Thunnus Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 The long wings of the Ta152H have been glued together. There is some cleanup work required around the many joints so I'm going to set this aside for now. A closure look at the wheel wells. I've cut the barrels off of the wing guns and will be replacing them with brass tubing. A look at the painted upper flaps... D.B. Andrus, Trak-Tor, zaxos345 and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaconroot Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Looking forward to some more on this one as well. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 This all just looks great. Those decals and PE really make a difference. Good show. Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monthebiff Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Real nice work John, reading your thread it looks like a bit of a pain to build though. Regards. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 28, 2020 Author Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) Thanks guys! This one is still on-going but I think I'm going to concentrate on the G-6/AS first. On 3/27/2020 at 3:07 PM, monthebiff said: Real nice work John, reading your thread it looks like a bit of a pain to build though. Regards. Andy Yeah a bit of a pain, to be honest. Some of it was on me like modifying the wing bottoms to backdate the H-1 kit to an H-0. Since both kits are out of production, I really didn't have much of a choice in getting hands on a Z-M Ta152 kit so I got the one that would give me the most headaches: an H-1 molded in black plastic. The way that the external panels rely on the internal structure can be a house of cards. Small deviations in fit on the inside can multiply into major panels having fit issues toward the end. But nothing too serious. It looks like I will have a gap at the upper forward wing roots and for this reason, I'm not as excited to move this project forward and will most likely get the G-6/AS across the finish line first. Edited April 2, 2020 by Thunnus scvrobeson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alaninaustria Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 Nice work so far! Looking forward to seeing more progress, Cheers Alan Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 9, 2020 Author Share Posted April 9, 2020 Definitely not forgotten! This one will be resurrected soon as I've gotten the G-6/AS pretty close to the end! scvrobeson, Alain Gadbois and Landrotten Highlander 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 As promised, I'm ready to pick up on the Tank fighter now that the G-6/AS has been wrapped up. Where did we leave off? I have three major components completed but separate. The instructions say the wings are to be attached to the fuselage before the engine, so that's what I've elected to do even though a part of me thinks that attaching the engine first might be the way to go. The fit is not the best and there are some significant gaps that will need to be filled with stretched sprue to increase the glue bond between the wings and fuselage. I am avoiding shims and closing gaps using force due to the fear of putting the engine and front fuselage panels out of alignment. The next step will be to attach the engine assembly to the fuselage. Once that occurs, I can check the fit of the front fuselage panels. I'll probably forgo trying to fill the wing/fuselage seams now because there is a potential that the upcoming fitment of parts will force some seams apart. 109, Anthony in NZ, scvrobeson and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 What a pain in the arse this build has become. I should've listened to my spider sense and attached the engine first. The engine frame attaches to the fuselage bulkhead at four points. With the wings on, there is no way to seat the lower attachment points. I ended up ripping the wings off as the glue had not fully cured. I glued the engine into place but with only four attachment points, I was having a hard time securing the engine into the correct position, the nose kept wanting to point upwards. I glued the wing back on fully knowing that the engine wasn't stable yet. With the glue still wet on the engine/fuselage and fuselage/wing attachments, I decided to plunge right ahead and attempt to use the engine cowling pieces to force everything into alignment. Can you tell I was in an impatient mood tonight? The top cowling did push the engine down into the correct alignment, thankfully. I then glued the the right and left engine cowlings into place (sorry... no removable cowlings this time!). The mad slapping of parts has resulted in significant gaps in many places. I think it is worse than it looks as black seems to hide some of the gaps that are there. I'm going to have to go over all of the joints and reinforce many of them with stretched sprue to build some strength. After the structural gap filling, I'll work on the visual part. Just as a confirmation, I dry-fit the radiator cowling to make sure the front end looks ok. Which it does. I'm hoping the worst of the fit problems is behind. On the plus side, I've got the main airframe together. I just have to make sure it stays together and do some more fill work. Wackyracer, F-4Phanwell, Dpgsbody55 and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Coming along nicely, even if it's something of a PITA. Looking forward to more progress on this. Cheers, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 I've filled the major gaps with stretched sprue fused with Tamiya Extra Thin, hoping to get some bonding strength in addition to physically filling the gaps. Notice some of the collapsed spars on the upper flaps due to all of the handling. Not worth fixing right away... some of those spars have been repaired 5-6 times already! Michael931080, Martinnfb, Alain Gadbois and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrish Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Yaaaaaaa that all kinda looks really familiar, I had the devils own time fitting my engine as well, sorry to see you have it too but nice to know it wasn’t just me...if you know what I mean. if I remember right I chopped off the lower Engine mount pins and glued it where it touched, but it’s been a looooong time now. Thunnus and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 On 4/13/2020 at 1:55 PM, chrish said: Yaaaaaaa that all kinda looks really familiar, I had the devils own time fitting my engine as well, sorry to see you have it too but nice to know it wasn’t just me...if you know what I mean. if I remember right I chopped off the lower Engine mount pins and glued it where it touched, but it’s been a looooong time now. It's just one of those things that we run into when we build models, I guess. The fit issues and the black plastic has me a bit frustrated, to be honest but I'm to keep plugging away. I'm gonna let the sprue filler cure for a while before I tackle the joints. It might be a case of avoidance. In the meantime, I've worked a little bit on some details. The tail wheel assembly forces you to trap the wheel between the two fork halves. Makes it more complicated to paint so I replaced the little pins that the wheel rests on with an axle made of brass tubing. Now I can paint the strut and the wheel separately. The composite resin/metal legs by Synthetic Ordnance Works have been painted. The data stencils are from the Eagle Cal decal sheet. Unfortunately, no text just lines and dots but better than nothing. Troy Molitor, jgrease, F-4Phanwell and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Boy, sounds like a few headaches in construction John - coming together well though. I like the idea of the brass axle for the tail wheel, that's always a PITA. Martinnfb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaconroot Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Even if it is a pain to build correctly you have done a masterful job of overcoming all obstacles. Thanks for sharing. Well done sir. Jim Root Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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