SWS 1/32nd Ta-152H-1 - Finished

[trickyrich]

Hi Rich,

Following along and share your disappointment with the PE flap sections. I cannot help with that but I can explain the hole in the wing upper. It was a flap position indicator and as a picture speaks a thousand words:

Regards,

Thanks for that, I had sort of thought it may have been something like that but rather a peg or similar, but an indicator dial! He would have wanted to have good eyesight as it's about a 1/3rd of the way out on this beast!

Mmm the flaps are very disappointing, but the more I think about it a rebuild will look much better, maybe not quite the fine detail but at least it will preserve my sanity!

[dazdot]

That's a shame rich keep going. Do qb or anyone do a resin set for this that could be an answer?

[trickyrich]

That's a shame rich keep going. Do qb or anyone do a resin set for this that could be an answer?

not that I could find, resin flaps would be the answer!

While the final coat on the Sukhoi is drying I've made a start on completely new flaps, I'm only using the PE spine from the set and everything else is made of plastic card or tiny strip. Sound time consuming but am over haly way there on the first one and it's only taken me an hours, plus it looks really good, way better than the PE!

Photos up once I've done the first one.

[trickyrich]

Ok as much as I wanted to put this aside and finish the Sukhoi the issue with the flaps really bugged me! So in between weathering the Sukhoi and waiting for bits to dry I started work on the fix.

As you can see the original PE one is a mess, I’m almost too embarrassed to even want to show it but here it is. I tried to be as careful as I could when making it and used my PE folding tool, I just couldn’t get it!

I decided that the best way to fix it was to start from scratch and completely rebuild a new flap. So using some 10thou plastic sheet off I go.

First off I cut the sheet to the correct size and added to this the strip on the trailing edge. I then marked out where the ribs/struts were to go.

Next I need to add the spine to the flap, the easiest way was to cut up the remaining new one (no going back now) and use that. Some quick folding and it’s ready to go on.

Already it looks much better, now the struts/ribs, these well be made on thin plastic strip in two parts…..all 21 of them!

Ok the first two are on and it’s looking already better than the PE one..19 to go!

The first part bit’s done, now I need to add the top section.

And done, a wee bit rough but that will clean up nicely once the glue has cured.

So just a quick tidy up as I was dying to see how she looks so a quick coat of paint, the glue still needs to cure over night before I can attempt to clean it up properly.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, it was much simpler and quicker than the PE one! In the end not a lot will be seen once it’s all in place. But at least I won’t be embarrassed to show it. Now I just have to repeat the process for the other side…….I’ll do that another day!

[dazdot]

Nice work there well done good recovery

[Mottlemaster]

Good save .

I sometimes think that the only thing that i will make with p/e is a bin to put all the rest of the p/e in

[Arniec]

That is why I hate PE. But great save on the build.

Now I have got the Ju-88's out of the way it will be time to go on with my 190.

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

Ok this is a bit later than usual but I have been working on here.

But first lets just say I have really fallen out of love with this build!! I was so looking forward to building one of these, well a SWS (Zoukei Mura) model (maybe the later ones are better), but after so long to have started one only to have heart is broken! It was a model that promised so much from all the reviews I have read (I know there were a couple of minor issues) that I now think I must have a completely different model from those reviewed!! To be 100% honest it’s not to the same quality as the Tamiya models from the same time period (even the Hasegawa ones!). I know it was only their second model but…….my Craftwork all resin Mc.202/205 model will be an easier build!

To say how much I’m not enjoying this build….well lets say I have two new projects running on the side, a Best Choice (MPM) 1/48^th Gripen JAS-39D from in 10^th anniversary Czech Air Force colours plus my slightly Whiffy Ju-388 J4 nightfighter (I’ll get a thread up soon….ish!) on the side at the moment.

Anyway enough complaining, this thing won’t build herself!!

Well I had started on the engine so I’ve been continuing on with it, she’s starting to looking quite nice, but I still have quite a bit to do in her.

Plus I have been working on the cockpit too, it’s coming along nicely as well. My biggest grumble (and there are many with this build) is with the PE bits, Eduard are way off with their idea of RLM66, it’s way to blue! I’ll see what I can do to make it less so, but with the cockpit together you don’t actually get to see to much of it. That is also a reason why I won’t be bothered to do any “super detailing” of the cockpit area.

The white stuff on the gauges is white glue, when dried it’ll get them a proper “glass” cover look.

The wings are finally together, but the fit is really average!! The idea behind the separate leading edge is good as it should hide the joins, but in this case it doesn’t and there are some horrible gaps to fill. Even with the work I’ve done with the PE flaps it shouldn’t had made that much difference!

