Pro Modeler's 1/48 Focke Wulf Ta154

By Will Riepl

History

The Ta154 was designed to meet the 1942 specification for a specialized night fighter. Due to the war situation, the specification required the usage of large amounts of wood in the construction of the plane. Rapid development was also required, and the first Ta154 was completed in less than a year. The first Ta154 flew on July 7, 1943. Tests with various radar and engine arrangements took place, until the Ta154A-1 was finally finished and flown in early 1944. The second Ta154A-1 disintegrated during high-speed tests, though, slowing the production until the culprit could be found. Once it was determined that the glue used was too acidic for the joints, the production was continued, but only seven of the original 250 Ta154A-1s ordered were completed before the project was canceled. Of these seven, only a few ever made it into operational service.

The Kit (click on thumbnails for larger image)

The Pro Modeler kit of the Ta154 fills an empty gap in the world of WWII German night fighters. The kit is molded in light gray plastic, with five trees covering all the parts and one clear tree for the canopy and such. All the trees are individually wrapped, reducing the possibilities of scratching up the clear parts, which is nice considering how the plane is assembled.

The breakdown of the parts is such that there will be other variants done down the road. The fuselage is split down the middle, with separate gun trough panels provided and a separate nose tip. The cockpit is typical Monogram, being beautifully detailed with just about everything you could possibly want in there. There are separate side panels in addition to the instrument panel and radarscope. The only shortcoming to the whole thing is the seats. They have beautifully molded cushions, but no seat belts anywhere. These are easily added from a photoetch set or from paper.

The canopy that covers this up is crystal clear and pretty thin. The clear parts include the windscreen, main canopy, and the rear upper window for the radar operator. This last piece also includes a portion of the inboard wing leading edge. It will be interesting to see how this fits, but at the very least you will have to mask off the clear portions when it comes time to paint this thing up.

The rest of the wing is made up of three pieces per wing half. The upper wing is one piece, while the lower wing is split where the nacelle rests. The engines are nicely done and the nacelles trap them along with a well-detailed landing gear assembly. Make sure you put weight in the nose of this thing, as the squat stance of the plane will really accentuate the tail-dragging aspects of the kit. The wheels are well done, although they are not bulged. The propellers have separate blades, which should make painting a bit easier.

The various antennae, including the nose radar array, are all very delicate and should look good straight out of the box. Purists might want to replace some of the finer bits with steel wire, though. The cannons look good as well, but again replacement with surgical tubing would go a long ways to really making the plane look sharp.

Decals give you one choice, that of TQ+XE. The main decal sheet is very complete, with all the stencilling and data provided. The swastika, though, is provided as a separate sheet. The plane is finished in RLM76 with RLM75 spots on the upper surfaces. While this is the only option given in the kit, in looking through some books (the best of which is the Monogram Close Up No. 22 on the Ta154), I came across a couple that were in active squadron service with III./NJG3, these being D5+HD and KU+SU.

Conclusion

Well, my German night fighter collection is just about complete. With this great kit from Revell-Monogram and their upcoming Do217, I should have just about all the bases covered. I am looking forward to building this one up. If you've been wondering about this kit, wonder no more and go pick one up!