Italeri 1:48 Scale Focke-Wulf Ta152H-1

By Kelly Jamison

Kurt Tank knew that his sensational Fw190A had altitude limitations. As early as 1941, Professor Tank started exploring the possibilities of improving the high altitude characteristics of his designs and experimented with different wings and engine combinations. This experimentation was fortuitous, because once the 'powers that be' heard of the development of the American B-19 (which of course never materialized), considerable concern was given to the Luftwaffe's lack of a high-altitude interceptor. In response to an air ministry request to meet this need, Messerschmitt submitted the all-new Me 155, which depended on the still-in-development DB628 engine. Tank's proposal used existing manufacturing methods and, more importantly, proven powerplants. The air ministry awarded Professor Tank the contract, but only a total of 67 Ta152s rolled off the assembly lines before the war ended.

From the beginning of my love affair with everything Luftwaffe, I have been intrigued with the somewhat mysterious Ta152. I left the modeling hobby in the late '80s to learn how to fly real airplanes for the United States Air Force and seemed to miss the heyday of Trimaster and their release of the Ta152C and H models. I have since purchased a few of the kits online for a much larger price tag than they originally had! I have a few of the Dragon/DML releases, but they were also too hard to come by to build on a whim. So when Italeri said they were going to release the Ta152H-1 for around $24, I was elated and bought one immediately.

To add to the formula, I picked up some of the new Moskit Exhaust pipes, Eduard photoetched parts and a set of True Details wheels. I utilized some decals from SuperScale sheet 48-372 for the Fw190 and Ta152.

For references, I used Monogram's Ta152 Close-up #24, Dietmar Harmann's Ta152 book and Profile Aircraft #94 Focke-Wulf Fw190D/Ta152 for references on this project. Every time I researched this subject, the National Air and Space Museum's Ta152H-O came up. I have never seen anybody do this subject, so my kit is the Ta152H-0, W.Nr 150010, originally Green 4 of Stab /JG301 but later a test subject at Wright Field, late 1945. I cannot wait to enter this into Post-WWII Allied category at my next contest!

I purchased Eduard's Ta152H photo-etched brass parts set some time ago, but it is still available through The Great Models Web Store for around $12.00. It comes with all you need to modify the cockpit and the wheel well interiors. It also comes with inner cowl covers and a set of landing flaps. The little stiffeners on the inside of the flaps look very tedious, and most pictures of Ta152s I can find have the flaps up anyway so I think I will stay with that plan.

I placed the two brass cockpit sidepieces into the fuselage with superglue after sanding the interiors smooth. Make sure to sand down any imperfections on the sidewalls because the brass is so thin that the imperfection will transfer to the brass when you snug it down. I added the small handles, and other bits and pieces according to the instructions. Use a gel superglue for these pieces or you will end gluing the parts to your fingers, the tweezers or anything but what you are trying to glue it to. Even though the photoetched parts make your model look wonderful, I have never enjoyed working with the stuff.

The Eduard rudder pedals are small works of art. Nevertheless, they are very delicate and hard to see after final assembly. I back-painted the clear sheet of instruments with white and put it aside to dry.

Once I cleaned up the rest of the brass to be painted, I airbrushed the interior parts with Testors Model Masters RLM 66. This shade is a bit lighter compared to The Official Monogram Painting Guide to German Aircraft (the bible of German paint). It matched up slightly lighter than the current Eagle Editions LTD Official Luftwaffe Color Chart. It looks right for 1:48 scale color but I do not think Testors had this in mind when they mixed their color. For some reason Italeri calls for 1716 Model Master Pale Green (FS 34227). This color is for British Interior Green. I started to investigate the other colors that Italeri calls for. They were off on almost every color, so I decided to throw out all of their references and go with the already established researched colors. I also took this time to airbrush other sundry parts with RLM66. The instrument panel went on next. I trimmed the clear plastic film that the gauges are printed on carefully so as not to scratch through the white backing I had painted earlier and superglued this onto the photoetched instrument panel with thin superglue. I used Kristal Klear to simulate the glass on the dials and painted the handles red and brown according to color photos. I decided to not install the seat just yet, saving it until final assembly.

I had to trim a piece here and fit a piece there to get a proper fit to the fuselage halves. I had to refer to my reference photos many times for the location of all the little details. You had better have a fresh tube of Cyanoacrylate before starting this project. The next piece that goes in is a spacer that is located about where the firewall would be. This helps form the spread of the fuselage and set the dihedral of the wing. (More on this subject later.) The fuselage halves would not line up at all. There are no alignment pins, which could be good or bad. In this case, it is bad. On hindsight, I would have glued a strip of plastic card along the inside of each seam to help align and reinforce the two pieces when they are glued together. Keep the two halves slightly apart and let the liquid glue run down the seams. Ambroid ProWeld has always been my glue of choice for this technique. I sat the fuselage down to dry overnight and turned my attention to other things.

