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When 3 Become 1 - Converting an Italeri Ju52/3m to a Ju52/1m *** COMPLETED ***


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So the moving part of the fin was changed at some time. That is something I hadn't noticed. I have my sights set on a different plane and it has a different fin than the Canadian plane.

 

Looking at pictures i notice that the "slooping" rudder is used both while the orange stripe are present and also on the no stripe livery while the "square type" of rudder only are visible on the striped plane.

 

I mounted my single engined Ford Trimotor on skis as I thought it suited an Alaska aircraft so skis on the Canadian Ju52/1m is soooo right.

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Thanks Björn, I was edging towards doing the swept-back rudder, and given that it was used on the aircraft in its striped livery and skis, I think that's definitely where I'm headed with this!

 

In the meantime, though, some more progress on the nose job - the two engine covers were made from some scrap 0.5mm styrene sheet, bent over the shaft of a screwdriver to get the desired shape. From another diagram I saw that there is a fixed strip down the centre of the nose from the front of the canopy to the front of the engine compartment, so I fixed that in place (at one end at the moment):

 

z5KP1rZ.jpg

 

A quick dry-fit of the engine covers and it's starting to look like a nose:

 

CLQpgm9.jpg

 

I then used a bit more of the same styrene sheet to close off the mid upper gunner's position:

 

pg9TnmE.jpg

 

It still needs a bit of a tidy up, but then I will be able to get some corrugations on there.

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

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That is some nice work on the new nose! And here I am balking at doing my Ju-52 Spanish Civil War bomber conversion, and I've already got all the conversion bits as part of an AM set (Owl Decals - nice set).

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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16 hours ago, Courageous said:

Good looking nose job

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, much appreciated - the bandages should be coming off soon :)

16 hours ago, Learstang said:

That is some nice work on the new nose! And here I am balking at doing my Ju-52 Spanish Civil War bomber conversion, and I've already got all the conversion bits as part of an AM set (Owl Decals - nice set).

 

Regards,

 

Jason

Thanks Jason, looking forward to you making a start on that! I would like to do a Spanish Civil War subject at some stage.

 

Anyways, a bit more progress - having established that the roof hatch is in the right place, I decided that for added interest I would show it in the open position. So, I cut it out:

 

2yAfamC.jpg

 

Also, the mid upper gunner's position is now but a mere memory - well it will be once I've foiled the fuselage, hopefully:

 

N7Pa7rN.jpg

 

Getting there! :)

 

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Finally, the port wing is zipped up:

 

FzdGhBw.jpg

 

Fortunately I looked more closely at the lower wing half before doing so - I had forgotten there is a dirty great aperture there for what I can only presume is a landing light! So I stuck the clear part for the glass cover, then stuck an off-cut of aluminium tape over it to provide the reflector:

 

jc8Kt5P.jpg

 

Another faltering step in the right direction! :)

 

Just for laughs, a rough dry-fit of the bits I've changed so far:

 

GwTRI7j.jpg

 

What's really funny is... it is now too long to fit in my display cabinet! :unsure:

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, clive_t said:

Also, the mid upper gunner's position is now but a mere memory

You're getting rather proficient at this corrugation malarkey.

2 hours ago, clive_t said:

What's really funny is... it is now too long to fit in my display cabinet!

...size does matter. :rofl:

 

Stuart 

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Not much in the way of progress today as real life has intervened, but I can report that I am going to be looking at the cockpit soon. First up, however, it should be acknowledged that as far as the instrument panel is concerned, the italeri offering is a little weak:

 

bAPUGuK.jpg

 

The IP detail is in the form of a rather ordinary-looking decal. So I took a cast of the Heller one, which is a lot more detailed:

 

4ieNLl1.jpg

 

I feel ok about doing this as I have no intention of selling the Heller kit (I want to do that one as a mine hunter).

 

Also, aside from the issue of having 3 throttle levers, there are differences in the control columns - namely, in the 1m version there appears to be only one - a Y shaped column. So, some additional work to be done there.

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I would say that the Heller instrument panel is to advanced for this plane. Have a look at page 17 in the brochure.  

