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1/48 Hobbyboss Ta 152 C-11 "What If"


Brewer

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I haven't been able to make it to the bench since August, so it's time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to work.

I wanted something easy and fun and decided to pull out the HB Ta152C-11 from the stash. It's a speculative variant to begin with, so I felt comfortable doing a "what if" scheme on it.

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I'm no profile artist, but I managed to colorize a drawing to give myself a visual of what I want to do. Scheme inspired by the Bf109G-6AS birds from JG 1

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The fit of the HB kit is excellent, and I've fully riveted the airframe

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Originally I planned to just use a resin seat in the kit cockpit, but the kit tub is FAR too shallow so I grabbed an Aires Fw190A-8 tub from the spares box to use with the TMD resin seat. Not 100% accurate but hey - it's a "what if" anyway

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Base color and fading on cockpit parts

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Detail painted and washed with AK-Interactive dark wash

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Cockpit parts glossed for wash

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Cockpit tub assembled

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Kit instrument panel with decals for gauges

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I didn't spend too much time on the engine as it will be nearly invisible due to how far forward it sits and the more enclosed design of the Ta152 lower wing compared to the Fw190

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The HB kit fits like a glove, and the engine insert is no exception. The HB Fw190D kits are designed the same way, I wish the Eduard kits had such a positive fit!

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Fuselage together and cockpit ready to install

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Edited by Brewer
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Swapped out the kit wheels for some from the Dragon Ta152H. Hobbyboss wheels are oversized and feature an odd tread pattern and questionable details

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The kit canopy is poorly shaped and also depicts the thicker framing of the Ta152H, so I'll be using a Tamiya Fw190 blown canopy from the spares box

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The tail wheel out of the box is far too tall, I assume because it's also meant to be used with the torpedo-equipped variant. Using reference photos, I've shortened it substantially.

Photo of kit built with unmodified tail wheel courtesy of Reinhard from Hyperscale

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Actual tail wheel height

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My modification, I could have gone a little lower with it actually but this will do just fine.

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I'll also be working on the angle of the main gear legs, as they seem too perpendicular to the bottom of the wing

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Lovely rivetting, what tools did you use for that? I think I've only rivetted one model before, a 1/48 Tamiya 109 E3, and the results were OK but pretty wobbly. I bought a rivetting wheel type tool & tried it with dymo tape as a guide, but struggled with it to the point of frustration.

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Thanks guys!

For riveting I use the RB Productions Rivet-R Mini from Radu Brinzan. I only use that to make the pattern of the rivets and ensure that the lines are straight and rivets are evenly spaced. After the pattern is complete with the Rivet-R, I go back with a needle point and deepen each and every rivet. Deepening them creates a ridge around each one, that I then go back and sand flush which is why you see them full of dust right now. Last step will be to go back and remove the dust before painting.

It's a time-consuming process, but it gives me the results that I want

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Thanks guys!

I've been working on the gear bays and undercarriage so I can get the wings closed up, then it will be time to button everything up and get ready for paint!

I have also been cleaning up the seams of the fuselage halves, scribing the spine panel lines and adding a few more rows of rivets.

I'll get some pics of the progress when I have something worth showing, it's not much to look at right now

Edited by Brewer
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Brewer

Regarding the riveting, when you are doing vertical lines of rivet's that say cross two joined pieces (e.g the fuselage or wings), do you tape them together to ensure the rivet line runs straight over the join or do you do them seperately? and correct and mismatch later?

Looking as super as always :)

Matt

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I usually save rows of rivets that cross the fuselage seam until after the halves are joined. That way alignment of the rivets is ensured and the work isn't obliterated by sanding the seam. Having said that, sometimes I do tape the halves together and rivet before gluing, as I did with this one for the lower cowl.

And thanks! I haven't posted an update in a while, I need to get back to the bench TODAY!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, sorry for the delay but I'm back to work on the Ta152. Cockpit is installed, fuselage needed a spreader to close up the wing root gap. I think this is because of the resin tub I used as there was no gap when I mocked it up with the kit cockpit.

Gear bays are painted up and installed, wings together and ready to attach to the fuselage. I added a makeshift firewall since the kit has none and is just wide open inside there.

I need to hack the nose off to install the Quickboost corrected cowl - I haven't decided if I want to do that work before or after attaching the wing. Guess it's time to decide!

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Looks great so far, what do you think of the Hobby Boss kit generally?

Les

Generally? The fit is excellent and the accuracy is good enough. Surface detail is great.

I would much rather correct this kit than build the Dragon kit that requires grafting a "C" nose onto an "H" fuselage.

HobbyBoss is certainly the easiest way to a Ta152C

Edited by Brewer
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Wing is now attached, quick mockup to see it starting to look like a Ta152. Still some gaps and seams to clean up.

Kit radiator cowl used for mockup before I slice off the nose and install the corrected cowl from Quickboost

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Good to see your back, great work so far and will be following with interest. Really enjoyed the one of these I built so nice to see it being given the Brewer treatment.

Meant to ask if there's any update on the Airfix PR.XIX you were doing last year?

Cheers, Stu

Edited by stoohoo
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Great work on this kit mate. I'm very interested in the riveting too, I've got one of the 'pounce-wheel'-type riveting tools, but I can never keep them in a straight line! I thought about this so much that I eventually came up with a bespoke tool to help. Time will tell as to whether it's effective, I have a 1/72 Zvezda MiG-21 to try it out on. At the moment I am nearing the end of putting all the rivet detail I can on a 1/72 Su-27 (the Airfix kit), by hand (!), which has taken an age...no desire to do that again so any secrets for speeding up riveting would be much appreciated!

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