MPM's 1/48TH FOCKE-WULF FW-190S5/S8
KIT NO. 48028

PRICE: $25.96

by Ray Mehlberger

HISTORY

In 1943, work was begun on the design of a tandem two-seat fuselage for the FW-190 to meet a Luftwaffe requirement for a conversion trainer for the retraining of former JU-87 'Stuka' pilots. Three FW-190A-8 airframes were converted as two-seaters, the intention being that the three would serve as pattern aircraft for forward maintenance units in order to rebuild the available aircraft as two-seaters under the designation FW-190S (Schulflugzeug – school aircraft). A second cockpit was inserted immediately aft of the standard one. The rear fuselage decking was raised, and the two cockpits covered by a continuous canopy. Rudimentary dual controls and an instrument panel were provided in the rear cockpit and the first of the three conversions was flown on January 23rd, 1944. The conversion was applicable for any A-series airframe, but only a few FW-190S-5 and S-8 (derived from A-5 and A-8 airframes respectively) trainers were completed, and of these most were used as high-speed liaison tasks. The fighter school in Altenburg converted about 58 FW-190A-5s and A-8s into two-seaters. However, the manufacturers never ran a series production of the two-seaters beyond the initial three prototypes.

Specifications:

What's in the box? (click on thumbnails for full image)

I recently received this kit as a gift from a net-friend in Tokyo. He, in turn, got it as a BONUS for buying a lot of armor kits from a mail order hobby store. Since he is primarily an armor builder he passed this kit on to me.

The first thing one notices about this kit is the box art. The offending swastika has been made politically correct by turning it into two white squares inside each other. This is further carried on to the decal sheet inside, which is broken into two by making the center of the swastika a simple cross and the twisted arms of it as another decal to superimpose over the cross.

This is a multi-media kit consisting of two trees of light gray injection molded parts for the fuselage halves, horizontal tail surfaces, cowlings tops (there are two different ones included with different weapons), the rudder, tail wheel, wing halves, landing gear legs , main wheelwell doors, pilot and student seats, engine face and separate prop blades , and prop boss. All panel lines are delicately engraved. I found no flash on these parts anywhere.

A fret of brass P.E. parts provides seat belts for both cockpits, instrument panels, torque links for the main gear, and foot pedals for the cockpits. (22 parts) A photo negative is given to back the instrument panels and provide the dial faces.

Decals are provided for four different aircraft. Three choices are given for unknown Luftwaffe units in 1944 and are for the FW-190S-8. A single alternate is given for an S-5 of an unknown attack unit also in 1944. These marks mostly consist of different fuselage numbers and variants to the paint schemes used. There are a lot of nice stencil markings on this decal sheet.

Light tan colored resin parts are provided for the wheel wells, the cockpit tub, the main wheels, and the engine cooling fan (my kit arrived with one of the blades broken off this fan).

Three clear canopies are given in the kit - there is a vacuformed one for either the S-8 or the S-5 and a further injection molded clear one for the S-5 version only.

Instructions are in Czech, English, German, and French. They consist of eight pages. The first page is the history of the aircraft. The second page gives some hints on how to build mult-media kits. Page 3 is the parts tree drawings and assembly symbols explanations. Pages 4-6 give you seven assembly steps. Pages 7-8 finish up the instructions with the paint and markings instructions.

No underwing stores are given in the kit and - frankly - I do not know that these trainers ever carried any??? No pilot figure is included either.

The Focke Wulf has always been one of my favorite Luftwaffe birds. I think this two-seater version will be a real attention-grabber in anyone's display case and I look forward to building it.