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Zokei-Mura Ta-152H-1


66Foxtrot

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Since ScaleWarbirds Studios is down, still (ISP says it's a DNS propagation; Domain registrar says nothing.) I'll post the first full update here.

 

I spent the past 3 days building up the cockpit. The first thing that I'll say, is, I'm a little disappointed in the details. I think that they're a little soft. When I first saw the silver plastic, I was hopeful the details would "pop" under some paint. They did, but...I just feel that they are not as crisp as they could be. I had an Eduard FW-190D-9 cockpit set around somewhere, and I was going to use that for this project, but...of course, I can't find it. Now that the cockpit is finished, it'll turn up, any minute now. If you have the Eduard PE set I just mentioned, I think you'd be better off using it. Fortunately, as it's a Focke-Wulf...you won't see too much of the IP, once it's up under the coaming. For that reason as well, I decided to forgo detailing the different colored bezels.

 

The second thing that I'll say, and this is more of an issue, is the decals. They're not great. The instrument panel decals come in two options: one whole panel of instruments, one each for the upper and lower IP, and one each for the left and right hand tub panels. The other option is individual dials for each instrument. I initially went with the whole panel option, because I wanted to see how they performed. After numerous coats of Mr. Mark Softer and SolvaSet, they simply draped over the panels like thin vinyl. Not cool. Hot water, slice and dice, nothing helped. They're pretty much impervious to decal solutions. I soaked the whole thing in isopropyl, and scrubbed them off with a small brush. Then, I repainted the clear instrument panel, and used the individual decals. This was a better end result, but not great, AFAIC. I added some Future into each dial to represent the glass of each dial face. Additionally, and you can see in some of the pics, the graphics are heavily pixilated, like a dot-matrix printer. I'm concerned, because the airframe decals are of the same sheet. There isn't any dot-matrix patterns on the numbers or national markings...but I'm concerned how they will perform/go down. I'm already thinking about aftermarket decals.

 

I do like the seats. I used the one with the belts molded onto it, and under paint, it's as nice as any resin replacement. I wish the shoulder straps went up onto the turtle-deck, but, with molding limitations, I understand why they don't. I think the seat looks pretty cool. All in all, the parts assembled very quickly, and easily. Most of the past 3 days was spent painting everything. I gave a Burnt Umber wash to most parts, followed by drybrushing with Gunmetal. I didn't fuss with the Nitrous Oxide tank, or the battery, or the fuel cells. You won't see them once in the fuselage.

 

Here's the pictures, thus far. You can decide for yourselves.

 

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I have to say that after reading your discription of the parts and decals, I was surprised at how nice they actually look! I understand that they weren't as nice and didn't peform as well as expected (especially for the price), but your skills enhanced them nicely. While the main panel doesn't "pop" (as you said), to me it very closely resembles an actual panel without lights and power. It think it looks quite ralistic!

 

I look forward to seeing what you can do with the rest of the kit!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Will the engine be visible when done? Does it have nose panels like the new Tamiya Spit IX kit? Or is this more a case of being Trumpy-like in that they provide something to be built even though it won't be seen.....

 

GIL :smiley16:

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If that cockpit's a sow's ear, you've made a silk purse out of it ... (whereas I usually go the other way) ...

 

Absolutely unfamiliar with this kit, not surprising since I mainly build old British stuff, but is it 32nd scale ? The manuf is Zokei-Mura ? From Japan I guess, have they done anything else ? How about a box art shot ?

 

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If that cockpit's a sow's ear, you've made a silk purse out of it ... (whereas I usually go the other way) ...

 

Absolutely unfamiliar with this kit, not surprising since I mainly build old British stuff, but is it 32nd scale ? The manuf is Zokei-Mura ? From Japan I guess, have they done anything else ? How about a box art shot ?

 

It's all on my site. The cockpit isn't horrible, per se....I just expect more from a $100 kit.

Edited by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
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James, if you expected more from a $100 kit, then you simply haven't bought enough costly crappy resin kits! :smiley19: I know what you mean though.....and it is a common complaint for a lot of the newer releases (are you listening Trumpeter?!), especially the big scale stuff.

 

Personally, I have a simpler way I rate a new kit. Is it better than the previously available kit? For the 1/32 Ta-152, it seems better than the old Combat vacuform, and therefor worth the money, even if the expectations are still less than hoped for.

 

I'm looking forward to watching you work your magic on the rest of this model!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Gil, those types of kits are way out of my league...more for a Master Modeler such as yourself!