Just test fitting the gun barrels, they’ll be replaced with some lovely machined brass ones!

The tail section is pretty much done! It was also my fist challenge with the PE “piano hinge” joins! These things are tiny, the rod is 0.5mm metal (they wanted e to use plastic pod!) and I had to use my PE folding tool, but in the end the results look quite nice! I’ll glue it in place towards the end.

It was pretty much the same with the main wheel covers, there are some extremely tiny struts/webs that need to be fitted as well, I’ve only do one so far!

I’ve made the engine mount separately from the engine ( and instructions, I’ve actually done quite a few things out of order so far), just to make life a bit easier.

The guns and radiator have been painted their basic colour ready for detailing.

The air intake and grill, it can’t be seen but there is quite a bit of work just in this!

The engine cover/s also needed quite a bit of work, sink holes. They also will have the two largest “piano hinges” on the model, something I’m not looking forward to making.

So together she’s starting to look like a plane.

With everything tacked together you now can get a look at how big she’ll be! Those resin wings are form the Macchi I’ll be building in the MTO GB.

[Arniec]

Although you have some complaints I still like what you have done already. Keep up the good work. I know you want to finish this one.

I have seen a few models from SWS at Telford (UK) the last few years and wasn't impressed with it. I think they are a little to complicated. But that is my opinion. I would still want a Do-335 in 1/32 scale, but from who I don't know?! Luckely I still have a few 1/48 335's in my stash.

Cheers,

[Mottlemaster]

Ju-388 J4 night fighter thread .... yes please.

I have almost pressed the Buy now button a few times on this kit , kind of pleased i didnt .

Edited August 13, 2016 by Mottlemaster

[trickyrich]

Although you have some complaints I still like what you have done already. Keep up the good work. I know you want to finish this one.

I have seen a few models from SWS at Telford (UK) the last few years and wasn't impressed with it. I think they are a little to complicated. But that is my opinion. I would still want a Do-335 in 1/32 scale, but from who I don't know?! Luckely I still have a few 1/48 335's in my stash.

Cheers,

I think the Ta-152H0 one may be the better of the two, it's much newer and has had some of the details updated along with the new parts for the H0 version. You are right they have over complicated them is some areas and simplified them in others and for something this big you'd think they would have had the fit perfect. That Tamiya P-47D I built is a far superior model in terms of fit and the way it goes together, I would love to try one of their 1/32nd models! That's strange they haven't released a German fighter yet in that scale....now a Bf-109K or a Fw-190D/Ta-152 now that would be very nice!

The Do-335 is still on top of the wish list (am over the Ho-229 for now), I must build a 1/48th one!

Ju-388 J4 night fighter thread .... yes please.

I have almost pressed the Buy now button a few times on this kit , kind of pleased i didnt .

maybe the 152-H0, either way they're still awesome looking aircraft, just not your dream model!

give me a wee bit of time and a cup of tea then go have a look in the Whiffy section to see what madness I'm up to!

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I got all excited and thought you were building a SWS:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Wehrmachtschlepper

AND a Ta.152.....Mebbe you should?

[trickyrich]

It probably would have been more fun to build one of those, they're so cool looking, I'd love to have one of them! On a slightly similar note the Friulmodel tracks for my E-100 showed up the other day, besides stabbing myself multiple times fitting the pins (I had to do some up to see how they'd look), they are super cool tracks!! Worth every penny!

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Ahhh.....'Fruil Thumb', apparently it's a rite of passage amongst 1/35 modellers, thankfully we Braillers merely have learn the 'rites of cursing' (Revell's L&L instructions).

[Caerbannog]

Impressive work as usual Rich

René

[mick]

great work

[trickyrich]

Well this update is a bit different as I’m at work and this is the stuff I did a few days ago.

Well the beast is still fighting all the way, the cockpit is a bit of a nightmare, especially with fit!

The cockpit is getting closer to being finished, the side panels and IP have been fitted, but surprisingly the colour of them is way off! The interior should be RLM66 but they are way to blue for my liking and there’s not much I can do about that now! Though I have seen a few photo’s were the IP and side panel appear to be a different colour to the rest of the cockpit, maybe that was just the lighting, who knows with aircraft at this stage of the war.

So a quick test fit of the cockpit to the fuselage sides (the main fuselage is in three bits, two side and a lower section), and of cause it didn’t fit! The issue is the new instrument panel, the two new PE sections now make it too thick! There was nothing of cause in the instructions for the PE bit telling you, you need to sand it back, a lot, well not that I could see as they are in Japanese!! So out with the Dermal and some careful plastic grinding to get it all to fit, probably would have been easier just to build a new backing plate! Speaking of which I have found with this model you have to be very exact with how you position things before gluing, glue something very slightly off and it won’t fit later on. I say this because I glue the front bulkhead to the cockpit slightly out of square, that didn’t help with the fit either!

