Junkers Ju 52/3mg5e - Airfix 1/72

[jrlx]

Good start, Ced: the inevitable flash cleaning phase.

 

I'll certainly go for the Italeri. It's not the flash that puts me off but the general ill-fitting and lack of detail.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[Brandy]

Not so much the parents Ced, as me. When I knew I was coming Stateside I cleared out a lot of half built stuff, including the Revell Dambuster Lanc and a half-built Airfix Bf110 that I was attempting to convert into a Messerschmitt Jaguar. I searched what was left last time home and it appears I also binned a Revell 1:32 Mirage. The fit was terrible though so no great loss.....

 I still vividly remember the walk to the dustbin, with my arms full of treasures that I knew I'd never see again....

 

Ian

[keefr22]

Right, I'll just sneak in quietly and sit at the back and hopfully no-one will notice how late I am....aarrgh, ouch, clatter,bang. Bu99er - who left that goat there? So much for my stealthy approach....

 

Hi Ced...!! 

 

A wringly, crinkly Junkers eh? Should be fun!

 

Keith

 

 

[Spookytooth]

Oh well , late again.

Sorry, but dose anyone want anything from the Kebab shop while I am passing it?

 

An good old Airfix kit, well that should keep you amused Ced.

Watching with interest as this build from the past in done.

 

Simon.

 

"Was that chili on the large Doner?"

[bbudde]

Hello Ced, not that bad after cleaning, but the Tante Ju will forgive you much mistakes, but not all. So  I guess you have to be careful with flash and the kind of things. Errrr, messy desktop?? Did look very tidy for me. Wish my one would be generally (that) clean. But ok, creative  so a bit chaos, but not too much for me. I just have to find my tools, coffee and food. Cheers

Edited September 16, 2017 by bbudde

[CedB]

Thanks Jaime. I'll try to make the best of this one. Can't so with those engines though so I've ordered some resin ones from Hannants.

Thanks Ian - sad story, I feel for you. We went out with some friends last night and he was a bit sad as he'd found a box of electronic gizmos he'd built in his teens which (the sad bit) only mean anything to him and have stories associated which only he would enjoy. Sometimes being a thinking bloke can be hard!

Welcome Keith and Simon, nice to see you

Thanks Benedikt - messy bench, for me! Your videos have encouraged me to replace the engines (at least) and my affection for the model is growing, a bit. We'll see how long it lasts!

[pheonix]

My that looks like hard work cleaning up all of those parts. My kits were clear of flash when I built them (but that was a very long time ago).

 

I found the two floats and they are just as I left them - only one has some small indents from being in contact with a tank track - should be easy to clean up though if necessary. They are a darker grey plastic than yours. If you do want them pm me with your address and I will willingly send them on to you as I have no use for them.

 

P

[CedB]

Thanks P, that's very kind but I think I'll manage and let a 'proper modeller' take advantage of your kind offer - mine will just go on the ceiling so they'd be wasted really. Thanks though

 

Another lesson learned last night. Don't order stuff late at night.

You see the post above where I've said "...I've ordered some resin ones..."?

And "...encouraged me to replace the engines..."?

It's probably the fact that I usually do single engined models because how many engines did I order? One. Yes, singular. Rats.

I've had a look at the kit parts again and decided that I'll use the resin one as a 'template' and improve the others with some scratch bits. That'll teach me.

Or I might cheat and mould some from the resin.

£5.50 is quite a lot for an engine and £16.50 is too much love for the kit, I think.

 

Have I mentioned before that I'm an idiot?

I did order a couple of Hurricanes though to give the workhorse some love. Hannants have the AZ kits on offer (down to £8.99 from £18.37) so it'd be rude not to.

I've ordered the Mk IV and the Mk V.

The Mk IV is... hey wait, Argentinian! Not my theme...

OK, I'll cancel the order and try again.

Idiot.

[Beard]

2 hours ago, CedB said:

Have I mentioned before that I'm an idiot?

I did order a couple of Hurricanes though to give the workhorse some love. Hannants have the AZ kits on offer (down to £8.99 from £18.37) so it'd be rude not to.

I've ordered the Mk IV and the Mk V.

The Mk IV is... hey wait, Argentinian! Not my theme...

OK, I'll cancel the order and try again.

Idiot.

 

The AZ Hurricane IV and V are the same kit and, if my memory serves me well (it's been a while since I looked at my one), is very short-run. £18 is far too expensive, £9 is more than I'd pay for one but it's in the right direction. I imagine that Troy Smith would have an opinion on the kit.

