Hasegawa 9965 Focke Wulf Fw 190A-6/R2 "Sturmstaffel 1" (Hans Günther von Kornatzki)

Kit#: 9965.

Price: 27$

Decals: Three options.

Notes: One of the many reboxings of the Hasegawa Fw 190.

History:

From the instructions: "The Fw 190 was developed to support the Luftwaffe's mainstay Bf 109 fighter. Its radial engine was a design feature rare in European fighters at the time. The 190's sturdy airframe, high maneuverability and the fortuitous marriage of a logical  overall design with raw horsepower made for a fighter with the frontline staying power to fight right through to the end of the war, as is evidenced by the many modifications and models of Fw 190s produced practically right up until the cessation of hostilities.

The Fw 190A-6 was basically an A-5 with upgraded armament. Externally distinguishable characteristis of the new type were the replacement of the MG FF machineguns on the outer wing postion with MG151/20 cannon, and the fitting of a BSK16 gun camera on the leading edge of the left wing. Radio equipment was the FuG16Z-E, with a direction finding loop antenna installed on the lower surface of the rear fuselage. The MG151/20 was superior to the MF FF in rate of fire, ballistic performance and range, and the cannon afforded a considerable improvement in overall firepower. 

Production of the A-6 began in Spring 1943, with a total run of 569 aircraft. 

Besides the "R" field modification, some A-6s featured radar for use in night fighter role, bulletproof glass, and a special anti bomber interceptor with extensive armour upgrades.

The Kit:

The parts come in two separate bags, one for the main sprues and another one for the clear parts and the polycaps. All of them are molded in dark grey, hard plastic.

There're three decal options included in the kit:

1) Erwin Bacsila's Fw 190A-6/R2 "White 7". Painted in RLM 74/75/76 with yellow lower cowling.

2) Hans Günther von Kornatzki's Fw 190A-6/R2 "White 20". Painted as above.

3) Fw 190A-6/R2 "White 2". Painted as above.

Construction:

It all began with the cockpit, I painted it in RLM 66 (Revell 78) with a black instrumentl panel and silver rudder pedals. The fuselage halves walls were painted in RLM 66 too, and when dry, the cockpit was glued in place.

After finishing the cockpit, I built uo the main spar for the wings. These pieces were painted in RLM 02 (Revell 45), left to dry, and then glued to the lower wing. Before closing the wing halves, I opened the appropriate holes for the cannon installation. Any gaps remaining of that surgery were filled with CA and sanded.

Next came the engine. The only thing you can see on an Fw 190 engine, as long as you don´t open the cowlings, is the cooling fan, so I painted it in silver and put it in place with the rear propeller hub (piece E13). I then built the engine cowling, and glued it in place. Before gluing the last parts, I installed the lateral armour plates that characterised the Sturmstaffel 1 machine.

After that, I glued the wings and horizontal stabilizers in place, and I prepared to paint the aircraft.

Colours and Markings:

I decided to paint this machine as Hans Günther von Kornatzki´s aircraft. I painted the fuselage with RLM 74 (Revell 69) and RLM 75 (Revell 47), and when those colours were dry, I painted the fuselage in RLM 76 (Revell 49). Then the wings were painted with the same colours, and the aircratf was then gloss coated for decalling.

Decals behaved nicely, and I had a fully decalled aircraft in less than 2 hours. I then left the aircraft´s decals to dry for a period of 24 hours. Then, the model was matt coated.

Final Construction:

I painted the landing gear struts in RLM 02, the wheels with black hubs and RLM 66 tyres, and the propeller in RLM 70. The guns were painted black on the sprues and the added to the aircraft. The clear parts were the last pieces to be added, but the real final pieces were the thicker glass for the canopy.

Conclusion:

Another good kit from Hasegawa, I didn´t experience any issues when building it.

Hasegawa 9976 Focke Wulf Fw 190A-5/U7 "Graf Special" (Hermann Graf)

 Kit#: 9976.

