Ju 88A-4, Sicily, June 1941 (Revell 1/72) +++ Finished 19-08-2016 +++

[Nigel Heath]

Nice, good luck with those PE gun barrels, they look tricky.

[jrlx]

Thanks for your interest and support, Nigel!

While I'm "sleeping over" the problems of the PE for the canopy and guns, I've taken care of the seams and steps in the wings and control surfaces. I still need to apply some minimal putty. I'll post an update later today.

Cheers

Jaime

[SJLR_1]

Awesome work!! Love it ​

[jrlx]

Hi SJLR_1, thanks for your interest and very kind words! Really much appreciated!

Hi again,

This Sunday I spent more than five hours treating the seams of wings, control surfaces, tail plane and fin, main gear wheels and bombs. A lot of filling and sanding was involved, mainly using sanding sticks (from MX100 to MX600 grit in succession for each seam) and, sometimes, a round-section file.

In the following picture we can see, from top to bottom: ailerons, flaps, tail fins and tail plane stabilisers, port wing and starboard wing:

I had to treat the seams in the leading and trailing edges of each part.

In the case of the wings, I also had to eliminate the step between the main part of the wing and the wing tip, that existed on the undersides. This was done, first, with a round-section file, followed by sanding sticks. I tried to avoid damaging, as much as possible, the surrounding areas but some damage to a few panel lines was inevitable.

The following series of pictures show the end results for the wings.

Here's the top view of the wing tip join of the port wing:

The underside of the join of the same wing:

The front view of the join area confirms the elimination of the step:

The rear view also confirms the elimination of the step:

Here's the top view of the wing tip join of the starboard wing:

The underside of the join of the same wing:

The front view of the join area confirms the elimination of the step:

The rear view also confirms the elimination of the step:

I still have to apply some putty to finish with the seam treatment. After that, I'll have to rescribe a few panel lines. I've checked diagrams of Ju 88 A4 wings online and, apparently, there was a panel line along the joins of the wing tips. So, these will have to be kept.

Next, I treated the joins of the main gear wheels. The picture shows the wheel on the left still untreated, while the wheel on the right is already treated:

The following picture shows both wheels treated and the tire markings rescribed. I may have to perfect the rescribing after applying some primer:

Finally, I took care of the seams on the bombs. Here we can see the two pairs of bombs. The bomb on the back for each pair has the seams already treated, while the bomb on the front for each pair is untreated.

In the last picture, all bombs are treated:

I apologise for such a boring post, but I'm afraid this step of the build was really essential.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

Jaime

[CedB]

Good work Jaime. I would be happy with the wheels and their 'worn tread' but I'm much lazier than you!

You've hidden the wing tip joins really well and the other parts look really tidy.

[jrlx]

Thanks, Ced! Very kind!

Cheers

Jaime

[vppelt68]

If I was Mr. Revell or Mrs. Eduard I´d ask for your permission to use this build as reference/marketing stuff for their products! V-P

[jrlx]

Thanks, that's very kind, vppelt68

Cheers

Jaime

[PlaStix]

Hi Jaime. All you patient work is definitely paying off - it's all tidying up beautifully.

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Thanks, Stix! Last night I didn't do any modelling work. Hopefully, today I'll take care of the areas still needing putty and cut the guns off the sprues to test fit them in the clear parts. There's still a bit of work to do before I can start painting.

Cheers

Jaime

[mcdonnell]

Hello,Jaime - There's nothing boring about your WIP. It's clinical precision work and educational. All the very best,Paul.

[jrlx]

Thank you, Paul! Your kind support and interest are always much welcome and appreciated!

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hi again,

A small update, with work done tonight, though nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid: I've applied putty to the joins that were still visible in the parts already filed and sanded. I diluted Squadron's white putty with Gunze's enamel thinner and applied the diluted putty with a small nº 1 brush.

Just a few pictures.

Control surfaces, tail plane and fin, showing diluted putty applied along the edges:

The same for one of the main gear tires and the noses of the bigger bombs:

And also on the wings:

Putty was also applied on the ejector marks inside the landing gear fairings:

The putty will now dry for at least 24 hours, before being sanded.