Anyway, if you do get an Argentinian one, I have spare decals for a RAF Hurricane IV and, no doubt, you have enough in the spares box to do a RAF aircraft. 

 

Edit: I've got this one -

 

 

And the one with the Argentine decals,

 

 

has as got a couple of SEAC aircraft (but you only do European RAF stuff (?)).

 

The MkV was a rare bird, I think only 3 were made.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Beard

[CedB]

Thanks Simon - order cancelled and a lucky escape by the sounds of it! I need to do some more research before I jump in

 

 

I'll also build some more of the kit before I invest in some engines I think. It may be that these are good enough:

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

with some bits of wire. Maybe.

[Beard]

20 minutes ago, CedB said:

Thanks Simon - order cancelled and a lucky escape by the sounds of it! I need to do some more research before I jump in

 

I wasn't suggesting you don't purchase it... buy kits in haste and repent at leisure is my motto.

[jrlx]

15 minutes ago, Beard said:

 

I wasn't suggesting you don't purchase it... buy kits in haste and repent at leisure is my motto.

I have much to repent for...

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[bbudde]

Hello 16 € or so are a bit much for that kit. You could easily buy an Italeri for that. But the engines are very prominent on that plane. I don't know, if engine and things are still alive, but they made nice and cheap ones. You could also easily use some Italeri spares or copies (I guess it could be used from most german twins there) which are not bad at all. Better than these ones of course. You could use wire to fix them a bit more. As you don't like scratching too much, I think it's not an option for you to make new cylinder by a round plastic rod and a thread cutter Cheers

 

Wiki says that

Eingebaut wurde der BMW 132 in eine Vielzahl bekannter Flugzeugmuster, so neben der Junkers Ju 52 und der Ju 86 auch in die Junkers W 34 hi. Zusammen mit dem Langstreckenpassagierflugzeug Focke-Wulf Fw 200 erlangte der Motor 1938 internationale Aufmerksamkeit, nachdem damit der erfolgreiche Nonstopflug von Deutschland nach New York gelungen war.

Weiter wurde der Motor verwendet in den Flugzeugen Dornier Do 17 P, Junkers Ju 46, Junkers Ju 90, Junkers Ju 160, Arado Ar 95, Arado Ar 195, Arado Ar 196, Arado Ar 197, Heinkel He 114, Heinkel He 115, Henschel Hs 122, Henschel Hs 123, Henschel Hs 124, Blohm & Voss BV 141 A, Dornier Do 18 L, Blohm & Voss Ha 137 A, Blohm & Voss Ha 140, Blohm & Voss BV 142 und Focke-Wulf Fw 62.

So you can take them from any kind of kits of these definetly. Maybe a modified Bristol Mercury for that is also possible and look like BMW 132

Last but not least you could write a letter to Revell X, Airfix or Italeri to get some exchanges for a bit money

Edited September 17, 2017 by bbudde

[CedB]

Thanks Simon Don't worry, I was doubtful about the engine(s) anyway so some time to ponder is in order! great motto though.

Thanks Jaime - there is pleasure in the purchase and fondling of kits. It's only when you start assembly that the pain starts!

Thanks Benedikt Yes, I'll try some wire... the resin engine I had ordered was suitable for 'anything with a radial' it would seem!

 

Being called for lunch - more later.

[Spookytooth]

2 minutes ago, CedB said:

Being called for lunch - more later.

Bon appetite Ced and Lady H.

 

Simon.

[Dermo245]

Look forward to seeing you work your magic on this one Ced !

[CedB]

Thanks Simon

Thanks Dermot - very kind

 

Where was I? Oh yes, is the kit worth spending a lot on resin engines...

 

One place (so far) where the ribs are messed up. It's on the top of the fuselage / side of the roof:

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

I've prodded it with tools.

The internals have some of the most poorly placed ejector marks but then all but two get covered by other parts:

 

 

The bulkhead, seats and floor have been assembled and placed in the fuselage while the glue dries:

 

 

and then the whole lot got blasted with Aqua Color 45, thinned with Cookie's thinners:

 

 

So far it's not looking like £17s worth of engines so I'm going to try Benedikt's idea of scratching the kit ones. They've had a coat of Mr Metal Color Iron:

 

 

Note the one that's slightly apart from the others - that's the one with the holes in the back for the exhausts.