Price: 43$

Decals: One aircraft (Fw 190A-5/U7 2594).

Notes: Comes with resin pieces for the U7 version, and regular cowling bulges for a normal A-5.

History:

The Fw 190 competes with the Bf 109 for the title of Germany´s most important fighter during WWII. Making its operationa debut in 1941, it was the world´s best fighter, having the upper hand over the Spitfire Mk.V, until Arnim Faber landed by accident (some say on purpose) his Fw 190A-3 on an RAF airfield, giving the English the opportunity to test his aircraft against RAF ones, and developing the Spitfire Mk.IX as a result. 

Nevertheless, this fighter was able to be radically modified and, with liquid cooled, V inveted engines or with air cooled radial engines, it became a powerful fighterbomber and attack aircraft.

The Fw 190A-5 was introduced at the beginning of 1943. The BMW 801D-2 was moved forward by 15cm, increasing the aircraft´s length to 8,95m, restoring the aircraft´s center of gravity after the addition of extra equipment in the rear part of the fuselage. The aircraft had a maximum takeoff weight of 4300kg, and was capable of receiving factory and fiel conversion sets.

The total Fw 190A-5 production between Focke Wulf, Arado, AGO and Fieseler was of 723 aircraft.

The kit:

Coming in a top opening box, Hasegawa´s kit has 7 sprues, 6 molded in dark grey, and one containing the transparent pieces. The plastic is smooth to the touch and shiny when put against the light.

Sprue A, B and D have the biggest parts (fuselage halves, cockpit tub, propeller and upper and lower wing halves). Sprue E has all of the small parts (engine, cooling fan, wing spar, and a star shaped piece I don´t know its name).

The kit comes with four light grey resin pieces, with no apparent imperfections (they weren´t taken out of their bag). These pieces are the high altitude intakes, which are required to build the A-5/U7 version.

Instructions are the usual Hasegawa stuff, a single sheet of folded paper with constructions steps from 1 to 12.

The decal sheet offers one marking option, that is of Hermann Graf´s Fw 190A-5/U7 2594 with a cowling painted in yellow. The tulips are 10 and are done individually, so the builder can place them one by one, making sure they all line up.

What put me off from building this model in the first place was the thought of having to use resin, but checking on the Internet, I found pictures and colour profiles of 2594 as a regular A-5, so with that in mind, and seeing the regular cowling bulges were included in the kit, I set off to work.

 

Construction:

Construction began by brush painting the cockpit tub, instrument panel, side consoles, control stick, seat, trim wheel and rudder pedals in the sprue. I painted all of them in RLM 66 (Revell 78), the trim wheel with flat black, and the rudder pedals in steel. 

After giving those pieces four coats of paint, I set them aside and began working with the fuselage halves. The area where the cockpit was going to be glued was painted in RLM 66, while also forgetting to paint the rear wheel well in RLM 02. After the paint had dried, I glued the trim wheel to one fuselage half, cockpit following soon after and, after that was dry, I went and glued the other half of the fuselgae.

Wings came next. I removed the lower wing half from the sprue and while I was cleaning it with my Xacto what was left of one spruegate, I managed to break part of the leading edge. The Xacto must have gotten stuck without noticing, and the area broke with the pressure I did. I grabbed my bottle of Revell Contacta, glued the piece (still attached by a sliver of plastic), and then added some superglue to fill the remaining seam. Letting all that to dry paid off, because there weren´t any seams after I sanded the superglue, and the leading edge looked as if nothing had broken. Next time I´ll use sanding paper.

After that episode, I painted the wingspar and the wheelwell in RLM 02 (Revell 45) , and glued the whole assembly to the lower half of the wing. Parts D4 and D5 were also glued to the lower half of the wing and left to dry. Before gluing the upper halves of the wings to the lower half, you have to open the holes for the two outer guns and the pitot tube. I glued the wings together and test fitted them to the fuselage, the left union between the wing and the fuselage snapped into place without seams, but I had to fight the right one because it sat above the wing. I removed some plastic with the Xacto, and that made things better. The wings and the fuselage were glued and I used some masking tape to keep them together while the glue dried.

