Dragon / Revell 1/48 scale
Focke-Wulf Ta 154 A-0

by Roland Sachsenhofer

Focke-Wulf Ta 154 A-0

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In 1942 the challenge for the Luftwaffe´s next standard nightfighter –the first generation of fighters designed ab initio for this purpose- did unfold, in 1943 decisions would be made. This was the timespan in which Focke Wulff developed the agile and fast Ta-154.

This construction had the apparently advantage, besides being technically state of the art, of being built out of more than 50 percent wood, a strategic material which Germany had in plenty quantity.

Self-confident the intended name of “Wespe””(wasp) has been dropped in favour of “Moskito”; Germany should have its own “wooden wonder”…..

Ironically the Ta-154 was hampered by just this circumstance. The “Tego-Film” called glue did destroy the wood around the bonding area, which led to crashes and caused the project to be stopped till a solution had been found. This was done in fairly short time, but the Ta-154s reputation was nevertheless destroyed, the RLM opted now for Do 335 and Heinkels He-219 as the most promising future heavy fighters. As result production of the “Moskito” was stopped in 1944 after about 50 examples build.

My model depicts Werk-Nr. 120004, a production machine being flown and evaluated in Erfurt in 1944, having the FuG 220 Lichtenstein installed.

The build of the Dragon-kit was rather straightforward and trouble free; this kit is still worth being bought and built in my opinion. A few enhancements were made here and there. Worth mentioning is the little surgery I did with the wheel-oleos: I cut about 3mm off, equal to the real action, to get an inclined orientation of the Moskitos fuselage. This is caused by the full fuel tanks, often seen in pictures of production machines, giving this fighter a characteristic and belligerent look.

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If you are interested in the building process and in the models parts, please have a look on the workbench on “Scalemates”: https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=10148&p=albums&album=33855

Or on the JAM forum: http://www.razyboard.com/system/morethread-ta-154-v1-und-a0-doppelbau-dragon-148-raidenjack-2086023-6368287-0.html

As ever, remarks will be appreciated: ro.sachsenhofer@gmx.at

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2017 by Roland Sachsenhofer
Page Created 14 July, 2017
Last Updated 14 July, 2017

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