Hello all. 2010 has been a very unproductive modeling year for me. A lot of work pressure, getting ready to move house, etc., etc. You know, the "real life" stuff that gets in the way. I tried pressuring myself by entering a couple of group builds here on Aeroscale, but failed miserably at both. Maybe I'm just a poor manager of time, but anyhow here I am trying to regain the muse.

I figure if anything can help me, the prospect of a 1/32 Ta-152H (one of my all-time favorite planes) is just the ticket. I have several days of vacation coming up, so with some trepidation, I'm starting this build log of the new Z-M kit.

I've been looking for any information I could find online going into this build (forewarned is forearmed), and it seems this kit has a penchant for stirring up passions both positive and negative (part of the reason I mentioned "trepidation" earlier). lol Any good or bad experiences that I end up having with this kit should be interpreted only as my personal opinions, and it should be borne in mind that I am a modeler of average talent, and one who frequently tends toward somewhat unorthodox and labor-intensive (can you say OCD?)
methods.

OK, "disclaimer" over, here's my preliminary "reconnaissance" test fit and initial impressions:

EDIT: Since this is an international forum, I've decided to add captions under the pictures in case non-English speakers want to use translation software to view this thread. English speakers can just read the text directly on the pictures, please forgive the redundancy.



Tack glued/taped here. Fit is pretty good after a few tweaks . . .



All control surfaces are separate parts. Longer red arrows point to inserts
which form center front wing sections, shorter red arrow points to rather poorly fitting join between tail unit and main fuselage


Red circle shows a vent panel where fit is tricky--should follow flat contour of upper cowling. Note that exhausts line up well in their openings





Wing inserts need inside edges bevelled to improve fit.



Fit at tail unit/main fuselage joint needs work





Perhaps remove these four pins and flat-sand both mating surfaces before gluing?



Gaps showing at top of picture aren't as bad as they look (kit was only tacked together and separated when turned on its back for this picture. Red circled area shows badly molded raised rivet detail in wheelwell.



Rib tape detail would benefit from toning down. Trailing edges need a bit of thinning.



Tail surfaces are poseable and have convincing hinge detail.



These sinkmarks will show through paint.



A few ejector pin marks will need filling



Good engine detail, only major parts test fitted in this picture.





I haven't made up my mind about the interior yet, will know more after seeing it primed . . .



More when I have it . . .

Regards

Automaton

Hi Automaton
Very interesting model, many thanks for sharing.
I'll one more in following that build.., please keep up the good job posting.
Thx

raf

Hi raf

Yes, it's a most interesting kit with many great features (and a few puzzling idiosyncrasies).

I've gotten a little more done . . .



Instrument panel sprayed with acrylic gray to make detail more visible



I've decided to replace it with an old photoetch part I had in stock. This part will have to be modified, so I'm casting copies in case I make a mistake.







So far I like this kit a lot, but I am going to complain about one thing: the silver plastic used for the engine and interior parts is detrimental in every way. It's very hard to tell when parting lines are cleanly sanded, and as seen in the last pic above, liquid cement is pretty much useless on it (and even cyano seems not to stick as well as normal). In addition, its working properties are more like, maybe, polyethylene than styrene. I'm still doing some work on the cockpit. I hope to get it primed later today, and at that point I'll be able to tell more about whether the silver parts' surface detail looks good.

Regards

Automaton

very stange about that silver material? can't understand what was the purpose from ZM...apart introduce an additional difficulty...

So far looks very nice, little strange about the "plastic" hope it works out ok

Hi Mark

I'm still wading through the silver plastic situation. It's been a long time since I worked with silver (lots of childhood 70's memories of kits like the Hasegawas 1/32 F-86, the big Monogram 48th bomber kits, etc.). I don't remember silver plastic being this hard to work, but maybe it was. It's not a catastrophe-just a bit of an annoyance.

