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 At the end of April 1946, Focke-Wulf Ta 152H-1 Gelb 4 S/N 150167 was transferred from JG 301 at Berlin to the 3^rd Liberating Fighter Group of the Russian Army of Liberation at Minsk. 

The Ta 152s were being passed out in the Luftwaffe in favour of the Ta 183, now arriving in squadron service.  The Ta’s had been used as part of the large network of defenses protecting the city from Russian heavy bombers.  The war in the West was over, the Germans having concluded a truce with the Commonwealth and the Americans, but in the East, the Coalition was pushing the Russians ever further back.  Only a handful of German cities were still in range of the few heavy bombers the Red Air Force still had.  At the head of the Coalition, a triumvirate of brilliant tacticians led the way: Patton, von Manstein and Kesselring.  This whole idea was born out of Patton’s mind: once the truce had been made, the Allies (less the Russians) lost no time in moving troops to face the Red onslaught and free the world of communism.  At first, Russian defectors were integrated in normal units of the three armed forces, but as the number grew, a new force was created:  the Russian Liberation Army.

 First Lieutenant Petrov awoke with a smile on his face, for today will be the day on which he would take his Ta 152 against the enemy.  He knew that the sleek German bird was no match for anything the Reds could send up at him.  It could zoom up like a rocket, come roaring down like an eagle and turn like a Spitfire.  He would be flying an air superiority sweep over the front, to deny the enemy a chance to send Sturmoviks at the tanks.   He exited his tent, they were based at an advanced airfield, and walked to the mess, where he ate an oatmeal bowl, then it was time for the briefing.  There wasn’t anything exceptional about it, only a few tips on what they could expect to face in the air, the day’s radio frequencies and codes, and the flight plan.

 Sergeant Grigori was just about to start washing the windshield of the Focke-Wulf when Petrov arrived.  “Good Morning Sergeant!” said Petrov.

“Hello my Lieutenant,” answered Grigori, “so today you are taking my precious plane up against our foe?”

“Your plane?” jokingly asked Petrov.

As he stepped on the wing, he burst into laughter, soon followed by the Sergeant.

“Make sure to bring her back safely”, added Grigori.

“You bet I will, my friend!” said Petrov as he placed his maps and his kneeboard inside the cockpit.

 All the planes of the morning’s mission were manned and ready, and they all fired up their Jumos at the same time, upon a signal from the flight leader.  The engines were warm and the run-ups had been made by the mecanos, so they all taxied to the end of the field and took off in pairs, Petrov being the second airborne, before taking position for the climb.

 They levelled off at 39 000’, well above anything the Reds could send their way, and the fighters veered toward their patrol zone.  Under them, they could see the Typhoons, the P-38s and the Hs 129 flying towards the front, ready to whack any armour bold enough to leave the cover of the few trees still standing up. 

 “Falcons, I have numerous contacts, heading your way, Angels 30 going up.  Turn 0-3-0” crackled the ground controller’s voice through the radio system.  As they made their turn, they saw the impossible: Soviet fighters climbing up to meet them!  The leader ordered his men to break away and engage the fighters.

 Petrov followed the leader as he rolled over, retarding the throttle a bit as to not pick up too much speed in the dive.  The distance separating the two fighter groups closed quickly, and Petrov lined his sight on one of the planes.  As he got closer, he saw a curious machine, unlike anything he had flown while in the VVS or had seen since his debut in the RLA.  The cockpit was very far back on the fuselage, and the nose had a deep hole through which the propeller stuck out.  Under the prop hub was another hole, smaller.  The nose of the aircraft illuminated itself and Petrov depressed the trigger on his stick.  The two big MK 108 canons ack-acked away, sending deadly 30 mm shells towards the enemy plane.  The first two or three missed their intended target, but the next ones impacted into the cockpit and the left wing, which promptly disintegrated, sending the plane in an unrecoverable tumble.  A few tracers zoomed by his canopy, but he felt no impact from the burst.  His leader had less chance, for a few 12,7mm bullets found their way through the annular radiator, and he last saw him going down and away like a bat out of hell, a big plume of glycol behind him. 

Petrov breaked hard to the right, and as a Red fighter zoomed by him, he just managed to fire a few rounds, but the action was too blurry to know if he hit it.  He stayed in his turn, and tracers zoomed by his right wing, a few bullets punching holes in the top skin.  He shoved the stick in his belly and the Ta quickly responded by going into an extremely tight turn.  Petrov knew that it was almost impossible to follow such a turn.  He was right, for he found himself right behind the attacker.  He took his time to align the other machine in his Revi gun sight, and fired with all his weapons.  To his total disbelief, the rear of the aircraft flared up just as the first rounds were closing in, and the Soviet pilot went into a climb.  Petrov shoved the throttle forward, engaged the water-methanol injection and tried to follow the climb, but the Russian fighter simply zoomed away. 

The Lieutenant looked around him and saw an empty sky, apart from a few contrails vanishing over the horizon.  He took a bearing for home, mad for not shooting down that second plane.  He had no idea of what it could be, but he was sure that the intel officer would tell him after a look at the gun camera records. 

Upon flying over the airport prior to land, Petrov saw that most of his fellow pilots were already on the ground.  The landing was rough, the fields being bumpy after the long winter, and he rolled up to his dispersal parking spot.  He jumped off his seat and onto the ground, and he quickly told Sergeant Grigori to have the gun camera films developed for analysis.  The Sergeant told him that 3 pilots were missing, but that the Captain had force landed a few miles from the base.  A Storch would be flying him in soon. 

