1/48 Dragon Ta-152

[mustang1989]

2 minutes ago, James2 said:

I do enjoy following along on these plane builds. More inspiration to finish my Curtis P6e....

 Thanks for taggin' along James! 

Jump on in here with it bud. We'll help ya out. 

Edited November 2, 2024 by mustang1989

[David G.]

Wow! Fabulous work on this Joe!

I just love all the extra detail you're adding.

David G.

[mustang1989]

5 hours ago, David G. said:

Wow! Fabulous work on this Joe!

I just love all the extra detail you're adding.

David G.

Thanks Dave! I'm learning alot from you with that Widow build of yours man!! 

[TransAmMike]

Well Joe you are doing a fantastic job on this one.  Gonna be an impressive build Buddy?

[rv1963]

Looking good Joe, the paint effects look real good never tried that before.

[mustang1989]

6 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Well Joe you are doing a fantastic job on this one.  Gonna be an impressive build Buddy?

Thanks for taggin' along Mike and for the comments pal.

2 hours ago, rv1963 said:

Looking good Joe, the paint effects look real good never tried that before.

'Preciate it Rob. That's the base prep work and the color will go over this in thin coats for what's called color modulation and is supposed to replicate a worn effect in the paint. 

[slusher]

Looking great Joe!

[mustang1989]

5 hours ago, slusher said:

Looking great Joe!

  Thank you Carl. Let's just hope I can keep up the good pace. lol 

[mustang1989]

The last couple of days at the bench have been spent on re-working the engine cowlings. These are two piece panels that are hinged in the middle to give two folding leafs to gain more access to the engine area on both sides of the engine. Dragon has put both leafs together to make a single opening panel. What I did was cleaned up the injector pin marks on the inside of the panels and cut about 80% of the way through the join of the two panels to give the proper open look of these panels. Untouched panel on the left and the modified panel on the right.

I started by making passes through the join line with an X-Acto knife and when I got most of the way through the panel I used the troweling tool to make a V into the plastic to where the bottom panel could be opened and glued to the top panel with a clean joint.

[David G.]

The cowls look much more in scale now, nice work!

David G.

[Old Buckaroo]

This is some really fine work, love the detail to the office and what you've done with the engine. The FW's have always been my most favorite of Axis flavor aircraft to model

[mustang1989]

On 11/6/2024 at 5:29 AM, David G. said:

The cowls look much more in scale now, nice work!

David G.

Still workin' on the engine panels Dave. I managed to get the other side looking like the one pictured above, have them both primed in the same marble fashion as the rest of the aircraft and have been working on the supercharger air intake for the last couple of bench sessions. I should have some photo worthy updates soon. 

On 11/6/2024 at 7:24 AM, Old Buckaroo said:

This is some really fine work, love the detail to the office and what you've done with the engine. The FW's have always been my most favorite of Axis flavor aircraft to model

Thanks a lot Sean. They are my favorite as well and this will make my third Fw190 variant to build AND I've got two other variants in the stash. My ultimate holy grail Fw190 to build though is going to be the V-18. Such an awesome looking bird. 

Edited November 12, 2024 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

This has been quite the journey through this build so far but one that I am now enjoying now that most of this bird is together. Here we are ready for paint.......FINALLY!!

[David G.]

22 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

This has been quite the journey through this build so far but one that I am now enjoying now that most of this bird is together. Here we are ready for paint.......FINALLY!!

Very cool!

I like the cork in the nose!     It reminds me of one of those old Avon bottles.

Best of luck with the paint Joe.

David G.

[mustang1989]

9 hours ago, David G. said:

Very cool!

I like the cork in the nose!     It reminds me of one of those old Avon bottles.

Best of luck with the paint Joe.

David G.

Thanks Dave.....fingers crossed man.  Those are actually landing gear bay and nose plugs from O mask. It beats having to stuff waded up paper towels or foam in there and I build enough Fw190's to mandate a set of 'em. 

[mustang1989]

After a looooooooong awaited silence on this thing.....we now have......paint!!! Using Vallejo Air colors on this and you can see all of the prep work if you look at the colors closely.  I'm liking how it's turning out so far....

[David G.]

Nice camo Joe!

David G.

[TransAmMike]

Looking great Joe.  That's a very cool looking Luftwaffe  aircraft!!

[mustang1989]

On 12/9/2024 at 3:43 PM, David G. said:

Nice camo Joe!

David G.

 

On 12/9/2024 at 7:35 PM, TransAmMike said:

Looking great Joe.  That's a very cool looking Luftwaffe  aircraft!!

Thanks fellas! Welp.....now that the holidays are over I'm resuming progress on this one. Today I was able to spend about two hours in painting this thing and got all of the wing and stabilizer upper surfaces done. I was also able to do some of the top fuselage and nose area as well. I received my fine detail Badger airbrush over the Christmas break that is helping me immensely with free handing the camo borders. I've got the paint on thin enough so that the modulation will bleed through some on this which is exactly the look I was going for. I thought I had the correct shade of blue for the sides but....I did not. Ordered that today and it should be here in a week or so. Till then....I'll be working on other parts of the built like the prop, landing gear and canopy. 

Edited January 3 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

Alright fellas. I've been off for the last few days and have gotten the equivalent of a months worth of modeling done in that time. I NEVER have time to dedicate to just modeling. There's always something that needs done around the house so all of that takes the priority. Being sick has its advantages because my wife just tells me to take it easy. So.....that's just what I did.

I managed to paint the bottom of the aircraft today and used Matte Aluminum BMF to bring out the aluminum color. I have a little touch up to do it but it should work out fine.  I'll be putting a dead flat coat over this which will tone down the brightness greatly. I did this trick on my Fw190 D-9 10 years ago and it worked like a charm. Hopefully.....it'll work this time. I also managed to get all of the camo/ mottle work done to the sides of the aircraft today as well. I've still got to add some color "splotches" coming down from the topside camo on the fuselage and add the wavy border at the front of the wings and we'll be ready for a gloss coat so I can move on to the decaling process.

Here's where we're at now:

[David G.]

The aluminum looks great!

David G.

[mustang1989]

On 2/10/2025 at 5:45 AM, David G. said:

The aluminum looks great!

David G.

Thanks Dave. Dedicating a TON of time to this one these days.

Got the gloss coat on and the decals are now basting in a bath of MicroSol........

Fingers crossed that these cals behave!!
 

[David G.]

They look good so far, best of luck!

David G.

[mustang1989]

On 2/12/2025 at 6:24 AM, David G. said:

They look good so far, best of luck!

David G.

Thanks Dave. 

More decal work. The red and yellow band decals were a pain to work with and next time I tackle something like this, I'll just paint 'em on. 

Here's after a good hour and a half in applying washes to simulate leakage on the bottom of the aircraft and at fuel refilling points on the tops of the wings as well as applying the flat finish over the whole aircraft. I've got some minor work ahead of me with just a couple of decals that have some silvering but that shouldn't be too big of an issue.

She's starting to resemble a warbird now......

 

[James2]

Nice weathering, funny how we seem to always say that about the decals!