Pacific Coast Models 1/32 Fw 190A-1. Black 13. Belgium, 1941

[Floki]

Glad to see your still working on this and I hope your building renovations have quite down some

[speedgraflex]

Thanks so much, Clint! How are you? I hope all is well.

Although the throughline for this post is drawn through me, feel free to skip this because it does not relate to Black 13 directly... I’m noodling with a 1/72 Hornisse from Fine Molds as part of my “Building planes in cars concept,” which feels kind of like bootlegging for kicks... maybe it is. It’s nice just to practice on an old unwanted kit and make it shine. I took some photos after fussing with it for an hour, plus a sketch of an engine as I am just thinking about what needs to be done here.

[mostrich]

Bruce,
I stumbled over this book cover today and it hit me right in the face. Finally a photo from an early 190 taken from an angle that reveals the first -or at least a very early- version of the 'exhaust wedge'. The wavy lines are most uncommon.

[speedgraflex]

Whoa! What a find, Torben! Wow. Your new information certainly changes things back towards the initial impulse to make a unit level addition. Perhaps, the crews servicing these early versions saw this as an attempt to keep the sides of the fuselage from catching on fire?

[mostrich]

Maybe corrosion protection could be a reason, too. If the RLM colors weren't that heat resistant and prone to blistering, an additional coat of a (maybe bitumen based) paint could've solved that issue.

[speedgraflex]

Great point, Torben. The area of RLM 22 appears sprayed and brushed, in the same way as the tail repairs also appear sprayed and brushed. Maybe brushed to get a bit of an edge then filled in by a sprayer. That would account for the variations in texture.

Digging the prototype as you know! Fw 190 V1!