1/32 Zoukei-Mura Ta 152H-1

[stona]

I thought I'd quickly fit the cannon with it's magazine and shell ejection chute along with the oil tank to the back of the engine. What a jostle! Five bits of plastic took me an hour,and then the family descended upon us so early stumps.

Here's the progress.

Wings next.

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

Snuck another half hour before the next lot arrive!

I think it's safe to say that the lower wing to wing spar assembly join needs a little "persuasion" to stay in place whilst it dries.

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

So I've built the lower wings and I'm looking at them thinking,wow that's quite a span! Now I know the numbers and am aware that the Ta152 was designed as a high altitude fighter,it was the best of the war,hence the long wingspan. It was built at the same time and in the same facilities as the Fw190D and I wondered if this caused any problems,space wise. Anyway I dragged down a Fw190D from the shelves and lined the Ta152 lower wing up with it. Quite a difference!

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

The upper wing surfaces need a bit of encouragement too. I found that you can't fix them in one go. I glued and clamped the upper wing to the internal spars and formers and then worried about the edges. It worked on the left wing,we'll see about the other one in a bit.

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

Major sub-assemblies are done. I'm not allowed to do any more today (SWMBO says!). Hopefully I'll get these assembled tomorrow as after that it's back to work so no progress for a while.

Cheers

Steve

[spanner570]

Steve, these ladies of ours just don't understand.

Who wants to be out in the glorious sunshine, feet up, having a beer. totally at one with the world.......What a waste of time, when we could be cooped up in our little dens, no natural light, cramped and eyeballs hanging out straining to paint diddy bits of plastic.

Yep, they sure don't........

Cheers, (with ice)

Ron

Oh, cracking model thus far! lol

[stona]

No they don't. I've just lit the barbecue....it's amazing how useful some of our modelling supplies can be! All I need now is some fresh hair on the backs of my hands!!!!!

Cheers (with a nice cold glass of white)

Steve

[stona]

Early start this morning,I stuck the wings on.

Good fit but I'll sand down the rather too obvious moulded strip at the top of the fillet somewhat and then re-rivet it. Here's the bottom join,also a good fit.

I also fitted the engine which is fiddly. You have to line up attachments on the fire wall,main spar and lower engine supports whilst lining up the cannon shell ejection chute. It's one of those jobs where you could use an extra pair of hands and possibly a prehensile tail.

Here's a view underneath showing some of the gubbins in there. Most of this will be visible on the finished model which will be posed on its wheels.

The sharp eyed will have spotted that I''ve also stuck on the empennage,minus tailplanes. That was easy,it literally just glues on,a very good fit.

Cheers

Steve

[spanner570]

Very neat work Steve, looking good. Your hands are obvoiusly back to some sort of normality.....No barbie today then?

Cheers (Beer today)

Ron

[Guest]

lookin' tight Steve!

[stona]

Slow progress with the engine/nose. I've had a few fit issues here. The engine was positioned correctly,all the various attachment points lined up,but when I came to fit the "radiator shroud" on the front it wouldn't fit over the gear housing. I had to remove the housing and shave about a millimetre off the rear face before re-attaching it to the engine. The "radiator shroud" now fitted. Great I thought,just bang on the radiator cores and we'll be sorted. Not so! The radiator cores also needed adjustment as they forced the cowling and cowl flap asembly too far forward. I removed 1-2mm of plastic from the back of the radiator cores (no fun on two semi-circular,bevelled faces) and finally got everything to line up okay.

Here's a side view.

And here's the nose on view,everything centred up and in line for when I eventually attach the propeller.

I need to check some piccies because I've got a feeling that the little part on top of the cowling flap assembly should lie flush with the upper cowl. If so that'll be a piece of cake compared to the other issues.

EDIT. It should indeed be flush with the upper cowl. I just removed the tab on the front of that cowl that was holding it up,sanded a bit of the back of the little piece and it fell into place with no problem.

Here's hoping the rest goes together a bit easier! "Dry fit several times and glue once", as a wiser man than me once said.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Looking good Steve. These kits look amazing with all the detail involved. Keep up the good work mate. Doing great.

Cheers

Kresten

[stona]

More slow progress,you do have to put a bit of effort in to this kit. I want the flaps up,why would they be down on a parked aircraft? Also by having them up I avoid having to deal with some nasty ejector pin marks. Mr Zoukei Mura wants them down. I've had to carefully shave the attachment points.

This was a case of "careful with that axe Eugene".....some of you are old enough to remember that one!

Then the flaps were virtually impossible to line up correctly so I've glued some tabs into the wing,made of clear styrene, to help keep them in position.

Meanwhile I've beavered away on various bits to be attached later and I've masked the canopy. The kit comes with masks but I appear to have mislaid them so I did it in my usual way. Unfortunately I can't comment on how good,or bad,the kit masks are!

Cheers

Steve

[yak face]

Coming on great now steve. Ive been following this one from the start, its a fantastic looking aircraft isnt it? Im with you on the flaps, its all well and good having the option to have everything hanging down but if you like to see an aircrafts clean uncluttered shape then the parts should fit perfectly without having to alter them, plus like you said ,flaps wouldnt normally be left deployed on the ground. Its like when you get seperate engine covers or gun access panels, the fit should be spot on if you want them closed but it rarely is(obviously tamiya 1/32 spit excepted!),the manufacturers seem to assume that everyone wants to do the kit with everything showing. Keep it up mate its going to be a corker, cheers tony

[stona]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Tony! It's a great looking aircraft,I'll be doing it "zipped up" though the upper cowling and maybe the radio hatch and tail gear access hatch will be left openable (is that a word?) To be honest I had to close the two lower engine cowlings to keep everything in place. The only options are completely open or at least partially closed. I do like my models to give a good idea of how these amazing machines looked when they were ready for business rather than being serviced.

Cheers

Steve