Sunday 7 March 2010

Vintage Favourite Kits No 1 Airfix FW189 Uhu 'Eagle Owl'



Ok memory lane article here and the first in a weekly series on vintage kits. I am not a huge fan of Luftwaffe aircraft except for the FW190 and the more bizare designs. The Fw189 always captured my imagination probably due to the fantastic box art as seen here from my collection of vintage kits. The FW189 was released by Airfix in 1969 and the kit comprised of 67 pieces from pilot to pitot tube!The Fw189 was a reconnaisance and army cooperation aircraft mostly used on the Russian front, 800 were built and it also performed light bombing duties. As was usual German practice the crew were grouped together and in a cockpit with considerable glazing which while useful for reconnaisance I wouldn't have fancied sitting there while being attacked by a Yak fighter. With a maxspeed of 217mph you wern't going to outrun much!! My copy of the kit is in grey plastic, very nicely moulded with 1 decal option I presume an eastern front machine and the kit is prestine and in my favourite box (serious Airfix collectors go mad on what version of the box the kit is in!) with pictorial 'adverts' around each side for other kits in series 2. These included the Swordfish, Hunter (in black arrows scheme),Bronco  and Harrier.

Good copies can be obtained at e bay or wait for this years re release (That will be in a modern red box though!) if you want to glue it together. I think the model will stand the test of time and reasonably comparable to the Italeri version.

3 comments:

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

The one I always remember (for much the same reasons as yours, I guess) was the Blomh and Voss (sp??) - strange fuselage configuration...

Fraxinus said...

Hi Steve Blohm & Voss BV 141 asymetrical plane superb 1970's boxed versions in light blue plastic....kits just don't come in that colour anymore! It's on the rerelease schedule for this year in nasty modern red box!!

Anonymous said...

I like the older Airfix box arts-the new ones have all the explosions, bombs and bullets "rubbed out"!