1/48 Dragon FW190 With Slipper Tanks Completed

Nice job.  Clean build and nice paintjob.  I'd neither seen or heard of slipper tanks.  I googled it and got this

https://www.etsy.com/listing/468087838/crochet-tank-slippers-tank-slippers?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_easter_Jewelry&utm_custom1=0d1c3128-abd7-4326-9b54-88d259323743

Excellent build! Nice subtle weathering.  Those slipper tanks were a good idea that just never “took off“.

Very unique build with an awesome outcome!

Your friend, Toshi

Rte.62 - Turned out well indeed, those are some serious airbrush skills. Do you know if those tanks were jettisonable if needed? Thanks for the post and photos, really nicely done.

Patrick

Thats a great looking build, nice to see one with those tanks.

John, great link

Very little info on line about these, but did get this from the Airmodel site which sells 72nd resin conversions.

The slipper tank "Doppelreiter" was a wing mounted container with 270 liters capacity. The Research Institute of Graf Zeppelin (FGZ) received end of 1943 the order to find alternatives to the usual attachment of additional tanks under the wings and fuselage. One of at least three possible solutions which had been realised and tested, was the "Doppelreiter” slip tank.
2-3 man could mount the slipper tank within 5-10 minutes. In air combat, the tank did not have to be dropped. The flight behavior of empty and full tank was almost unchanged and even a better dog-fight capability discovered. The Jagdgruppe 10 was responsible for flight testing nited however the bad flight characteristic with half-full tanks. The tests were completed September 1944, but mass production did not happen.

https://www.airmodel.de/product_info.php?info=p321_fw-190-a-7--slipper-tank--conversion--1-72.html

That's a very nice finish of an interesting and unusual Fw-190 variant. Well done!

Nice build! Like others here, I'd never heard of those slipper tanks either. Learn something new every day!

Your paint job and weathering are outstanding!

As others have said, an interesting variant.

Thank you all.  I too found the varient odd and unique which got me wanting to build it.  Not much online about the history of these unique tanks.  Bish found the same thing I did on history of these tanks.  Like a lot of stuff during that time, the Germans would try anything to solve a problem.

If you decide you want to build a slipper tank 190, I did see these tanks offered as an aftermarket add on to 190 kits.  You may be better off building a different well molded 190 kit and adding the aftermarket tanks.  This kit like many dragon kits had weird seam lines in hard to reach places.

I traded for the kit with a friend at my local model club stricky off the box art of the slipper tank varient.