1:24 Fw 190D-9

The long-nosed Dora

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9 came about by replacing the radial engine with a liquid-cooled Jumo 213. The longer nose had to be balanced by an inserted plug in the rear part of the fuselage, so the machine grew compared with the earlier versions and gained a slimmer silhouette. It reached the units in the autumn of 1944 and pilots praised its performance at great altitudes, even though it never caught up with the reputation of the older machines with the radial engine. The radiator in the annular cowl ahead of the engine invites confusion with a radial arrangement; in fact it is an inverted V12. Some of the machines provided protection for the airfields of jet fighters during takeoff and landing, when they were at their most vulnerable, and the pilots were not fond of that duty.

The scope of the masks

The sheet carries shapes for the windscreen, the sliding section and the fixed rear cover. The stated contents give covering from the outside as well as the inside, so parts for both faces of the clear part are available.

What the set does not do

The line this item belongs to stops at the glazing. The crosses on the fuselage and the wings, the numbers and the unit markings are not in the envelope; for those decals or a separate set of masks are needed. Anyone who wants sprayed markings has to cut them out himself or reach for the fuller variant for the same aircraft. In a large scale it is also worth reckoning with the fact that an imperfectly stuck edge of a mask shows on the finished model far sooner than in small scales, so how well the film seats around the frame matters.