History

The Fw 190 D (nicknamed the Dora; or Long-Nose Dora, "Langnasen-Dora") was built to combat Allied bombers at high altitude. The Fw 190D-9 involved the installation of a new liquid cooled engine, and the front of the aircraft had to be lengthened. To maintain the center of gravity a 50cm extension at the rear of the plane was added. The length of the D-9 was about 5ft longer then the A-9 version.
The first Fw 190D-9s were allocated to III./JG 54 in September 1944. I./JG 26 followed in November, and towards the end of the war there were 183 Dora's in service. A total of 1,805 D-9s were produced.

the kit

Eduard's Focke Wulf Fw 190D-9 Weekend edition is based on the earlier Fw 190D-9 Profipack version, reviewed by Jean-Luc Formery HERE.
The Weekend Edition follows the now standard practice of not having any Photo Etch, Masks and only one option for the decals.
The box lid and sides doubles as the colour paint guide, but as of late Eduard have started including a black and white paint colour guide in the box.
The six sprues are well packaged and five are a light olive colour and one clear sprue.
One set of decals, a instruction book and the already mentioned paint guide complete the contents of the box.
There is no flash or sink marks, and pin marks seem to be in places that will be hidden.
The external detail is well done with some very nice fine panel lines and very well defined rivets.
Internal detail for this kit is fantastic, even in its stripped down Weekend edition boxing.
The nose has a full cannon assembly and all though there isn't a full engine there is enough of the back end of it to show where it matters, namely the wheel wells where it would be visible.
The option of having the cannons on show is given, but you will have to scribe a couple of panel lines in the nose gun cover.
The cockpit looks nice and busy, although the seat does not have any harness's.
Two choices of instrument panels are supplied, plain ones which have a decal to attach or engraved ones that you will need to paint yourself.
Wing machine gun stations are also supplied, with a fair bit of detail in there and they can also be shown open or closed.
A full engine has not been supplied in any of the D-9 boxing's, but there is enough of the back end of the engine to build. This is a well thought out part of the kit, as the rear of the engine is visible through the wheel wells.
Options for external stores is either a fuel tank or a bomb, both which are slung under the centerline.
The clear parts are scratch and blemish free and have raised frames. There are four canopies supplied with the kit but only 2 are to used. One is for the canopy to be modelled closed with the other as the open version.

Instructions and decals

The instructions follow the tried and tested design of black line drawings, in a printed A4 size booklet. The build sequence looks easy enough to follow with build choices and internal colours given along the way.
A black and white paint colour and decal guide is included. The two sides of the A4 sheet have full plans of the aircraft, with one side just for the many stencils found on the aircraft.
Paint colours for Mr Color paints are given.
The decals are in register with good colour consistency. There are numerous stencils for the aircraft, and a choice of Swastikas. Both sets of Swastikas are the same, so you can either use a two part Swastika or a more manageable one piece for the tail.
Only one marking option for this kit is available, which is -
Oblt. Hans Dortenmann, IV./JG 26, 1945
The aircraft sports RLM 76 undersides with a mottled RLM 82/83 uppers. The wings are RLM 82/83 soft edge camo. The tail and full rudder are in yellow.


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