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8V8yQ1v99sPE5-lkFsqb

The Y-column is interesting. I wonder how many planes had it? Early three engine planes had this type were the wheel could swing over to the other seat. I know that Ju52 No 4017 had it.

Edited by Orso
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53 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Loving this; that re-worked nose is excellent. 

Thank you sir, much appreciated.

55 minutes ago, Courageous said:

What is that blue stuff you're using?

 

Stuart

Stuart, it's called 'Siligum', available from Hobbycraft and the Range, and very likely other places too:

 

ALLdTGj.jpg

 

You thoroughly mix together an equal amount of each material enough to cover what you want to copy, so that it's a smooth even light blue colour (no white/blue streaks), then put it on a suitable flat surface and press whatever you are looking to copy into it, then let it set (takes a couple of minutes or more, depending on how much you've mixed)

 

 

1 hour ago, Orso said:

I would say that the Heller instrument panel is to advanced for this plane. Have a look at page 17 in the brochure.  

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8V8yQ1v99sPE5-lkFsqb

The Y-column is interesting. I wonder how many planes had it? Early three engine planes had this type were the wheel could swing over to the other seat. I know that Ju52 No 4017 had it.

 Yes, you're right - having re-read the article from April 1981, this shows it very well:

 

A2pYmlw.jpg

 

With apologies and full credit to the publishers of the journal LUFTFAHRT INTERNATIONAL Nr. 2 - 4/1981 - reproduced here for discussion purposes only, however I will of course take it down if required.

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Courageous said:

...and, what do you use to make the casting?

Have never done this before, can you tell.

 

Stuart

All I did was make a rough disc shape with the mixed putty, then flatten it a bit to give a flat surface, then push the part (in my case the Heller IP part) into that flat surface. Leave it a few minutes for the stuff to go off, and the master should just peel out of the putty disc. Thereafter, make your copy from whatever you want - I've tried PVA but it dries clear so it's not immediately obvious how good a copy it is. It's possible that something like Milliput would show it better, although Milliput does shrink a small amount when dried. I'll try it tonight and see how it looks tomorrow :)

 

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Slightly academic now as I think I am going to scratch an IP, but for interest here are the results of my first 2 attempts at casting.

 

1. PVA:

 

eFpulA5.jpg

 

Hmm, ok... moving on...

 

2. Milliput:

 

5Qk4QdE.jpg

 

That's a bit more like it - although a good deal of sanding down awaits, and always with the risk of it shattering into a million or more molecules!

 

I am currently giving it a go with some of my home made liquid plastic, to see how that fares. I shall share a pic of that when it's cured.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi all, well it's been a fair while since I set this little escapade aside in favour of experiments with foiling, as well as garden railway engineering. I was contemplating starting something new, but instead I have decided that now is the time to return to it.

 

I think I will have to scratch an IP, so leaving that for a moment I looked at the fuselage sides - specifically the window arrangement. This was an area where there was a major design change between the single engine and the 3m versions: they were originally fewer in number, and were 'porthole' style set in hinged panels that could be used to quickly and efficiently stow or remove smaller parcels into/from the cargo hold. Here's my interpretation of the drawings on the port side:

 

hH1GXm8.jpg

 

I then borrowed the wife's crafting hole punch, which for a stroke of luck was the perfect size, and punched out the portholes. One of the punched out 'chads' was used to fill in the porthole aft of the loading bay doors:

 

vLGjmaW.jpg

 

Then I reinstated the corrugations using yet more styrene rod:

 

GyBw01w.jpg

 

Not forgetting the blanked out porthole of course:

 

6Be3Z7B.jpg

 

I then made a start on the starboard fuselage. On this side, there are two additional doors, including one for the pilot's access:

 

Hj5q6S1.jpg

 

That's as far as I've got with it - still the porthole windows to fit,of course, and a single door aft of the wing.

 

Thanks for watching! :)

 

 

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Just found this Clive. What an interesting subject - a Tante Ju with only one engine! I am extremely impressed with your home made corrugations - they are the best that I have seen and far from easy to make and keep so consistent. The nose alterations are also right up there with the best - in all a most interesting and enjoyable read so far. I shall be more attentive in future now that I have found this.

