Besides Abakan himself and Shamira the other stars of  abakan commission are Fw190's that are parked around the airfield. Also Abakan wants not only a specific model of Fw190, he wants me to have a particular variant in the picture. This variant will also have certain features found in later models of the variant. Therefore I have had to conduct some fairly detailed research for it.

This commission has reinforced in my mind the importance of getting multiple sources of reference material for a project and checking where those sources get their information from and when were they published. Abakan wants the A8 variants to have a blown bubble type canopy. However my initial research seem to imply that the blown canopy was only fitted to F8 ground attack variant of the Fw190. However Abakan explained that this canopy type was fitted to some A8 models and my research discovered that some earlier models of A8's were retrofitted with them later.

To assist me in this piece Abakan graciously sent me several books to help me, and this lead to two other discoveries when it comes to conducting research. The first was that more recent books on the Fw190 talk about the blown canopy feature more than books from the 1960's, 70's or 80's. Either new information has come to light or the historians conducting the research were more diligent in their study. Second is that different countries will classify, describe, and give importance to same thing often. One of the books Abakan sent me is a book showing nothing but close up details of Fw190. This included some lovely shots of a restored A8 model. This book was printed in German. What I found both amusing and disturbing is that there were some photos in that book that appear in some of the older books or books published in the US. or the UK and those books gave very different information relative to the same photos!

Final thing this research has shown me is how chaotic the logistical situation was becoming in Germany in 1944. As the system slowly broke down under the relentless effects of war. In many cases two fighters coming off the assembly at the same time might have slightly different appearance because they were put together with what parts were available at the time. Also the Germans became masters of the art of rebuilding older wrecked airframes into new planes that often had newer model features retrofitted to them. Then there is situation in the field where ground crews would cannibalize, improvise, and steal whatever parts they can to keep planes operating.