Thursday 14 May 2015

Reveal - Great Wall Hobby 1/48 FW-189A-1 "Sonderaktion Schneekufen" (L4808)

www.bowemodels.com

The GWH series of "UHU"s has been around for a few small years now and has generally been very well received. The kit is of very high quality, with some fine details and excellent fit, although a few strange engineering decisions.

The ski mounted version of this popular reconnaissance and light bomber machine never really got past the trials stage, despite some promising results. Documentation is scarce on this  project, and the machine represented in the kit is one of a very few known to have been fitted with skis. Little else is known about it.

I've taken a small liberty with this build and added a winter camouflage layer to the markings, which the box would have otherwise in a fairly standard splinter scheme. I cannot vouch for the veracity of this, but it strikes me that should this version have entered widespread service, it would almost certainly have been camouflaged in this way. And besides, it gave me an excuse to try out the much espoused "hairspray" technique to create a fairly tatty covering. I have never used this technique until now, but finally plucked up the courage to raid my wife's dressing table for a suitable can of hairspray to try it out. I'm fairly pleased with the result and will definitely be trying this again.