SPA Modeler

It seems for every step forward this kit makes you take two steps back. All the rescribed detail looks really good.

Thank you Clint! This one is scratching and biting all the way to the finish line, that's for sure.

A potentially colossal mishap occurred and I was very, very lucky to come out of it unscathed. I spilled a bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin on my work table. Luckily, neither the Ta152H or G-14 models were within reach of the acid pool. Two parts were and I quickly plucked them out and set them aside without touching them. I was hoping that the glue would simply evaporate without too much damage. And luckily, I was right. Only some subtle tide marks left by the glue but, for the most part, we escaped without serious injury.


The joint between the radiator mount and fuselage has been straightened out. Scraped the step away with a curved x-acto blade and finished it off with some Mr Surfacer.



Let's see what the radiator cowling pieces look like with some tape to hold things in place.



At this point, the Henri Daehne prop assembly has been trimmed and ready for assembly so I wanted to dry fit it all on to see if the nose looks proper. The hub has a lot of detail that will be hidden by the spinner.


The spinner cone sits pretty nicely on the hub without glue so there may be an option to have it detachable. Due to the presence of the cannon barrel, I won't be able to employ a micro magnet like I've done previously with a D-9 prop.


I'm satisfied with the fit of the nose cowling pieces and the HD prop too so no issues foreseen here.




For painting, I was planning on utilizing the black plastic for some black basing but I've done so much corrective work and sanding that I need to double check that work. I'm also afraid that alot of the rivet holes have been plugged with plastic and putty dust. So I think I'm going to give the model a coat of grey primer, attend to all of the surface details and then do my customary dark-on-light preshade mottle.

Looks great! Glad that you didn't have any parts damaged from the glue spill.

Glad to hear you escaped a disaster. But wow on the progress. I need to get myself a wooden stand like yours.

Where can I get one of those aircraft building jigs? I’ve looked everywhere I could think of... Michigan toy soldier company, Micro mark, scalehobbyist, etc...

Good thing the glue didn't hurt any parts. For being marketed as a high end kit this thing sure seems to have a lot of fit issues. I'm looking forward to seeing her in a overall coat of primer.

Thanks guys! The jig is from JH Models and I purchased it at UMM-USA. It looks like the one I have (1/32 and 1/48 scale jig) is sold out but they have the smaller one in stock which is designed for 1/48 and 1/72.

http://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/product_ ... ts_id=3099

After assembly, the horizontal tailplanes were pushed into place. The fit is crazy tight... I may have to shave the tab thickness down before they break on me.


The addition of the tail planes shows us how far we've gotten and also how close to painting we are.

Doesn’t the wood on that jig mar the paint? Or does is have some sort of cushion padding on the contact areas?

It came with rubber bands to line the contact points!

That will work... I have been thinking about that since I saw the jig... and if it came with no padding, how to creat some. Cutting lengths of rubber band and gluing them to the support edges did come to mind...