A Moskito to counter a Mosquito: Revell's 1:48 Ta 154 (started!))

[Sturmovik]

One of the things one can say about the Luftwaffe during WW2 is the sheer amount of projects, prototypes and machines that did achieve frontline service. The Focke Wulf Ta 154 is not one of them.

Originally designed by Kurt Tank at Focke Wulf as a plane to counter the legendary RAF Mosquito, its first flight was on July 1st 1943. The plane was also to be built using wood, with a especial glue, Tegofilm, used to hold all the wooden parts together. However, as luck would have it, the RAF bombed the factory that manufactured the Tegofilm in Wuppertal, putting the factory out of comission. A replacement glue was used, but it disolved the wood, and that caused accidents.

After the accidents, Tank ordered to halt the project, being accused by Göring of sabotage. Lots of to and fro was done and, in the end, the project was cancelled.

 

I bought this kit yesterday with the Spitfire from Revell/Hasegawa in 48th.

One of the things I did before walking away from the hobby shop was to check if the wings were warped (as Tom Cleaver had mentioned in his Modelling Madness review). Luckily, they weren't so I walked away happy.

 

There're a total of six sprues, five in grey plastic and a clear one. There's no flash present.

 

Decals, though being from 1999 (22 years old) looked OK. Not like Revell's current decals printed by Cartograf, but OK. I tested a small one and was happy to see it didn't break and it moved from the backing paper in no time. The single option is for Ta 154A-0 TQ+XE.

 

Anyways, enough talking! Here are the photos.

 

Boxart:

 

Instructions and decals:

 

Sprues (bagged to avoid losing parts):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Sturmovik

[HOUSTON]

Ooh Looking Forward to this.

 

Like your meticulous  ways. 

[Sturmovik]

Couldn't resist starting the kit yesterday. 

I glued the cowlings and added some weight in them. Then, I flooded the area with white glue and left it overnight to dry.

 

I then glued the wings together. They were warped, as stated by Tom Cleaver on his review of this kit. I tried to bend one wing straight, but I heard a crack, the upper half had a stress mark on the upper surface. That was one of those "I shouldn't have done that" moments. 

 

The cockpit is pretty well detailed, with seats for the pilot and radio operator.

 

The wheel wells are barren, but I didn't care, since I don't look at my models from below once done.

 

One nacelle fitted to the wing. You can see the stress crack on the wing.

 

Here you can see the four lead weights I added behind the cockpit. They are four halves, each weighting 30 grams. That means the front landing gear will have to tolerate 120 grams. And let's not talk about the main gear. Hopefully this amout of weight will be enough to make this tail heavy aircraft a nose sitter.

 

Propellers done. They spin!

 

 

 

 

 

[Sturmovik]

Update: The basic airframe has been completed. Due to the way Dragon engineered this kit, the nose gear must be added before gluing the nose. Because I wanted to test if my model had enough weight to be nose heavy, I added the landing gears, only for the nose one to collapse because of not enough drying time. After some expletives, I removed the broken locator on the nose gear, and used a mix of Revell Contacta and CA. That should do the trick to hold the nose gear in place.

 

In other news, the weight added was just enough to keep the plane nose heavy, but it became tail heavy again once the horizontal stabilizers were added. I glued some of my remaining weights in the cockpit, which made the model nose heavy again.

 

No pics on this update, I want to keep uploading photos for several days instead of just making a photo dump.

[Sturmovik]

Hello guys, more progress has been done on the 154. 

The cowlings were put together:

 

All the subassemblies ready to be put together. Before closing the fuselage halves for good, I decided to make a balance test. Turns out that A: Four 30 gram noseweights made the plane even more tailheavy, so one was removed. B: I had the bright idea of making the nose gear take the 100+ grams of the plane BEFORE the strut had dried, so it broke. Not to be deterred, I removed the remaining plastic from the nose gear and used a combination of Contacta, CA and epoxy to reglue the gear. Hopefully it'll hold.

 

MLGs built up and ready to be added:

 

Nose gear:

 

One wing glued to the fuselage:

 

The aircraft resting on its gear after they had fully cured:

 

I should also mention I tried to use white glue to glue some more sinkers into the space between the MLG's wheel wells and the engines. I removed them since the white glue never dried, making the sinkers move everywhere. Should have use epoxy to hold them in place. I guess if I had left them there, the nose gear would have broke again.

 

 

 

 

[Sturmovik]

Finally, an unpdate on this plane!

I came back home after my holidays, with the resolution of painting the model as soon as I arrived home. Here it is, painted in RLM 76 and RLM 75 clouds.

[Sturmovik]

Finished!

 

[Sturmovik]

Correct section: