Product Review - AIM Fw-190 A3

My Armaments in Miniature Fw-190 A3 arrived today and I couldn't be happier about my purchase! It arrived safely and was well packed. I paid $12 + $7 priority shipping with delivery confirmation which gets you the model, two centerline bombs (SC500 I think, two different kinds), centerline bomb rack, external fuel tank, and two nose cones one with props and one without. I also had Dave add a couple of 30mm wing pods. Here is what you get.

Closeup of the accessories. Note again that this model does NOT come with the 30mm wingpods. I think they come with the AIM Me-109.

Couple of shots of the detail on the model.

Now if any of you know me by now, I am a BF fanboy. I generally refuse to buy products from competitors unless BF does not make a product I need, hence this purchase. However there is another reason behind it and as before that is uniformity. BF models are around 1/100 scale but for some reason their aircraft are 1/144. Sorry but that just doesn't jive with me. If you're going to spend $18 on a single little figure it damn well better be an impressive piece. The next few shots are comparing the AIM Fw-190 A3 to the BF Il-2m Shturmovik.

The significance in these shots is that the Il-2 has a wingspan of almost 48 feet while the Fw-190 has a wingspan of almost 35 feet yet the Fw-190 by AIM is bigger the way it should be and better scaled to BF tanks and infantry. The only downside to the AIM product is that you can see some slight warpage in the tail section but this is easily fixed by heating it in boiling water and moving it to the shape you want (instructions for that were included with the model). Also you'll notice that the BF plane has more details on the wings and fuselage. I asked Dave about this and the Fw-190 is one of his older sculpts so the panels weren't sculpted it. I may use my engraving attachment on my Dremel and attempt to put them in myself, havn't decided yet.

I would have also liked to see just a couple more accessories. Wing mounts and SC250 bombs would have been great for variation as well as two external fuel tanks instead of one (if I chose to mount two on the wings instead of one in center).

Here is a pic of the models in their completed state with paint job and propless nose cone. Dave gave me the link to a photobucket with many pics of his model as maintained by a friend I think. I will provide that below.

In conclusion this is one of the coolest models I have right now. As far as I can tell, Armaments in Miniature is a small company with maybe one or two sculptors. I dealt with David Schmid and his name is on everything so maybe he is the sole operator. At any rate he is very communicative via email and shipped my model promptly. I will definitely be buying more models from him since he makes A LOT of aircraft including Me-110s and I-16s, accessories, terrain, RIVER BOATS etc. He said there may be a MiG-3 coming next year as well OH EM GEE! My next purchase will be his 1/100 scale Il-2 Shtrumovik which he has a couple of variations of, the single seat and the two seat and I will do a review of that as well. Check his stuff out!

Armaments in Miniature - http://www.armamentsinminiature.com/
Photobucket with pics - http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa269/miscmini/Armaments%20in%20Miniature/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ28

Later!