As the aircraft was taking the shape of an Fw 190, I moved on to the engine cowling. Instead of building the U7 version with the resin intakes, I used pieces A3 and A4 to make the regular A-5. I glued the exhaust to the lowe cowling half, then I glued the bulges, and after that the upper half of the cowling. The oil ring was installed soon after.

I moved onto step 6 already knowing I was going to break another piece, and that piece was E25 (and E20), which has 15 delicate arms, all of them attached to a ring designed by Hasegawa to protect them. Not knowing how to proceed, I used my Xacto with a sharper blade, and began slicing, one by one, the unions. I broke four arms, which were reglued and left to dry. Gluing them proved to be useless, because three of them broke after I test fitted the engine with the cowling (it was my fault, bacause I didn´t clean them up properly, so they didn´t fit very well.

After assembling the engine, I glued the fuselage exhaust pieces to the fuselage, and then glued the engine to the fuselage, waited for them to dry, and glued the cowling. The addition of part G2 and of the horizontal stabilisers finished the fuselage.

Colours and markings:

I cleaned the entire fuselage with isopropyl alcohol to remove any fingerprings and leftovers of paint, and grabbed a pencil to mark where each colour of the camouflage should go. I brushpainted the upper surfaces in RLM 74 (Revell 69) and RLM 75 (Revell 47) and the fuselage in RLM 65 (Revell 49) . I replaced RLM 76 for RLM 65 because I didn´t have that colour, and RLM 65 looks way better to my eye with the yellow rudder and cowling. Once the main colours were dry, I masked the areas sorrounding the rudder and lower cowling, and painted them in yellow (Revell 15). The oil ring was painted in RLM 65 (it was white on the real thing apparently).

Before adding the decals, I coated the model with clear varnish (Revell 01) to avoid any silvering. I began with the tulips, don´t do as I did and follow the top view as a guide, use the side views and add the tulips, starting on the cowling bulges and go up (it will leave a small gap), and then add the the final two that go under the cowling.

The rest of the decaling went without any problems, except that I broke the right fuselage´s lightning bolt, but I fixed it moments, without any evidence of it breaking.

Final pieces:

The only pieces left were the main wheels, the tail wheel, guns and pitot tube. The guns and tail wheel were easily glued in place, but the landing gear was a whole different story.

I glued the wheel struts to their holes, together with the retraction arms to give the whole landing gear assembly strength. I ended up with the left gear crooked because I didn´t glue the left retraction strut on the landing gear´s locating pin. The right one ended up in its correct position.

The pitot tube was finally glued in place, and the model was finished.

Conclusion:

This is my third model (I have a fourth one, another 190) since I came back to modelling, so you can see in the photos many things that a serious modeller would have corrected, like filling the seams. I´ll do that for my next model, but I´m not confident in my use of CA for seam filling. Aside from that, I never thought I´d have so many self inflicted issues with this model. The final result is still nice, and I´ll use what I learnt on this model for my next Hasegawa Fw 190. I think Hasegawa could have simplified the model by molding part E25 to the engine face (like they did with their Fw 190A-3).

Edit: Checking Eduard´s new Fw 190A-5 Light Fighter instructions, Hasegawa´s Fw 190A-5 instructions in 1:32 (I even downloaded the colour guide to my phone) and other internet pictures, I´ve come to realise I made a "hybrid" aircraft, with the colour scheme for the lightly armed Fw 190A-5 2594, but with the pieces for the heavier Fw 190A-5/U7, with the outer cannons (and no high altitude intakes). I feel pretty annoyed, because I checked many times other builds of the same aircraft, not even seeing the different armament. I thought that, since 2594 received the new intakes, the armament had stayed the same.

