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Revell JU-86 Z2 (airliner)


Killingholme

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OK, this one is my 'Everest'.

It will eventually be a JU86 airliner marked D-AFFT, which was photographed at Malmi, Finland in October 1939 whilst operating clandestine PR sorties. Eventual livery will be overall RLM63, civil serials/ Lufthansa logos, and Luftwaffe wing crosses.

The kit is a bodge job from Revell. They added a civil fuselage to their military JU86 kit. I believe the civil fuselage parts were shared with Italeri (who revell partnered with at the time). Italeri release the same civil fuselage, but mated it the short-lived diesel engined nacalles rather than radials. The Revell kit is more representative of the type.

Everything else in the box is for the military version (machine guns, turret parts, bomb bay doors, flight-suited aircrew.)

So it is no exageration to say that the fit between the fuselage and wing is so bad you do wonder whether they were from seperate kits....

I got so frustrated I got to the third attempt to get the wings on, and when I'd just about suceeded in getting them on and setting the correct dihedral, I decided that I had made such a mess of the wingroot to just give up (back when I was a real beginner, 3mm gaps between parts were just something I couldn't handle.

So here we go....

P1010057.jpg

P1010060.jpg

Here you can see the bomb bays which I suppose were never designed to be glued shut, and so need a lot of filling. I guess the civilian version also didn't require the passengers to exit the aircraft through the floor (!) so the crew access door also needs eliminating.

P1010061.jpg

see that dark smudge on the right? That's where I sanded almost through the parts getting the profile of the lower fuselage to match the aerofoil section of the wing. A happy coincidcne of all this sanding is that the trailing edges are actually a vast improvement in thickness over the kit parts!

P1010065.jpg

Edited by Killingholme
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Hi Will

I've got a couple of these waiting to be done in my stash (one bomber, one airliner), but judging by what you've said so far it looks as though they may be staying there for some time!

Good luck with yours.

Cliff

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Cheers for the welcome guys,

I Wouldn't worry Cliff- it is 'classic kit' type of poor fit- a chap of your skills would have no problems. Indeed, it was the fact that this was about the third model I ever attempted (the subject matter interested me) and it was beyond my skills to do much about it back then.

Bit of sanding and filling today and...

P1010068.jpg

Not quite there, but shouldn't take long to eliminate those few remaining issues.

What is a real blasted pain is the blob of glue in the wheel well. I can't for the life of me think how to scrape it away- I just can't seem to get to it!

Will

Edited by Killingholme
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What is a real blasted pain is the blob of glue in the wheel well. I can't for the life of me think how to scrape it away- I just can't seem to get to it!

Will

What about a wood chisel? Just work at it slowly and it might whittle it away? Nice work so far

Andy

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Thanks for the advice Andy- I tried a chisel. but the angle of attack was too steep (necessitated by the depth of the wheel wells) I have suceeded in using your chisel idea to remove a great deal of the 'blob'.

Current state of play-

overall RLM63 (mix of Humbrol #64+ #31 + and god knows what else until it looked ok) Typically, I forgot to do the carriage doors, but I did at least remember to paint the nacelles and cabin door.

P1010083.jpg

The detail on the single piece engines is actually really very good- comparable to anything 21st century I'd say. Look forward to painting and adding a wee bit of detail to these.

P1010085.jpg

Will

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That looks really nice, I don't think I've seen one with radials built. I'll follow this one with interest.

The kit was a real challenge to find- I think it has only been reissued once since the original version in the 80s. Conversely, Italeri has released the diesel (inline) engined version fairly regularly over the past 20 years. It doesn't command even half as much on the 2nd hand market.

Now a question- does anyone know the type of font the Germans used for civil serial letters??

nope- thought not.... ^_^

Will

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  • 1 year later...

hi there, how did you get on with your Ju.86 build, i was thinking of making one in similar quasi military scheme too, do you have any references for the Lufthansa one you mentioned at Malmi with wing crosses, definately be a nice touch to finish

cheers, joe

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