tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 As soon as ZM announced they would be releasing their Ta152H in 1/48 I couldn't wait to get my hands on one after seeing how well their original 1/32 built up. This isn't won't be a true work in progress thread as I've already reached the stage, almost of getting some paint on it, but I've been taking a few pics as I've moved along so I thought I'd share them on here.When I first opened up the box and viewed the contents I was quite disappointed with the quality of the moulding and I think that will be apparent in the pics to come. Instead of starting with the cockpit I thought I'd get the wing assembly done and out of the way first as this looked the most demanding part of the build. The wings are made up from 8 parts.First job wing spar, lower wings and lower central section.When I dry fit the upper wings I noticed a gap where the outer wing tips met the lower wing so that was filled with a strip of Evergeen.The upper wing leading edges are made from 2 inserts.These fit well on the upper wings but not so good where they wrapped round to the lower wing.Some filler was needed,The finished wing.The whole assembly was made difficult by the lack of any real positive connecting lugs/points which made dry fitted of parts a nightmare.More later, comments welcome.Tim. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 I'm expecting a good result here Tim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 I'm expecting a good result here Tim! I'm not sure if I've ended up with one of those Andy. After the slog of building the wings I moved on to the cockpit this is the area that disappointed me the most as as you can see in the pics the detail is soft and heavy, every part had large mould seams to get rid of before any assembly could take place. If I built another of these, which I won't be doing anytime soon, I'd invest in the only aftermarket set available for this kit which Eduard do exclusively for ZM. When that sub assembly was built up I tried it along with the wing assembly. So far so good. Next up was the Jumo 213. Again there were loads of scraping involved to get rid of all the seams on every part, which by now was getting a real chore. Any one building this kit would be advised to invest in one of those seam sanders available, also a razor saw is recommended to remove a fair few of the more delicate parts from the sprue. Tim. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reserve_22 Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 (edited) Great work on beautiful plane Edited April 10, 2015 by Reserve_22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 Great work on beautiful plane Thanks, I also think the Ta was a superb looking aircraft, which luckily for the Allies arrived to late in the war to make any sort of impression. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 Hi Tim The obvious question for me is how does it compare to the still (quality wise) very acceptable Trimaster/Dragon/Italeri kit (accepting that the Italeri boxing is engine-less)? The wings look fiddly in 1/32, let alone taking the same approach in 1/48... In 1/32 the PCM kit didn't really offer stiff competition what with all the errors the kit contained - but in 1/48 there's an established and respected competitor (though not currently in production). I'm sort of hoping Hobby Boss add a 152H to their line up. I'm doing their D-12 at the moment and it fits like a dream - I'd have finished assembly if I hadn't decided to correct a couple of issues. Look forward to seeing more of this come together. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 Matt, I've got the Dragon boxing of the Ta and I'd say it is much more re fined detail wise than this kit, I know I'll probably get my self hung drawn and quartered for saying it but I look at this kit as Airfix tries to do Eduard! The more I got into building this the more I disliked it. As you will see most if not all the details will be lost for ever anyway. So you will be better off building the Dragon/Italeri/Trimaster boxing and save your self all the grief that comes with building this one. Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 I must say Tim I looks like they have tried to be too clever with this. I did like the refinement of the dragon kit myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 Right time to slap some paint on and see how all of that chunky detail looks under some paint, by this time I was falling out of love with this kit. I tried to use the decal provided for the IP but it was like leather so gave up on it and punched out some Airscale ones and applied them one by one, I also used some Eduard p/e rudder peddles. I added a Ultracast seat. Next the Jumo. As with the inner fuselage detail I didn't bother to spend much time painting the engine as it won't be seen anyway! Forgot to mention I hollowed out the exhuast stubs prior to painting. Engine mount, I did practice adding wiring on this. Then it was time to bring all the sub assemblies together. Surprisingly everything fit! It was then time to close the fuselage around that sub assembly. You have to ask your self why ZM thought it was a good idea to make the fuselage out of 3 parts though. I couldn't believe my luck when I ended up with this. The tail section was added at this stage as well. Comments welcome, Tim. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 great stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 I must say Tim I looks like they have tried to be too clever with this. I did like the refinement of the dragon kit myself I wouldn't say they've been to clever with the kit, its no different to any of their other kits. The things that lets it down are the soft chunky detailing especially the cockpit, and all of the cleaning up of the large seam lines that are on every single part, up to where we are with the build things fit together well, but its about to go down hill from here! Like I said earlier, I'd recommend building the Dragon Ta, surely a more relaxing build. great stuff Cheers Mick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 It looks good. You're certainly making up for any deficiencies with your painting. It seems a little tight of ZM to not slide mould some open exhausts at this kit's price point..? How many parts is the tail assembly? Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 Yeah, they go to all the trouble of giving you all the detail that won't be seen but neglect stuff like the exhaust that will be seen! The tail section is made up from 2 halfs which include the extension plug, there is also the service hatch on the tail itself. The tail unit fit pretty good as well. You can leave the fuselage hatch open if you like as well. I didn't so never bothered to paint the inners of the fuselage. I did go to the trouble of riveting all the airframe though, now that was made easy with the break down of the kit. Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 After the surprise of the fuselage fitting together ok it was time to fit the wings, it is at this point that things started to go down hill, the wing to fuselage joint was poor and required shimming with Evergreen, especially on the under side. I also used CA/talc/black pigment as a filler. The wing uppers weren't that good a fit either, the joints were filled with the same mix as above. The upper engine cowl was a good fit though, I knew things were lined up properly as the 4 location holes on the inside of the cowl lined up well with the lugs on the engine. I then dry fit the engine cowls, things didn't look good either as you'll see later. All looks well in that view doesn't it? The design of the kit means that the exhausts need to be fitted early in the build which is a real pain, this would/will make painting the area around the engine cowls difficult so I decided to pre paint that area before I fit them. Here is the problem area with the engine cowls, both sides were a joke on the under sides. I had to almost hammer them to get them to fit. There was a complete miss fit in this area. I had to force them open to meet up with the wing joint and wedge them with Evergreen and fill with my CA mix, in the pic one half has been done and I'm in the process of fixing the other. So far touch wood things haven't popped open but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they did as they are under so much presure. I did think it was down to me with this problem but everything had lined up ok in previous parts of the build. I decided to do some searching to try and find another build thread on the net and after a couple of nights I managed to find one on a Polish forum, and guess what the builder had came up to the very same problem, it did make me feel a lot better afterwards. So anyone about to build this, be warned! Tim. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reserve_22 Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 (edited) Hi Matt you build Fw190D12 from Hobby Boss but dont forget Fw190D12 CS+IA have old style canopy and head armor.Hobby and his Boss have wrong canopy.Very good profile is in the book from Jerry Crandal Fw190D13 Yellow 10. Edited April 10, 2015 by Reserve_22 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reserve_22 Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 Tim very inspiration build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 11, 2015 Author Share Posted April 11, 2015 After wedging and filling the gaps on the under sides and plenty of sanding I ended up with this. The radiator was added after first painting the inners. As you can see Mr Surfacer was used a fair bit! Unlike the Eduard kits, the wing root gun covers actually fit! At last things are taking shape now, in the last shot the large wing span of the Ta is apparent. Comments welcome, don't be shy! Tim. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 Good work Tim...I'm really quite shocked at the poor fit there! Nice little dig at Eduard tho' about their gun covers - too true! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted April 11, 2015 Author Share Posted April 11, 2015 Good work Tim...I'm really quite shocked at the poor fit there! Nice little dig at Eduard tho' about their gun covers - too true! Cheers Andy, the fit of those cowls is pretty disappointing, the wing to fuse joint isn't much better either. Up till then the fit of parts was very good, as you may have gathered there is a lot of prep work involved with this kit before even thinking about breaking out the glue. I'm looking forward to viewing any other build threads on the kit to see if the problems repeat them selfs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reserve_22 Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Exhaust and radiator looks like real.This details make model in another level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Yuk! I know we have to deal with fit issues and shouldn't always moan when fit is less than perfect - but ZM could be expected to do better for the price... As Reserve_22 says though, that radiator assembly is very nice. TriMaster just give a piece of PE to wrap around the inside of the nose - Dragon's and Italeri's boxings forget to include anything for here... just a big hole.. . @Reverve_22 - I've decided not to do CS+IA, partly because I think I'll make a D-12 from an Eduard D-13 (only the engine gun differentiates these marks). Hobby Boss's bigger errors (in my view) are the upper decking which is a weird hybrid of D-9/D-12 shape. I've spent some time sanding it to a more correct shape. Also put some extra details in wheel bay, including a MK108 cannon. Tim, sorry for the aside, looking forward to seeing you wrestle this into submission Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reserve_22 Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Ok Matt do you give here your build?I think your modifications would by very halpfull for others.For me is very sad that Eduard stop at D11/D13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Not yet, posting builds is usually the kiss of death for me . I'll put something up when I'm more confident of finishing.. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reserve_22 Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 I understand Back to Tim's build.Tim what kind of putty have you use only Surfacer?I see somethig black.Its black CA glue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_H_ Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Wow Tim, I was really looking forward to your build of this kit as I've wanted one myself but I don't think I'll bother as I have the dragon kit in the stash. Pretty sure you'll beat it into submission and I do look forward to that part. Regards Howard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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