I was definately the basis for the Airfix box art for their 1/72 scale model.

Hi Mike,

The original Airfix kit from many years ago was a D9 with the straight canopy but the more recent version has the bulged one as found in the D12 (perhaps an optional extra - can't remember) - my current one is around 10 years old and is marked yellow 2 and horizontal bar with thin black outlines. Will check and see what I can find. Current Airfix version is a D9 with bulged canopy and marked yellow 10 and bar as above.

Pete

This is the box art I was mentioning...it is obviously the wrong plane.

skin done many moons ago...
here's the readme info....

Focke Wulf Ta.152V-7, Wk-Nr. 11 0007,
To Ta 152C-0/R11 standard,
Unit: Stab./JG301
Langenhagen, Germany, Spring 1945.
Serial: CI + XM
Two known operational aircraft at end of 1945

*the box n profile artists probably used these unusual
prototype serials for the Dora minus it's swastika,to
avoid govt censorship prosecution.

I wonder why a 50's RAF magazine selected that aircraft to illustrate as a profile.

Was it captured, or preserved somewhere?

Why was the Swastika painted out?

Hi Colonel,

the Tank Ta 152V7 was tested in January 1945 by Focke Wulf at Adelheide-Langenhagen a/f close to Delmenhorst.
It served as prototype for the planned Ta 152C medium altitude fighter. Designated as Ta 152C-0/R11 variant, a set of excellent official company photographs was shot, showing essential detail of this fighter.
There are no reports about the fate of this particular plane. Neither did it appear on loss lists nor was it captured. Maybe it ended its days being pressed into service with JG301 or being destroyed during one of the numerous airraids in the final days of WW2.
Btw, the (small) black swastika wasn´t painted out but but placed on a dark camo spot. Maybe the first intention was to use a swastika with white trim.
Hope this helps!

Trust you Fran to come up with a pocket history.

The drawing has a Works number which is hard to read but it ends in 007. I was just a bit surprised to see such a detailed drawing of a Dora in a 1950's RAF magazine. I thought maybe this was a drawing made from the actual aircraft in captivity.



Here is the rest of the article

Hi Guys,

The original Airfix kit was released in 1958! I must have bought it shortly afterwards. I know it had the "straight topped" canopy which is why I eventually replaced it with a later release with the bulged top. I am pretty sure it had a 4 number/letter code but being only 10 at the time would not have thought that unusual as it was the same as the 110 - it is only in the last 30 or so years that I have realised only prototype 190's would have had that sort of coding. My Profile on the 190D/Ta152 confirms Ades comment C1+XM is shown as Ta152C-0/R11 werk Nr 0607 though of course the codes could have been used a few times previously. The tail shape certainly indicates a Ta152 and the Profile says the fuselage band under the cross is green, and there seems to be a dark background to the Swastika as well. The low W. Nr seems to indicate a conversion from an earlier model as the main batch of prototypes had Nr in the 110000 range. The C was the short winged type and I do not believe it entered service, unlike a few H models, but Fran will be the expert on that I suspect.

Cheers

Pete

Here are some pics of the Ta 152 V7 prototype - captioned wrongly as Ta 152C-1:

Ta 152 V7 (prototype for Ta 152C-series)

Like Ade has pointed out, W.Nr. was 110007, "0007" being painted on the tailfin.
Factory code ("Stammkennzeichen - Stkz") was CI+XM.
Two Ta 152C seem to appear in the inventory of JG 301 in the last days of WW2,
together with Ta 152 H pre-production planes of the prototype range
(Watch Ta 152 H "White 7" on my webpage - shameless plug )

http://www.sandbagger.uk.com/franzee.html

The Tank 152 shortwing versions ought to be the "real" successor of the whole Focke Wulf Fw 190 series - not only the D-9 variant.
The Dora in fact was a stop-gap solution towards the Ta 152, matching A-series fuselages and wings with the new Jumo 213 engine.

It´s interesting, indeed, to find such an exact profile already in the sixties!

Concerning the spurious code "TD+X1" of Airfix´ D-9, I remember a captured Dora being painted with such a "code".