I had decided not to put the Moskit Exhaust stacks on yet. All the reviews I have read about these little gems said that they were very fragile. Well when I started to think about it, they had to go on sometime before the wing was glued on. As I test fitted them I saw that they were not fitting properly. The small plastic strips connecting the top and bottom of the engine cowl, run through the exhaust stubs are too thick. So is the front aerodynamic bulge at the start of the exhaust stacks. This had to be pared down before the stacks could even be close to fitting. I wish I would have test fitted these before gluing the two fuselage halves together. I had to make small changes in the exhaust pipes to fit in the cowl area. And, YES, the stacks are very fragile. Superglue is the only way to affix them in the engine compartment. I wish I had used card stock for a backing on this area. I think they stick out too far if you glue them flush to the inside of the engine cowl. Another lesson learned.

I filled up the seams on the fuselage with Squadron White Putty, and let it dry overnight. My next stop was the wings. Another decision had to be made: whether to use the stock wheel well interior or the photo-etched parts. The photoetched parts are detailed but not one part fit right. Every piece needed major fitting and trimming. I spent more time on just one wheel well than the whole cockpit area.

Once I was finished with the wheel wells, I took this opportunity to open up the shell ejector slots on the bottom of the wings. After many test fittings and trimming of the wheel well pieces, I glued the top of the wings to the bottom. It was a real pain trying to get the wheel wells to properly tuck into their spots.

The wings are warped at the last two inches on both wing tips. They had to be glued slowly while attempting to take the warp out. I took this time to adjust the wheel well brass one last time before gluing it down. Once the wings were dried, I attached them to the fuselage. This took some major working of the wing root area. The fit was terrible. I finally had to trim off some plastic from the fuselage portion of the wing root in order to get the dihedral at the correct angle. There were gaps around the bottom of the engine cowling and down both wing roots. Putty, putty and more putty was used on the nose and trailing edge of the bottom of the wing and fuselage joint. One area to avoid doing any excessive seam filling is the wing root. These areas were covered by sheet metal and had a poor, overlapping look to it. But the rest of the wing needed a lot of sanding and shaping. Even the leading edge needed putty and had to be shaped much like the putty on the laminar flow wings of a P-51.

I used an old cotton cloth to polish out the plastic and take any remaining scratches out. Then used an old trick of mine – I applied Rub n' Buff Silver over the whole model to show off any scratches and fill any pin holes that might have eluded me the first dozen times. There are two small reinforcement plates that go on the lower portion of the wing root near the trailing edge of the wing. I superglued these into place and then polished them out with another coat of Rub n' Buff. This also gives a good undercoat to chip paint with. Be very careful if using acrylics over this surface if taping is necessary. I use Tamiya low adhesive tape when masking anything.

Using 'The Official Monogram Painting Guide' as reference, I airbrushed a late war Fw190D-9 scheme. The first coat of paint I sprayed was Testors Model Master Acryl RLM 75 on the wings and the spine and tail area. The next to go on was RLM 82, a controversial color among the color politzei, to say the least. Testors RLM 82 came closer to RLM 83 using the Eagle Color catalog but was a bit lighter than RLM Dunkelgrun on the Monogram reference. Testors RLM 83 matched Monogram's 82 Dark Green in the center of page 37 and was almost an exact match of RLM 83 Lichtgurn on page 59. Once that dried I used RLM 76 along the sides and bottom of the wing. I started to get a headache with all this color matching and the project was coming to a grinding halt, with color research that seems to be changing all the time with different research and educated opinions, so I used the Eagle Editions Official Luftwaffe Color Chart as my authoritative source and mixed my paints to match.

A combination of RLM 23 and RLM 76 covers the rudder area. This simulates the red primer over sprayed with gray the British used when the rudder was recovered after capture. I went back over all the RLM 82 with a wash of RLM 81 and gave the plane a light coat of the 23/76 mix to give it a ruddy overtone. Now is where the weird stuff begins. I found myself looking for decals that were out of register or were the wrong size to put on the plane to replicate the hastily painted German markings when the plane came back to the states. I started out with some late war British roundels from AeroMaster's 'Last of the Breed' Spitfire MK22/24 set # 48-297. The swastikas are from a HobbyCraft Bf109G with captured markings. The red/white/blue panel is from a Microscale Typhoon sheet. The black crosses with white outlines are from the AeroMaster Butcherbird sheet #48-376 and the black crosses without white lines are from Testors Me-163 Komet.

