The Fw 190 A-8/R2 Sturmböck, was a heavily armed dedicated bomber destroyer fitted with extra armour to withstand the massed defensive firepower of USAAF bomber formations.
The kit
Eduard released this kit in 2007 and was a well received variant of the Fw 190. The Weekend edition kits offer a no frills package, with one decal option and no P.E.
The kit is packed in the standard Eduard box, with a colour drawing of a 190 in flight on the top. The sides of the box have a left and right colour profiles of the aircraft for help as a painting guide.
This kit is basically the same as the Fw 190 A-8/R2 that Rowan reviewed
here. What you don't get in this Weekend edition is there is no P.E, no masks, and the colour instruction booklet is now a black and white A4 size booklet. The historical booklet is also omitted. The decals have been re-printed so all the stencils and aircraft markings are now on one sheet.
This is a very complex kit, even in the Weekend edition guise, with an incredible 174 pale olive green plastic parts on 7 sprues, and 10 clear parts. Five of the clear parts and forty something of the plastic parts are not used, which still leaves a massive 130 odd parts. This has got to be one of the most complex Weekend edition kits that Eduard have released.
All the parts are flash free with very little clean up needed. Detail is stunning with the engine bay, cockpit, internal wing bay guns, undercarriage bays and the nose cannons all very well reproduced.
Instructions and Decals
The instructions as already stated are printed in black and white line drawings on an A4 size paper, comprising of 11 pages. The build sequence is over 8 pages and is pretty easy to follow. Two of the remaining pages are for the painting and decal guide. There is a small slip of paper printed separately from the instructions which concern the joining of the fuselage halves. This can be ignored as it is for the two fuselage halves that are not needed, which does beg the question "why is it in there" lol. Paint numbers are given along the way for internal colours for the Mr Color range of paints.
The decals are thin, glossy and printed in excellent register. Only one decal option is given and that is for, -
Wihelm Moritz, IV.(Sturm) / JG 3, Memmingen, Germany, July, 1944.
The colour scheme of the aircraft is RLM 76 lowers and lower fuselage, with RLM 74 uppers with mottling on the fuselage sides. The wings are in a RLM 74 and RLM 75 camouflage scheme. The cowling is in black.
conclusion
This is a very good kit, full of detail and at about £20, very good value for money. The only downside of this kit is due to its sheer complexity, which might put off the less experienced modellers. Actually that's not quite true as I have the original boxing of this kit and still haven't started it due to its sheer complexity, and I don't call myself a beginner, other names yes, lol.
Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on
Aeroscale.
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