Small Scale Military Headquarters

As far as I know this scheme would have been on an A model, so hopefully they didn't screw that up.

During his time at EJGr. Ost Graf flew an A-5 and an A-4. The markings on Merit's model are correct for his A-5, which lacked the outboard MG FF/M guns - so this is correct. A number of A-5s was delivered without these guns, and on other A-type aircraft, the outboard wing guns were sometimes removed to save weight and increase the roll rate of the aircraft. So, the absence of outboard guns by itself does not necessarily identify an aircraft as an F-series. One thing to note is that the model, as shown, has the bulged gun cowl typical for later A-series machines (from A-7 onwards) which mounted a pair of MG 131 machine guns over the engine. As the machine depicted is supposed to be an A-5, it should have the flat gun cowl of the earlier MG 17 armed versions.

Not a huge fan of the scheme, but I've been waiting forever for this bird. Yup, a definite must purchase.

What was said by some above is why I said it appeared to represent an "F" model. To have the MG131 on the bulged cowl with only the inboard cannons would be standard on the F. I've never seen an A-7 or A-8 without the outboard cannons though plenty of field mods were done and anything is possible, just not standard. It certainly can't represent an A-4 or A-5 with that bulged cowl. The markings selected for a plane, real or model can't dictate which version the craft depicts. AVG markings on a P-40N doesn't make it a B/C or an E. Battle of Britain markings on a Mk-IX Spit doesn't make it a Mk-I.

To be fair to Aviatornut, he probably was provided with these photos by a contact at Merit. This tooling is nicer than a kit bashed Franken-Focke. Although blurry, you can see some nice recessed rivet detail on the shot of the belly. If you look at the comments on the photos posted to Facebook you can see he states that the model is by Merit. I've done businesses with Johnathan before and he's an honest guy. He was also the first one to announce the Japan exclusive Harrier re-paint.

My A5 kit has the gun bulges, and every review is okay with the bulges so I assume they're correct.

[CAT]CplSlade wrote:My A5 kit has the gun bulges, and every review is okay with the bulges so I assume they're correct.

No they are not. Sorry. The A4/5 were equiped with the fuselage-mounted 7.92 mm MG-17 machineguns covered with the flatter cowl. As soon as fuselage-mounted 13 mm MG-131 machineguns replaced the MG-17, the following FW-190 versions got the bulged cowl.

My bad; I mixed it up with the BF109 I am building right now that does have bulges.

Brain fart.

I'm not going to argue one way or the other on the gun bulges, save provide an observation about the plane's production process... A buddy of mine at my local hobby store is "friends" with the president of Merit; likely a similar relationship to what Aviatornut has with them in that both distribute Merit's products. The president of Merit has come to my store and my buddy has had reliable intel from them before. That said, my buddy told me a few months ago that part of the holdup with the FW-190 had been a dispute between Merit and the Chinese manufacturer. Merit wanted the nose gun cowling to be an interchangeable part so they could replicate various types of FW-190s (i.e. A-5, A-8, etc.) however, the Chinese manufacturer didn't want to do that for some reason and wanted the nose all one set piece.

I'm just throwing out this observation in light of the questions over nose gun cowlings being the correct version for the aircraft or not... Given Merit's recent track record with the Harrier, I wouldn't be surprised if they gave us a scheme correct for, say, an A-5 variant when it should be an A-8 or something like that because they had to take what the Chinese manufacturer was willing to give them.

OFF TOPIC
21st Century Toys 1/18 Fw 190D / V1 Mistel

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/article ... p?aid=1662

mountian-man wrote:To be fair to Aviatornut, he probably was provided with these photos by a contact at Merit. This tooling is nicer than a kit bashed Franken-Focke. Although blurry, you can see some nice recessed rivet detail on the shot of the belly. If you look at the comments on the photos posted to Facebook you can see he states that the model is by Merit. I've done businesses with Johnathan before and he's an honest guy. He was also the first one to announce the Japan exclusive Harrier re-paint.

Technically, we found pics of the Japanese exclusive harrier on Hobbylink Japan and the merit website before John said anything, but that's because we are crazy. But John's been a stand-up supporter of the community for years. If he posts pics, I trust him.

skorzeny wrote:OFF TOPIC
21st Century Toys 1/18 Fw 190D / V1 Mistel

A year or so ago, in another thread about the Merit FW-190, I caused a few heart attacks when I posted something to the effect that Merit was actually releasing a repaint of the 21c FW-190D9 as opposed to a new FW-190A tooling. I even included a picture of one of the 21c planes with the Merit logo just to make it look serious

Glad we're getting an all-new tooling

my take, whatever it is, just buy it and quit nitpicking the scale, paint, decals or detail of the cockpit.

I'm sure there are folks on this board who have written long lengthy letters to the manufacturers complaining about this or that of prior released items.