A few hours later, the news were in: the Soviets had indeed a new fighter, the Mikoyan I-250, a mixed propulsion plane (ramjet and piston), which explained the tail flare up Petrov had seen.

 The propeller age was really coming to an end.

Since there are so few parts in this kit (and about no interior!), I started by gluing the airframe together: fuselage, wings, and stabilisers.  It took a big 15 minutes.  Once the glue had set, I applied Tamiya putty on all the seams and sanded away.  Once the seams were sanded, I primed them and made the necessary touch ups.  I painted the wheel wells and the gear doors with Model Master Olive Drab and the meagre interior with Model Master RLM 66.  I masked the canopy and the aircraft was ready for the paint shop.   

I painted this aircraft along my Revell AG Go 229, and used Model Master RLM 76 Lichtblau, RLM 81 Braunviolett and RLM 82 Dunkelgrun.  The first colour to go on the plane was the underside’s one, RLM 76.  A few days later, it was time for the top camo, but I had forgotten to bring the plan with me, and I decided that I could very well come up with a fancy late-war scheme for my Ta.  Troubles with my airbrush (Aztek 470) led to a total waste of paint and a lame excuse to the extreme paint scheme (consider yourself lucky that no photos of this botched job exists). 

Time passed, and I got my hands on my new Iwata Eclipse BCS.  During this delay, I examined my to-do pile and found out that my 1/48 Italeri Ta 152 has exactly the same marking options as the Revell AG 1/72 version of this plane.  I decided to go ahead with a bold plan, that is to use the Russian Army of Liberation markings from Aeromaster’s Augsburg Eagles – Part 2 sheet (there is a preview here).  The Ta 152 can almost be considered a Luft ’46 aircraft, having been in service in extremely few numbers, and mixed with the enigmatic Russian Army of Liberation markings, makes an interesting aircraft.    I promptly ran to the hobby shop and grabbed some Gunze RLM 04, RLM 74 and RLM 75 to get the job right.   

I started by shooting the top of the wings with RLM 75, but not before the fuselage sides were masked in a wavy pattern.  Once this had set, I sprayed RLM 75 on top of the fuselage, and following the pattern in the Revell AG instruction sheet, on the wings as well.  I then masked the wings and the rear of the fuselage in anticipation for the yellow theatre recognition bands.  Gunze’s RLM 04 totally refused to cooperate with me, so I ended up using Model Master RLM 04 to finish the job.

The masks were pulled off and I made the necessary touch ups here and there with the airbrush.  The yellow had over sprayed a good part of the under surface, and I recoated it with Gunze RLM 76.  To my good surprise, Gunze’s RLM 76 is a perfect match for Model Master’s.

I painted the kit’s wheels with RLM 66, along with the tail wheel.  The tires were finished off in Flat Black.  On this kit, the wheels are slid over the axle, and then little hubcaps are glued over to fix them in place.  Well, I lost the hubcaps, but it was a good thing, because the original wheels were very toy like with no details at all, so I grabbed some True Details ones at the hobby shop, and they are much better (they also cost as much as the kit itself!).  After a quick wash with soapy water, I painted them RLM 66 with black tires.  I painted the exhaust stubs with Model Master Jet Exhaust and the propeller and the spinner were hand painted Model Master Flat Black before being glued in place.  The gun tubes received some Model Master Gun Metal before being glued in place in the wing.  Installing them almost gave me a stroke, for I re-drilled the hole and I saw the leading edge crack!  After gluing the tubes, I realized, to my relief, that the cracks were invisible.  I also painted the inside of the scoop on the right side of the aircraft Flat Black.

 The wheels were then attached.  This posed no real problems as the doors are moulded with the struts, so I painted the oleos with Chrome Silver before proceeding.  Once the gears were fixed, I gave them the characteristic Focke-Wulf kink, and moved on to glue the retraction struts.  They are not the right length, they are a tad too long.  I measured the first one and cut it exactly where I had too, but the second one gave more troubles.  I cut it way too short, so I ended up using a section of the rocket launcher from my Hobbycraft 1/48 Buchón.  It does the job fairly well.  Instead of using the kit’s antenna, I used photo-etched leftovers from a Special Hobby 1/72 Heinkel P.1078A, painted the ADF loop Flat Black and the blade RLM 76 before super gluing them to the belly.  There is no pitot tube, maybe it wasn’t in the kit, or I may have overlooked it.  Anyway, my educated supposition is that the aircraft is equipped with an airspeed blade just like the Piper Aztec.

 The model was over coated with Future, and it was time for the decals.

I used the kit’s decals for various stencils, and Aeromaster’s for the insignias and the other markings.  They all reacted well to Micro Set, but the Russian shields with the cross inside are a real pain in the neck to place on the aircraft.  I had a real hard time to get them all straight.

 I attached the masked canopy to the fuselage, and coated the aircraft with Poly Scale Flat Clear before highlighting the controls with a 8B pencil.  I also used a black ink pen for the ammo chutes.

This kit is fairly easy to build, and with minor addition from aftermarket items, can be made in an attractive replica at a very fair price.  It is good as a weekend project (depending on the paint scheme chosen), and will suit modelers of all skills.

GREEN, William.  Warplanes of the Second World War, “Fighters Volume Three”, Macdonald, London, 1960.

 Kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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