1:24 Fw 190D-9

The Dora in the large size: why it is masked inside too

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 came out of the radial-engined Fw 190 by exchanging the engine for the inverted V12 Jumo 213A. The lengthened nose and the extended rear gave it an unusual silhouette, for which it earned the nickname Long Nose. It reached combat in the autumn of 1944 and some of the machines covered the takeoffs of the jet Me 262, because those were completely defenseless during the takeoff run and on landing.

The set combines two things. The masking sheets cover the glazing from the outer and the inner side and add three sets of national insignia. Beside them the package holds turned metal barrels, which replace the plastic gun muzzles from the box.

The inner mask is essential here. In 1:24 the sliding part of the canopy is over ten centimeters long and the clear plastic is so thick that you really do see inside. If the frame stayed bare on the inside, it would show through under the paint as a light stripe. On small models this problem does not arise, because nobody can see inside there.

Interestingly, applying the mask itself is easier in the large format than on small models. The bar of the frame here measures about four millimeters, so the film goes down comfortably and a deviation of a tenth of a millimeter disappears in the width of the frame. What grows instead is the demand on what all has to be visible: the texture of the skin, the rivets, the harness in the cockpit. A large cockpit simply does not take emptiness.

• The glazing is masked in two steps, outside and inside.
• Three sets of insignia open up three marking options.
• Metal gun muzzles take drilling and sanding.

Neither a kit nor paints are in the package.