 

The crew are ready though:

 

 

I think the gunner's face has been blasted smooth by dust in the airstream, poor chap. He obviously couldn't do anything about it, what with his hands being stuck together. Sad.

[Nigel Heath]

Holly ejector pin horror!

[bbudde]

The problem with the engine is,  that the cylinder are too small in diameter. You can only solve that, if you wrap a small copper rod around each cylinder or you make bigger ones with a thred cutter

And the front covers seem to be incorrect if the Italeri ones are correct which seems to be:

 

Pilots looking good as usual. Nice sink marks!! 8,8 cm flak hits caused by friendly fire?

 

Edited September 17, 2017 by bbudde

[giemme]

Nice crew, horrible pin marks!

 

Ciao

[Max Headroom]

Coming along nicely. That's some grievous mould wear on the ribbing. A small needle file run gently backwards and forwards over the offending area and then a quick wipe with extra thin cement may improve matters.

 

Trevor

[Whofan]

Ced,

 

looking at the colour of the uniforms you've painted the crew, I think I've worked out your surprising twist in the tail on this build - they are actually a downed RAF crew and they are going to steal the JU 52 and fly it back to Britain, aren't they?

 

What's that ? Err .... no, I've only had a couple of glasses of wine for (blast) with lunch ........ hic.

 

If you ever find yourself at Munich airport with a spare couple of hours, they have a small aviation park ouside the airport and there's a Ju52 there.As we were periolously close to missing our flight back, we barely had a couple of minutes left to look at the planes as we swept regally past it in our hired skoda octavia.

[greggles.w]

4 minutes ago, Whofan said:

 

Now I see why you were contemplating aftermarket engines Ced - the kit ones clearly have one too many cylinders!!

[TonyTiger66]

Nicely painted crew as always Ced.

 

Here's an idea to throw into the mix regarding the engines:

 

Perhaps Airfix based them on the Prototype Ju-53/3M which was fitted Pratt and Whitney R-1340 radial engines?

 

I'm having difficulty finding a public domain photograph of the prototype, but here's a Boeing F4B-1 fitted with one giving the overall engine appearance:

 

 

 

The first two Ju-52/3Mce are stated to have had BMW Hornet (440hp) engines. Here's a picture of a JU-53/3Mce.

 

 

Airfix could also perhaps  have based it on this (earlier) configuration?

 

Revell's box art for quite a famous early JU-52 (I have this kit too in 1/48 - it's huge!):

 

 

Note the engine front vented covers (protective?).

 

The 1/72 Italeri kit does include the frontal, vented engine cover (well, my passenger variant and Revell boxed 1/72 floatplane do). It appears that these were often fitted to the BMW 132's 

 

A problem with looking at museum Ju-52's for reference (I should have mentioned before) is that many have their origin as (Spanish built -he's off again  ) CASA 352's, and some as (French Built) Toucan's; each having their own appearance related idiosyncrasies.

 

Also some of the most famous original ones on the circuit had quite radical surgery post WWII.

 

My favourite Ju-52 kit in 1/72 is the Heller kit. The corrugation effect is really fine. Lovely model; completely different tooling to the Airfix one.

 

I know that you quite like ebooks Ced; this is a very reasonably priced one on the Ju-52:

 

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Ju_52_3m_Bomber_and_Transport.html?id=NvAmDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

 

Robert Forsyth also has published (with a Co author) a vast book on the Ju-52, but this one is good for quick historical data relevant to all models; not just transports.

 

Regarding the Hannants engines; I need no less than eight  BMW-132 engines in 1/72!! All I can find are Vector; lovely but priced accordingly. I wondered what you had found at Hannants for  £5 or thereabouts?

 

The engines are for two Revell FW-200 passenger aircraft models.

 

Apologies for another long post - just trying to be helpful (and to try to help boost your mojo) .

 

Best regards 

TonyfartoomanyJu52kitsTiger.

 

Edit: I spent quite a while writing  and editing this, then noticed that although Airfix have provided  the engine covers, as Benedikt points out, they don't look right. Even for very early variants . 

[Pete in Lincs]

On 9/15/2017 at 7:40 PM, bbudde said:

 Quite imagine what noise 1000 bombers inflight did made. Must be very frightening then

Can't do 1000. Will 197 be enough? A BBC man was trying to record birdsong late one night in 1942....

 

BTW, Ced, I seem to have 1 1/2 floats in the spares box. The errant half is lost in the mists of time. (It's the back bit if anyone is sweeping out the TARDIS).