Hobby Boss 81716 Focke Wulf Fw 190D-9 (Gerhard Barkhorn)

Kit#: 81716.

Price: 20$

Decals: Two options.

Notes: Perfect fit all around.

History:

From Eduard´s instructions: "The Fw 190A was falling short of its adversaries, especially at higher altitudes. The design development led first through the Fw 190B, powered by a BMW 801 with turbo supercharger, followed by the Fw 190C, powered by an in-line DB 603, but was finalised on the Fw 190D. Conversion to the D version, and namely the Fw 190D-9, involved the installation of a new liquid cooled 12 cylinder Jumo 213A, rated at 1726hp. The front of the aircraft was therefore lengthened from the Fw 190A, which was fitted with a BMW 801 radial engine. In order to maintain the centre of gravity, there was a 50cm extension to the rear of the plane, and a relocation of some internal components. The overall length, compared to the A-9, was increased by 1,52m. The aircraft gained a new, more elegant shape, and was dubbed "Langnasen Dora (Long nosed Dora)."

About Gerhard Barkhorn: Gerhard Barkhorn was born on 20th May, 1919, in Königsberg, East Prussia. He joined the Luftwaffe in 1937, began training in 1938, and was posted to 3/JG 2 after he finished it. He was assigned to 6/JG 52 in the Channel Front on August 1 1940. During the Battle of Britain Barkhorn didn´t shoot down any aircraft. His first victory would come in the East, when he shot down a Russian aircraft in July 2nd of 1941. His score steadily rose, and he achieved his 10th kill on November 30th 1941. Barkhorn ascended to Staffelkapitän of 4/JG 52 on May 21st 1941. On July 20th of 1941, he shot down his 56th aircraft, and was awarded the Knight's Cross on August 23rd 1942 after his 64th kill. Barkhorn's 100 kill would come on 19th December 1942. He was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross on January 11th 1943 because of his 105th victory.

Barkhorn became Gruppenkomandeur of II/JG 52 on 1st September of 1943, a unit the he would lead until 15th January 1945. He achieved his 150th kill on August 8th, and his 200th one on November 30 of 1943. Barkhorn got his 250th shot down on February 12th of 1944 (the second pilot to reach it). He received the Swords to his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves for his 251st kill on March 2nd 1944. 

Barkhorn would be put into a hospital bed after being shot down by a Russian P-39 on May 31st 1944, and would spend 4 months recovering from the injuries on his right arm and leg. Barkhorn went back to the frontline in October of 1944, claiming his 275th kill on November of that year, and shooting down his 301st aircraft on January 5th 1945.

Barkhorn was transferred to JG 6 for Defense of the Reich duties on Janury 16th of 1945, and would lead the unit until 10th April 1945.

Gerhard Barkhorn joined JV 44 (operating the Me 262) after spending more time in hospital due to his previous injuries. On 21st April 1945 and flying the Me 262, Barkhorn had to break his attack on a B-17 because of an engine failure, while being chased by a P-51. He crashlanded his aircraft, and the canopy (which he had opened to facilitate his escape), slammed shut on his neck, sending him back to the hospital again, and where he´d see WW2's end. Barkhorn was later captured by the Allies, but was released in September of 1945. He was also one of the few Luftwaffe Experten to not be sent to the Russian gulags.

In 1956, Gerhard Barkhorn joined the Bundesluftwaffe and directed JaBoG "Boelcke," and rose to the rank of Generalleutnant, retiring in 1976.

Gerhard Barkhorn and his wife Christl had a car accident on January 6th 1983. She died in the crash, but Barkhorn would live two more days before passing away on January 8th 1983. 

The Kit:

Seven sprues of light grey and clear plastic and a small etched fret come all separately bagged inside a top opening box. The parts are cleanly molded with no traces of flash and with neatly done recessed panel lines. Clear parts are bagged separately and are protected by an extra layer of foam. The etch fret has the rear cockpit deck and the trim wheel.

