Junkers Ju-52 Aeroposta Argentina, Italeri 1/72 conversion

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I am so used to work with deficient kits that I am pleasantly surprised: the fit of this kit is excellent, and only minimum cleanup is needed. It's actually a pleasure to work with. It feels refined and light, the parts are well defined and with almost no blemishes.
Wings halves glued, be careful not to knock off those flaps and aileron holders:

 

Some other parts are glued too:

 

It has quite a size:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

More good news: Master modeler, dear friends and kit maker Matías Hagen from Argentina provided information on the particular interior of the Aeroposta machines, which had, as I suspected, the seats a bit skewed towards the hallway, and a very spartan interior, plus a radio station on the first seat to the right, with prominent radio equipment and a particular type of cabin/cockpit door that I had seen in only a few Junkers.

This is wonderful and right on time, since I was about to finish the interior in a generic way.

Therefore a new floor is made, and after very lightly emboss it with the position of the seats, it's glued on:

 

[Graeme H]

The interior is really coming along nicely

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

One of the cowls did not have the exhaust holes opened, therefore they were drilled:

 

 The cowls can be assembled, since the engines can be dropped in from the front. The exhausts can be added later from the back, juggling them a bit (inserting diagonally and locating the exit stubs first).
Watch out, every engine, cowl part and exhaust has its side and proper position, they won't go well otherwise, so don't start to chop things up to force them in:

[dogsbody]

18 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

That's pretty high on the cute scale! Whatever did the poor mite do to deserve the name Muppet?

 

Martian 👽

Actually, he's my daughter's kitty and they weren't living with us when they got him. He and me are best buds now!

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The Aeroposta planes had a different nose engine exhaust than the kit's. Here are two exhaust shrouds that I found on the spares bin and go very well (just trying, better glue them after the seam is deleted once the fuselage sides are glued together).

The exhausts actually went in inside the nose immediately after the engine, and exited through these:

 

Here is the exhaust and a heating soldering iron:

 

The exhaust is positioned very close to the hot tip and then bent to requirement (don't try this if you are not proficient with the soldering iron, hot things or modeling in general):

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The differences between the kit's cabin configuration and the Aeroposta planes is addressed with some modifications, replacing the connecting door with new ones, radios, passenger comforts, etc.:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The netted racks over the passenger seats are made:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And the indispensable item of airliners.
More so now that all airlines are treating their "beloved" (but so just in their marketing material) passengers like their best enemies, and flights, due to the absolutely crazy sardinization, are becoming a nightmare with the ratio of one bathroom per 100 passengers, so this device is cherished more than ever. Funny that this relatively small Junkers had more bathroom space than any jet I have flown in the last 5 years or so.
That's how the future looks: more revenue for the very top, less comfort* for the mere mortals.
*Well, "less comfort" falls absolutely short of the mark, let's say it properly: a lot of discomfort, from chaotic boardings, to miserable seat "space" (what "space" are they talking about?), to more seats crammed in the same space and then some more, to less reclining, to less padding, to less bathrooms, to same price or higher. Jet cattle.

If aviation certainly has made a lot of progress in many areas (well, some companies not so much on software, apparently), the truth is that passengers are given less and less every year, for more price.

Man, do I hate bean counters and execs. It's so visible that they don't travel in the same planes and seats I do.

Where was I? oh, that's right, building model airplanes.

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And here one way to fix the difference in corrugations between the alternate part needed to correct the civil fuselage and the fuselage itself (very poor job, Italeri, another right fuselage without the hatch and with the fore door would have been the right thing to do here). So: corrugations can be replicated using aluminium kitchen foil very carefully pressed with the rounded end of a toothpick on the right corrugations on the fuselage:

 

Then glued with cyano or expoy to a part that will replace the inaccurate corrugations on the kit's "plug":

 

 Done with care will not mar the aluminium:

 

So the windows can be cut and glued to the new corrugations:

 

That need a slight overlap on each side (and perhaps at the bottom):

 

To make for the kit's corrugations not making it all the way to the edge:

 

The overlapping corrugations can be then carefully pressed on with perhaps watchmaker cement (a very thin but nice adhesive) or thin cyano glue, being very careful not leave a too prominent edge:

 

I will splice as said a portion of another fuselage, but just wanted to provide some alternative methods, and grease those joints in case I need something like this for the parallel build of the HP42, another corrugated beast.

 

 

[dogsbody]

I know what you mean about " modern " airliners. Just last month I had to make a quick trip across Canada to my home province of Nova Scotia. Man oh man, are those seats crap and sitting there for 5 hours is definitely bum-numbing! I managed to void all my internal waste storage before boarding ( both there and back ) so I didn't have to sample the on-board facilities.