Next progress was with the wing, it’s nearly finished! Control surfaces are on apart from the flaps, and all those horrible fit issues and gaps are nearly sorted.

Now I know why the guns are one of the first things “that should have been” fitted to the wings, as they won’t go in later without a fight! They’re in now and staying in, so I’ll have to finish detailing them and the bays with them fitted!

The tail is done. The opened panel on the LHS will be left off until almost the end due to the hinge.

Ok speaking of hinges I decided to attempt the biggest one of the lot, the main cowling hinges! As I showed with the tail panel (that was really a trial attempt as it was the smallest and easiest to fix if I stuffed it up) they are all made up of three pieces just like the real thing. You really have to use a PE folding tool to help hold it all in place as you build it, plus you need a pair of good tweezers and lots of patience’s! Plus as you can see it’s tiny!

So the first test fit, the old moulded hinge on the lower section had to be cut out exactly to size, which required attaching and fitting many times to get it right, these photos are the last test fit. The location is not exact here as it was just to make sure it’d all fit and work!

You can see where I filled the mould holes in the lower section, the ones on the upper section will not be seen so I won’t do them.

So with one done and looking quite good I made up the second one, once finished I fitted both lower cowls to the upper section. It actually looks really good altogether and it actually all fits quite well and actually works quite well!

Gosh this build seems to be fighting me all the way, it’s not as easy as I would have expected, procrastination has been the by word for this build……as you may have noticed in these photos, my work bench is now really clean! But at least it’s coming together, I don’t think it’ll be one of my star builds but it should come out looking nice…..I hope!

[Caerbannog]

Wow - highly impressive work on those hinges

[Mottlemaster]

Now only if Zoukei-mura made flat pack furniture

[trickyrich]

PE Purgatory was pretty much what it felt like yesterday, to get further I had to do quite a bit of PE work. I reckon to get out of purgatory and into heaven you have to build a set of PE gate form Eduard and if they’re anything like these sets you’ll be there forever!!

Anyway after being distracted by the MTO builds I figured I needed to get back to this one least it ends up on the shelf of doom as well sitting beside the Fw-190D!! (I actually have done a wee bit of work on that beast!!). So first up was to join wedge and lever the cockpit and fuselage pieces (there are three bit the to fuselage) together, and that’s pretty close to what was required, plus liberal amounts of CA glue as well! As I’m finding out, how you fit things together is extremely important, they need to be in their exact spot or you’ll have fit issues. Plus I’ll fitting PE cockpit bits don’t help at all either!

That said the resulting joins weren’t too bad and cleaned up nicely. Having the fuselage in three pieces actually works (two side pieces and a bottom) and means two of the joins are nicely hidden by panel lines. The tail fit isn’t quite so nice and there were noticeable steps at the top and bottom that needed to be sorted out.

I forgot to post a photo last update of the new cannons fitted, they look great but what a pain to fit!! The cannons (barrel and breech) are meant to be one of the first things you fit on the wing spars……opps!

The engine mount is finally painted, I just need to add some detail to it. That radiator was a bit of a pain to fit as well it didn’t want to fit and kept splitting along one of the joins.

Next up was the cowling again, I wanted to see how it’d all fit together! Unfortunately one of the hinges parted company so I had to refit that first. Well it does all go together which is a bit of a relief but the panel won’t open and close freely as they foul on the exhausts. Not a biggie they’ll either be left opened or closed.

Now to the not so fun bit (are there any fun bits on this model!), the cowling flaps! The cowling flaps are made of 17 individual petals that need to be shaped and glued in place. The biggest issue was they are slightly too narrow! Fitting them nice and snug like they should be and you’re left wit a 3-5mm gap at one end! So I had to leave little gaps between each one so as to remove this final gap…plus all the joins are just butt joints! I can see some breaking off between now and the end! The cowling was given a coat of aluminium to help with the tiding up, I still have a bit to go here.

The man U/C doors are finished as well, more PE hell there as well, fitting tiny ribs the size of tiny pinheads to each main door! Luckily they supplied extras as 4 disappeared in the process! They’ve been undercoated along with the engine covers.

And that’s about two solid days work…almost. So some test fitting to see how it’ll all look together……..and I’m a bit worried!! The wings when fitted to their mounts on the fuselage/engine assemblies don’t fit and there are some rather large gaps!! It appears that something wasn’t in its exact 100% precise place and now the wings won’t fit!! Something to worry about later!

And the Macchi decided to photo-bomb! Interestingly one of these should be a relatively easy build and one a difficult one…….and I can’t work out which is which!!

