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

Good progress.

Good stuff John.

Thanks for checking in guys! I've taken the big step of attaching the wings to the fuselage. It was not easy. The connection is quite intricate and the fit at this stage is not as good as it was in the beginning.


The wing root joint needs to be cleaned up due to multiple applications of Tamiya Extra Thin cement.


The biggest problem was the joint on the bottom. A gap formed while getting the wing root joints established. Too late for a shim, I used stretched sprue and Tamiya Extra Thin to "weld" the gap shut. Hopefully this creates a strong enough bond to allow me to sand, putty, sand and rescribe the panel line.


In between putty applications and sanding, I've been working on the smaller parts. The propeller hub cannon has been hollowed out.


I've added a row of rivets on the spinner using Radu's Rivet tool. The landing gear oleo scissors have been drilled out as well.


The fit of the parts is deteriorating as I go further along. Not surprising given the puzzle like-fit of the components up to now. I think the minor imperfections in fit are adding up to bigger and bigger discrepancies. My main concern now, after cleaning up the wing/fuselage joints, is the fit of the three engine cowls. It looks like force will be necessary to get the joints to butt up properly and I'm afraid that this might ultimately lead to funkiness when the radiator cowling assembly has to go on... I'm worried about a Ta-152H with a crooked nose.

It's looking real good John, even with all the fit problems you're having. I might just pull out my Dragon Ta 152 if I get far enough ahead with my other build

Yeah you have me thinking of that too Glenn. Gawd, the stars really have to align to get all that stuff fitting perfectly.

Stars have drifted apart it seems. The three cowling pieces don't want to fall together and I'm hesitating on attaching them. I started dry-fitting with the top cowling first but I think it might be better to try and get the side cowlings on first and then putting the top engine cover on last. I'm going to have to bite the bullet soon and make that step so I can keep this build moving. I don't like to do it but some brute force is going to be necessary for this upcoming stage.

Doin' good there John, all them parts do create an alignment issue once you start bringing them together...

Looks great so far John!

Thanks guys! Here's an update... it's quite picture heavy so forgive me in advance for such a lengthy post. I'll try to remember to post less pictures more frequently.

Before diving into the cowling installation, I painted up the propeller. It was weathered using different colored pencils keeping mind that the prop blades were wooden and not metal. I still need to figure out a good way of masking the spinner spiral in case the kit decal doesn't go on well.


Ok... deep breath... on to the installation of the three engine cowling pieces. Like I said previously, after pre-fitting I've decided to glue the side cowlings first and then the top cowling. The starboard side seemed to be best fitting so I started with that piece. I used Tamiya Extra Thin cement and tried to press a solid bond at all of the connection joints.



Once the starboard cowling piece was set in place and the glue allowed to dry, I secured the port cowling. Fit started to go astray at this point. I had to treat each joint separately, first securing the cowling to the fuselage side connection and allowing the glue to set before gluing the bottom, which didn't want to align.



But the bottom connection came together with some finger pressure and glue.


I set that aside and allowed the glue to dry for several hours before trying to get the top cowling piece on. Again I treated each joint separately. The port side seemed to be the best fit so I secured that with TET first.


You can see the other side not wanting to settle down but I left it like this while the port joint dried.


After a few unsuccessful attempts to secure the starboard edge with TET, I resorted to CA glue and brute force to close the joint as best as I could. The horizontal gap above and to the left of the supercharger intake was large enough to warrant a shim but I couldn't catch that during pre-fitting.


So I resorted to using White Milliput forced into the gaps and then cleaned off using a damp paper towel. This is a good way to fill gaps at existing panel lines because it requires no sanding. This technique was used all over the aircraft smooth out the modular joints.



After the Milliput dried, I sprayed the seams with Mr Surfacer 1000 thinned with lacquer thinner.






I'm not out of the woods yet. The joints so far aren't great but manageable and I can start touching them up. But there might be some issues with the fit of the nose cowling assembly. Hopefully, I can successfully cross that hurdle when it comes.

Came together well John. Hope it holds,

For a suggestion on how to do the spiral masks, see post 257 here

Nice fix John and nicely done with the spiral Andy. If you want to create a link directly to the Post #, click on the Post #, a popup will appear and you can copy the address. To your Post 257...

**** DONE: 1/48 Tamiya Heinkel He-219 WNr 290123 of 1/NJG 1 Nightfighter GB

Geo

Good input on the milli putty. Great save in getting the cowls in place.

Nicely done John.

Piece of cake John....good stuff mate.

Thanks for the tip Geo. Will remember for next time.

Very nicely done John. After watching you struggle with those cowl pieces I'm glad my Dragon TA 152 has an option that has the cowl side and bottom as part of the fuselage halves as long as you don't mount the engine. I may still do the engine but if I do it will be mounted on a rack and displayed next to the plane.

Yes, it's been a bit of a struggle on the Ta 152 but it hasn't been BAD. Just not very good. Lots of corrective putty work and seam restoration is needed to get things looking right. I'll report on that a little later but first I'll attack the prop. I was thinking along the same lines as Andy but my initial attempts at cutting the spiral shape with a french curve were not very fruitful.

Instead, I decided to use transparent frisket paper, place it over a photocopy of the spiral decal and cut it directly using scissors. The frisket paper is not as adhesive as tape so I was able to lift it off the photocopy without any problem.



The spiral went on easy enough but it ended up being short. I extended it using thin strips of Tamiya tape.


Here's the spinner after the black has been sprayed on.


The spinner is weathered using colored pencils and dry pigment. Here are a couple of views of the spinner attached to the prop blades.



The landing gear has been painted over the past couple of weeks and here are the assembled components. I think I still need to weather these pieces a little bit more.