Revell 1/72 Fw200 Condor

REVELL 1:72 FW-200 CONDOR

Reviewer: Myself (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Review submitted: January 2001

Aircraft:
At the outbreak of WW2 the Fw200 Condor was the only German long-range maritime bomber with a conventional four-engine layout. The Condor is a classic looking aircraft that was converted from a pre-war airliner version to perform reconnaissance duties in support of the U-Boat fleet, becoming the valuable airborne eyes to submarine crews by spotting and shadowing Allied shipping convoys, and guiding the U-Boats into ideal torpedo positions. The Condor itself was primarily operated by KG40 and the plane also carried its own attacks out on shipping, sending vital supplies to the bottom of the ocean and becoming a significant threat to Britain's cross channel shipping supplies. The Condor could carry bombs on two pylons under each wing as well as in a makeshift bomb-bay constructed as a 'gondola' on the belly of the aircraft.

A Maritime Reconnaissance Fw200C with ASV radar antenna (not included in the kit)

In addition to maritime reconnaissance and bombing duties the Condor also served other purposes with the Luftwaffe, which included troop transport, VIP Transport (ie: Hitler's personal transport as well as for other high ranking officials, such as Himmler), as a trainer for maritime crews and as a merchant ship where fighters were mounted for one way intercept launches. The Condor also later acted as a carrier ship for the Hs 293 missiles but it did not do well in this role because its airliner origins placed unacceptable strains on the airframe.

Production of the Condor concluded at about 276 examples from its initial converted A version prototype in 1937, and most of which were C's - the variant which was specifically designed as a reconnaissance bomber. These were outwardly similar to other armed versions of the Condor, other than armament variations. The Condor was also used to bolster the Luftwaffe transport force when it tried to extricate the surrounded German Sixth Army on the Eastern Front. Allied air opposition made the relatively slow Condor a tempting target over the oceans and this proved to be the vulnerable bomber's main downfall.

The Kit:
This is an old 60's Revell kit, often sought after by modellers since (as far as I know) it is the only injection molded version of this plane in this scale. The kit is also considered to be a classic with its many moveable parts (the big thing of the 60's era) and a real collectors item. Revell reissued this kit a couple of years ago, but the one that I picked up was one of the original kits - and thus was second hand!

I understand this is the boxart from the reissue of this old kit

This is a kit I have been after for a long time, as the Condor is one of those aircraft that holds me captivated when I see it in books or on film. It's classical design is something I wanted to capture and put inside my modelling cabinet! So regardless of how the kit would turn out it wouldn't matter, this kit was for me to grab!

Since the kit was second hand there were no plastic bags, and the decals were yellow with age so I am not sure if anything comes bagged or not. The six sprues of about 55 light greenish-grey parts were floating loosely around the box. They featured raised panel lines and an excessive amount of rivets - although thankfully not as large as the Airfix kind, but would nonetheless be inaccurately sized in real life. All the control surfaces are etched - well those not separate and moveable that is. There is one sprue holding 14 clear parts that are typical of the 60's era, a little thick and distorted but still okay. These are for the fuselage windows, cockpit canopy, gun turrets and other glazed observer posts. There are a few ejector pin marks in places that need removal (like the tailplanes) as well as a couple of sink marks. There is also a slight amount of flash that needs cleaning and the attachment points to the sprue are in some cases too thick - a case of needing a sprue cutter and then some cleaning up afterward. All in all, the kit reveals no big surprises in the box and does show its age.

If memory serves me correct, Revell released three versions of the Condor and only one was recently reissued, since the same mold could build all three kits.

Revell's Fw-200C boxart which essentially uses the same sprues as found in my kit

Instructions:
Remember that this is still the old kit, as I would expect the reissue would have an updated instruction sheet. The sheet is about A3 sized and is double sided and best to describe it as being split into sections of 'thirds'. One side has five assembly steps and the other has the sixth and final step, a reasonable spiel on the history of the aircraft and then a markings diagram for one aircraft that has a port side view, front on view and the an upper/underside split sketch. A list of all the parts and their names are provided and the assembly also comes complete with a text commentary, telling you what part to glue to what and you can follow this right through to completion of construction. Both these things are generally not found in today's instruction sheets and it's a pity because it is quite helpful, especially the listing of the parts. The instructions fall down in the assembly diagrams, so the commentary may be necessary to rely on. The main problem is that it will sketch the assembly of one of the main components, but not the otherside - for instance, you will see a sketch breakdown on assembling the port wing and port engines, but the starboard wing and engines are already attached to the plane in the diagram. Sometimes sub assemblies also magically appear on the aircraft without visual direction, for instance in step four, you sub assemble the gondola by itself (step five is the undercarriage) but come step six, the gondola is already attached to the aircraft. This is where the text commentary is useful as it ensures each part is covered, and of course seasoned modellers like myself know where things go without the need to refer to visual stimuli most of the time anyway!! :-)