[Kahunaminor]

It may be painful for you but the end product is a delight to see. The front end and associated engine bits looks great under the silver primer and paint. There will be some hopefully simple and obvious remedy for the wing fit down the track.

Regards,

[Mottlemaster]

I wounder how many private battles others have had with this kit and lost with the results back on the shelf or even in the bin .

Your persistence will see this one completed and by the looks of it , rather well .

[trickyrich]

yes she has and still is being a bit of a pain, but I'm making good progress and haven't been distracted by the Macchi yet!

I'm having to make some hard decisions on a few areas such as leaving the gun bays closed, more on that in the update.

It's probably would be such a difficult model if you didn't add the PE extras, they're the stuff thats giving me the most issues. By and large it's not a difficult model to build, it's just not like a Tamiya or Hasegawa model. This one you need to be very precise on how you fit and position items before gluing them in place. If it's not in the "right" place you'll have dramas. Not a model for the inexperience thats for sure!

But I'm getting there another good day of building an I'll almost be ready for painting!

[trickyrich]

…. and so the battle continues unabated…..problems solved but more found….plus some ranting along the way….as usual!

Ok first up unfortunately some rationalisation of this build is required to get everything to fit and actually complete it!!

First up the wing mounted guns have to go, or rather I won’t be fitting them! The PE set gives you a hinged door so you can have them either open or close, however you only get half the actual panel and you are required to remove and replace this plastic section with the hinge with the PE part. Not a terribly difficult job at all except the new PE section has now internal rib detail and is about a tenth the thickness! This would look ridiculous! You could with quite a bit of effort rebuild the whole thing with thin brass sheet and plastic strip but that would be a big task.

Thinking about this as I’m writing this up, may be they only want me to grind back enough to add the PE section to it….the instructions for this are in Japanese and soooo vague!

I’ll think about the “grinding” option but once I start that there’s no return!

I’m not going to get too carried away with detailing in a lot of the open panels because realistically I’m probably going to leave them closed and in a lot of cases you won’t actually see that much anyway!

I opened this fuselage gun bay panel then realized when everything is fitted you don’t actually “see” that much at all. I won’t be doing the other side!!!

I’ve built up and test fitted the tail wheel, there’s not a lot going on behind the panel in the tail so really no reason to have it open, very much just a gimmick in my opinion.

This is not a model you can throw together without test fitting. Getting the engine frame to fit to the fuselage is a bit of an effort as you have the bend open the front fuselage section while trying to fold together the rear engine frame mounts, to get it them to fit. A recipe to break something!! So I’ve had to grind off part of the support structure, I loose a bit of strength but there is less chance to break/split something!!!

So now fit issues, I have spent quite a bit of time test fitting and making a few adjustments, it’s going to go together but in which order?? Engine to airframe, them wings on, or wings on airframe first them mount engine??

This is the fit just with wings to fuselage, it’s not to bad, if I join it in sections and use small drops of CA to hold thing in place while the glue dries I should have some nice clean joins.

However when the engine is in place and I try the same thing…. The engine has dropped a wee bit in this photo but that’s the gap I’m looking at. There are a couple of pins on the engine frame that are meant to line up with holes in the wing spar, I think the issues are here…alignment issues again. Gosh resin models are sooo much easier!

On a better note the prop is done. The spinner is that infamous RLM25 which no one really has nailed down the exact colour, I have seen it referred to as an Emerald Green (Gunze H46), while in other places it said to be a more darker green. I’ve sort have gone for something a bit in between. Plus the radiator has finally been sorted out as well, not that you’ll see that much in the end!

So it’s all looking much better, all that top detail in the engine will be hidden, as that panel will not be removable, it’s going to help provide some strength!

I’ve finally decided on a scheme, “Green 3” from Stab./JG301, she was flown by Oberfeldwebel Josef Keil, who was the only “Ace” in a Ta-152. But like everything in the build it’s not quite that easy! The green 3 (as are all the green codes) is meant to have a thin black boarder, the supplied decals however do not.

They do supply a green 9 that has the black boarder (it’s for Willi Reschke’s 152 and everyone builds that one), so they may have realized there mistake with that one….but why not fix up the rest!! Of cause there are no AM decals available and they’d be too expensive, so I’m going to have to came up with a work around for this. I could always do “Red 9” which was the other option I liked but I’ll have to redo the spinner and add a spiral….NO!!!

Oh and finally I will be using masks for the national markings, that should look so much better.

[Kahunaminor]

Rich,

I am confident using your skills, the supplied decals, a scanner, some Tamiya tape, navel fluff and a milligram of Macgyverism, you could cut a mask to make the black border for the numerals to go under the decal. But hey that's just me!

Regards