were the perfect, pretty FW190's, with eagle heads or fancy stripes. Instead the gritty, functional, brutal and desperate nature of these planes captures the horrific nature of the war in my mind, instead of the almost chivalric nature of the earlier planes.

I have done a lot of reading but would like your thoughts before I pull the trigger on some purchases.

I will be building my model with the wheels down, cockpit open, but cowling closed. From what I have read so far, the Hasegawa kits come from older moulds but they have good levels of detail, build nicely and are accurate representations of the prototypes.

The Eduard versions are cheaper, come from newer moulds, have a level of complexity that does not scare me, but a reputation for being PITA to build. I also believe they are designed to build with as many hatches open as possible and are actually harder to build with the engine closed up.

Would this be a fair assessment? If so I am leaning towards the Hagesawa model, despite the extra cost. I want to work on my finer painting skills more than working on fighting plastic.

However, I have been looking at the Quickboost closed cowlings for the Eduard FW190s and I wondered if this actually made them a lot easier to build? Would you avoid many of the alignment issues by switching one of these in? If so, maybe Eduard are back in the game, especially as they seem to get rave reviews for the finished product and come with the seat-belts and coloured etchings which I will end up buying separately for the Hasegawa anyway.

Regardless of which one I go for, I will be bolting on Ultracast wheels, Aber barrels (I do love a brass barrel!), probably go with the Blackhorse rudder / ailerons set and am struggling to say no to a nice set of sexy brass flaps, so this won’t be a bargain.

Keen to get some input from all of you experts and am looking forward to running a build log so you can stop me from over-weathering!

The best 190A-9 in 1/48th scale is the Hasegawa, although I think that variant boxing is rare, these being mostly A-8s.

The second best would be the old Dragon, inferior but maybe comparable to most people: I hate that the newer Hasegawa has symmetry issue in the wing roots that make a straight model hard to build, maybe the Dragon is a little more symmetrical, but most modellers don't notice this...

The Eduard is the worst junk out there, innacurate and terrible, so much so Eduard is about to fully re-vamp it so please don't fall into the trap of buying this garbage as the innacuracies are just awful.

The Tamiya kit is very inaccurate in the windscreen, in a hard to fix way, but is easiest of all to build otherwise: Too short legs and too small wheels makes it sit low. It has the best narrow prop, which I use on the Hasegawa. A-9 has to have a wide prop and 14 blade fan.

Gaston

Hi Noel

I've not got the 'A-9, but I'd certainly go for the Hasegawa kits in general as the best current combination of accuracy and ease of build. I haven't come across the asymmetry Gaston mentions - the only problem I've ever kit with a Hasegawa '190 was back in 2005 with the original 'A-3, where my example had a slightly warped fuselage (not something that others have reported, so I must have just been unlucky).

All the best

Rowan

Thanks for both of your inputs.

I have pulled the trigger on the Hasegawa A-9 which I will be building in JG301 regalia. Added in an Eduard Zoom etch for the cockpit and some ultracast wheels.

The kit arrived this week and it looks lovely, really crisp lines, no flash that I can see.

I will be leaving the riveting detail alone this time and same goes for the flaps.

Looks like I have a very nice little project for Christmas all lined up. Cannot wait!