>> **** DONE: 1/48 Ta-183 "Huckebein" - Prototype / Weird Aircraft / Trainers

It's a great little kit - I have one all but prepped for paint...


Dan

Glenn, very nice and 1/72 yet!! Must be a little bitty thing as this 1/48 looks tiny to me. It looks like you chose a close scheme #1 in my instructions, though my nose would be yellow and the body metallic. Those leopard spots are a PIA to do. Yours are really well done

Dan, have you decided upon a color scheme? I like #3. The eyeballs and mouth are chool! #4, don't care for the checkering. #5, have no idea on how to do the vines and flowers. #6 is probably my second choice, One concern is that that "U"-shaped tail scoop will pull some paint off one way or another.

Yes... But its not one of the kit ones... I've taken the whole Luft '47 route, by attempting to integrate a heap of 40's and 50' tech on it - I have an early Illumination Radar on one wing (like the F4U-5N), and two early Beam-Riding A2A missiles (like fatter AIM-7A), while the upper pair of guns have been removed (leaving only the lower two). The semi-recessed Bomb-bay has a 'conformal fuel tank' like the BAC Lightning, and off the back is early 1950's style rear facing RWR (the Germans had all this stuff in various guises by the war's end).

Last thing I am Considering is two 10 flare dispensers on the rear upper part of the fuselage - like the RF-4's carried, for photo recon. The Logic here being that if the Ta 183 had to get in close for Guns kill at night, it could break off and pop a pair of very bright flares, dazzling the Gunners on the bombers they were intercepting so the jet couldn't be seen as it dived away.

I have whole story behind the development of my unique WIF (which I won't bore you with, short of say WW2 went very differently; the skinny is...) the German's "tricked" the Soviets into invading Poland, while they sat at home. They used this to suggest to the UK that the threat of Bolshevism to the Western Democracies was too great to ignore, so Hitler signed a Non-Aggression Pact with the Brits. The French got upset, but with the German's on one side and the Brits on the other, descended into a Civil War, between the Communists and Liberals. After the Communists assassinated Hitler in early 1940, the German's offered Military Aid to the 'Free French', as they had in Spain.

In the Meantime, the Brits and Soviets had been butting heads over Poland, with the Brits sending a Naval Task Force to the Baltic and over the Top of Norway, towards Murmansk. When the Brits started using Eastern Prussian and Danziger Ports to resupply the Soviets pre-emptively struck and sunk several British vessels...

A bit of too and fro, between the Soviets and an uneasy alliance between Germany and the Brits had pushed the Soviets almost as far back as the Urals by 1944.

In 1945 the Brits (in conjunction with the 'Neutral in Europe' US, which had been dukeing it out with Japan since 1944) detonated the First Atomic Weapon (Germany detonated a similar weapon 4 months later thought be based on stolen American research). Soviet Threats CEASED overnight, after the US dropped two weapons on Japan, despite Bomber Harris lobbying for its use against far East European targets to 'keep the Reds in check!'.

So, by 1947 we find ourselves in a Cold War, with the Soviets racing to catch up technologically - here in comes our Ta 183 interceptor launching out of Finland, Danzig and East Prussia, designed almost solely to hit Soviet Bombers headed for Central or Western Europe, just in case the Soviets manage to develop working Atomic Bomb!

Colours - since we never get to the 'defensive colours' of 1944 and onwards, I'm sticking with RLM76 lowers, with RLM75, RLM74 and RLM22, in a splinter Nightfighter Scheme. No upper wing Balkenkreuz, Lower Wing Solid's (in RLM75), Fuselage Oultines (in RLM76) and Tail Swastika (in RLM76) to honour the Assassinated Patriot, Adolf Hitler!

At least, that's where its heading...


Dan

Dan, OK you are an alternate history fan and your Ta-183 will be a "what it might have become" aircraft. In that light I'd get a MiG-15 kit and German decals and paint scheme. The Soviet forces had captured complete plans to the Ta and their research showed that the design needed aeronautical work to be "flyable". They discovered that the original Ta-183 design needed either automatic leading edge slots or wing boundary layer fences to alleviate low-speed stalling. Also, as a compromise between high-speed and low-speed flying, the horizontal stabilizer was moved approximately one-third down from the top of the vertical tail.
The modified Ta-183 first flew on December 30, 1947 and in May 1948 was ordered into production as the MIG 15.
We don't do a lot of alternate history here but you might want to check out (it you haven't already)
USA declare was on Germany 100 years ago!
A Victorious Luftstreitkräfte-Imperial German Aviation Development After WW1

Got a bit warm and humid today so retreated to the workroom and did some airbrushing. Belly and tail RLM 76. Cockpit is relatively simple RLM 66 interior with leather seat back.

Nice one

Nicely done so far!

Nicely done Mike. Interesting technique to paint before major assembly like that.

Andy, It seems easier to me to paint those pieces first and not have to worry about masking off so much "stuff" that I don't want painted. Take for example those recessed landing gear areas, masking them would be a real PIA. This way I painted the fusilage and the wheel wells separately then just glued the assembly together. Make sense to me anywho...
'Course I still have a bunch of fiddly touch-ups to do here and there

Whatever works for you. I just find that I usually need to work the seams so much that I would eradicate much of the paint that I had put on already.

Ah but you see Mike has Seam-Fu! Seriously I do the same for some sub assemblies. It is usually easier. But when I do encounter a bad seam it does indeed get messier.

Looking good Mike.

Good stuff. Looking forward to the put-togetherness.

Doin' good there Mike.

Looking good Mike

Thank you one and all. I do first check the seams to be sure that I don't have a big gap to fill. That new (well to me any way) method of using nail polish remover to smooth putty means essentially zero sanding so I can easily fill and smooth a, e.g. wing root seam and not mess up a lot of paint. Any "messed up" areas are easily "touched up" not to mention a layer of RLM 83 to finish the upper surface cammo. Then there is going to be a coat of Future for decals...then, another coat of flat clear to seal everything. Minor imperfections vanish under the double coats. So yea, I do sometimes make more work but I always hated masking which at times will pull off flecks of paint.
Tricycle landing gear so loading the nose cone with tungsten putty and hoping that will be enough to prevent a tail sit

Chugging right along here:
Main landing gear and doors installed
Cockpit
Front landing gear bay installed
Nose cone painted and sort of installed, still working on non-tail-sitting
Red and white nose "Defense of the Reich" ID

good