A minor update:



Replaced kit rudder pedals with photoetch



Cast some instrument panels--they look bubbly but it's just in the backing. I brushed rtv directly on the masters



Cockpit work is progressing slowly. Red dotted line is location of some really bad parting lines in kit, blue arrow points to rework of rear bulkhead detail which was very simplified in kit

More later today or maybe tomorrow

Automaton

No more updates on this one until probably Wednesday, as I'm on the road. I made some more progress (started on rivetting) before I left, but didn't get a chance to make photos.

A belated Happy New Year to all

Automaton

Just a minor update. This project was on hold during New Years, as I was traveling. I've actually done quite a bit of work over the last few days, though, mostly riveting.

I know some people are opposed to rivets on models, but I feel they're needed in 1/32nd scale. Here's a couple of pictures of the rather tedious progress (I started with the easiest parts, the horizontal stabs to get in the swing of it, then moved on to the fuselage) . . .



Horizontal stabilizers as supplied



Rivets added with #1 size beading tool



Rivet detail added to fuselage side (magnified inset shows rivet pattern around lifting hole--some tough sledding there)!

I've also assembled the tail section (forgot to take a pic), and done a little more on the cockpit. Lost some time experimenting with producing a reasonable replacement for the instrument decals that came with the kit. The decal sheet is for the most part well printed, but the instrument faces are pretty bad (and a lot of the dials wouldn't have fit my replacement instrument panel anyway).

Large files taken with a digital camera will definitely show you your mistakes, and I saw several things i need to fix while processing these pics. By the way, this is proving to be a somewhat challenging kit to rivet: it seems there is some variance to the density of the plastic in different areas, and the same pressure which produces a good result on most of the surface will on these soft areas produce too deep an impression.

Regards;

Automaton

I haven't had a lot of time to model of late, catching a few minutes here and a few minutes there at the workbench. Coupled with the inherently fiddly nature of adding rivet detail, this means the build has been progressing at a glacial pace.

Here is the (very little) change since the last update . . .



Here is the right fuselage half as supplied, two of the access hatches will interfere with rivet lines as they are placed . . .



areas where hatches will fall on rivet lines



decided to "move" them rather than trying to fill and rescribe



made resin copies of surface detail and glued it into ground pockets



top panel looks pretty good, but lower one not so much



so I had to redo it



decided to use this Eduard instrument panel

I was having trouble sourcing gauges the right size for the instrument panel I had planned to use. I experimented with printing some instruments, but couldn't manage good enough resolution. I was wasting a lot of time that I can't really spare messing about with it, then I saw this Eduard FW-190D
instrument panel reviewed here on Aeroscale. With some modifications it should work, and looks outstanding.

More tomorrow (if I manage to get enough done to be worth showing) . . .

Regards;

Automaton

Here's a (not very good) pic of where my problematic access panel stands as of now . . .




At least now the contour is right (my first attempt ended up "proud" of the surface contour around it somehow). This one is to a state where it would almost be good enough for gloss paint, so it should be fine under satin/flat.

A lot of modeling time was consumed by planning the instrument panel modifications, comparing pictures, etc. Also compared the color of the color photoetch to the paint I plan to use in the cockpit . . .



Stencil detail will have to be replaced, instruments will work mostly unchanged

First order of business is to grind off raised stencil detail not specific to a 152 . . .

Instrument panel attached to a mini-anvil for grinding



Used a diamond-encrusted grinding wheel to remove unwanted raised detail


Needed a hole for an additional gauge here

Next, more on the cockpit . . .

Regards;

Automaton

Bottom edges wrong angle for this kit's consoles, so added styrene wedges


Shot some Tamiya white primer, looks pretty good except at red arrowed area



Filled slots in consoles to improve i.p. fit


Color-code rings on these bezels need rework


Ammo counter made from 2 pieces of scrap p.e. "sprue"


Resized to 100% (was 797 x 534) - Click image to enlargePosted Image

Painted with Polly Scale RLM66 and Testors metalizer sealer


Adapting p.e. seat detail part intended for another kit, still needs refinement

More when I have it . . .

