vppelt68 Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 (L.A. of course stands for Luftwaffe Arctic. That's the effect of me reading all novels written by James Ellroy) I wrote on December 1, 2017 in this GB Chat section: "I'm tempted to add an Arctic maritime recon Ju 88 D from 1.(F)/22 from Banak to keep company to my KG 26 A-4 torp and KG 30 A-4, from Banak too." So, that means my second option, a B-25 shall wait for the North-American GB. In a book by Hannu Valtonen about the Luftwaffe´s Northern Flank in Finland and Norway, he quotes the Westa 5 historic (Wetterflieger in der Arktis), which states that in the early hours of 14.9.1942, while hunting the PQ-18 convoy, they were replacing on patrol duty an airplane being "a rare stalker at sea: a Ju88, with a new kind of electronic seeker device, with which ships could be spotted in total darkness or flying in clouds" (that, my friends, was my translation to English from Finnish translated from German!) I think that electronic seeker device must have been nothing else but that FuG 200 Hohentwiel marine search radar (yes, John at AIMS shall receive another order from me shortly! EDIT: done). In the book "100 Years of Radar" (no link there!) it says "The first operating set dates back to September 1942..." which is a very good match! I don´t have that Westa 5 book yet - but I bought this one this morning; 5,99€ incl p&p . Other recommended reading for those interested in Luftwaffe operating "up north" is this one (got it!, a great read!), this one and the Norwegian Luftwaffe SIG Special #5 .pdf about the Ju 88 in Norway - which is absolutely priceless, mange takk! In that reference it says for 1.(F)/22 that "Mot slutten av krigen fikk avdelingen noen ganske få Ju 88A-6. En av disse (4N+CH) hadde dessuten FuG 200 radar i nesen og to 300 l. droptanker under vingene ~ Towards the end of the war, unit got some Ju 88 A-6:s. One of these (4N+CH) had in addition to the FuG 200 radar in the nose also two 300l. drop tanks under its wings". I´m sure one of our Norwegian friends will correct me if I got that translation wrong! About that mystery aircraft; I do have a lot of modellers' license at my disposal and oh boy am I going to put it to good use! I have a 1:72 Revell Ju 88 A-4 kit which will receive some modifications to represent an A-4/Ho maritime patrol variant. So not a D. And not that A-6 mentioned above. But more about that later! Best regards, V-P 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 First plastic was cut - and glued. Wingtips, empennage, ailerons and flaps were assembled. EDIT: that´s one stinking lousy picture 😠. Gotta do better than this! This seven piece marvel of model engineering was also assembled. They say in reviews, that Revell and Airfix B-17:s have great interior detail - if that's the case, what do they call this, then? Aw but painting that will take a year - or five minutes, depending on what's good enough for its builder. You know me, it'll be a coat of Hu 67 and that's it . V-P 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 How a little is too a little not to post a "progress" pic? Since two of the three most intimidating things in this Junkers build are adding the PE antenna and removing the BoLa, I'm happy to show one of them is now done. A little, but still so much, done V-P 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Interesting subject you are attempting V-P, good to see a start 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted February 18, 2019 Author Share Posted February 18, 2019 Building these Revell Ju 88:s is sooo nice. Good fit, no flash at all and fine surface detail. I can' t help but compare this kit to their, and even more to Airfix's, newish B-17:s; nice kits though they are, they are still several notches down from the level they could, and should, be! As I'm allowed some modellers' license in my build, the big question is should I choose light blue or black lower surfaces... late summer - early autumn in the Arctic region means short and well lit nights, so I guess I'll go for the blue. A general view of the commotion. V-P 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 I've glued, filled, sanded and painted lots of subassemblies and the build goes on very smoothly. More kits like this, please! The only pic I post is of the cockpit portside sill and rear bulkhead assembly. That's eight parts in the picture. After adding the seats and rear mg (single position) ammo rack I'm ready to join all the front fuselage parts together. V-P 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Looks suitably detailed for the amount of glass covering it, Nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted February 28, 2019 Author Share Posted February 28, 2019 Time for an update, though the build has progressed with very small and slooooow steps... Removing the BoLa and crafting the new hatch wasn't my cup of tea, but it's too late to change that. So here's the chinless Junkers and a glimpse of intimidating photoetch antenna I need to assemble, sooner than I'd wish! Probably the last close pic of the place that once had the chin. The wings are just pushed in place to help keep her upright, erm, upsidedown! V-P 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 That's coming together very nicely V-P. Good luck with the PE, I'm sure you'll enjoy it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Photo etch aerials this early in the build? From your comment, I guess you have no choice, but I'd try to find a way around that if I could - good luck keeping them in shape and attached ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 3, 2019 Author Share Posted March 3, 2019 Luckily, I may be better in organizing a build sequence than writing my build thread. Indeed, the antenna will be one of the very last parts to add, but I must start building the individual antennas before they can be added to the fuselage. There are four tiny parts added to each of the three frames. I'm scared of it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Ah, preparation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 When you have a good tin of good old Humbrol enamels, it makes the sun shine on you. I found out I still had a pair of very good Hu91 and Hu117 tins, which are good choices for RLM 71 and RLM 70. Last night, I first painted the whole ´88 with Hu117. This morning at a quarter to eight she looked like this, after curing overnight: A few minutes to nine I had her masked for the splinter scheme -phew- but when you´re not too precise about every corner it´s doable: Half an hour later I had the Hu91 brushed on: Just a quarter of an hour later I had found the paint dry enough to remove the masks - well not all of them, as the clear parts need to stay covered until the very end. Voilá! Of course, first a clear varnish under the decals and then matt varnish over them will wreak havoc with the contrast but at least right now I like that very much! Here´s a look from 12 o´clock low; I put those radiator faces and props on just for looks. In @JOCKNEY's Scourge of the Atlantic thread there was discussion whether Hu65 is good for RLM65 straight from the tin. Well, that´s how one of my Hu65 tins makes my kit look like, and I like it as is. V-P EDIT: Ok, one more to go, as I added some parts and subassemblies I had at hand and couldn´t resist adding. Yes, the paintwork needs some touching up to do, as usual. