1:32 Fw 190A-8

Six barrels on one aircraft, two of them in the package

The Focke-Wulf with the radial engine was an exceptionally heavily armed machine. In the version this set covers it carried six weapons at once: a pair of machine guns of 13 mm caliber above the engine, a pair of cannons of 20 mm caliber in the wing roots and another pair of cannons farther from the fuselage, roughly at the level of the landing gear bays. The weight of its salvo thereby exceeded that of its British and American opponents several times over and the machine was famous among pilots as a destroyer of bombers.

In the package you will find metal muzzles for the first of those three pairs, that is for the weapons in the upper cowling. Neither the root nor the outer cannons have a metal part; their muzzles stay plastic from the kit. Anyone who wants an open bore there as well has to reach for a separate set of barrels or help himself with careful drilling, which with the thicker diameter of a cannon is usually possible.

Masking contents

Inside you will find shapes covering the glazing from both viewpoints and two insignia outlines. The shapes are worked out for the model from the Hasegawa brand. The cockpit of this type is fairly small and has few frames, but all the more does it stand out when the inner frames are sprayed separately and the outer surface stays free of fingerprints. Press the mask down along the frame with a blunt point so that paint does not get under its edge and the line stays sharp. On a radial engine it also pays to mask the exhaust outlets; the soot can then be given shape with a brush.

• Metal muzzles for the pair of weapons in the upper cowling
• The cannons in the wing stay plastic