**** DONE: 1/48 Ta 152H - Allied Advance and Defense of the Reich WWII.

Well done John, looks great man, fitting the 3 part fuselage around the cockpit is pivotal in making sure all other surrounding parts line up correctly, I had no issue with mine as I check all the dry fit angles before going forward, have seen other builds where due care was not taken resulting in some slight alignment issues further on...

Thanks Wayne! Fit has been very good. I've checked the fit of the three fuselage pieces around the cockpit tub and it looks like it'll work out real well (fingers crossed). There are very small locating tabs and grooves that initially make you shake your head but when the parts go together, the little tabs seem to settle into the right grooves... very impressed so far.

fubar57 said:

Looking very nice John. It would be a shame to close it up



Geo

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Ha ha... it's GONNA get closed. At least I'll have photographic record of it. I'll also look at the possibility of snap fitting some of the cowling pieces.

Fantastic John!

Beaut work John.
Interesting arrangement in the drawing, and the photos of the aircraft under restoration. I'm thinking the design of the friction lock had been simplified, with a 'push-pull' lever, rather than than a twist grip, the bare parts being shown in the pic and drawing. perhaps it had a grip on the bent bar on the finished version, but not the same as the grip on previous models ?

Yep....Shame to close that one up John

Just open one side cowl John - you know to wanna......

One side sounds good....seconded..!

Nah. One cowl would be out of balance - open up a few panels too !

Thanks for the comments guys! I really don't want to spoil the lines of the Ta 152 with an open hatch, especially at the front of the plane. And I didn't go all out on the engine... just painted it. So I'm gonna feel bad hiding it hiding it if I have to. If the cowling panel(s) fit well enough to stay in place, I might consider leaving them as snap fit pieces. But we'll have to see.

ON with the build... the engine assembly is attached to the cockpit assembly via four points on the engine bearing frame. The fit was spot-on... very impressive given the skinny nature of the frames and the distance between the engine connection point and the cockpit bulkhead connection. The four locating holes in the fuselage side are for interior detail pieces that end in the space behind the seat. These details, like the fuel tanks under and behind the seat, would be fully enclosed by construction with no change of being seen.


I carefully mated the combined engine/cockpit into the port fuselage side. There are no location pins but the fit, again, is great with all of the edges of the cockpit making positive contact with the fuselage interior. A solid bond can be achieved by running Tamiya Extra Thin cement along the areas of contact, which are many because of the all of the bulkheads. As you can see, I've left off the fuel tanks from the empty area underneath the cockpit.



The starboard fuselage side is then attached. Fit is almost perfect without having to force anything.


The fuselage bottom is another great fit. Seeing a pattern here guys? I definitely am! This ZM kit has been very nice to work with and my previous concerns seem to be unfounded. I'm not sure what happened with the build at Britmodeller.com that I have been referencing but I have had the complete opposite experience.


There is more interior detail within the tail assembly that I am leaving out. The tail access hatch is glued shut. The interior will be painted NMF.


I'm going to jump over to the next major assembly... the wings. The long, high-aspect ratio wings are a unique and characteristic feature of the Ta 152 and ZM devotes a multiple pieces and steps to build up the wing assembly. The foundation of the wing assembly is provided by a large yet delicate looking central spar. The bottom wing panels, left and right, are glued into place. Because of the delicate nature of the parts involved and that fact that there are no locating pins, one initially assumes problems with fit. But if you carefully refer to the instructions in terms of connection areas, you'll find an exact and precise fit.


The upper wings are modular too. I understand the separation of the gun hatches but am puzzled by the separate leading edge.


No matter... the fit is great so the modular construction isn't an issue.


I'm pausing the assembly of the wings here to do some painting. There is some nice detail on the central portion of the wing spar that will be visible through the wheel wells. I'm planning on painting the interior of the wheel wells an aluminum color... is that correct?

Coming along nicely John. It always strikes me as odd that companies go to great lengths to detail things that won't be seen. ie; fuel tank.


Geo

fubar57 said:

Coming along nicely John. It always strikes me as odd that companies go to great lengths to detail things that won't be seen. ie; fuel tank.


Geo

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It's definitely something that Zoukei-Mura does with great enthusiasm.

Appropriately for an SWS kit, the external appearance of the plane has, of course, been recreated with unequaled accuracy, and the internal fuselage structures have also been thoroughly recreated!! As you can see in the pictures, it's also possible to build the aircraft in a skeleton state!

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Thanks George! It's a not a selling point for a modeller like myself but if the fit is as good as it's been on this kit, I don't mind.

Bare aluminum wells would be my pick John. The other thing I see is what looks like the shell casing ejector chute for the central cannon with the end closed over. If you are one to drill out the exhaust stubs, you might want to check into this as well.

Beauty.

Crimea_River said:

Bare aluminum wells would be my pick John. The other thing I see is what looks like the shell casing ejector chute for the central cannon with the end closed over. If you are one to drill out the exhaust stubs, you might want to check into this as well.

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Dang... I wish I caught this before I cobbled everything together. I don't like the idea of doing that type of work given the framework that the engine rests upon. I'll take a closer look at the interface between the chute and the ejector port and see what I can do. The least I can do is paint the end black.

excellent John

Thanks peeps! Although I haven't been able to devote as much time as desired on the Ta152, it's been moving on pretty briskly. Especially compared to the Ju88... this is much smaller and simpler build even with all of the engine work.

The wing gun hatches were cemented into place onto the upper wings. I like to get the hatches on as early as possible to ease any cleanup work required.


The wing spar and wheel well interior was painted in Alclad White Aluminum over a gloss black base and then given a dark wash.


I decided to replace the plastic wing gun barrels with brass. During dry-fitting, the plastic barrels kept getting bent and I also wanted a way to be able to place the gun barrels after painting. So I utilized the bases of the plastic pieces and drilled out the ends to accept the brass barrels.



The cowl flaps were thinned out. I was careful not to separate the individual flaps this time.



The wings were assembled and secured using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. I got a little messy in a few places with excess glue and a couple fingerprints will need to be sanded off.


The long wings of the Ta152H were treated with White Milliput at the glued joints. This is a good way of filling gaps but preserving panel lines.



A quick check of the wing gun alignment.


The tail unit was glued in place.



I've started to explore the fit of the engine cowling pieces. The fit is better than it looks as the lack of locating pins makes it difficult to hold the pieces in correct alignment without glue. There are some possible issues with this next sequence such as the top cowling needing to be forced down and spread out in order to fit the fuselage. I think it'll work out ok but I'll have to do this carefully. Based on this pre-fitting session, I don't think it'll be feasible to place the engine cowlings without glue so it looks like the engine is going to get buttoned up.



The critical wing/fuselage junction is close at hand too. Again, this is just the fuselage placed on top of the wings. In order for this connection to be made, there is some finessy overlaps and locating pin match-ups that have to occur. There is some minor putty work on the wings that I want to finish before I proceed so I may jump over to the Dora and dink around with some minor stuff.