 

I've completed the Ta-152's Junkers-Jumo 213.

www.scalewarbirds.com

 

Zoukei_Mura-Ta-152-062.jpg

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It's all on my site. The cockpit isn't horrible, per se....I just expect more from a $100 kit.

 

Oops, I just didn't connect the website dots -- questions answered, thanks. That is a nice looking instruction booklet .... sorta like the WNW ones, maybe a trend ?

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Oops, I just didn't connect the website dots -- questions answered, thanks. That is a nice looking instruction booklet .... sorta like the WNW ones, maybe a trend ?

 

Yeah, it's pretty cool. LOTS of photos at the end of each subassembly, so you know what it should look like. :)

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James:

 

Something I was thinking about as far as the cockpit and prices. Looking over the last year or two's 1/32 scale releases, I think the average price is ~$165 or so so the $100 isn't too bad. I think your pit looks great and there always has to be room for the aftermarket guys to chime in with PE, etc......

 

I guess the days of cheaper models is gone which is why I have gotten more discretionary about what I buy

 

Dave

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Due to several distractions this past week, I haven't written this up yet on my site. But, I wanted to at least get some pics out there.

 

The fuselage is together, and the tail plug attached.

 

The inside of the cockpit walls are pockmarked with thick, deep ejector pin marks. They required a micro-chisel and lots of Mr. Surfacer. In my opinion, the over-engineering of the kit to produce an "anatomy lesson" has resulted in making the build much more difficult than it should be.

 

The fit of fuselage to tail plug was horrible at best. I recommend forgoing the instructions (which have you assemble the entire empannage and "plug" it onto the fuselage), and cementing the left and right tail halves to the left and right fuselage halves. The fit was SO poor, that the entire empannage was cocked off the center line by 20 - 25 degrees. I had to sand the butte ends flush, and still add a shim. Absolutely ridiculous. I still have to re-fill some of the resultant scars, and rescribe some lost detail. The further into this build I get....the more underwhelmed with it I am becoming. DEFINITELY not the latest and "greatest". At this stage, I consider this kit average, at best. At a very premium price.

 

 

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Hi, James,

 

I had the same problem with my Trumpeter 1/144 Seawolf submarine. One hull half was shorter than the other half, and it took an .030" shim to correct the problem so the back end would go on straight. Doesn't anyone at Trumpeter perform quality control checks to catch flagrant errors like these? Do they care as they have been paid up front?

 

Ed

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Hi, James,

 

I had the same problem with my Trumpeter 1/144 Seawolf submarine. One hull half was shorter than the other half, and it took an .030" shim to correct the problem so the back end would go on straight. Doesn't anyone at Trumpeter perform quality control checks to catch flagrant errors like these? Do they care as they have been paid up front?

 

Ed

 

Ed...I'm nearly positive Trumpeter doesn't press these kits. I could be wrong, but they don't seem similar. It sucks, regardless of who makes them, though.

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Really makes you wonder.....when a virgin company like WingNutWings can put forth jewel-like kits from the start, EVERY time, and yet other companies seem to think their job is to release injection molded scratch-building projects! Look at the bright side James....you're serving your fellow IPMS members by alerting them to what truly faces them if they want to try this kit. You'll also have quite a sense of accomplishment by the time you wrestle this beast into submission!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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I wish Mike Grant would do Luftwaffe instrument panel decals. I used the 1/32 US instrument decals on the Hasegawa P-40 I'm finishing up and they are really nice and easy to use. Very time consuming but worth it. I'll post some pics when I'm done.

 

 

Ken

 

 

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I wish Mike Grant would do Luftwaffe instrument panel decals. I used the 1/32 US instrument decals on the Hasegawa P-40 I'm finishing up and they are really nice and easy to use. Very time consuming but worth it. I'll post some pics when I'm done.

 

 

Ken

 

 

 

Ken, there's a new company called Airscale that makes some really nice ones. Haven't tried them yet, but they look very nice.

 

James

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Thanks Jim, I had heard of Airscale but thought they were doing just 1/24 scale stuff. I went to their website and checked out the 1/32 Luftwaffe instruments...Nice! I plan to order a couple of sets.

 

Ken

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Looking good James! It's been a hoot following your build and the "others" on other forums who are also building this beast. It's my guess that how impressed you are with its "quality" is directly proportional to how badly you wanted a 1/32 Ta-152!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Mr. Kelly you can sure turn a pigs ear into to a silk purse.

 

 

RONBO

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