TA-152 Zoukei Moura 1/32, My First ZM

[DocRob]

Thanks again mikester, it seems like the motteling of german planes is the zen garden of modelling .

Cheers Rob 

[GusMac]

The results look very good Rob. Haven't had the courage to try mottling myself yet and I'd be very happy if my first attempt looked like that. 

[DocRob]

Thank you Gus, it would be an easy task without airbrush worries and thoughts about grainy pigment , but thats the way the cookie crumbles. I have to change my mindset about airbrushing. When I was younger I worked with dyes and inks on paper and there were nearly no technical problems to solve while airbrushing. Airbrushing kits seems to be completely different pair of shoes, as I now use 80% of my airbrush time maintaining, cleaning, adjusting and testing and maybe 20% is working on the kit.

P.S. I haven't added closeup pictures so it's not that easy to pick up the overspray, but I keep myself saying that the late war Luftwaffe airbrushes weren't too well maintained either .

Cheers Rob 

[coolboxx]

Rob for a first go that looks great, when I get to that stage i would put the 76 back in very thinned.also the filters have a big effect. Keep going really like what you have done so far. 

[rkranias]

great work on a not so ez kit. 

for me mottling is a continuing work in progress.  always improving and refining.  you pulled it off quite well.

[DocRob]

@coolbox: thank you for your kind words, Darren. I was reworking the RLM 76 (light blue) as a last step, to cover some of the overspray and to adjust mottles which looked a little to heavy. I think a subtle weathering and maybe filtering will do the job. I always perceive that decaling will do a little trick as well, because you get clear geometrical shapes as a contrast to the camo.

@rkranias: thanks Rick, mottling as mikester put it seems to be an art in itself and I'm still a Padwan. If my UHU wouldn't be a ZM-Kit, that would have been my next project, but I need something more comfy, maybe the Eduard P-40 N or something I started a long time ago like my Resin-GB project, ...

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

I can sympathise with the airbrush issues Rob. I was working on my Spitfire the other night and suddenly got no air coming through the airbrush. After 20 minutes of trying to fiddle, adjust, clean, etc I realised the leg of my chair was on the hose! D'oh! 

[DocRob]

He he he, sometime you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you , but be sure Gus, I know the feeling.
I can't tell, why these damned little airbrushes are so hard to use. I mastered so many technical devices in my live, but these "blow some air through a nozzle and add some color things" are mastering me.

Cheers Rob 

[DocRob]

Decalling was next, a step I was not looking forward to, because my various experiences with decals where mixed in the best case and suboptimal in the worst. This time was one of the better experiences, because the decals performed well and are opaque enough and settle good with the help of Micro Set and Sol. The decals are complete and include all the neccesary stencils. One thing I noticed while applying, was a misspelling of "Nicht verstellen" to "Nichit Verstellen" for the trim flap stencils. I left it the wrong way, not wanting to go AM for that and either not wanting to cut out the obelete "i".
You have to be fast with applying the ZM-decals, because they need only seconds to soak. In the end the result is ok, but I have traces of the solvents on the Future coat. I hope another sealing coat will let that disappear.

I was prepared to paint all the insignia, numbers and fuselage rings, but the very bad adherance of the Vallejo primer, was convincing me to take no risks with extra masking. Next time it will be my trusted Tamiya rattle can primer again and masks for everything, that is more complicated, but I prefer it that way, because it's much more controllable and blends into the paintjob much better.

Cheers Rob

[JeroenPeters]

That looks sweet! 

[DocRob]

Thanx Jeroen, after building, painting and decaling the TA-152 so far, I can truely admit what you achieved with your "Wingless Wonder". I wouldn't have had the courage to start it your way, after I have seen the substance of that overengineered kit. Nonetheless between the pain there was fun too and now seeing the light on the end of the tunnel, I can say I learned a lot .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Hola Senhores,

after decaling the long winged TA-152 got another sealing layer of gloss Future and is now ready for weathering. I added the prop wich was sprayed black green over aluminum and left of the front tips of the blades to show some wear. The white spiral is a kit decal and went on well.
I added the tail wheel strut and finally glued the metal struts for the main wheels in place, adding the hydraulic cylinders and some details. The metallic surfaces are done in Alclad gloss aluminum with rubbed in Uschi chrome pigments. The resin wheels are a multicolour affair, but it is hard to see on the photos. They were painted near black, got some black green added near the rim and a grey tone on the tread, which was rubbed of slightly while still wet with paper tissue.

I nearly forgot that I have to paint the exhausts. That will be done next while masking off with tape and after that i will apply the washes, a blueish grey one for the upper colors and a dark grey one for the light blue.

 

And that's the look of the complete bird right now. Looks a bit skinny without the wheel weel covers, but these will be added after weathering together with the flaps.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Seemingly smallish update today, but it took some effort and was done for a second time, which made it none less annoying.
While painting the engine, the exhausts were already painted, but due to being a really overengineered kit, there was no way for me to leave the engine cowlings openable. In the end I closed up everything and decided to give the exhausts another pass after painting the fuselage. That needed a whole lot of masking to prevent from overspray. I used the trusted Alclad Exhaust Manifold (great stuff) and after that some Uschi Steel Pigments (great too). When applying the exhaust fumes, I will decide, if I tint them some more blueish-black, but that depends on the state of weathering.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

Hi Folks, I found some benchtime to start the weathering. i did some experiments with different washes for the upper side and decided to use a very light grey tone. On the pictures it looks harsher than it looks in real light. The near white tone resulted also because the real TA's would have been in action in harsh winter conditions in the beginning of 1945 near Berlin, so a little icey appearance should fit.
For the lower side i used a grey-blue wash and a black one for some subassemblies like the wheelstruts.