Construction:
The fuselage halves had to be very carefully removed from the sprue courtesy of thick attachment points. Then the upper gun turret is the first step to put together which is large, ungainly looking and does look a bit unrealistically out of scale. A cannon is slotted onto a gun mount without cement so it can be moveable (but I fixed mine into place). One must remember that the cannon pokes through a slot in the glazing so you need to bear this in mind during this phase of construction and plan accordingly. I added the glazing on after everything was in place inside and while a little tricky this worked okay. The two-part mount does not align properly and needs a small trim to fit into the locating holes in the base. If you are thinking about a moveable cannon, you will need to affix one side (the larger) of the mount first then slide the gun onto it before affixing the otherside. Also included is a figure to man the gun, chopped off at the waist and affixed to the base (how is he meant to survive?). He sits just nicely behind the gunsight but including him makes for a tight squeeze. Before attaching the glazing to the base do a dry run against the fuselage halves so it sits nicely and can be rotated (if desired).

Next comes the cockpit and you are provided with two pilot figures, a pair of seats and control wheels on a base with a rear wall and doorway. An instrument panel and centre console are also provided. You can use a decal for the main instrument panel - which I did mainly to test out whether the aged decals will be useable. Thankfully no problems. The interior is otherwise sparse and if you want any detail, well you will have to add it yourself - or you can use the pilot figures to fill up the cockpit :) . The huge fuselage cabin behind the cockpit has no detail whatsoever. Mind you, once the cockpit and coke-bottle-end like fuselage windows are added you will not be able to see inside the fuselage cabin at all. There is a door etched on the portside and those surgically minded may wish to cut this out, add hinges and display it open (with steps leading out?), this is when a bit of detail inside will be called for. I gave it all a RLM02 interior wash (the cabin after windows added - see next paragraph) in the absence of specific reference pictures. The instructions call for light green which I think is a bit wrong.

As already mentioned above, the instructions include text commentary and from this point on they become quite useful, especially where parts are not cemented because the sketches do not indicate this. This next step is quite busy with a number of things to affix to the fuselage, and many of them not to be cemented which makes it hard to keep track of what to position and hold in place. I added in the thickly distorted fuselage windows and then used masking solution so I could paint the whole interior. The tailplanes are added at this point with moveable rear elevators. Best to sub assemble both tailplanes, let them dry before attaching to the fuselage. A moveable axle-like shaft traps both elevator pins inside the fuselage. Likewise the rudder - where both halves are affixed together and then "not cemented" on a locating pin at the rear of the tail fin to be rendered moveable. The tailwheel is also assembled and placed in locating holes inside the fuselage - since I was building a wheels up model I simply fixed it in place. Otherwise I am not sure if I could cope with all the non-cemented parts to be held into place and trying to affix the fuselage halves around them! The forward mounted belly gun is attached in a slot on the bottom of the fuselage as well as the upper gun turret assembly which is trapped between the fuselage halves. My cockpit unit was quite warped (mainly the floor) and needed super glue to hold it in place inside the fuselage to fit properly.

The large fuselage halves are then affixed together and one has to keep track of all the moveable parts to trap while holding the halves together - a few extra hands would help but my task was a little easier by electing to cement in a few components. The halves will affix together quite well but definitely benefited from a few well placed rubber bands and the like to let it dry. Once this was done the instruction step also called for attaching the rear upper observer canopy, cockpit canopy and antennae. You will need to first paint around the areas where both the canopies are placed lest you have a non painted area that can be easily seen! The rear observer canopy is actually quite clear and is placed over a large manhole, and could thus benefit from a bit of detailing. I added in a couple of boxes and stretched sprue bits to enhance the area a bit. The cockpit canopy was a bit of a bugger to attach and needed to be held down in place while it dried - but again this might have more to do with the age and slight warping of my second hand kit. I left the antennae off until the end of construction.

