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The Junkers Ju287 first flew in August 1944. It was built as a ‘Technology demonstrator’ to test the swept forward wing. In order to get a working prototype into the air as quickly as possible the new wing was fitted to the fuselage of a Heinkel 177, the tailplane and rudder came from a Ju188 and 388 and the fixed undercarriage was taken from a captured B24! The basic model went together quite well, aided by Huma’s technique of moulding tongues on to the wing roots which join together to ensure that the dihedral is correct. Problems start when adding the ancillary bits. The fuselage mounted engines have two problems. The a/c engines are ‘toed in’ slightly, presumably to keep the exhaust away from the fuselage side but the model’s engines are not and need correction. There is also a fairing between the engine and fuselage which needs adding to the model. The u/c legs supplied with the model are simple struts but need fitting with fairings. A hole needs to made in the rear end of the fuselage to represent the housing for the tail parachute. About 15gm of nose weight is needed. I added this after assembly by putting it through the access door on the underside followed by a dollop of Milliput to keep it quiet. The legs for the nose gear are very weak. I managed to break them off where they exit the ‘trouser’ fairing and had to rebuild using brass tube. A strut connecting the rear of the fairings needs to be added. This confers some extra stiffness to the assembly. I could not get the RATO units to fit using the parts supplied, nor could I work out just what the supporting structure looked like so something was cooked up using brass tubes. Having fitted the units I then discovered that it was impossible to paint the supporting structure! There is a strange pattern on the side of the a/c which, apparently, uses sensitive paint to detect the temperature increase due to the engine exhaust impinging on the fuselage. I have not been able to determine whether this appeared on both sides, or just one. I went for just one and made a decal to represent it, the colour of which is totally spurious as nobody knows what the real thing looked like. When applying the fuselage decals I decided to try using ‘Kleer’ to hide the carrier film and failed miserably. Any ideas on why it went wrong? One last point. A book on the Ju287 published by Ian Allan contains some very nice looking coloured drawings purporting to represent the a/c at the time of its first flight. Unfortunately the colour scheme is not consistent from view to view and does not seem to match the photos. I discovered that one of the authors runs the ‘Luftwaffe Experten’ website so I attempted to discuss the matter with him via a PM but he refused to answer and ended the conversation. Hmmm! Ju287V1_2014_05_06_28 by johnrieley, on Flickr Ju287V1_2014_05_06_36 by johnrieley, on Flickr Ju287V1_2014_05_06_34 by johnrieley, on Flickr Late addition This what the RATO unit and its support should look like - picture taken at Cosford RATO unit by johnrieley, on Flickr Photo is courtesy of Richard Griffiths at Griffiths Models and Books. His site is worth a look as there are lots of photos https://www.facebook...fithModelsBooks Here are a couple of other pictures that I had forgotten about (on my wife's camera) This shows the adjustment to the engines to get the correct thrustline Engine toe in by johnrieley, on Flickr The second shows the cockpit interior - most of which is invisible when the front section is added. I had thought with all that transparency much more would be visible. Ju287 cockpit by johnrieley, on Flickr John