Focke-Wulf Ta 152C-1/R14
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Kit Review
The Ta 152C-serie is well known and we have all seen the Trimaster/Dragon Fw 190D-12 with a torpedo, but actually the Ta 152C-1/R14 was rejected in favour of the D-12. In this projected form the standard C-1 would have an ETC 504 centreline rack installed to allow the carriage of a LT1b or LT5f torpedo plus the fuselage was locally stiffening to allow the increased weight of the torpedo. HobbyBoss produced the standard C-1 back in 2011 (#81702) and this version is just that kit with the addition of the ETC 504 rack and torpedo. The cockpit is well detailed with raised details on the side consoles and instrument panel plus decals to put over these. From the start you have the option of the etched rudder pedals instead of the plastic ones, but unless you are really going to look hard you cant’s see them once the interior is assembled and painted RLM 66, so I went with the plastic versions. Seat belts are also supplied as photo-etched, although it is best to add these once the interior is assembled, painted and weathered; in fact you can leave them out right until the final assembly because they can be fitted in with the canopy off. The rear section of the engine is included and this is all you need to deal with the fact that it is exposed in the main undercarriage bays. I do like the fact the tailwheel yoke is in two parts, making the painting of the wheel easier and allowing it to be added at the final assembly stage. I replaced the cowl guns with lengths of aluminium tubing from the Albion Alloy range, plus I also sent with the plastic decking behind the cockpit, as I saw no benefit in using the photo-etched one? You can leave off the supercharger intake until final assembly, just clipping it in place for the painting stage, as the two locating pins are quite a tight fit and hold the item well, which makes doing the mottling in this area a lot easier. I left the exhaust stacks out until final assembly also, painting these silver first, then misting on a very weak mix of black and a red-brown, before picking out the outlets in black and the edges and seams in a brown shade because this combinations of colours does work very well for exhausts. You will probably find yourself knocking off the little etched deflector plate (#PE4) numerous times during assembly and painting, but it has to be attached before painting otherwise you can’t blend it in. The head armour is the later solid style and the warning stencil for it is supplied as a decal, I must admit I painted the headrest parts separately whilst putting on the first coat of RLM 66 on the canopy and windscreen frames and only assembled the lot at the end. The gun barrels are OK, but plastic never makes consistent tubes, so again both were replaced with the interlocking aluminium tubes from Albion Alloy; there is no point in painting each unit 100%, as only the barrels can be seen in the wheel wells and projecting fo
rward of the wing leading edge, so I only painted the new barrels. The wheels have not cross tread pattern, but when the glue the two halves of each together the resulting join has to be sanded smooth and hat removed the centre area of each tyre, making them look like they are bald, so I used a very fine JLC razor saw to re-establish each of the treads. Both landing flaps and ailerons are separate, but I secured the former in the up and the latter in the neutral positions prior to painting. The later hydraulic retraction jacks are correctly depicted for each main oleo and you also get the inner doors as well, On the fuselage underside there is the DF loop, which is actually square in cross-section of the loop itself, so snip it off and replace it with a suitable diameter of brass wire. You can also replace the IFF rod antenna (#D3) with a similar length of larger diameter wire and also although the ‘Morane Mast’ for the FuG 16ZY is included in photo-etched (#PE10), I prefer combining the main element of the plastic version (#D4) with a new aerial wire made from fine brass wire, as it just looks more convincing in my eye.The ETC 504 rack is a good attempt, although the sway brace arms are rather stylised. The torpedo is multi-part, which allows you to keep the tail elements (#F4 and F5) off whilst the spray the whole thing and get good coverage before installing them at the end.
Colour
As the type never saw production nor service and in fact on 10 of the standard C-1s were ever built, the scheme in this kit is spurious. It carries the codes 1H+DP and a shield on either side of the fuselage and the overall scheme is listed as RLM 81/82 on the upper surfaces and RLM 76 underneath with the ‘mirror wave’ pattern of RLM 76 on the upper surfaces and, oddly, RLM 82 on the undersides? Now I am no fan of this maritime style of scheme and because the machine never existed I went with a totally different scheme. I went with the RLM 81/82 on the upper surfaces, but with the wavy edged style of application (not straight lines) and a low demarcation on the fuselage sides and a tight mottling, and with RLM 84 ‘Luftwaffe Sky’ on the undersides for the majority of panels, but with the mid section of the entire wing in bare metal. The propeller and spinner was done in plain RLM 70, as I did not thing the white spiral effect on the latter was applicable to an anti-shipping aircraft. The tail section of the torpedo was done in RLM 75, the mid-section in bare metal and the nose cap in RLM 02.