Granted the Spotcat deserved every bit of criticism, that should NOT have been released, just think if they did it better who knows what the product line would look like now.

Then theres the folks who immediately bring out the calipers and start measuring and taking notes about how it's not 100% accurate! Enough! If's its a actual release then buy it anyway, once home feel free to detail to your hearts desire but please support the companies investing in this scale venture.

I personally want to add to my collection, and I feel it's better to have something in hand than nothing at ALL.

Just my opinion. Museum quality 100% accurate scale models for display won't be had for $179.00. Have a nice day

Oh I have a mint in box JSI F-14 Spotcat. First rule of collecting buy it now, as in a year or so it might not be available! Is the Harrier getting an S-2 release?

Not to offend anyone as these scale accuracy conversations always repeat pending a new release dating back to early 21c releases. And at this point it's too late to change the production run anyway.

I love the scheme, it's the same as the 32nd scale Hasegawa kit I picked up recently. I hope to get my hands on a couple when they hit the shelves. Hopefully they sell well enough for them to think about another WWII release.

I want to talk, writte and read about models, custom kits, custom builts and all that stuff what is our hobby about.
And I want to do it in a respectable behaviour. Our common hobby is why we are in that great forum and not to blame each other.
Please let´s get back to main theme:
Yiippie Yeahh, the Würger is around

Gentleman, I hope everyone would stand down and think about what you type before posting it.
We are a smaller community than we once were and insults between members don't help our
common interest, 1:18.

We can have differing opinions but when we start down this road of personal attacks and insults,
its not long and the topic is locked. That doesn't help any of us.

As Crazy Kraut said, "Please let´s get back to main theme"

Thanks, Normandy.

I'm looking forward to this FW-190. I hope they do bring it out in kit form like the Dauntless. I'd like to do several schemes but man that would eat up some room.

not Star wars but the Toy war !

let's all have fun & enjoy ! 2 new model in the same year ? this is christmas allready !

My opinion is to grab one as fast as possible.

Happy 1/18 hunting friends

I too hope this is the long sought mythical FW 190A A/C from Merit or someone else but am not holding my breath. The frustration of the 1/18 community over it's delayed release is pretty well summed up by the passion evidenced in this thread. Since I've got a cut up D-9 downstairs I'm trying to convert I would really like some better pics of this plane and Nick's conversion as well. Also, if someone has ideas about fabricating a correct spinner, blades and other A model specific parts please share!

http://imgur.com/a/WWXKk

I wish the scheme were different, but that is not going to stop me from snagging one of these.

Now if only they would announce the next harrier scheme with gun pods.

greendevil41 wrote:Since I've got a cut up D-9 downstairs I'm trying to convert I would really like some better pics of this plane and Nick's conversion as well. Also, if someone has ideas about fabricating a correct spinner, blades and other A model specific parts please share!

Dear Mike, do you mean something like the following VS.9 type prop? If not, could you please be a little more specific?

I'm with Mike. I have the same Skyworks conversion but really need a FW190A spinner. Could you make this Nick? Purchased your WGR21's and they are really great.

Greendevil41: judging from the images in the link you posted, you're doing an A-8, right? In that case, you need to decide which specific aircraft you're going to model first, because the Fw 190A-8 used at least three different prop types. The most common type is the narrow metal VDM 9-12067A; this is the prop visible in the second image Nick posted in reply to your query. More rarely, the VDM 9-12153A with external balancing weights was also used; the shape is largely similar to the 9-12067A. The third type is the metal-sheated wooden VDM 9-12176A prop. This prop has considerably broader blades than the other two types, and was used on the up-armored and up-gunned bomber killers (A-8/R2, R7 and R8), late production A-8 aircraft in general, and all A-9s.

Actually, the first and last images Nick posted are of the prop used on the Fw 190 D-11 onwards (D-9 used yet another type).

Nick, pvanroy: My ultimate goal is a up-armored A-8 "Sturmbock" so from your info I'm thinking the VDM 9-12176A you described would be what I need. That said, if Nick already has a prototype set of blades completed I'd use that just to keep things simple. The blades and spinner seems to be one of my major stumbling blocks that has caused this project to lag. My original intent was to wait for the Merit "Wurger" and try to cast some resin parts off it. Now it seems time to go in another direction since these parts, even were they available, might not be correct for what I'm trying to achieve.

Some other areas needing improvement I've noted are:
cockpit (in progress)
armored canopy "blinkers" (sturmbock)
side armor (sturmbock)
wheel wells
bulges on the upper wing for the added outboard armament
adding side vents to the engine cowling
ETC external stores rack
maybe some kind of engine facade behind the cooling fan

Anything I've missed?

norman888: Agree Nick's WGr 21's rock! How far are you on your conversion?

skorzeny wrote:https://www.facebook.com/Aviatornutcom/?rc=p

The picture are very real. That's the bird I seen at merit..