Regards;

Automaton

Superb work on this tricky-looking kit! It was incredible how you moulded those little oval panels and machined holes to move them- and your rivets are subtle yet so effective!

Looking forward to the rest of this build- thanks for taking the time to share your great skills!

Hi there

I agree. I don't think I've never seen that technique used to move / replace moulded details before. Really impressive!

All the best

Rowan

Thanks, guys.

@robot_: Actually, a lot of the reason this build seems "tricky" is down to me. This is an expensive kit, and one of my favorite planes of history, so I'm "bearing down" on this one a bit. If one were of a notion to build it SOB, I think it would be about as straightforward a build as any kit with this much detail could be.

@Rowan: The reason I developed the "detail moving" technique is actually due to a weakness in my scribing skill--I despise to scribe with anything other than an etched saw, and obviously oval panels are impossible to do with a saw. I came up with it back in the '90s when I was building numerous examples of what is probably still my all-time favorite kit, the Trimaster/Dragon 1/48 FW-190A series.

Regards;

Automaton

I've been bogged down somewhat over the last few days, unfortunately. Seems that every night something unexpected comes up, and I end up not having any modelling time. The fact that I made some false steps on the instrument panel also didn't help:




First "take" on instrument panel turned out sloppy

The color-coded rings which were used around several of the instruments in this plane proved to be especially tricky to get right. I think one cause of the problem on my first attempt was the rather rough texture of the Eduard printed photoetch. I was never going to be satisfied with the rather crude result, so I reluctantly decided to redo it. I started by soaking the parts in acetone, which dissolved the printed layer on the parts leaving smooth metal. The respray began with primer, then red and blue for the two central non-bezelled gauges on the lower panel. The method I used for painting all the color-coded bezel rings the first time obviously didn't work well, so here's what I decided to try next . . .


Small photoetch bezels applied temporarily as masks to still-tacky metalizer sealer


Sprayed RLM66

The first couple of paint coats were sprayed at a lower pressure than I would normally use and from farther away to avoid either blowing the masks off, or getting creep under. The remaining coats could then be applied normally after the first coats had sealed the edges. Then, the photoetch rings were removed, and . . .



Much better than I could have brushed it


Fortunately, I have some etched rings of an appropriate size to mask the separate glue-on bezels also, and if it works as well on them, things should turn out much better this time around.

One other thing is going to be "interesting", though-all the white instruction lettering seen painted directly on the instrument panel of the prototype. I have an idea which may or may not work.

I have a long day of modeling planned for tomorrow. Hopefully, nothing unexpected will come up, and I can get some progress made.

Regards;

Automaton

A minor update. I'm still in the process of repainting the instrument panel, think it's going to be much better. Also worked a bit on the rest of the cockpit . . .


Cockpit has base coat of rlm66, paint showed some missing rivets on turtledeck

I don't know what happened with the missing rivets, whether I did something to them accidentally or if the kit came this way. Regardless, I'm going to have to figure out how to replace them, as it's quite noticeable. It's good to get some paint over that silver plastic, and I think the surface detail looks better than I expected it to from looking at the raw silver parts.

Also procured an Eagle Editions decal set . . .






I just noticed a mistake on the kit's decal sheet, incidentally . . .




"Nicht Verstellen" stencils misspelled as "Nichit Verstellen" on kit decal sheet


Eagle Editions spelled it right ;-)

Well, that's it for now. What can I say, I'm as slow as Christmas.

Regards;

Automaton

Very nice work.

Do you think these dry transfers would handle the stenciling OK? Eagle Cals claims they have stencils in their set unique to the 152. I am trying to move away from waterslide decals because of persistent silvering problems.

Interesting build.... I was looking forward ot this kit, but after seeing what needs to go into it, I may pass.

Yes, the Eagle Cals set shown here has among other things a pressure gauge dial which was, oddly, mounted in the canopy on this plane, de-icing element strips for the canopy, and duralumin alloy stamps for the bare-metal wheelwells (seen in my decal photo in the top right corner of the sheet to the left). Oh, and some numbers seen on photos of the engine and engine bearers and cowling interior.