Thanks for looking.

Jaime

[Nigel Heath]

Good looking work that will come out nicely I'm sure.

[jrlx]

Thanks Nigel! Your encouragement is always deeply appreciated!

Cheers

Jaime

[mcdonnell]

Hello,Jaime - This model is going to be built better than the real thing! All the very best,Paul.

[jrlx]

Thank you very much, Paul! You're being way too kind... I hope I won't disappoint...

Cheers

Jaime

[lyn]

very nice work

[jrlx]

Hi Lyn,

Thank you very much for your interest and kind words, much appreciated!

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hi again,

Here's an update of tonight's work.

First, I checked how to install the PE rings inside the back canopy parts and the respective machine-guns.

As shown in the picture below, the machine-gun is unable to pass through the openings in the PE ring and on the rotating circular window, due to the large size of the sight on top of the barrel and also due to the leather sleeve behind the barrel, which covered the opening on the rotating window:

The kit's instructions show that the machine guns should first be installed on the circular windows (before glueing the windows to the canopy parts, their openings are open ended, making installation easier) and, then, the circular window/machine-gun sub-assemblies should be glued to the back canopy parts. This avoids the problem of passing the machine guns through the openings but complicates painting. Anyway, this is something to be aware of by those building the kit OOB.

However, the PE instructions show that the gun barrels and sights will be replaced by PE parts:

Therefore, by glueing the circular windows to the canopy parts, I didn't create more trouble than what I would have anyway. I will have to remove the barrels and cut the rest of the guns behind the leather sleeves, as these must be installed from the exterior, in order to cover the circular windows' openings completely. Then, I'll glue the PE barrels and sights.

Installing the PE ammo belts, shown in the PE instructions, though, will be nightmarish, I think...

On the other hand, the PE rings have a bend mark across the opening through which I was expecting to pass the gun barrels. This is shown on the ring on the left hand side of the picture below. After bending, we get the ring on the right hand side of the picture.

Eduard's instructions don't mention this bend but doing this simplifies the installation of the guns, since now they are just supported on the semi-circle thus created, instead of having to pass through the openings.

After all these tests and reflections on the best way to install the guns in the canopy, I test fitted the rings. As I had seen previously, they don't fit properly over the circular windows. Therefore, I tried to make more room by carefully removing plastic from the inner side walls of the canopy parts, on the areas that will have to be painted near the circular windows. This didn't completely solve the misalignments. So, I trimmed the outer edge of the PE rings in the sections that get in contact with the canopy's inner walls.

The picture shows the ring on the right already trimmed. The ring on the left is still unchanged.

Doing this, I managed to get a proper alignment of ring and circular window:

The other ring was also trimmed and a proper alignment was also achieved. Here are both rings ready for painting and installation:

With this matter solved, I cut the machine-guns off the runners (not sprues, as clarified by Ced ), cleaned all moulding lines and glued the parts to toothpicks, ready for priming and painting. From left to right we see the front facing canopy gun, and the two rear facing canopy guns:

There's a fourth machine-gun, to be installed on the cockpit access hatch, located on the ventral gondola of the aircraft. It's a double-barrelled machine-gun (both barrels will be replaced by PE) and it is made up of two plastic parts:

Here they are glued together. I had to do this because only the barrels will be removed and the plastic behind them will be kept but it was divided between the two parts:

To finish with, here are all four machine-guns glued to toothpicks and ready for priming and painting:

All this took me more than two hours (not including the time needed to resize and reshape the pictures, and writing this post).

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

Jaime

[CedB]

The Patience of Jaime - great detailed work there, good job Sir.

[jrlx]

Thank you Ced! I hope my latest threads are not too boring...

Cheers

Jaime

[PlaStix]

Hi Jaime - not boring in the slightest! It's always fascinating to see the level of detail you go to to improve your models. Your work with the PE is evidence of this. Well done.

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Thank you very much, Stix! Your kind words and support are always much welcome!

Cheers

Jaime

[mcdonnell]

Thank you very much, Paul! You're being way too kind... I hope I won't disappoint...

Cheers

Jaime

I know you won't!