1/48 Zoukei-Mura Ta152H-1 "Green 9"

[jkim]

Hello! My name is John and this is a model that I completed last year. This is the Zoukei-Mura 1/48 Ta152H-1 portrayed as Green 9. The build was largely out-of-the-box with some scratchbuilt details added like brass gun barrels, replacement of the antennae and pitot tube and an aerial from stretched sprue. The only aftermarket items are the photoetched seatbelts. The crosses and swastika were sprayed on using Montex masks. The kit decals were used for the other markings and stencils. Tamiya acrylic paints were used throughout and sprayed through an Iwata HP CS Plus airbrush.

[jelliott523]

That looks fantastic! Great job and welcome to the group.

[speedgraflex]

Welcome to SPA Modeler forum, John. Your "Tank" is one wonder to behold. Thank you for your introduction. I wish you all the best.

[tempestjohnny]

Great looking build. And welcome

[Stikpusher]

Wooooo... a new guy with some serious skills here... beautiful

[Thomas_M]

I have seen lots of build Ta 152´s in print magazines or the Net, but honestly, this is maybe the best I have seen so far! I am really running out of superlatives here!

[mostrich]

Welcome to the gang, John!
There's some serious modeling going on your bench!

[Stuart]

Welcome to SPAM John - That is a beautifully built model and some nicely taken pictures.

Great work!

Cheers!

Stuart

[jkim]

Thanks for the comments guys! I am primarily a WW2 buff and enjoy building Luftwaffe subjects the most due to the interesting camo schemes.

[jkim]

Some in-progress shots for those that are interested...

Although I had always planned on showing all panels closed, the intricate Jumo engine compelled me to paint it, even though it would eventually end up hidden.



I'm a stickler for hollow exhaust pipes and gun barrels so I drilled out the exhaust pipe ends with a sharp x-acto blade and replaced the kit gun barrels with brass tubing.



I added photoetched seat belts and rudder pedals from my spares box. I used the instrument panel from the kit, which was not very refined, and spruced it up with instrument dials punched from spare decals.


My normal preshading routine is to outline the panel lines and then give the model surface a tight marble pattern.


This gives the camo a bit of depth and texture.



The camo pattern was carefully sprayed without masks but I hard masked the darker engine cowling color.