The first thing I did was to put the red/yellow stripes on the tail of the fuselage. Next went the British roundels and the tail flash. I broke out the airbrush and painted over the tail bands, misted over the tail flash and roundels to soften them up a bit. More patchwork was hand painted on at this time. The entire patch up paint was custom mixed from various grays. I hand painted the lighter section. Mottled areas are matched to the reference photos I have of the aircraft. Then the black crosses with the white outlines were put on the top and bottom of the wings over the roundels. The remaining crosses went on the fuselage. A black 4 was scrounged from the horrible Fujimi kit I had hidden in my closet and was used on the fuselage. I hand painted a custom mix of dark green to replicate the number in the photo. I used Indian ink along all the panel lines and then wiped off the excess with a damp cloth being careful to use a clean part of the cloth each time. Layer upon layer is the key to this fuselage.

It was time to tackle the wheel wells. There are two small struts that run from the front to back of the inner section of the wheel well. I glued them in with superglue and started taping the wheel well area with Tamiya's low adhesive tape. RLM 02 Grau was used on all wheel well surfaces and gear. The gear doors are unpainted silver in the color picture centerfold in Monogram's Close-Up #24 TA-152 I did the same.

The spinner was hand painted flat black and the white spiral was hand painted in accordance with the Monogram Close-Up color photo in the center of the book. I used a ZIG ink pen to clean up the spiral my shaky hands left behind. The props were hand painted RLM 70 Schwarzgrun to replicate the wood prop surface. It is a very subtle thing to do, but I have done this in the past and it gives the prop a wooden look more than the smooth surface of a metal prop with an airbrushed surface. The paint surface is subdued even more with a coat of clear flat. I had to spend a lot of time trying to get the blade angle just right when installing each blade to the spinner boss. A small locating pin on the spinner plateau would have made a long job very short.

I painted the True Detail wheels Testors #1183 Rubber and used a circle template to airbrush the inner wheels RLM 02. I am still not sure about that color. I have had many discussions about the color of the wheels and the popular consensus is that it should be flat black. I can always change it as info becomes available. I drilled out the wheels to fit the axles of the landing gear struts and glued them on with superglue. While that was drying, I painted the exhaust area on the engine cowl flat black after attaching the small heat shield that is used to keep exhaust from entering the turbocharger intake. The tail wheel was straightforward as long as you do not forget the little yoke that is installed.

The main landing gear was cleaned up and painted RLM 02. I took this time to install the small struts that connect to the main landing gear. I intentionally did not paint the actuator rods silver yet. When I give the plane its final flat coat, these parts always turn a dull aluminum color. I used Gel Superglue to glue the landing gear into place. Take your time and get the angle just right. Using your reference pictures, you can see that the gear has a forward rake and a slight inward cant. There are a set of struts that help you with this alignment. Install them at this time. It is important to get these features right to capture the sit and look on the TA-152

I glued the horizontal tail planes into place after putting the Foreign evaluation code of FE-112 on the side of the tail. A flat coat fixed the numbers into place. FE-112 was painted on the outboard side of the cross on the left wing and the outboard side of the cross on bottom side of the right wing.

A small section of hypodermic needle with a small piece of wire was put in the left wing to replicate the pitot tube and the small aileron trim tab rigging was glued down. I finished off the bottom with the installation of all the different antennas.

I used the photoetched turtle deck behind the pilot and glued it down with superglue. The last quarter inch bends into the cockpit tub. The fit in the cockpit was tight and took some work to get it to fit.

The canopy and framing were next. I painted the inside of the frame with RLM 66, then the outside RLM 82. I went over the sections with a black wash that settled in all the frame lines but wiped clean on all the clear glass. The whole canopy assembly got dunked into some Future floor wax and left to dry. After a couple of days had passed I masked off the unpainted areas and shot the canopy with flat. I used Krystal Klear to glue them to the fuselage. Good old black plastic stretched sprue was used for the antenna. Dots of Krystal Klear were used for the resistors and painted white.

I am very happy with the outcome of this unique plane with its unique paint scheme. The kit made me use some of my modeling skills and gave me loads of fun in the process, along with a lot of tension over the photoetched parts. I recommend this model to those who have a fair amount of skill and bravado. There are better kits out there, but there is only one TA-152 in 1:48 scale on the market nowadays.

Our sincere thanks to Testors for this review sample!