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Well, a little literary licence there in the title, but a Ta 152-H1 is sort of a Fw even if not in name. First, the subject matter; I'm doing this primarily as a painting exercise, it'll be fun to complete a late war Luftwaffe paint scheme and then paint over it with the slap-dash RAF roundels. In the reference pic above it's even got some weathering with exhaust staining, what's not to love? I'm also doing this as I've already done much of the assembly while in hotel quarantine last year; I can therefore get to painting quite quickly. Here's the state of play as of this evening... I've decided I'm not going to bother with the cockpit and so will paint it all dark grey and seal it up. The canopy will be closed on this one. I had a little trouble with the wings, they didn't quite match up when I glued them so a bit of sanding will be required - I hope that it's not going to create any undue thickness at the wing tip. I think there's enough material to work with. But wait, didn't I say I was going to do a Falklands Anniversary Wessex build next? Yes, I did, but this is a nice little straight forward project after the Avenger, and before what will be a fairly intense project in the Wessex (which I expect to start before the end of April). Cheers.

Here´re the promised photos of my Ta 152H from Revell. This kit is a reboxing of the old Frog kit from the 70s, and it shows it mainly in the raised panel lines, flash, and the (flashed) hole for a stand. The only troublesome area of the kit was with the tailband: Firstly I positioned it correctly by sheer luck (I wasn´t looking at the instructions), and secondly, it was long enough to cover the entire rear fuselage and it curled, without any chance of straighten it again. The instructions also show an incorrect placement of the inner landing gear doors, if you ever build this kit, make sure to follow the painting instructions to place the inner doors. The wheels were glued in place, and the caps were left in their sprue, together with the pilot. The propeller was designed to spin to the left, so I opened another hole to be able to make it spin to the right. I also wanted to preserve the raised panel lines, so the aircraft unions weren´t filled with putty, most visible on the right hand fuselage/wing section.

I saw on my LHS Dragon´s Ta 152H-1, and I would really like to get one of those elegant aircraft for my collection, and I wanted to know the opinions of those who´ve already built it. I´m looking opinions regarding: 1) The propellers, do they have tabs that put them with the correct pitch (main concern)? 2) Overall fit. 3) Fuselage/wing join. 4) Engine/fuselage fit. 5) Ease of work with the photoetch pieces. Thank you all, I´m keen on reading you.

Focke Wulf Ta 152H 1:72 Revell The Ta.152 began life as a variant of the Fw.190 in order to improve the aircraft's high altitude performance. One of the three sub-types was selected for further development, and became the Ta.152. In typical Nazi style however, the RLM requested three types from this initial design. The C variant didn't have the high-altitude extended wing and didn't see service, although several prototypes were made. The H-model was the only variant produced in quantity, and saw service in limited amounts due to there still being plenty of quirks to iron out of the new design. The Ta 152H boasted excellent high altitude performance, using a Jumo 213E engine with a two-stage, three-speed supercharger and the MW 50 methanol-water mixture engine boost system. The aircraft also had a cockpit pressurisation system for the pilot. Armament was one 30mm cannon in the nose and two 20mm cannon in the wings. The Kit This kit appears to be the old FROG tool from 1970 and it does show its age. On opening the box you have 4 small sprues of light grey plastic and and the single part canopy. There is some flash on some parts of the moulding. The detail is typical of the time period with fine raised panel lines and some engraved detail on the wings. There is no real cockpit to speak of, just a badly defined seat for the pilot figure to sit on. There is no detail in the wheel wells or any where else really. The overall shape does not appear to be to bad though the front fuselage seems to be just a tube missing the variances shown on the box art. Construction starts with adding the pilot to his armchair. The propeller is then added to the engine cowling part and the propeller hub is added (there is no hole in this for the cannon to shoot though so the modeller will have to add this. Next the main landing gear is made up. The landing gear legs are moulded into the door so it is just a case of adding the wheels and their end caps. The supercharger intake is then made up. Next the fuselage is closed up after the pilot is added, and then the engine/prop assembly is added to the front. Next the Top wing panels are added to the one part bottom wing. The wing sub assembly is then joined to the fuselage. The Landing gear is than added (can be lowered or raised). The Supercharger intake is added and the canopy placed on. The canopy is fairly thick, but to be honest there is not much to see behind it. Decals There is a nice little decal sheet with this issue of the kit. It states Printed in Italy so we might assume by Cartograf? Markings for only one aircraft are included. Ta 152H-1 W.Nr. 150158 "Green 9" Stab JG301, Germany 1945. As is usual with Revell no Swastika markings are included. Conclusion This kit is really a product of its time, the 1970s and it shows. Maybe instead of issuing the kit with new decals Revell could look at making a new tool of this striking looking fighter? Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit