1/32 Revell Junkers Ju-88 G-6

Gallery Article by Viktor Kucera on July 13 2012

 

 

The base kit is Revell's Ju-88 A-1. The conversion set is of AIMS, United Kingdom. The resin parts are accompanied by photoetch, decals and instructions. This is another major conversion of John McIllmurray, who is today "The Ju-88 man". Wings extension and new ailerons are standard, the same as new vertical stabilizer and huge rudder. New JUMO 213 engines are a solid block of resin, therefore I drilled several holes of the ½'' diameter from the rear (I understand, that newly produced sets have hollow engines).  After the extension of stabilizer and elevator was done I have discovered from photos, that I have omitted corner balance; some cutting, gluing, puttying and sanding fixed that.

Vacuformed fuselage front bottom was installed instead of the kit part, the right alignment of the solid nose was little bit tricky; after some trimming, puttying and sanding the result was acceptable. Brass armor plates were glued to the sides of the front fuselage, according to instructions and other sources. The cockpit was fully equipped using conversion parts and kit parts, using of HGW seatbelts is simple and realistic. Rear firing MG-131 was modified by the brass barrel from Master. Before closing the fuselage there is a good idea to install some fixing points into belly gun gondola for 20 mm bun barrels (installed later), I used scrap piece of balsa wood.  For the cockpit canopy I used vacuformed front part from the conversion set and kit part for the rear piece, modified in the section of the gun installation. I prepared the holes for MG-151 "Schräge Musik", modified the fuselage according the instructions. In this stage of the build I decided, because of excellent fuselage / wing fit, to assemble the fuselage and wings after painting. The reason was that very complex and demanding paint scheme was selected, it would be not easy to do it on inner parts of engines and on front side parts of the fuselage. Resin parts were then primed by Resin Primer and the entire model was sprayed by Surfacer 1000.  After that I fixed missing or damaged panel lines and "riveted" the entire model by the "wheel" (Petr Dousek). 

Painting: 
I have selected Ju-88 G-6 of 3/NJG 101, which was temporarily based at Prague Kbely airport (Czech Republic), however the photograph of Bu.No 621 082 9W+EL was probably taken on Manching airport. This aircraft suffered collapse of the left landing gear leg. There is clearly visible that before that the right JUMO 213 engine was exchanged; the camouflage pattern on the engine cowlings are different (no squiggles).

The entire model (however, in three major parts) was sprayed RLM 76, then mottles of RLM 75 were applied. After that I have started some extensive training to be able to create that nice tight "Wellenmuster". I have tried to do it properly on the some kit parts in stash, on cardboard, until I was (almost) satisfied. Before the "squiggles" were applied, all decals were put on place. After all painting (RLM 83 "squiggles") was finished, clear matt varnish was applied, canopy unmasked, then some weathering was created by oil paints. Exhaust stains were sprayed on bottom parts of the wings, on engine gondolas and on horizontal stabilizer.

Finishing touches: 
The entire model was assembled; the fuselage / wing fit was exceptionally nice. Landing gear installation, weathered wheels, these steps were pretty standard. The real challenge was installation of radar antennaes, both in the nose and the rear one. Fortunately, just before this step I have discovered that Master started to produce SN-2 dipoles machined from brass. I was happy to get it on time; then it was necessary "only" to align everything properly. The result is not entirely perfect; to keep everything in right angle and each part of the antenna parallel to the other is really not easy.. As usually for these jobs I used CA and liquid activator.

 

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What I have used:

  • Base kit: Revell Junkers Ju-88 A-1

  • Conversion: AIMS Ju-88 G-6 (John McIllmurray)

  • Landing gear: Scale Aircraft Conversion

  • Gun Barrels: Master (MG 131) and Schräge Musik; copper tube (under-belly 20 mm guns)

  • SN-2 dipoles: Master

  • Seatbelts: HGW

  • Paints: Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color, Future

  • Decals: From the conversion, from the kit

  • Weathering: Oil paint, Powder MiG Production

  • Ladder: Profimodeller

  • Antena: EZ line fine - Wingnut Wings

  • Spray gun: H&S Colani, H&S Infinity

This was very enjoyable built. I am very happy with the accuracy and quality of AIMS conversion sets. I have sent the photos of finished models to John McIllmurray; he appreciated the complex paint job, and sent me an excellent note: "Can I point out that you have left off the vents from the top of both engines. Please refer to instructions" .Oops.., I know, it's missing. I will add it. (Thanks, John, not only for the note, but for the entire conversion.).

Viktor Kucera

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Photos and text © by Viktor Kucera