1/48 Tamiya Focke Wulf FW 190A-8/R2 

Sturmjagger 

by Rian W. Jones

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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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Photos and text © by Rian W. Jones