The undercarriage bays were in RLM 02, but I went with the inside of the undercarriage doors and each oleo leg in bare metal, just for a change.
With all the colours on, the model was sealed with Humbrol Clear and once that had dried overnight, the panels received a Dark Wash from the MIG Productions range, with the excess removed after about 30 minutes. The only other real weathering was exhaust staining on each side of the fuselage, done with Alclad II Jet Exhaust, and a little dirt on the sidewalls of each main wheel using pastels fixed in place with MiG Production’s solution. The whole model was then sprayed with Vallejo satin varnish, but with hindsight I think Xtracrylix matt varnish would have given a better effect?
Final Assembly
The various bits and pieces were attached, the canopy and headrest were assembled and then secured and finally each tip light was recreated with a mix of thin Gator Glue and Tamiya Clear Red or Green.
Verdict
This kit is easy to build in fact it is so straightforward it really was a joy. I was very taken with the manner in which the kit built, along with excellent detail and, lets face it, the chance to make a bit of Luftwaffe exotica, which is no bad thing. The completed model looks great and for me, that is the real test of any kit.
Highly recommended to all Luftwaffe modellers, regardless of experience, it is that easy to build.
Paints used;
Alclad II
White Aluminium
Jet Exhaust
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Hobby Color
H65 RLM 70 Black Green
H69 RLM 75 Grey-violet
H70 RLM 02 Grey
H74 Sky
H417 RLM 76 Light Blue
H422 RLM 82 Light Green
H423 RLM 83 Dark Green
Tamiya Color
X-1 Black
X-25 Clear Green
X-27 Clear Red
XF-64 Red-Brown
Vallejo Model Color
Satin Varnish
MIG Productions
Dark Wash
The Ta 152C-serie is well known and we have all seen the Trimaster/Dragon Fw 190D-12 with a torpedo, but actually the Ta 152C-1/R14 was rejected in favour of the D-12. In this projected form the standard C-1 would have an ETC 504 centreline rack installed to allow the carriage of a LT1b or LT5f torpedo plus the fuselage was locally stiffening to allow the increased weight of the torpedo. HobbyBoss produced the standard C-1 back in 2011 (#81702) and this version is just that kit with the addition of the ETC 504 rack and torpedo. The cockpit is well detailed with raised details on the side consoles and instrument panel plus decals to put over these. From the start you have the option of the etched rudder pedals instead of the plastic ones, but unless you are really going to look hard you cant’s see them once the interior is assembled and painted RLM 66, so I went with the plastic versions. Seat belts are also supplied as photo-etched, although it is best to add these once the interior is assembled, painted and weathered; in fact you can leave them out right until the final assembly because they can be fitted in with the canopy off. The rear section of the engine is included and this is all you need to deal with the fact that it is exposed in the main undercarriage bays. I do like the fact the tailwheel yoke is in two parts, making the painting of the wheel easier and allowing it to be added at the final assembly stage. I replaced the cowl guns with lengths of aluminium tubing from the Albion Alloy range, plus I also sent with the plastic decking behind the cockpit, as I saw no benefit in using the photo-etched one? You can leave off the supercharger intake until final assembly, just clipping it in place for the painting stage, as the two locating pins are quite a tight fit and hold the item well, which makes doing the mottling in this area a lot easier. I left the exhaust stacks out until final assembly also, painting these silver first, then misting on a very weak mix of black and a red-brown, before picking out the outlets in black and the edges and seams in a brown shade because this combinations of colours does work very well for exhausts. You will probably find yourself knocking off the little etched deflector plate (#PE4) numerous times during assembly and painting, but it has to be attached before painting otherwise you can’t blend it in. The head armour is the later solid style and the warning stencil for it is supplied as a decal, I must admit I painted the headrest parts separately whilst putting on the first coat of RLM 66 on the canopy and windscreen frames and only assembled the lot at the end. The gun barrels are OK, but plastic never makes consistent tubes, so again both were replaced with the interlocking aluminium tubes from Albion Alloy; there is no point in painting each unit 100%, as only the barrels can be seen in the wheel wells and projecting fo