Instructions are of the booklet type, and have 9 steps in black and white that clearly show where each part goes.

Decals are nicely printed and are glossy, so you shouldn´t have any trouble with them. A warning though, I bought two D-9s, and one had sections of the decals sliced (crosses and RVD band), the other kit was fine, but I suggest you check every HB decal sheet before leaving the store. The sheet was factory sealed.

Construction:

I began by painting painting all the cockpit parts with Revell 78 (RLM 66), the engine in flat black, and the engine firewall with Revell 45 (RLM 02). The fuselage halves were painted in RLM 66 and the tailwheel assembly was painted in RLM 02. Before I forgot, I glued the exhaust stacks into both fuselage halves. When the paint was dry, I glued everything together and let it to set for some minutes. I glued the cockpit, instrument panel, engine and tailwheel into place, and temporarily closed both fuselage halves so I could align them properly. Once those four subassemblies were dry, I glued both fuselage halves and used some tape to hold everything in place. With the halves dry, I glued the engine cowling (which also has the machineguns) and passed on to the wings.

The wings are made of three main pieces: top wings, bottom wing and wheel well. I opened the middle holes for the fuel tank rack, and left the others as is, because I wasn´t using the bombs. The wheel well was painted in RLM 02 together with other details. I then glued the wells to the bottom wing half, and added the wing guns. I then glued the top halves and set this assembly aside until it dried.

Trying to fit the wings and the fuselage took a bit more effort than with my other 190D-9 from Hobby Boss. This time the front part of the wings wouldn´t sit properly with the front of the fuselage, so I used tape and pressure to melt the union and fix it into place. I glued the horizontal stabilisers next and set off to the paint booth.

Colours and Markings:

I wanted to build Gerhard Barkhorn's machine, so I began by first painting the RVD band of JG 6. I masked an area of 9mm on the rear of the fuselage, painted it white and then masked the white to paint the red. With that done, I masked the band and painted the camouflage colours with Revell Aqua 46 (RLM 81) and Revell Aqua 65 (RLM 82). The undersides were painted with Revell Aqua 49 Light Blue.

I left everything to dry properly, and brushed two coats of Revell Aqua Gloss varnish to prepare the surface for the  decals. I used Sky Models decal sheet Sky 48057 "Focke Wulf 190D/TA 152," which comes with multiple decal options, including the ones for Barkhorn's aircraft. Decals performed flawlesly, and I had a completely decalled model in under one hour. After letting the decals dry for a day, I brushed a coat of Revell's Matt varnish.

Final Parts:

I glued the landing gear (which has very positive locating pins), wheels and fuel tank, and called the model done.

Conclusions:

This is by far the easiest and most pleasant kit I've ever built, it's cheap and everything fits! If you have multiple aftermarket decal sheets, you can buy several of Hobby Boss's D-9 and make a Gruppe in little time.

Revell 3926 Focke Wulf Fw 190A-8/R11 (Günther Migge)

Kit#: 3926.

Price: 43$

Decals: Two options.

Notes:  Built as Günther Migge's Fw 190A-8/R11.

History:

From Eduard's painting instructions: "The Fw 190A-8/R11 "Neptun" was also used in the nightfighting role by Nachtjagdgruppe 1 (formed January 1st 1944, from a part of JG300), operating primarily from fields East of Berlin. The unit, formed with only three Staffel with a wide variation of types in service (including Bf 109, Bf 110, Ju 88, He 219 and Ta 154 besides the Fw 190) was tasked with the defense of important German cities. Above all, the unit tested new equipment for Luftwaffe nightfighters under combat conditions, including Fw 190 versions from A-5 to A-8, including this machine (Migge's plane) from January to July 1944, when they began to switch to the Bf 109G-6. With them, they transformed into a Mosquito hunting unit. In February 1945, the unit became 2/NJG11. One of the pilots of 1 Staffel NJGr 10 was Fahnenjunker Günther Migge, a former nightfighter pilot of JG 300. His Fw 190 carries the Wild Sau emblem, and also carried the insiginia "Kognak Pumpe", and a glass of Migge's favourite poison (?). The aircraft carried the standard camouflage scheme of RLM 74/75/76, with the only attempt to darken the scheme being the less common, for this time frame, the Adlerflugel in the form of a black wedge behind exhaust stacks..."

