Zaggs Ta 152H-0 - St./JG 301 'Orange' - and his attempts to keep things OOTB! (1 Viewer)

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The way I am moving forward with Wayne, seems like will leave us with the minimal seam work to sort out - which is good; I hate doing wing roots! My dry fitting suggested every other method was going to leave a more challenging gap. And fitting upper wings to lower wings, removes the change to flex and slowly glue things into place, leaving us with a sort of 'one shot deal'. This way I can accurately align a section of 5-30mm at a time, glue, clamp, let cure, come back and do it again until things are sorted... :)

Maybe my wing issues are a result of the extra flash on this kit? Compared to the DML/Dragon/Hasegawa and other Italeri kit, this one has by far the most flash present (probably why lightly prepareing the surfaces with a file has made such a HUDE difference!
 
yeah, the seams are looking good... need to fix up a 'railway line' on one edge of one of the freshly engraved panels though. seems my second passes on that particular edge, I was holding my scribber at a different angle and thus have cut two parallel lines. And of course, it was the last line I engraved!!!

It never goes according to plan, does it? Might do the under-carriage of the D-9 :)
 
yeah, the wing fit, with decent prep work, seems ok - but I think the order of operations is the key; stray from that and it could well be a nightmare! I guess I'll get some practice; I am upto three Italeri H-1, six DML/Dragon H's (incl the DX08 H-0 re-issue), the apparently ultra-rare Hasegawa H-1 and two Dragon C-1's - and I have plans for them all!

And Wayne is going to give me his Trimaster H-1's too! ;)
 
Yeah, you just dont realise it yet... I'll just keep saying it, like some sort of Hypnosis thing, til one morning you just wake up, half in a daze, box them up (including a Falcon Vacuform on as well, if you have one of those hidden away too!) and drop them in the post to me! ;)
 
BTW Wayne, I might shoot you another email in the next few days... I've been looking at more Ta 152 images and am noticing some things about the camoflage that I want to bounce off you - and I also have a really solid candidate for the 'Red 6' a/c...
 
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Not much progress to report - lots of Uni stuff and I've been side tracked by trying to make a set of 'Alloy Codes' decals that look a bit better than the EagleCal ones; ie, EagleCal use an American font. Admittedly, now that I have printed out about 4"-5" square inches (more than I'll need to line 4 or 5 Ta 152/Fw 190D MLG bays), I've come to realise the font doesnt really matter as you can hardly make it out; even under magnification! But at least I know its right!

I also used this to test some other decal-based stuff; firstly printing Werk Nummern (both the 'large' Fw Style numerals, used on Fw 190D-9/D-11 and Ta 152H-1 and the 'small' 0-series numbers), some 'pressure gauges' (for presurised Ta 152 canopies) and expanding this to also print some tactical codes - the Laser Colour Printer output looks pretty Opaque, but one can only be sure after applying some decals. Thus in this test brace we have decals for H-1 150174 "Green 5" (to test the look of Stab Green) and decals for H-0 "Red 2". Next time I shoot some RLM76 and RLM82/83, I am going to knock up another test card and just apply these decals...

DIY is fun :)
 
Of the Decals? Yeah I'll take some pics... :)

When I get some time (most likely during the Uni break), I'd like to knock up two guides - one each for DIY Etching and DIY Decals - as well as put up the designs I've made... The 72nd Fw 190D bits (and another project I am chipping away at in 48th and 32nd) I've etched, the Fw 190D/Ta 152C timber flap decals, the Alloy Codes as well as decals for schemes that are not available anywhere, combined with my 'quick and nasty' profiles that you've seen in a few threads... Then get others to also contribute!

D
 
BTW, anyone who has pictures of WW2 era, German Sheet metal, with alloy codes on it, please let me know! At this stage, I know of ONE 'critical' design (red printing) for Duraluminium 3126.9 (Focke-Wulf) and a number of less critical designs (black printing) for Duraluminium 3116.5 (Krupp, Focke-Wulf, VDM and a Hexagonal logo I can not identify (ZN?). The 'red' stuff seems to have been for things like upper surfaces of wings, wing structures and structurally significant things, while the 'black' stuff was for wing lower and fuselage skins, cowls, ammo boxes. I've been told on some late war Fw 190's and Bf 109's, these Alloy codes are visible where the a/c have been left in NMF; I've never seen this, so again, pass that on if you dont mind.!

Now this is what the decals look like - just a test set of Werk Nummern to play with, some tactical codes and pressure gauge faces... And of course the Alloy Codes :)

H-0_015.jpg
 
Just a modest Colour Laser - the logic with using the laser is that toner is much more opaque than the inks in an inkjet printer. As things look, those tactical codes should do the job. Regarding the alloy codes, Ive just finished sorting the internal wing seam visible within the wheel well, so when thats dried, I'll measure and cut some of the alloy coded decals :)
 
... printing images that were at 600 dot per inch (600dpi) and with the printer settings set to Best Quality
 
Added another Duralumin alloy code to the collection tonight, as well as finished decalling the wheel wells of the Ta 152H - been slow progress of late due to school and assignments and life... However, we now have the following codes and manufacturers identified:

3116.5 (Black) Krupp
3116.5 (Black) Focke-Wulf
3116.5 (Black) VDM
3116.5 (Black) Hexagonal logo I can not identify (ZN?)
3126.9 (Red) Focke-Wulf - critical sections such as upper wing surfaces and structure
3355.3 (Green) VDM

The 3355.3 alloy appears to have been used to skin parts of the rear fuselage and fin.
 

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