Clunkmeister

John, any thoughts to finishing that P-61? That’s one that’s on my list of things to do in the future...

Good to see you, Iceman. Us newbs here are building like crazy. Check out John’s TBM, a bloody work of art that. And Jeroen’s Wellie drops my jaw. Plenty of good going on here these days.

Yeah, there’s very little there for the engine. Just enough cylinder detail to show behind the fan and spinner. The detail is adequate for our scale but certainly there’s much more that could be done if you wanted to know the 8nternals were in there despite not being able see them. Personally, I much prefer the buttoned up, ready for flight look, so the PCM approach suits me fine.

It’s good to see this one back on the bench, Carl. I saw this on TOS, but when The Troubles started, I saw less and less of it. You’re kicking butt and taking names, man. Looking absolutely awesome in every way, sir! Oh, people been asking me what “TOS” is. Nothing sinister, nothing mean or vengeful, just “The Other Site”. TOS. Like SOD. A useful abbreviation.

@smitty44 always a nutcase comedian. Or is it comedienne?

Fresh off the assembly line. The early ones were definitely assembled with tender loving care.

As you can see, the fit is typical PCM. Bloody hideous around the wing roots, but all in all, a whole lot better than many limited production kits. Any modeler who’s moved past the Tamiya or Hasegawa stage can deal with this. But on the other hand, as we all know, we get some gorgeous resin in these kits. TWO choices of wheels, full resin cockpit, wheelwells, exhaust stubs, and an engine insert. The engine appears only adequate, but you won’t see much anyway, so this is about all you need.

Well gentlemen, let’s throw one together. While the epoxy is drying on my P-51B, I found myself with a couple spare hours so I dug out the earlier PCM FW-190A shortnose kit. This is the original A-1,2,3 kit without the resin -4 conversion, so I’m planning a semi quick very early issue A-1 with the four rifle caliber machineguns. I built the 152H-1, the last Würger version, so I figured let’s do the first. It will be a simple build, using a kit scheme, either Black 13 or Red 1, and the only AM will be some of Radu Brinzan’s belts, and maybe metal gun barrels. i need to do research on the prop. Is it right? Is an email to Henri Daehne needed? Most manufacturers miss on the German prop shapes, some by just a bit, but some are way off the mark... Here’s a few pics....

Thanks, Maru. It’s an average build of a brilliant kit. This is one of those rare kits that makes a modeler look better than he actually is.

Peter, I used Aviattic fabric decals for rib tape. They worked well. I’ve seen Archer rivet decals and they are stunning. No clue on Dzus fasteners, though

In Texas, we make our whiskey out of corn in a big copper pot and copper coil. 180+ proof, clear as fresh water it is. Burns completely clean. No real flame... And you city slickers throw up your noses at it, too.

It’ll buff out

I always thought that checkerboard was a convenient aiming spot.. ”Just click here...”

Better than I could do!

Perfect pic! and I suppose I should finish mine with antenna wires and such

Many folks don’t realize how much of a beating prop blades take. Just powering up to get moving throws up gravel, but tight pivoting turns when you’re gassing on the outboard engine,.. that tosses gravel and sand everywhere. Prop blades wear quickly. They get checked and, if necessary, filed every single day.

We ran these things. They made us money. We weren’t all worried about preservation back then. They hauled big loads, reliably, and brought us home. No better praise than that. Note to modelers: working radials are filthy underneath. But the top of the aircraft is often spotless.

LOL. Not the way you put it, noooo....

Yup. It’s ugly where it can’t be seen, but decent on the outside. just line the cowl, louvered panel and nosebowl straight in a line. It’s harder than it seems because you’re dealing with a full engine, tight cowls, and a radiator surrounding the prop shaft...

Filing the edges. Tip damage, wear from gravel, etc. they could file a certain amount off and as long as we’re all the same, it was ok. Pretty routine stuff. The black paint just wore away.

The Zoukei was a great build, but I struggled in three areas. 1. Engine to fuselage to supports inside the wing attach and landing gear area. I bought this kit used and it had been partially glued together, no paint, nothing. Most was out of order, etc. The engine ended up sitting at a slight down angle, which wasn’t good. This angle must be perfect!!! I didn’t know this till later. (See problem #2) 2. Nose bowl, cowl panels and small louvered square vent panel right behind the nose bowl, dead center top of nose. The entire multi piece cowl jigsaws together, no muss no fuss. But mine didn’t. The cowl panels assembled well enough, and the nose bowl assembled well enough, but that little square louvered piece to dead center is a bear. Many award winning Zoukei 152H builds get this wrong. That little panel must be installed so it’s straight in line with the cowl and nose bowl. Many great builds have this piece sloping down to meet the nose bowl. This is WRONG! It must be smoothly in line with and parallel to the cowl behind it. No slight jog downhill to meet the nosebowl. If your engine is angled correctly, it’ll drop in perfectly. If the engine isn’t, you’ll have a slightly off cowl which will spoil the look of the entire model. Take the time to mock up the engine and cowl top together BEFORE attaching the cowl. If the panels at the top front of the nose aren’t perfectly flowing in one straight line, adjust the engine angle until it is. This is a real PITA to do, as the back of the engine has a gun breech, mounts, and equipment that all key into the wing support. Plan ahead. I couldn’t. Mine was built by the previous owner. I had to hack and cut the engine to re-angle it correctly to align that front top cooler panel correctly. No biggie for me, because it was to be closed up. Just plan for it. 3. Wing to fuselage panels. I covered the engine to fuselage to wing and landing gear support in item #2, but also, the wing fillet details are way, way too pronounced. The rivet heads on the wing root fillets look like they were left over from the construction of RMS Olympic. They need taming down. Plus the panel lines where the fillets meet the wing are close to 1/8 scale. Fix them Most of the issues I had I stack up to inheriting this kit with critical sub assemblies stuck together already. I want to do another, and I’m sure, like all other Zoukei kits, it’ll fall together.

And it’s companion, a Greenhearts 109F from the Eastern Front. Henri Daehne prop again and Kagero masks

As we slowly find more pics of my misguided youth, we found these buried in junk. My office way back in the day. That morning started off at -38 degrees according to my logs.

My last one was a year ago. ZM original issue kit. Henri Daehne prop and Radu’s belts

This weekend, when I’m waiting for HPH epoxy to cure, I’m gonna cut some plastic... gonna be FUUUN!