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

[Graeme H]

Just catching up with this after a short break away from home and computers, some interesting ideas coming into this never thought of using foil to make corrugations, great idea that, also glad to see the fuselage haves went together so well  

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Masks on. The masks were precise and relatively easy to apply. It was very difficult to "see" the individual masks against the background, though, making localizing the ones you needed a challenge:

[Stromness]

On 09/05/2019 at 20:37, Orso said:

 

Airfix and Italeri Ju52 floats

To my untrained eye, these floats have some resemblance to the He-115 floats, at least those that came with the Matchbox kit. I can‘t vouch for dimensions, though but  maybe looking in this direction might help? 

There might be some gentle soul on the sunny side of the U.S. with unused pieces of plastic.....

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The unusual engineering for the wings' anchoring left a gap, that had to filled with a slim insert:

 

This is so far the only instance where I found a bad fit, the rest goes together really well. Not sure why Italeri did not employ the tried method of tongue and wing matting roots:

 

The wing joint will still need some light filling:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Some details on the belly belonging to this particular plane are added:

[Orso]

On 5/13/2019 at 7:37 PM, Stromness said:

To my untrained eye, these floats have some resemblance to the He-115 floats, at least those that came with the Matchbox kit. I can‘t vouch for dimensions, though but  maybe looking in this direction might help? 

There might be some gentle soul on the sunny side of the U.S. with unused pieces of plastic.....

Matchbox He115 floats and the Italeri Ju52 floats  The Heinkel floats are 5 mm shorter.

Edited May 14, 2019 by Orso

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

17 minutes ago, Orso said:

 

Matchbox He115 floats and the Italeri Ju52 floats  The Heinkel floats are 5 mm shorter.

Guys, not the same shape.

The right ones for most of the civil versions have the top almost completely flat (as per references posted) and somewhat angular cross-section. The Airfix ones are in that regard vaguely in the ballpark, but not even close to reality.

Let's drop this subject of the floats so we don't clutter the thread (the model here has no floats).

Or may be you could start a thread on the corresponding section.

For the next one I will scratch the floats, something I have some before, it's not difficult, but it is laborious.

Thanks

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The fin that was removed is re-cemented at the proper offset angle (that had the function of counteracting torque, since the three engines rotated to the same side):

 

 The stabilizers are now glued in place:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The model at this point became of course larger and more difficult to handle. Special care is needed not to knock-off those very fragile flap/aileron supports on the trailing edge, or banging the model against everything around.

Now that the usually slow cycle of priming and fixing blemishes will start, it's time to think about the painting sequence...and oh, yes, the decals!

As we all know, corrugated surfaces tend to produce a decaling nightmare. This can be mitigated by applying each individual character separately, using of course a very thin carrier, and patient application.

The other route is using painting masks (only for larger images, though), which has also it's risks (paint blown under the edges of the mask, deformation of the characters, etc.).

I will give a thought at these matters as the build of this model and the others continue.

 

 

 

[Courageous]

30 minutes ago, Moa said:

As we all know, corrugated surfaces tend to produce a decaling nightmare.

Looking very nice. I must agree that decals on that corrugation will be a nightmare, not something I would look forward to.

 

Stuart

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

10 hours ago, Courageous said:

I must agree that decals on that corrugation will be a nightmare

I am tempted to putty over all those corrugations, make it nice and smooth 🏂

 

[Stromness]

Sort of a „Speed Junkers“, perhaps in a desperate attempt to get a foot into the U.S. market? Intriguing what-if....!

On second thought no, it would look like a poor man‘s Couzinet.....

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 hours ago, Stromness said:

Sort of a „Speed Junkers“, perhaps in a desperate attempt to get a foot into the U.S. market? Intriguing what-if....!

On second thought no, it would look like a poor man‘s Couzinet.....

The Russians did smooth out the corrugated skin of their Tupolev ANT-25 inserting balsa between the corrugations, if memory serves.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The landing gear is added:

 

The openings are occluded:

 

In brief the model will be ready for priming.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Primer on:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

This is going to be a somewhat demanding painting schedule. First I will apply gloss white as a better base for the red. Then red over the white areas (top of wings and horizontal tail, top of elevators, ailerons and flaps, upper section of three cowls plus engine louvers -the round shield), then the light blue bands on the rudder. And then, masking the red, the aluminium tone. The wheel pants have their own requirement, being a black design on aluminium, so gloss black is going first, then masked, then the aluminium:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

A pattern is drawn and cut to produce the design on the wheel pants:

 

A proof of concept trial is successfully run:

 

Most parts are given a gloss white base:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The white is masked on the rudder and the light blue airbrushed. The pants are given their gloss black base (the masks to be later applied can be seen nearby) and small hatches made of corrugated aluminium are primed:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The red color is airbrushed:

 

Also on the smaller parts that need it:

 

The red color in turn will be masked and aluminium paint airbrushed underside the model, on fuselage and fin, under flaps and ailerons, and on 2/3 of the central Cowl and 1/2 the side cowls.

 

[Graeme H]

Wow, I never realised this would be such a colourful beast, really coming along beautifully

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 minutes ago, Graeme H said:

Wow, I never realised this would be such a colourful beast, really coming along beautifully

Ah! if fellow modelers would read the posts... (I am guilty of the same sin, by the way) 😉

Yes, I tracked this livery for many years, until I got written witness confirmation of the red on top (the photos I managed to get were pretty clear regarding that, but you know how recalcitrant certain fellow modelers can be when you present an unorthodox, not authorized/sanctified/sanctioned version of events. Until now, nobody, ever, depicted or described these snow-bound machines in their correct color, which was used only for a certain period on at least three other airframes that covered those southern gelid routes.

The livery proved extremely useful, since "Ibaté", the plane I decided to model, had a panne on snow and thanks to the special scheme was located by a search plane promptly.

A full account will be presented when the model is completed in the corresponding section.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The rudder is unmasked:

[Nikolay Polyakov]

Excellent job on the Junkers, @Moa! Can’t take my eyes off your pictures.

[John Masters]

Marvellous!  

[Stromness]

Sweet! What blue did you use for the Argentinian colours? I always have trouble coming up with the proper shade in my South American builds. Looks like a tonal variation of French Blue to me ..... from a layman‘s perspective of course