HAS ANYONE ELSE GONE CRAZY TRYING TO FIND ON OF THESE KITS. I SAW ONE ON EBAY. IT WENT FOR $60.00. I THOGHT NO WAY I CAN FIND ONE CHEAPER THAN THAT. WELL GUESS WHAT. IT TOOK ME A WEEK OF LOOKING UNTIL I LOGGED INTO EBAY AU IN THE LAND DOWN UNDER. ENDED UP GETTING IT FOR ABOUT 50.00 US DOLLARS. I SEE THESE KITS BEING BUILT ALL OF THE TIME DOES EVERYONE HAVE ONE STASHED SOMEWHERE. I THINK DML DRAGON HAS THE MOULDS NOW BUT THEY ARE NOT MAKING ANY KITS RIGHT NOW. HOW COULD SUCH A POPULAR SUBJECT BE SO COMPLETLY IGNORED. I ALSO READ SOME THINGS ON THE WEB ABOUT SOME COMPANY MAKING SOME RESIN VERSIONS OF THE KIT BUT I GOT NOWHERE TRING TO LOCATE AN ACTUAL DISTRIBUTOR. ANYBODY HAD ANY MORE LUCK THAN ME ON THIS NEW RESIN KIT?
I didn’t realize the TA 152 was getting scarce. If your looking on Ebay I would try for the Dragon kit, it comes with the engine so you don’t have a big hole in the gear bay. Great Models has a pre-order for the Dragon kit but that could take a while. Also the Trimaster kit is an option. Its expensive I paid 60$ a couple years ago, don,t know what it goes for now. Good luck.
There are only one set of molds for a Ta-152H in 1/48. It started out as the Trimaster kit around 1990. DML/Dragon bought all the Trimaster molds when they folded and issued all the kits at least once. Most have been issued multiple times. Italeri borrowed the Dragon molds and made one run of the kit.
I have all three releases in my stash. I remember when I was a teenager debating whether to plunk down an incredibly hefty sum for the Falcom vacuform Ta-152. I decided against it and it was probably a good thing since the injection molded kit was available when I returned to the hobby. I think the Ta-152H has the nicest lines of any piston engine aircraft.
The original Trimaster kit was true multimedia kit with white metal and photo etched parts. The Dragon kit replaced most of the white metal parts with injection molded ones and eliminated the pilot figure. The Dragon kit still had photo etched parts and had an injection molded engine. The Italeri kit eliminated the photo etch and the engine.
There have been several all resin or resin conversion sets for the Ta-152C. Trimaster had the first. Their last kit was a resin conversion set for the 152C included with an entire 152H kit. That kit is highly prized by collectors because very few of them were ever made. RV Resins out of Eastern Europe has released a series of experimental Fw-190 versions including full resin kit of the 152C. The 152C is no longer available, though they pop up on Ebay from time to time.
There was another resin company out of Canada (I think) that came out with a 152C conversion. I have it here someplace, but I can’t remember the name of the company.
I expect that Dragon will re-release the 152H again one of these days. They trot out their aircraft about once ever six years. Hasegawa bought the Trimaster/Dragon Fw-190A mold and retooled it. They may have bought some other Dragon molds too. I don’t know.
I wasn’t aware that the Ta-152s were getting that expensive on Ebay. I paid close to $50 for my Trimaster kit, but the other two cost less than that. But that was a few years ago. I think I bought the Italeri kit retail when it was still on release.
Anyway, that’s what I know about the various Ta-152s in 1/48 scale. If you were talking about a 1/72 kit, well, then I’ve probably just confused the issue.
I AM ONE OF THOSE OBSESIVE COPULSIVE TYPE.[FOR REAL ON MEDS AND EVERYTHING] WHEN I COME ACROSS A MODEL OF A WWII AIRPLANE THAT I DON’T HAVE AND I SEE IT ON EBAY I MUST GET IT. I PUT IN WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A CRAZY HIGH BID OF 50.00 DOLLARS EXPEXTING NOBODY WOULD KEEP GOING. WHEN I WEN’T BACK TO IT IT FINISHED AT OVER 60.00 DOLLARS! THAT IS WHEN THE OBSESION KICKED INTO HIGH GEAR. I DID NOT HAVE ONE AND I WANTED IT NOW! I SPEND ABOUT FOUR STRAIGHT HOURS GOOGLING TA-152 IN AND COMBINATION I COULD THINK OF. FOUND ALOT OF SITES ABOUT BUILDS TWO STORES SHOWES STOCK EMAIL ME BACK AND TURNS OUT THEY DID NOT HAVE IT. FOUND AN ARTICLE ABOUT SOME SMALL COMPANY TOOLING AN ALL NEW TA-152 WITH SUPPOSIVE LINKS TO DISTRIBUTORS IN THE US. THE LINKS LEAD TO NOWHERE. FINALLY AFTER ABOUT FOUR HOURS OF GOOGLING I SAW SOMETHING THAT SAID EBAY TA-152. I CLICKED ON IT. IT WAS EBAY BUT NOT THE EBAY WE USE HERE IN THE US THE EMBLEM SAID EBAY AU. ALL F THE PRICES WERE IN AUSSIE DOLLARS. I EMAIL THE COMPANY AND THEY QUICKLY RESPONDED THEY WOULD SHIP IT TO ME IN CONN FOR ABOUT 20.00 US DOLLARS.SO I PUT IN A SUPER HIGH BID OF 65.00 AUSSIE MONEY AN I WON IT. NOW I JUST HAVE TO WAIT ABOUT A WEEK TO GET IT BUT THAT DOES NOT MATTER. I GOT IT!!! I’M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO LOG BACK INTO THE AUSSIE VERSION OF EBAY. BECAUSE THAT LISTING I FOUND FOR THE TA-152 WAS NOT LISTED IN THE US EBAY ONLY THE AU EBAY. MIGHT BE A GOOD WAY TO FIND SOME UNUSUAL STUFF PLUS THE EXCHANGE RATE DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR IS PRETTY GOOD IN OUR FAVOR UNLIKE BUYING FROM ENGLAND WHERE THE POUND IS ALOT STRONGER THAN OUR DOLLAR. AND FINALLY YES YOUR ARE DEFINTLY RIGHT IT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED PISTON ENGINE FIGHTER EVER! OWE YES I AM TALKING 1/48.
If you want to look at the different country’s Ebays, go to the main page on US Ebay (www.ebay.com) and scroll down to the very bottom of the page. There are links there for every country’s Ebay.