The Kit:

This is one of Revell's more modern kits. Released originally as an F-8 in 2015, the kit saw several re-releases in 2017 as the review model, and in 2019 as a Sturmbock aircraft. Inside the flimsy side opening box (which is bigger than the amount of plastic) come, in multiple bags, 12 light grey sprues and 3 clear sprues. Instructions are in full colour, and are clearer than the old style instructions.

A single decal sheet comes with the kit, and there're two options provided:

1) Focke Wulf Fw 190A-8/R11 "White 9" of Günther Migge, painted in RLM 74/75/76 with yellow lower cowling, Based at Erfurt-Nord, Germany, June 1944.

2) Fw 190A-8 "Red 3", painted in RLM 74/75/76 with RLM 83 cowling, JG 301, May 1945.

Construction:

I began this kit first by choosing which holes I should open to make the variant I wished to build. Revell differentiates the nightfighter and regular fighter labelling as A and B. I chose B (nightfighter), and opened the holes corresponding to said variants.

After opening the holes on the wings, I began working on the cockpit. All the parts were painted in RLM 66 (Revell 78), the instrument panel in black, and the seat in RLM 66 with a leather cushion. While building the cockpit, you have to decide if you'll make this kit with the landing gear up or down. I chose down, so I glued the tailwheel in the down position. After that, I closed the fuselage and glued the cockpit from below.

After dealing with the cockpit and the fuselage, I went back to the wings to build them properly. The wing assembly begins with the glue of several pieces to the large, single piece, wingspar. The wingspar was glued onto the lower wing with another hefty but smaller wing spar. The wheel wells were installed at this time. I then glued the outer cannons into their openings. I then glued the upper half of the wings, glued the engine support struts and glued the ailerons. After glueing all those parts, I glued the wings to the fuselage (note, follow the instructions here, Revell tells you to first glue the lower wing into the fuselage, and after that glue the upper wings to the fuselage). With the wings in place, I glued the flaps in the down position (this gives the kit more character IMO). After all that, I glued the horizontal stabilizers and the rudder in place.

Then, I began working on the engine. This is a kit in itself, and can be made into a stunning piece if fully painted and with the cowling opened. I didn´t want to open the cowling, so I built the entire engine and glued it to the engine struts of the fuselage, left it to dry, and then built the cowling following the engine.

With the aircraft fully built up, I went to the painting stage.

Colours and Markings.

As stated by the intro, I wanted to built Günter Migge's machine. I followed Eduard's Fw 190 Nachtjäger instructions . This one was painted in RLM 74/75/76. I first outlined with a pencil the camouflage lines, and then painted the upper surfaces with Revell 69 Granite Grey (RLM 74), Revell 47 Mouse Grey (RLM 75), and Revell 49 Light Blue (RLM 76), then the model was coated with two coats of Revell's gloss varnish.

The decals behaved perfectly, and comformed to the panel lines without issues. This kit was also the first one in which I applied all the stenciling (most of my models have the main markings, no stencils). I then coated the entire plane with two coats of Revell's matt varnish.

Final Construction:

The last steps of this build was to glue the radar antennas, painted in the camouflage colours, the landing gear struts (painted in Revell 45/RLM 02), the wheel hubs and tyres (black and RLM 66 respectively, the propeller (RLM 70) and the cooling fan (painted in black). The clear parts were painted in RLM 66 and then in the fuselage colur. The fuel tank was the last thing to be built and glued into the aircraft.

Conclusions:

Revell's new tool Fw 190A-8 is a great kit. Everything fitted properly and I had no issues whatsoever. I also think other versions will be covered in the future. Fully recommended.