The gondola makes up the fourth construction step and overall is quite straightforward to do. The gondola glazing fits very well. The bomb bay has bombs already on it, moulded as 'half bombs' protruding out - bit like the half figure in the upper gun turret! I painted these black and the usual interior colour around it. The doors are moveable if one wants and you need to "non-cement" these to the gondola before cementing the bomb-bay in place to trap the locating pins. When you do cement the bomb bay, make sure the bombs are facing the front glazing - it will only attach to the belly of the aircraft that way anyhow, but it is an easy oversight. The instructions call for Light Blue as the interior of the gondola, I disagreed and wasn't sure if this was accurate, so RLM02 featured again inside. There is no detail provided for the interior so you will need to add your own detail for both the front gunner and rear observer stations otherwise you simply see the bottom of the fuselage through the glazing! Alternatively you could paint the interior black to give the illusion that there is something there in the darkness. I used a little bit of stretched sprue for some plumbing like detail and boxes. The Gondola then slips over the belly gun/cannon (I'd suggest fixing the gun because no sooner had I put the gondola on than the gun came off, luckily the glue hadn't dried) and the bomb bay fixes in place in the allocated hole in the belly of the fuselage. Since it had all been painted around that area, and pre-empting some gaps between gondola and fuselage I used fast acting superglue and held it down until it was partly dry with good effect. Even then a slight amount of filler had to be used to plug up small gaps.

The fifth step features the undercarriage and although I was building a wheels up version, for review purposes I did put this together. It is quite a fiddly exercise with the shock strut, retracting link and braces attached to the main gear leg. A small locating hole assists with this but even then I think it needs to be tack-dry at most (so the assembly is still a little flexible) before placing on the aircraft. It will be very fragile and I am not convinced it will support the weight of the large model, best to be very wary when doing this part and perhaps slot in a few bits of fine wire pieces for added support. Super glue might be the way to go as well for added extra strength. The tires come in halves and are affixed together with the wheel bearings placed on the main gear leg, then the wheel hub attached to the bearing encasing the wheels as to allow them to be moveable (I did say this kit was full of gimmicks didn't I!).

The final assembly step is quite busy with the wings, engines and ordnance all being attached. I painted the engine gun metal and slipped inside the cowling without any problems. The propeller is attached to a shaft fed through the engine (a typical set up). The shaft needed cleaning up of some flash but otherwise provided for a snug fit - a bit too snug though resulting in difficulty in moving the propellers so perhaps don't push the shaft all the way into the spinner (or blob a tiny amount of putty on the end and sand to shape to lengthen the shaft slightly). I also chose not to paint the shaft, as my experience shows they move better without painting and you can't see them really anyway.

Since I was building a wheels up model, the gear doors were affixed in the shut position next and these fitted well. The upper and lower wing halves were then attached together and these can trap the trailing edge flap and slats to allow them moveable. This was all a bit too much for me to try and encase all these moving parts, so I glued the slats on and just had the flap as the moving piece. Even then the slats overhung the wing by a very slight amount and needed a trim. The wing halves go together okay but needed delicate positioning to ensure they mated correctly, I even had to shave off the inner locating pins as these would have resulted in an incorrect alignment.

Addendum supplied by Paul Broderick:- The kit does not accurately portray the angle of the wings where they start to point upward. I placed mine perpendicular to the fuselage which they do, according to all the technical drawings I've studied. Placing them this way means that they should be cut at that point where they start to angle up and re-glued with a slight wedge that will allow for that angle or else placing them in an upward angle from the fuselage.

The engines were then placed on the wings and this is where wing alignment is crucial as they fit very snugly and won't allow for much leeway in getting the wing halves even slightly off alignment. Small locating pins are at the top of each engine to ensure it is placed correctly on the wing. All the engines are the same size so they all just go on to the wing as you see fit but I did dry test fit them and found for some reason a couple of engines would not fit as snugly unless they were swapped around - interesting! The engine coolers were placed underneath the cowling and will fit well providing you clean off the flash, which is hard to distinguish from the actual part, and dry fit test first. Finally the pitot tube and bombs were added to the wings. You get a pair of bombs for each wing, a 1,000 lb that fits in a nook under the outer engines and a smaller 500 lb bomb on a further outer pylon. The bombs come complete with pylon attached to them so you are expected to attach to them to the aircraft wing, otherwise you will have some filling to do to get rid of the holes.

