**** DONE: GB-68 1/72 Ta-152H-1 - We all build Fw 190

[Vic Balshaw]

Nicely done Graham.

 

[A4K]

Looks great to me Graham. Love the seatbelts.

 

[Wurger]

 

[T Bolt]

Looking good Graham

 

[Crimea_River]

I like the belts as well. Good job.

 

[fubar57]

Beauty. I'm dealing with pain on 1:48 harnesses at the moment, I really can't imagine what its like with 1:72

 

[Bustedwing]

Beauty. I'm dealing with pain on 1:48 harnesses at the moment, I really can't imagine what its like with 1:72 Haha, believe me ! Getting harder and harder !

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[rochie]

Great stuff !

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Bustedwing]

Onward, problems encountered. In the kit it provides for a headrest and armour along with a gimickey slide to enable the cockpit canopy to open and close. They don't fit Fortunately I had another canopy so I could bodge it after messing up the original. I cut the elevators off and posed them. Nice soft plastic, easy to scribe through wit the back of an ExActo knife. The front engine cowling is badly formed and it's final assembly leaves some thing to be desired. I had leftover PE radiators from the Ju 188 build so I used one to fill in the front of the cowling. Getting ready for paint. There seems to be a lot of confusion over what colours to use. Also, from what I've gathered the wing assembly was often built in another plant than the fuselage and were painted differently. I always though the planes would have been painted upon final assembly ?

 

[Wurger]

 

[A4K]

Nice Graham.

The kit cowl opening is fairly correct for a Ta 152 IMO (Sorry!), let down only by the shape of the cowl itself unfortunately. The old Italeri Fw 190D-9 cowl is a better match, as is the 'spare' cowl in the new IBG 190D offerings.

Ta 152H-0:

Ta 152H-1:

(From 'German Aircraft Interiors 1935-1945 Vol.1, by Kenneth A. Merrick)

 

[Bustedwing]

Well I guess I can ad some strips to look like it did before I "fixed" it ! Are those 4 spoke looking things a brace for the cowling sort of like a Do17 ?

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's a better shot of the front end sans spinner. The coolers have a cylindrical layout as you can see. The "spokes" are clearly visible.

As for camouflage, see below text from Thomas Hitchcock's book on the Ta152:

The image referred to on page 104 is the same one as Evan posted above showing the dark green extending far down the front cowl.

 

[Bustedwing]

I can see now the cooler sits further back and it looks like the opening is a kind of venturi effect. As for the paint. Some indicate the fuselage was a brown and green and the wings are light and dark green. I have 2 RLM 81s One is brown, the other green. My RLM 83 is blue ?

 

[fubar57]

RLM83 is now considered a marine blue colour though I don't recall if there is actual documentation offhand

 

[Wurger]

I wouldn't be sure if the RLM83 should be blue. IMHO the marine blue colour was used for the MTO kites rather than for those of the ETO where the green tones seem to be more suitable.

 

[Crimea_River]

The blue 83 theory was put forward by Ullmann maybe a decade ago and has been considered plausible by some. The 82/83 mentioned by Hitchcock is meant to be the Bright and Dark Green respectively. 81 could mean a brownish colour or dark green IIRC.

Correct Late War RLM Model Paint

I believe the blue RLM 83 has also been identified on aircraft operating from Norway. The evidence is mounting, it was certainly intended for maritime camouflage. It maybe that because in the case of late war colours, particularly 81 and 82, there was some confusion over exactly what they were...

ww2aircraft.net

 

[Bustedwing]

This afternoon I'll be un-fixing the cowl or at least trying to. As far as the paint here's what I have so far. Stabilizers are the green RLM81/82, Fuselage is the brown RLM 81/82 . Not to sure if I'm happy with it. I may redo the mottling. Never heard of Art Model but this is their box art.