Chipping is next and will be sparse, because there was not much time to chip for these birds, but some dust, splashes and spills will be added.

Cheers Rob

[coolboxx]

 She's coming on great Rob.

[GusMac]

The pale wash looks very effective Rob. Using a variety of washes over the different colours/surfaces definitely works best for me and I find the Ammo sets good for giving a decent mix for this.

[Mikester]

Interesting effect, looking good!

[DocRob]

Thanx guys, the pale wash, actually it was made for representing salt stains on ships, was the most interesting one I tried on the TA. The darker ones were barely noticable on the upper camo. After applying I made up the story with the freezing conditions the bird was used in. Story follows used effect, so to speak , but in the end I convinced myself of that and at least this was symptomatic of that build of many changes and altered decisions.  

Quote

The pale wash looks very effective Rob. Using a variety of washes over the different colours/surfaces definitely works best for me and I find the Ammo sets good for giving a decent mix for this.

I'm not so convinced in using different tones of washes, even after doing so. You always have the problem of "bordering" and washes tend to flow very easily. On the sides of the fuselage, where the dark dots are, it's easy to understand the problem and why should in reality a gap between panels look different on the upper side, than on the lower side, it's a mixture of shadow and external influences (dirt, corrosion, paint abraision)? You see, thinking one way and doing the opposite became my second nature during that build

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Hola Senhores, I found some time to do a little detail work. I added the delicate upper PE-flaps into their wing sector. They add a lot of detail compared with the kit parts. If you go through the trouble building this ZM TA-152 you should be fit enough to do the extra bending and glueing. It's not an easy task, but (nearly) nothing is easy with this kit. Keep in mind that installing the flaps is best done late in the build, but be sure to have them test fitted a lot, because there is a lot of inner wing material to be removed for a good fit, not a good idea to do this after painting. It's best done while you fit the different wing parts. I have done it after assemblying the wings and there were a lot of different tools needed and a lot of force involved (and some swearing) to do it properly.

I also added the wheelbay covers and brake lines (yes they are included in the kit and nicely detailed) to the metal wheelstruts. This subassembly is one of the gems of that kit, well detailed, well engineered, well fitting and sturdy, so don't plan to build yours in flying mode, you will miss that .

The extra brass barrels are not painted, they are blackened in some toxic fluid, specially for that purpose. I use that for blackening Friul's and other brass stuff and it works great. You can get that blueish liquid cheap in stores for Tiffany lamps by the litre and the results looks so metal, because it is. If you soak the metal parts in the poison it's importand to shake a little, because airbubbles are your enemy here.

The oleos where sprayed in Alclad chrome and where looking the thing, but got a little dull while masked. Maybe I will polish them a little with some Uschi chrome pigments

Cheers Rob

 

[GusMac]

Hi Rob

I agree that the boundaries between colours/washes can be problematic but I've never used a combination with too stark a difference, just subtle shade changes, and it's been okay to now. I can see with a very pale wash like this that there may be plenty of issues. Never tried anything too heavy but my planned next build is a Greek A-7E and they are well beaten up, so might have to think about how I go about that.

After all the grief the ZM kit gave you earlier in the build you should be very happy with this outcome.

Cheers, Gus

[DocRob]

Hi Gus,

indeed, after all the troubles we got a little closer, the 152 and me. In the end she will look totally different than planned, but she will look ok at leas, and a lot of lessons learned with that kit too, the most important of all, you have to finish no matter how .

Subtle differences in the shade of washes are easily explainable with the potential bigger amount of shadow on the lower sides. Sometimes we modellers are a little bit crazy, one of these days there will be light guided paneling or something like that.

I have some imaginations about a bleached, sun beaten and dusty A-7 in my mind, please bring it on.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Finally the lower flaps got installed, the finish line is in vicinity. Nothing went wrong on Frightday the 13th. Painted the aerials and the ladder and pilot tube, but these will be mounted after the chipping, dirt, grime and exhaust fumes.

Cheers Rob

[shark64]

some very clean work going on here

[DocRob]

Thank you shark and all the other supportive guys and gals?

I can see the finish line of that build now. When I finish, i finish all out, which means while finishing I'm breaking a lot of parts. In this case I lost one of the flaps (repaired on the pictures) and the tailwheel. That will be added later, when the varnish is dry, together with the aerials, pilot tube and nav lights.

After chipping a little with crayons, pencils and some Tamiya Aluminium I added lots of different pigments to the different surfaces. The lower side was treated with bright blue and some brown and near white pigments to enhance colour richness, than some brown tones where added to simulate dirt from the wheels.

The upper parts where treated with chalk white and some brown tones to achieve the icy effect, which I really like. Different browns and black where added for the exhaust fumes.

The pictures do not show the final coat with my trusted 75% Future and 25% Tamiya Flat Base varnish, which has a little blending effect in the way of toning down a little.

Next step might be the Finished Work section.

Cheers Rob

[MARU 5137]

Ooh   THAT'S AWESOME..