References:

https://www.eduard.com/out/media/8177.pdf

Revell 3981 Focke Wulf Ta 152H-1 (Willy Reschke)

Kit#: 03981.

Price: 4€.

Decals: Willy Reschke's Green 9.

Notes: Tailband fuselage decal doesn't fit.

History:

The Ta 152 was the last variant of the famous Fw 190. Designed also by Kurt Tank, the aircraft was planned as a high altitude interceptor against USAAF bombers.

The original Fw 190 was equipped with the BMW 801 engine, effective up to 20000ft. 

The entrance of the US on the war brought in the use of heavy bombers, which could fly at 25000ft, making the Fw 190 ineffective, even more when the P-51s began to arrive. To counter this, the Fw 190D-9 was introduced, mating the original Fw 190 airframe with a Junkers Jumo 213 engine. This engine was perfect for high altitudes, but the short wings of the 190 prohibited the aircraft from climbing higher.

To overcome this problem, Kurt Tank redesigned the Fw 190, using a Daimler Benz DB 603 engine, and lengthening the wings (wingspan went from 10.51m to 14.44m), enlarging the fuselage, and giving the aircraft a pressurezation system.

Armament consisted of one MK 108 30mm cannon firing through the spinner, and two MG 151 20mm machineguns fitted on the wingroots.

The Ta 152H was the fastest piston engined fighter, capable of reaching speeds of 755km/h at 44.300ft using the GM-1 nitrous oxide system, and 560km/h at sea level using the MW-50 methanol/water injection system.

The Kit:

Revell's Ta 152H 3981 is the most recent rebox of a kit made by Frog in the 1970s. 

The kit has finely raised panel lines, no cockpit detail other than a seat, a spinning propeller, a gear up/down option, and a pilot. The canopy is transparent enough, and fits well on its opening.

Construction:

I began by separating the fuselage halves from the sprue and by gluing the seat to the right fuselage. The three pieces were painted with Revell 78, left to dry, akd glued together soon after.

The wings were next. They're divided in a single lower piece and two upper pieces. The two upper wings have two ejection pin marks that need to be sanded, or else the wing assembly will end up with gaps when glued.

A test fit between the fuselage and wings revealed a gap between them, so I glued the fuselage in the middle of the wings, trying to have an even gap. Because I wanted to preserve the raised detail, I decided against using filler, and left everything as it was.

The tailplanes were also glued at this stage.

Next came the propeller assembly. I realised by checking photos of the real aircraft that the propeller on the model was designed to spin to the right, so I opened the blanked hole on the other side, so I could spin the propeller to the left. The propeller was glued to its shaft, and was able to spin freely.

This assembly was left aside for painting.

Painting and Decals:

I began by outlining the camouflage with a pencil, and writing down which areas needed RLM 81/82/83. Wings were painted in RLM 81 (Revell 46) and 82 (Revell 65), while the forward part of the cowling was painted in RLM 83 (Revell 68). With those colours dry, I painted the undersides with Revell 49. 

After I was done with the main colours, I painted the mottling on the sides with a mix of RLM 81/82.

The propeller assembly was also glued at this point.

I coated the model with two coats of Revell clear varnish, and after it was dry, I applied the decals.

Decalling was uneventful, except for the part that I put the tailband on its correct position (yellow first, red second) by being lucky, because I wasn't looking at the instructions. The other issue was that the tailband doesn't fit the model, it's too short to cover the fuselage, and it wrinkles.

This was also the first kit in which I used the spinner decal.

Final Construction:

I added the landing gear. The gear is designed to hang straight down, so I trimmed it a bit to get it to have the inward rake so characteristic of the Fw 190/Ta 152 series.

I also glued the canopy in place and the landing gear inner covers, first backwards, but I corrected them after checking the painting instructions and realising I had them in the wrong position.

The antennas were the last bits to be added.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Ta_152