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In-Box Review
148
Focke Wulf Ta-183 Huckebein

by: Penny Pierce [ LADYMODELBUILDER ]

The kit I’m doing this review on is the AMtech Focke Wulf Ta-183 “Huckebein”. This will be my second attempt at doing a German aircraft. I am in no way a professional writer, and in my opinion, I’m a so-so model builder.

 


Focke-Wulf built the Ta-183 “Huckebein”, single-engine jet to be an answer to the Allies’ numerical dominance of the skies. The V1-V3 versions were to have been equipped with the Jumbo 004B turbo jet engines. The “Huckebein” was scheduled to be flown in May or June of 1945, and be fully produced by October of the same year. On April 8, 1945, British troops captured the Focke-Wulf plant and the Ta-183 project supposedly ended.

When the Russians captured Berlin, they also had captured the full set of detailed plans to the Ta-183. The plans were then taken back to the Soviet Union. In March of 1946, the British gave the Russians a Rolls Royce jet engine, and it was used to power the six prototypes the Mig Design Bureau were constructing. There were some modifications needed on the original design of the Ta-183. The modified plane was first flown on 30 December 1947, and was ordered to be produced as the Mig-15.

The Americans were also creating their own version of the Ta-183 from the designs and other data. Thus, the F-86 Sabre jet was born, and jet war over Korea went into history.

 

ASSEMBLY
The construction of the first four steps was extremely easy and everything fit together perfectly. The rest of the kit was just as smooth. One thing that I thought was weird; putting the cockpit in the plane after the fuselage had been assembled. The only few flaws I found were the ejector pin marks on the main wheels, wheel wells, gear doors, and on the rocket pylons. The decals are really easy to rip and bunch up on you, too. The overall quality and detail of this kit is great, and I would recommend it to anyone.

I’m building the B-1 version of this plane and have chosen to do the 1. / JG 2 “Richtofen” (1945) scheme. I used all Model Master Enamels on this kit. For the cockpit, I used gunmetal, leather, and dry brushed the instrument panel with Chrome Silver (FS 17178). The exterior colors I used were RLM 02 Grau and RLM 81 Braunviolet. There wasn’t too many colors needed to complete this kit, and I liked the different schemes that you could choose from, too.

SUMMARY
Percentage Rating
80%
  Scale: 1:48
  Mfg. ID: AEH484601
  Suggested Retail: $39.98
  PUBLISHED: Oct 03, 2002
  NATIONALITY: United States
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 80.00%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 81.67%

About Penny Pierce (ladymodelbuilder)
FROM: VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

Like to build aircraft, Armour, figures and an occasional car. My favorite aircraft is: F4U Corsair, F-4G Phantom II, Bf109 E, F/A-18 Hornet, and He-111 Heinkel.

Copyright ©2021 text by Penny Pierce [ LADYMODELBUILDER ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.


   
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