I can't comment on the dry transfer stencils, as I have never tried them. Sounds like a good idea, not having to deal with carrier film, etc. I'd guess that the downside would be that you'd only have one chance to get the transfer aligned exactly where you wanted it: there'd be no fine-tuning of placement like you can do with waterslide decals. I'm a "do-over" kind of modeler, frequently having to repair things I've messed up the first time, so I don't know if the dry transfer route would work for me.

In my opinion, the best way to prevent silvering is to ensure that you have a good hard gloss on areas of the kit where decals will be applied. By "hard" gloss I mean a true, smooth gloss without orange peel, not a "grainy shiny". My personal preference is to use Testors Metalizer Sealer for the glosscoat. You can turn the air pressure down to about 15psi and spray a wet final coat of it from very close to the surface and it settles down smooth like the surface of a show car. It dries almost instantaneously to a tough, decal solvent resistant surface. If you use washes, this kind of surface is also most conducive to a non-splotchy wash.

HTH;

Automaton

I had not thought of using TMS before, thanks for the suggestion. I have been using Future and the results are inconsistent.

Hi Harry

Before you get too turned off the kit by my build, remember that a. I'm doing a pretty much "pull out all the stops" build, and b. when it comes to modeling, I have OCD. Even when I build "shake and bake" kits, I just have to fix this little thing and that little thing, and before you know it I've ended up doing all kind of shenanigans. It's just the way I enjoy building, and besides, that way you get more modeling mileage for your money (translation: it takes me forever to build anything).

If one were doing a straight out of box build, this kit would go together about as smoothly as any kit incorporating this level of detail possibly could. Fit of major components is actually quite good: any kit that tack-fits together with tape and little microscopic drops of cyano as tightly as this one did, you can't complain too much about the fit. The fit of some smaller parts, though, admittedly do need tweaking. For instance, the cockpit side consoles were pretty clunky at the joins to the floor. It was like the edges were rounded and there were high places that needed to be sanded smooth, and I still got gaps that had to be filled. That, and the apparently bad molding characteristics of the silver plastic are the major downsides to the kit.

And all the surface detailing I've been doing? Well, I will say that the surface detailing on the kit is a bit heavy-handed, but even if it were as good as, say, Hasegawa I'd still be doing the rivetting.

Regards;

Automaton

Yeah, get some of it and experiment on a scrap model-I think you'll like the results. I know a lot of really good modelers swear by Future and do amazing work with it, but I just never had any luck with it as an overall gloss coat. I'm very happy with metalizer sealer for that purpose, and if they ever quit making it I'll be totally lost.

Regards;

Automaton

Hello all, a small update:


Replaced missing rivet detail . . .


. . . with these little spheres from a water filter cartrigde


Looks much better now


Made control handles for lower panel by casting copies of detail from kit i.p.


That's about it for now, have made progress on the instrument panel, but it's still now ready to photograph.

Regards;

Automaton

I haven't had much time for modeling the last couple of weeks, but yesterday and today managed to get a bit done . . .







It's still a very raw product here. There's more painting to be done, parts to be added. Gloss is still showing on areas where decals have been used, but it's been so long since I posted anything that I decided to put up a small update anyway. Have some days off coming up, so hopefully I can regain some momentum.

More when I have it;

Automaton

Hi all, a little more progress . . .



First of all, I made a couple of smiley faces (just kidding, these are the components for the shoulder belt attachment rings, made from .010 lead wire, bases made from lead wire hammered into flat sheet, then punched with, if I remember correctly, a #6 beading tool)



Here, they're glued



And painted, I think they look the part pretty well. Also worked a bit more on the cockpit tub itself . . .


Electronic components and wiring added at red arrowed area


I also did some more painting inside the fuselage components, but it isn't at a finished enough stage to bother showing. More when I have it.

Regards;

Automaton