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

There was a little hatch that gave access to an area destined apparently for small items, like suitcases, so that's marked:

 

And then opened up, also creating the internal space with "corrugated" styrene:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Well, research paid big time.

 

Today I found a couple more of precious photos of the specific plane I want to model (Ibaté), and a written account of the orange/red color of the junkers serving the southern routes, on a page designed to honor the witness:

"Rememorar al Peña aviador, el que siendo chico viera aterrizar, en El Calafate, a los Junkers: “fuselaje de chapa acanalada -o parecido- y alas de color naranja, o rojiza*. Tres tremendos motores, y recuerdo sus nombres, porque en aquellos tiempos (1940) de la Aeroposta Argentina eran cuatro los Junkers que surcaban estos cielos territoriales: Tierra del Fuego, Pampa, Ibaté y Ona."

The underlined "Ona" is because the name was native indian, but actually "Quechua" instead of "Ona".

 

*"...and wings of orange color or reddish"

 

Yeepeee!!!!!!!

[Courageous]

You have been a busy bee over the weekend. Good progress, lots of detail and good lateral thinking to solve problems. Good work.

 

Stuart

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The interior is airbrushed with a primer to detect blemishes and provide a base for the color, together with parts from the HP42:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I got a set of Eduard paper masks, which I prefer to vinyl ones, but Eduard, unlike for example Montex, does not provide internal masks, needed to paint the interior when it will be exposed, so I had to trace and cut my own interior masks on masking paper, using the kit as a pattern:

 

Now it's time to cut that front door open, inexplicably missed by Italeri and present in all Junkers airliners:

 

It is not just a matter of using the cut part as a door, since it was different, having a different window and smaller corrugations:

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

 

 

 As explained, just to engrave the door on the fuselage won't do, since the corrugations and window size changed. It has to be cut out and replaced for the airliners, besides it will give visual access to the interior.
If you are not comfortable with the aluminium corrugations, you can use parts of the kits to build that door. This is the removed section:

 

Use the smooth bottom of the removed section and add a correctly measured and cut small corrugation panel from one of the redundant parts of the kit (big cargo door):

 

Glue them together and prepare the upper section with the window from another discarded redundant part (the 3-windowed section):

 

Once you have glued that upper section in place, let it dry, and later sand the edges straight and squared. Now add a perimeter with very fine styrene strip. Once dry pass some liquid primer on the joints and later remove the excess with a Q tip damped in solvent. Or use water soluble putty and the clean up:

 

The other side:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The Junkers had a series of small spaces between the cabin floor and the belly skin, and those were used for small packages.
Two are opened:

 

 But now of course the internal area exposed needs dressing, so the commercial corrugated sheet that I could not use somewhere else because was not a match, can now be utilized:

 

Other little areas that will be visible are covered, and the pan given some appearance of structure:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I am very happy with this Italeri kit, even with its quirks (and what kit does not have them).

The plastic is nothing less than fantastic and a pleasure to work with, but I have to be cautious with this specific comment because plastic sometimes changes with year of issue/batch.

And as much praise as this deserves, there are inexplicable let-downs, for example, the instrument panel does not have any relief, nor is a decal supplied to dress it. Mysteries of the Kit Industry again.

In spite of catering for some variants that will surely benefit from patterns or masks to help with painting, none are provided, not even true-to-scale drawings, and again, no decals for the decorated wheel pants., which have a not easy to replicate scheme.

This is no problem for more experienced modelers, although it means more work, but may hinder progress for others.

There is a photo-etched after market set for this kit, made by Bilek, which is not inexpensive but seems to be good and comprehensive, alas, 95% for the military version, which I shun. So not buying that one only for an instrument panel and a few more bits.

Yahu, who makes beautiful instrument panels (that I have gratefully used before), seems not to cater for the Ju-52, which is very strange, being so many kits on the market and a popular subject, much popular than many of its other offers.

Besides the masks I will use, Heller and KP kits (different kits than Italeri) have a Peewit mask set in the market.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Labor continues detailing the interior.
I can't go faster because I am still waiting for the arrival of the second (donor) kit to patch Italeri's mistaken big cargo door:

 

 

[Andwil]

Brilliant work as usual Moa, that bathroom is a tour de force.  Does actually have running water? 🚰

 

AW

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Just now, Andwil said:

that bathroom is a tour de force

Well, they usually, are, aren't they?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And speaking of bathrooms, what use are they for without this humble item:

[Andwil]

Deja vu.

 

AW

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Ceiling, doors, bulkheads are painted a very light blue-grey, the cargo compartments as well as the chairs' structure are painted aluminium: