1:32 Fw 190F-8

The ground-attack variant of the Focke-Wulf

On the Focke-Wulf the letter F denoted machines intended for attacks on ground targets. The F-8 form was based on the airframe of the A-8 version, but it received reinforced armor under the fuselage and along the sides of the cockpit and carried a rack for a bomb under the belly. The outer cannons in the wing were left out, because load-carrying and endurance were rated more highly than combat with an opponent in the air. From 1944 these aircraft gradually took over the tasks the Junkers dive bombers had performed until then, and their pilots operated low over the ground within reach of anti-aircraft fire.

Box contents

In the package you will find a pair of masks for the glazing, that is separately the outer and separately the inner side, then two films for the national insignia and a pair of metal barrels for the machine guns of 13 mm caliber.

A muzzle that really is drilled

The most conspicuous detail of a barrel is the black hole at its end. It cannot be made in an injection mold, so kit manufacturers finish the end either with a flat face or with a shallow recess which disappears altogether after painting. A turned part is drilled out, so a real cavity of appreciable depth runs into it. That behaves like a light trap and stays dark even under sharp lighting, whereas a painted dot shines. In 1:32 the whole difference is visible at first glance from half a meter away. Anyone who has tried drilling a plastic barrel himself knows how easily the bit runs off the axis and the hole comes out crooked; on a finished part the bore is already concentric from manufacture.