Zoukei-Mura/SWS 1/32 Ta-152H1

[Chris Jephcott]

First of all, it's been a while and in a way - this is a catch up.

 

I've been busy trying to get my Model Club up and running, and it's been taking up a decent bit of time. However, in between the challenges that this has thrown up, I've been working on this little gem of a kit.

 

So... where to start with this?

The box, the instructions and the parts do generally speaking ooze quality. Everything on the sprues gives the impression of being thought through and also shows the great level of detail that the researchers have gone into in order to create this kit!

 

The Instructions themselves have been done in the effective form of a handbook - typically Zoukei Mura style. Very clear drawings and photos of each stage as it has been assembled... and of course, very good colour references to follow:

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

The sprues though really do show the level of complexity that this kit exhibits. For a change, there are only one or two recognisable parts of aircraft - eg - fuselage side! The rest is built up in almost like a skeleton fashion. The advantage of this is that no stone has been left unturned at all in this kit:

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

Ta-152 SWS ]

Ta-152 SWS

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

The Clear pieces look stunning and clear (as you'd hope!)

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

And there's even a vinyl mask set included:

Ta-152 SWS

 

The Decals are done in such a way that enables the builder to do any marking of any aircraft. Given historical references are few and far between, clearly a decent bit of artistic licence is required here, but the variety means that any desired aircraft can be built:

 

Ta-152 SWS

 

Anyway... on to the building of this beast in the next post!!!

Chris

 

[Chris Jephcott]

So building begins with the cockpit - primarily made out of silver molded parts, construction is quick and within a few minor steps, the basis is there:

 

 

 

 

Add a small splash of paint (RLM66 in this case) and it starts to take even better shape:

 

 

The instrument panel has three options - one being you apply a whole decal to it. The second being you apply the instrument dial decals individually, or the third is to paint it all yourself. I decided to go for the middle option out of the lot. The decals were applied and 3 drops of Klear were applied to each instrument face in order to replicate a glass look:

 

 

And hey presto... the cockpit is completed! Dry brushed in silver, with a slight brown wash and touching up in various other shades. The seatbelts were done in the way I do my WW1 fabric belts - initially deck tan paint, then brown weathering powder was applied followed by an earth brown wash and a dry brush of Deck Tan again to make the details stand out:

 

 

 

 

Now, the engine was rather quickly built up. Again, the instructions call for silver and black on balance, but this was provided by using Mr Color Aluminium, with Alclad Aluminium and Steel sprayed over the top at a low psi. The Black parts were sprayed in black initially, then using Alclad Exhaust Manifold and Burnt Iron, gently dry drushed to give and effective engine look. The only thing that was done after this photo was taken, was an application of a dark wash into the supercharger impeller to make it look more 3d:

 

 

This next photo is a dry fit of the engine bearers - the instructions call for the RLM70 - Black Green paint at this stage. There was circumstantial evidence that towards the end of the war, the RLM colours inside aircraft were more or less ditched, so I went with the instructions on this part. The same will apply to the fuselage interior where specific reference is made to the fact that normally RLM02 was used, but in the latter stages, there wasn't the time to paint the insides, so they were left natural metal:

 

These have now been painted up according to the instructions!

Anyway, thank you for reading!

Edited June 15, 2018 by Chris Jephcott

[Chris Jephcott]

And...

Just a couple more low quality photos of the engine

 

 

[Chris Jephcott]

The fuselage is actually in three pieces - two sides and the underside. It's quite intuitive the way that it goes together and there are small locating tabs in the right areas. That aside, it is still a bit of a three handed job trying to get all three into the correct place!!

 

These pieces were sprayed in Mr Color Laquer Aluminium, then given a wash with Earth colours and then a layer of Alclad Aluminium was sprayed over the top:

 

 

 

Finally, I managed to get the pieces to settle together and held them in place with tape...

 

 

The wing assembly, again, goes together very quickly. You're provided with a box frame, into which the various parts are fitted for the MG151 cannons etc... This is a pretty straight forward procedure.

This is then fitted onto the wings - it does need some clamping in order to be able to encourage the fit, but it does work! It's dry fitted to the fuselage at the moment for a good reason...

 

 

 

That reason is: MIND THE GAP! Wow. Big gap. No matter how much pressing, fettling, pushing, swearing, it doesn't get any better!!

 

 

The only answer... to fill with superglue and sand it back. This worked a treat without much loss of surface detail - and nothing that a little bit of rescribing won't sort out!!

Now to step back and work out the parts that need filling. It's quite easy to forget but this was one of ZMs earlier efforts - and has got a bit of a reputation as being a bit of devil in terms of fit. There are a few pieces which really need some work in order to fit - the wing fillets are one of these. Sadly, I forgot to take photos of these in their original format, but needless to say, they sat about 1mm proud. So a decent bit of sanding ensued with very rough grade sanding sticks - then a test fit revealed that the lip around the engine firewall wasn't helping. So a little bit of sculpting with a scalpel and sanding it down again, then the fit became automatically a little bit better. Not perfect, but nothing that a bit of Vallejo Plastic Putty won't resolve.

 

The wing joint... it needs a bit of plastic putty no doubt. Cowlings dry fitted in this photo

 

 

And the wing panels - yet again, a bit more plastic putty will do the job.

 

 

The next job is to mount the engine. It's a tricky move - there's 4 locating pins on the fire wall and these two stubs in the wing spar. Which looks like a good idea for strength. The only problem... getting the locating pins into the wing spar stubs is actually an impossible move. You can get the 4 in the firewall no problems, but with the small area for working in, the stubs end up out of line.

 

 

The simple solution: cut off the locating stubs and superglue the engine to the spar, which means that it's level and in the right place. The cost of the strength is virtually offset by the CA doing it's job!! Basically putting the engine at this angle, which is perfect for further work:

 

So here we go... this is where I'm up to. The cowlings are now dry fitted in place and various details including the supercharger intake are added. I've taped the cowlings as I intend to have the engine on display. This next photo clearly shows the underside, now sanded smooth and filled:

 

 

And this is the overview now:

 

 

 

The cowlings are augmented at the front by the radiators and radiator shield (? Is this even a piece?!) but, these were done in the same style as the other metal parts. The only difference is that in this case, I've added a black wash on the top. The details on the inside are the key part as the outside is hidden by the engine intake frame:

 

 

That's all for now!

Chris

[Azgaron]

Very nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[Chris Jephcott]

Thank you very much! It’s on a pause whilst I am away for the next week with work sadly!!

 

looking forward to continuing with it! 

 

Chris