Info EDUARD

Monthly magazine about history and scale plastic modeling.

Page 14

eduard

14

Info Eduard - April 2011

LARGE TAILED DORAS

AND THEIR COLORS

One of our new releases for this month is a kit dubbed

‚Fw 190D-9 Late‘. As indicated by its label, it is a kit

of the Dora from the later production phase. Three

of them came from Mitteldeutsche Metallwerke GmbH

production, and were equipped with larger tail secti-

ons intended for the Ta 152.

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 is one of several iconic

aircraft. Its popularity among modelers reaches hei-

ghts that are equalled by attempts at achieving the

ultimate truth to the question of what colors did Ger-

man industry actually paint them.

We anticipate that vigorous debate will be gene-

rated concerning whether or not Eduard approached

the reconstruction of the paint schemes correctly, and

so are offering the following as an explanation of the

process of the evolution of this aspect of the kit deve-

lopment. It should be noted that our goal was not to

nd the one and only correct and denitive conclusion.

The nal decision on the painting of the model is natu-

rally, left up to the modeler, and the instructions simply

convey information that we have deemed as the most

likely and veriable.

First of all, it should be said that Eduard is not

a place where major, detailed historical research

was conducted. For that, there are renowned authors

of specialized reference works. This means that ine-

vitably, after we derive conrmed conclusions based

on information available, we go about conrming the

chain of facts through other sources as necessary, and

pass the end results to our prole and decal artists.

Of course, there are exception to the normal protocols

(such as with the 1/72nd scale Liberators).

In the case of the Doras, we used the well resear-

ched, two volume (so far) study published by JaPo.

The reasoning is simple – this is a work dedicated

specically to the camouage and markings of the

Fw 190D-9. No other similar work had been released

at the time. The often referenced Jerry Crandall

work is much more extensive and the passages de-

scribing the camouage schemes are less systematic.

The unique contribution of the Crandall books comes

in the form of pilot memories and unique photogra-

phs. Misters Poruba, Larger and Deboeck had at their

disposal original photographs, a long list of archival

documentation, and preserved fragments of actual

airframes. They are also involved in detailed inter-

pretation of black and white photographs including

studying the behavior of tones used by the Luftwa-

ffe, and pan- and orthochromatic materials that were

earlier veried in a volume dedicated to the Messer-

schmitt Bf 109K. This is signicantly different from

that of many of the other researchers, who rely on

a study of published photographs and of those on-line.

The difference in the quality of these two methods is

evident. Personally, I do not believe that truly effective

research in this eld can be done on a table in front of

a computer, whether the table is in Prague, Pilsen, or

in London. So far, one researcher that has inserted an

interesting theory into the discussion, is Stanislav Hruby.

He has proposed that the lower surfaces of the wings

may have been sprayed RLM 66, or perhaps another

base color. His arguments sound reasonable to me, and

so I included his theory in the instructions as an alterna-

tive to the use of RLM 81, as recommended by JaPo.

To tie all of this to our Doras, and to make a long

story short, the bottom of the wing can be sprayed

in RLM 81 (if you follow the assumption that this part

of the aircraft had no base coat), or RLM 66 (if, on the

contrary, you subscribe to the notion that the base was

used). At the end of the war, both variations were in-

W.Nr. 500647, 7./JG 26, Hustedt Aireld, Germany,

February - April, 1945

This aircraft was discovered by the allies at Hustedt near Celle,

where it was abandoned by JG 26 on February 10/11, 1945.

The aircraft carries typical camouage, in which it came out of the

third and nal D-9 production run at Mimetall. The upper fuselage

was sprayed brown, RLM 81 (with the exception of RLM 82

applied ahead of the tail unit), while the side and bottom surfaces

were painted RLM 76. The wing was sprayed by the sub-contrac-

tor in elds of RLM 81 and RLM 76. Sections of the wing bottom

could have carried a spray of either RLM 81 or RLM 66.

eduard

14

Info Eduard - April 2011

Martin Ferkl