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 Paintwork looks great V-P. Taking notes on colours ( were Finnish JU-88s painted in the same colours?) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 13, 2019 Author Share Posted March 13, 2019 Thank you Ray, and indeed most of our Heavy-Stukas remained in as-delivered paint scheme until the end. To be honest, yesterday as I got her painted I did say to myself, that if this model would have retained the BoLa and bulged twin rear mg positions, I'd have changed my mind and Finnished her 🙂 V-P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 17 hours ago, vppelt68 said: Thank you Ray, and indeed most of our Heavy-Stukas remained in as-delivered paint scheme until the end. To be honest, yesterday as I got her painted I did say to myself, that if this model would have retained the BoLa and bulged twin rear mg positions, I'd have changed my mind and Finnished her 🙂 V-P 2 ... if this model would have retained the BoLa and bulged twin rear mg positions, ... So does any kit come this way out of the box in 1/72? I have the Airfix JU-88A4 for my planned FAF build. I am quite ignorant when it comes the Ju and Me variants and modifications when it comes to the Finnish operated aircraft. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Nice work on the arctic patrol 88 ! 👍 I see what color to go for now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 14, 2019 Author Share Posted March 14, 2019 7 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said: So does any kit come this way out of the box in 1/72? I have the Airfix JU-88A4 for my planned FAF build. I am quite ignorant when it comes the Ju and Me variants and modifications when it comes to the Finnish operated aircraft. I´m not sure how much You want to punish yourself, Ray, But I like to build plastic models for joy and entertainment. That´s why I have dumped said Airfix kit for good! It would take a whole lot of work to look decent, and even then it´d be an A-5 and need some serious modifications to become an A-4. Do you have a typical brother-in-law or something similar you could donate that Airfix kit? I do respect those who go through the effort and build that kit, but will keep my hands clear of it for good! Because there are plenty of kits that bring you a decent to excellent result out-of-the-box. Hasegawa, Italeri, Revell and Zvezda. But not Airfix! To build a Finnish Ju 88 A-4 from Revell kit, all you need to add is the MG-FF to the nose, and not even all of them had that so you can actually build it out-of-the-box too. I gave my (German, though) model a few years ago the gun from an spare provided by a Revegawa He 111 H-6. Hasegawa has produced an Ju 88 A-14 boxing with the nose gun too. But adding the gun, in a not-museum-quality-way is simple: File the front piece of the ventral gondola flat above the oval bomb sight window: Either make a hole for the gun, or cut the gun in half and add the external part. Add other details per your taste. And something to represent the spent shells bag blocking the view through that oval window! Below you can see how the gun looks like from the inside, below the observers/bombardiers so called workstation, without the drum magazine... ...and then with it. In the true 1:72 scale, not much except the gun barrel poking outside and that drum magazine inside will ever be seen! Photo source: SA-kuva. Maybe these pics are unnecessary for your build, Ray, but I wanted to post them anyway 😁. V-P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ventora3300 Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Lovely paint job, V-P. I really love the Luftwaffe greens in the splinter camo pattern and the Hu65. I'm enjoying this build - just as well because I haven't forgotten the challenge I set myself to build the old Airfix Ju88 to see if it was really as bad as some have said. Maybe @Romeo Alpha Yankee will pioneer that difficult build). All the best. Mike. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 Some touch ups to do, then decals and drop tanks... Just three days to go, though! Let's not even start talking about that PE antenna, right!? V-P 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 is this now finished or not? My freelance Ju 88 is now done except that intimidating Hohentwiel antenna. These planes did fly patrol flights over the Arctic sea with and without the radar, mostly without. In their A-4:s they did use 900L drop tanks, removed the ventral gondola and armour to save weight; the single heavy mg position is more modellers license based, but A-6/u models appear to have been equipped with these. Well I have taken some pics and will post them in the gallery later today, if I end up saying yes, it is done for now. I'll add that antenna too, one day... maybe... but no chance of doing that in the next 10 or so hours! Thanks for the GB, @Robert Stuart and @Romeo Alpha Yankee! V-P 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Very nice @vppelt68, I hope to see this in the gallery ... you have just over 11 hours to get there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 One more pic with more colour, and the beef of this build: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 Hello V-P love the camouflage on your 88. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ventora3300 Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 Lovely build and final paint finish V-P, another beauty!. All the best. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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