 

P

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I'm happy to see you back at it. You are doing a great job with the conversion.  I really should restart on mine. It would make a good companion to the single engine Ford "Trimotor" but I'll just follow your build instead.

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On 7/16/2019 at 10:41 PM, pheonix said:

Just found this Clive. What an interesting subject - a Tante Ju with only one engine! I am extremely impressed with your home made corrugations - they are the best that I have seen and far from easy to make and keep so consistent. The nose alterations are also right up there with the best - in all a most interesting and enjoyable read so far. I shall be more attentive in future now that I have found this.

 

P

Thanks Mr Phoenix, glad to have you along!

On 7/17/2019 at 3:32 AM, Orso said:

I'm happy to see you back at it. You are doing a great job with the conversion.  I really should restart on mine. It would make a good companion to the single engine Ford "Trimotor" but I'll just follow your build instead.

Thanks Björn, it was a bit of a mental struggle to rejoin the battle with this - sometimes I think too much about how difficult things are going to be instead of just getting on with it. I think you should revisit yours and of course share your progress :)

 

A bit more progress today - this afternoon the pilot's side access door was cut from yet more thin styrene:

 

9H8CUsD.jpg

 

You can probably just make out on the right side where I had to add a thin shim to the fuselage adjacent to the forward edge of the access - some overzealous trimming meant I had made the hole slightly too wide! Ah well, no real harm done.

 

Then this evening I took the plunge and cut out the window section, and made up a panel from another offcut of styrene sheet to fill the gap - also ensuring that it fitted with the single door that will also be on the starboard side:

 

YfBBop5.jpg

 

Looks a reasonable fit:

 

wrZSoCx.jpg

 

Next up, I need to cut out the window panels and their portholes as before - hopefully I will get a chance at this tomorrow.

 

Thanks as ever for watching :)

 

 

 

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I've been a bit busy recently and only managed to catch up with this remarkable build. Exceptional skills your displaying there Clive.

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Thanks for the kind words, Gorby, they are very much appreciated.

 

As hoped, this morning I managed to mark out the window flaps and the portholes:

 

0GZRa1n.jpg

 

It was then a relatively simple matter to punch out the portholes, cut the permanent pieces from the window flaps, and glue those permanent pieces to the fuselage:

 

TgyJ1mg.jpg

 

I need to leave this now for a little while to go off, before attempting to apply the corrugations.

 

Thanks for watching :thumbsup2:

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A bit more progress this afternoon.

 

From the few reference photos I have of the starboard side of the aircraft, the pilot's side access door appears to have much smaller corrugations than the main fuselage. To try and replicate that, I stepped away from the styrene rod, and instead looked at making some corrugated panels from a casting of one of the wing tips (which appears to also have these smaller corrugations). I painted on a thin layer of melted sprue goop, and left it to set:

 

1WBVyuY.jpg

 

After several abortive attempts (each failure prompting some short sharp Anglo Saxon invective) I finally hit upon the idea of sticking the panel face down on the painted goop and allowing the whole thing to set solid:

 

0iGRLDl.jpg

 

This finally gave me a passable result, once I'd trimmed off the excess:

 

9SRu9BX.jpg

 

I'll be doing the other side too as there is some interior detail on this door that I could feasibly model. That will be for another time, though.

 

I also took another look at the top loading access hatch that I had cut out previously. I want to pose this model with the hatch (and other doors) open, however it's a bit on the thick side for me to try and detail the underside. So, I started making my own from thin styrene sheet:

 

fuCN4o4.jpg

 

OsO7gPx.jpg

 

I then used another cast of the roof to create a corrugated panel for the underside, in a similar manner to the pilot's access door:

 

v6QSzwk.jpg

 

Fortunately I have a fairly decent reference photo that shows the interior of the hatch to good effect, so I merely emulated the look with thin styrene rod:

 

ENrpCW3.jpg

 

I've made a cast of the fuselage side (aft of the door) which might prove useful when it comes to corrugating my modified sections. I'll see what it looks like and decide whether to use this method, or the styrene rod method.

 

It's a fair bet I'll be using it for corrugating the fuselage interior!

 

Thanks for watching! :)

 

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