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


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4 hours ago, Courageous said:

Internals are looking nicely detailed. i hope you're going to have all your doors open to show all that lovely work?

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, yes I will be posing as many doors open as possible. Failing that I'll make a miniature tin opener to open her up even more :D

 

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Morning all, had a great result (well, I think it is!) with my re-worked tail/rudder. The corrugations are now on, on one side:

 

6Z1fmd8.jpg

 

I found that trying to marry the custom corrugations to the retained existing corrugations on the tail fin was too difficult, so I filled the whole thing with PPP and sanded it smooth, before applying my own corrugation over the top of the whole thing. This looked much better.

 

I also detailed the small doors at the front on the starboard side:

 

nzjIfJs.jpg

 

Another of the fiddly jobs ticked off the list! :)

 

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Well, here's where I am so far with it. I now have a basic IP that is modelled on the reference pics I have of it, and a Y shaped control column. The same reference photos also seem to show the pilot's seat with something approximating to an arm rest, so I added that too:

 

uuGqbNS.jpg

 

I did a quick mock-up, using blu-tak to hold everything in place:

 

xE57kjJ.jpg

 

Not too bad!

 

I still need to add a co-pilot's seat, but in other photos there is the suggestion that this is a fold-up/down seat. If that is the case, I am going to model this in the folded-up position, thus to allow a better view of the interior detail.

 

Oddly, I can find no evidence of seat-belts, but there must surely have been some? I think I will wing that and just put something in place with thin strips of masking tape or similar.

 

Thanks for watching! :)

 

 

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Another brief update: paint is on the interior surfaces - well, most of them. Still have to do the side doors, but this is where we are right now:

 

aSRVFUh.jpg

 

Almost ready for buttoning up! I might leave the roof part off as long as I can, as I have some other ideas for the interior.

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2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

This is fab.  No other way of putting it.

Thank you sir, you are most kind.

2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

That is some extremely detailed interior work, I love it! How exactly did you redo the corrugations? The tail looks amazing.

 

Ian

Thanks Ian, not to your levels of intricacy but I am happy with it so far! The corrugations were effectively copied using a mould (made from two-part silicone rubber) that was pressed onto what I felt was the area of the aircraft that had the nearest sized (and spaced) corrugations. In to this mould I spread some liquid plastic (made from old sprue lumps dissolved in liquid poly) as thinly as I could, and left it to cure for around 30 minutes. I then removed the casting from the mould, cut and trimmed it to shape, and glued it in place. Simples!

 

 

55 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

Very good progress. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Greg, I hope to do exactly that by revealing a small but significant landmark moment. The closing up of the fuselage - all bar the roof section - has been a long time coming, but we're there:

 

VqYuvKv.jpg

 

Well, not quite. For some odd reason the bottom of the fuselage is a separate part:

 

HySgUte.jpg

 

No great issue though, there's nothing visible from the inside, so fitting the part was fairly straightforward:

 

gL7o57R.jpg

 

Finally, in preparation for re-fitting the tail, I filled the gap left when I cut it off previously, with my trusty liquid plastic:

 

bqvjbL0.jpg

 

I'll give that a while to cure, and hopefully tomorrow I can tidy it up and apply the modified tail!

 

Thanks for your interest and comments, they are all much appreciated :)

 

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A quick PS - I did a dry fit of the roof, and it fits pretty well given all the abuse meted out to the rest of the fuselage!

 

0Q7V0PD.jpg

 

Particularly gratifying is the revelation that the interior detail is virtually all visible from at least one vantage point! :thumbsup:

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This is looking an interesting project for sure. I have built this Ju52 years ago. I have wondered about that bottom panel. I suspect it was to do with the moulding process back when the kit was designed. 

I will be hanging out for more progress shots.

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21 hours ago, Greg Law said:

This is looking an interesting project for sure. I have built this Ju52 years ago. I have wondered about that bottom panel. I suspect it was to do with the moulding process back when the kit was designed. 

I will be hanging out for more progress shots.

Thanks Greg, yes I imagine the chances of getting the corrugations to mould properly were not great with that part already on the fuselage. Also, would have made for an interesting join line, right between two corrugations! :)

 

10 hours ago, Courageous said:

Lovely detailed work Clive. Those internals are looking great.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart.

 

More progress today. I figured discretion was the better part of valour with fitting the tail - I decided to foil it (and the rudder of course) before fitting it back on the fuselage:

 

auj9Wcl.jpg

 

Good thing I did, too... I had one of those 'heart in mouth' moments when I tried to remove the foil from one side of the tail section to reposition it better, and noticed that it was taking the corrugations with it! So I quickly returned it back how it was, and worked with what I had! That could have gotten messy with the tail on the fuselage!

 

I'm a bit concerned with the strength of the tail join (or rather the lack of it) so I fitted a couple of posts made from copper wire:

 

3r0QMat.jpg

 

Here it is, dry-fitted with the stabilisers also foiled now:

 

E9SWq9C.jpg

 

Happy with that!

 

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Another baby step - the folded up co-pilot's seat:

 

dynyQHN.jpg

 

I've also glued the rear bulkhead in place:

 

Ns7ki3J.jpg

 

Hawkeyes among you will notice the 2 short lengths of toothpick temporarily holding the tops of the fuselage sides at the correct distance apart - once the roof is glued on these will be removed.

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More baby steps - the forward bulkhead is now adorned with searting and glued in - some rudimentary seatbelts cut from a strip of Tamiya masking tape:

 

PXUhEIb.jpg

 

I just need to put the finishing touches to the control column, and that can then drop into the recess in the middle of the floor plate.

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Thanks Ian, some more stumbling steps along the road to completion. The control column is now in place. I ran into some difficulty in fitting the roof at the tail end for some reason I couldn't fathom. The solution was easy enough, I just glued a spacer made of scrap sprue at a convenient point, enough to force the fuselage sides slightly further apart:

 

7la1J9v.jpg?1

 

Edited by clive_t
Re-posted link to resized image
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Another quick update, having been away from my bench for the weekend - some nonsense about a wedding anniversary :rolleyes:

 

Anyway, the roof is on, but not without a fight - plenty of encouragement needed to make it secure and everything in line:

 

r6Azkb0.jpg?1

 

My grand plan to use cut-off cocktail sticks had fallen by the wayside as they dropped out with the roof only partly glued :(

 

No matter, it's all glued on now:

 

2aRFSZZ.jpg

 

I need to look at the nose now, and work out how to fit that!

 

 

 

 

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