1:48 Fw-190A-8/R2

The armored bomber destroyer of 1944

The heavily armed variant of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8 with the R2 field conversion kit carried two 30 mm MK 108 cannon in the wing in place of lighter weapons. It was an answer to the daylight raids of the American formations: a single hit with such a shell was enough to break the structure of a four-engine bomber apart.

The machines served with assault groups nicknamed the Sturmböcke. They received added armor plates at the sides of the cockpit and thicker front glass, because the tactics prescribed an approach from behind at short range, where the defensive fire of the bombers could no longer be avoided. The pilots therefore came back with airframes shot through but still airworthy. The price for the armor and the guns was a loss of agility, and that is why the Sturmböcke were escorted by fighters with lighter armament.

The cockpit of this version has a sliding canopy with prominent frames and an armored front section whose outlines have to be covered completely. The shapes included define the boundary of the paint along the whole frame at once and leave none of the steps that arise when tape is pieced together. The inner side of the glazing can be covered before the fuselage is glued, which anyone who wants the frames in the cockpit shade will appreciate.

• Subject: a German single-engine fighter from the last phase of the war.
• The R2 kit meant a pair of 30 mm cannon in the wing.
• The shapes come from the kit by the brand Tamiya.
• The outer and the inner side of the glazing are masked.
• The package holds masks, not a kit.