A small amount of filler was needed at the wing to fuselage joins, otherwise wings attach very well, with a very slight step at the rear joint that needed filing down. I then attached the upper antenna, masts, loops etc as the last process and their holes needed a slight opening out because of flash and then fit very nicely.

Options:
The kit comes with plenty of gimmicks and options so here is a brief rundown of them. Pilot figures and a half figure for the upper gun turret. Cannons for the upper and lower front turrets that can be made moveable. A rotating upper gun turret. Many moveable parts; these include rudder, rear tailplane elevators, both trailing edge slats on each main wing, main wing flaps, main undercarriage wheels and tail wheel. The gondola bomb bay can be displayed open or closed and furthermore the bomb doors are moveable. A pair of 500 lb and 1,000 bombs as underwing ordnance - although not sure if these can be classed as options because the kit fully expects you to attach these!

Versions & Decals:
The kit provides for only two examples to be completed in the same camouflage and only distinguished by different serial decals - one being F+8 and the other D+H. As already mentioned the instructions provide a port sideview, front view and then a planform view with one half upper and the other lower as the marking sketches. They call for light blue undersides and upper dark green and Olive Green splinter camouflage. The profiles could thus be much better and again consult reference material for inspiration.

The decals were aged in my kit but because the cockpit console worked well I decided to try out the decals on the aircraft. The register was quite good and went onto the aircraft quite well. Again, this might have something to do with their aged condition but there were some nasty little film marks that remained on the large fuselage serial/German cross decal (like an 'air bubble' effect) and I wasn't 100% successful in getting rid of them.

Painting Scheme:
The aircraft was painted in a splinter camouflage upper scheme and Hellblau undersides. The instructions stated Light Blue for the undersides and Olive Green and Dark Green as the splinter scheme. In the absence of specific RLM info I simply used Dark Green and Bronze Green, while not spot on it was close enough for my liking. Normally I can achieve great splinter effect by using Tamiya masking tape on the wings to ensure straight lines, but on this occasion with all the rivets and raised detail this was impossible to achieve because little bits of paint always bled through no matter how hard I tried to secure the tape. This also happened with the upper/lower demarcation line. So I had to delicately brush paint out the blotches of bleed through so the lines looked straight - frustrating and a lot of effort but worked. Scotch Magic tape may in fact work better. With a fine brush I have also perfected hand painting the frames on canopies and in spite of not touching any kits for over a year still managed to do this with great effect.

Accuracy:
This is a kit full of gimmicks in moveable parts, so of course each one detracts from the kit's accuracy and a realistic replica of the Condor will need a bit of work and vacform replacements for turrets etc. Probably the biggest flaw is the upper gun turret behind the cockpit which is unrealistically large - in order for it to move on the kit. Some of the smaller detailing parts, for example the small intake pipe-duct visible on the starboard side just behind the cockpit are also absent from the kit. The lines are shaped well for the Condor in spite of the flaws noted above. Dimension-wise the Condor is only a few millimetres out on length, which is quite acceptable, however, the span is about two or three centremetres too long, unacceptably a fair bit in real life.

Overall:
Probably too many moveable parts to be a totally accurate replica and also may put off some modellers (especially novices) but otherwise well within the scope of an intermediate modeller. It captures the Condor's unique lines very well which is most important of all, in spite of the large upper gun turret, and it is the only game in town. Nevertheless I would recommend this kit quite highly as it was an enjoyable build and gave one a sense of achievement at the conclusion. If you can get your hands on one, best to do so!

Further Comments supplied by Bill Ansell:
I've had the re-released Fw 200C 200C for some time now and as you said its a re release of an old Sixties kit and it shows. I finally decided to get the Fw 200A transport version expecting it to be the same kit with mods, but lo and behold its a totally different release with new tooling, no moving control surfaces, no rivets and recessed panel lines. I assume you may be already aware of these differences but your review gives the impression there is only one mould. Anyway I thought you might be interested if you already didn't know.

Yet another boxart for a Revell Condor, this time a transport variant

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