The Focke Wulf FW
190A-8/R-2 was conceived and built as a bomber killer. Armor plate
applique was added to the sides of the fuselage and armored glass was added to
the canopy to protect the pilot from the defensive fire of the bomber
formations. This added weight to the aircraft and many
Sturmjaggers had their nose machine guns removed and fared over to compensate
for the added weight. With two 30 mm wing root cannon and two out board 20
mm cannon, the A-8/R-2 packed a punch. Some units experimented with a
peculiar weapon that the Germans called a Krebs-Gerat, a 21 cm,
rear-firing, rocket. The Sturmjagger would make a pass at the bomber
formation and then fire its rocket backwards into the "box." It
was a very ineffective weapon and the German pilots hated it because of the
adverse affects to the flying characteristics of the aircraft. It was soon
discontinued. It makes for an interesting looking model with the Krebs-Garet
hanging from the belly!
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The Tamiya kit is
basically the Tamiya FW 190F-8 kit with some new parts added and some
modifications to the wings to allow for the different wing armament
configurations. I chose to model "Yellow 3" from the Eagle
Cals decal sheet #8 "Sturmgruppe Udet." The markings ares based
on photos of this aircraft taken in late May 1944 in Barth, Germany.
"Yellow 3" was flown by pilot Fw. Otfried Baisch of 12./JG 3. It
has the Krebs-Gerat slung from the belly, the MG 131 nose guns are removed and
faired over. It has a VDM wooden propeller, 5 mm applique armor on the
fuselage, 30 mm glass armor "blinkers" on the canopy, but no extra
windscreen armored glass. Tamiya supplies all of the parts in the kit to
make these modifications. The applique armor is self adhesive vinyl, and I
had reservations about using it. After cutting it out for the backing
sheet and applying it to the fuselage, I lightly sanded the glossy surface to
take paint better and used a hypodermic needle, chucked into my pin vice, with
a uniform bevel ground into the tip, to add the rivet detail. The
overall fit of the Tamiya kit is excellent with the engine cover being the only
exception. Having now built several of these kits I can say that it is the
kit and not the modeler that is the problem. A little extra effort (dry
fitting, sanding and clamping) is needed to get a good fit. I cut and
repositioned the rudder and elevators to give the model a more animated look.
The Krebs-Garet is scratch built.
Eagle Editions makes and sells a resin kit to make one, but I elected to scratch
build mine using plastic tube, plastic strips and fine wire. The 21 cm
rocket is made from plastic tube with the nose of a bomb from the 1/72 scale
Academy F-8 Crusader added and faired on. The rear of the rocket is made
from disks of plastic punched out with my Waldron punch and die. Eagle
Cals includes scaled drawings of the Krebs-Gerat with the decal sheet to aid the
modeler who wants to scratch build one.
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All painting was accomplished
with Tamiya acrylic paints. The distinctive blue/black nose and swoops was
painted with NATO Black and Flat Blue mixed in a 5:1 ratio. The
fuselage mottling is freehand. The Eagle Cal Decals are excellent and
highly recommended to any one wishing to model a Sturmjagger.
Rian
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