rward of the wing leading edge, so I only painted the new barrels. The wheels have not cross tread pattern, but when the glue the two halves of each together the resulting join has to be sanded smooth and hat removed the centre area of each tyre, making them look like they are bald, so I used a very fine JLC razor saw to re-establish each of the treads. Both landing flaps and ailerons are separate, but I secured the former in the up and the latter in the neutral positions prior to painting. The later hydraulic retraction jacks are correctly depicted for each main oleo and you also get the inner doors as well, On the fuselage underside there is the DF loop, which is actually square in cross-section of the loop itself, so snip it off and replace it with a suitable diameter of brass wire. You can also replace the IFF rod antenna (#D3) with a similar length of larger diameter wire and also although the ‘Morane Mast’ for the FuG 16ZY is included in photo-etched (#PE10), I prefer combining the main element of the plastic version (#D4) with a new aerial wire made from fine brass wire, as it just looks more convincing in my eye.The ETC 504 rack is a good attempt, although the sway brace arms are rather stylised. The torpedo is multi-part, which allows you to keep the tail elements (#F4 and F5) off whilst the spray the whole thing and get good coverage before installing them at the end.Colour
As the type never saw production nor service and in fact on 10 of the standard C-1s were ever built, the scheme in this kit is spurious. It carries the codes 1H+DP and a shield on either side of the fuselage and the overall scheme is listed as RLM 81/82 on the upper surfaces and RLM 76 underneath with the ‘mirror wave’ pattern of RLM 76 on the upper surfaces and, oddly, RLM 82 on the undersides? Now I am no fan of this maritime style of scheme and because the machine never existed I went with a totally different scheme. I went with the RLM 81/82 on the upper surfaces, but with the wavy edged style of application (not straight lines) and a low demarcation on the fuselage sides and a tight mottling, and with RLM 84 ‘Luftwaffe Sky’ on the undersides for the majority of panels, but with the mid section of the entire wing in bare metal. The propeller and spinner was done in plain RLM 70, as I did not thing the white spiral effect on the latter was applicable to an anti-shipping aircraft. The tail section of the torpedo was done in RLM 75, the mid-section in bare metal and the nose cap in RLM 02.
The undercarriage bays were in RLM 02, but I went with the inside of the undercarriage doors and each oleo leg in bare metal, just for a change.With all the colours on, the model was sealed with Humbrol Clear and once that had dried overnight, the panels received a Dark Wash from the MIG Productions range, with the excess removed after about 30 minutes. The only other real weathering was exhaust staining on each side of the fuselage, done with Alclad II Jet Exhaust, and a little dirt on the sidewalls of each main wheel using pastels fixed in place with MiG Production’s solution. The whole model was then sprayed with Vallejo satin varnish, but with hindsight I think Xtracrylix matt varnish would have given a better effect?
Final Assembly
The various bits and pieces were attached, the canopy and headrest were assembled and then secured and finally each tip light was recreated with a mix of thin Gator Glue and Tamiya Clear Red or Green.
Verdict
This kit is easy to build in fact it is so straightforward it really was a joy. I was very taken with the manner in which the kit built, along with excellent detail and, lets face it, the chance to make a bit of Luftwaffe exotica, which is no bad thing. The completed model looks great and for me, that is the real test of any kit.
Highly recommended to all Luftwaffe modellers, regardless of experience, it is that easy to build.
Paints used;
Alclad II
White Aluminium
Jet Exhaust
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Hobby Color
H65 RLM 70 Black Green
H69 RLM 75 Grey-violet
H70 RLM 02 Grey
H74 Sky
H417 RLM 76 Light Blue
H422 RLM 82 Light Green
H423 RLM 83 Dark Green
Tamiya Color
X-1 Black
X-25 Clear Green
X-27 Clear Red
XF-64 Red-Brown
Vallejo Model Color
Satin Varnish
MIG Productions
Dark Wash
