Hobby Boss 81704 Focke Wulf Ta 152C-11

Kit#: 81704.

Price: 22$.

Decals: One option.

Notes: Doesn´t fit as well as their 1:48 D-9.

History:

From Wikipedia: "The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a World War II German high-altitude fighter-interceptor designed by Kurt Tank and produced by Focke-Wulf.

The Ta 152 was a development of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft. It was intended to be made in at least three versions—the Ta 152H Höhenjäger ("high-altitude fighter"), the Ta 152C designed for medium-altitude operations and ground-attack using a Daimler-Benz DB 603 and smaller wings, and the Ta 152E fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with the engine of the H model and the wing of the C model.

The first Ta 152H entered service with the Luftwaffe in January 1945. The Ta 152 was produced too late and in insufficient numbers to affect the outcome of the war."

The Kit:

Six sprues of light grey plastic and one clear one come inside a top opening box with an attractive boxart of a Ta 152C-11 flying. Inside the box there's also a PE fret and one decal sheet. The instructions are of the booklet style, so charateristic of Hobby Boss/Trumpeter.

Construction:

I began by painting all the cockpit parts in RLM 66 (Revell 78), with an instrument panel in flat black, and a red brown cushion for the pilot's seat. The rudder pedals were painted in aluminium. Once the paint was dry, I glued all the pieces together with Revell Contacta, and left that aside to dry.

The engine was next. I painted all the engine parts in flat black, with a firewall in RLM 02 (Revell 45). Once everything was dry, I glued the engine together and let it dry.

Once the cockpit and engine were ready, I glued them to one side of the fuselage. Before closing it though, you have to glue the tailwheel. I did so and then closed the fuselage halves.

While the fuselage was drying, I began working on the wings. First, you have to build the cannons, then glue them into a wingspar, which glues at the same time to the single bottom of the wing. Once that was dry, I glued the top halves of the wings to the bottom half. I then test fitted the wings to the fuselage. There was a small gap, which was closed by gluing insde the fuselage a spreader sprue. After that, the wings were glued to the fuselage, together with the horizontal stabilizers.

Colours and Markings:

There's a single marking for the aircraft, Ta 152C-11 "Yellow 11" of JG301. I began by painting the fuselage RLM 81 (Revell 46), and then I painted the RLM 82 (Revell 65). After finishing with those colours, the fuselage received several coats of RLM 76 (Revell 49), Any mistakes with the paint were then rectified. The wings came next, and these were painted in RLM 81/82 with 76 undersides. The model was then brushed with two coats of Revell's gloss varnish in preparation for the decals. 

I began decalling by applying the JG301 fuselage bands. These didn´t fit to weel and were a tad brittle. Then I applied the rest of the decals. Once the upper sides were done, I decalled the underside of the aircraft. This consisted of two crosses with black outlines. One of them distorted while I was placing it, but it doesn't look that bad unless it's pointed out. One thing that stands out is the Swastika, which was done for a 1:72 model, so it looks too small when placed. I then brushed some Microsol over the decals, but this probably was overkill, given that the decals provided were already thin. Once the decals and Microsol were dry, I brushed the plane with two coats of Revell's matt varnish.

Final Construction:

The landing gear struts were painted in RLM 02 with silver oleos, the wheels were painted with flat black hubs and RLM 66 tyres. The landing gear doors were painted in RLM 76 on the outside and RLM 02 on the inside. Then the clear parts were masked and painted with the fuselage colour.

Conclusions:

A much welcome addition of Hobby Boss to the late Luftwaffe, they have so far released all the C variants of the Ta 152. I´m still hoping for them to release an H Ta 152 in the future.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Ta_152