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Building tips for Revell's huge 1:32 Junkers Ju 88A-1?


Sturmovik

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Hello guys, as per the title, does anyone have any building tips for Revell's Ju 88A-1 in 1:32? Especially around the cockpit area.

My first attempt at this model ended up with horrible gaps around the nose and cockpit area. With the second model, I learnt from my mistakes and managed to evade any issues with the cockpit. Sadly I had to trash the model after a shelf fell over it. Now, this will be my third attempt to build this plane, and I would like to receive some building tips.

I plan on finishing this third model as my second one, B3+DR from KG54.

 

Any building tips will be helpful, especially any tips regarding the fit of the cockpit and the sidewalls to the fuselage halves.

I already have SAC's white metal landing gear to replace the plastic ones from the kit.

2S2h3fi.jpg

 

Thank you very much,

Francisco.

Edited by Sturmovik
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Ok so I am fairly familiar with this kit, the aircraft and 1/32 is my scale so here goes...

 

first things first, find some pictures of your aircraft; quite a few A-1s had additional MGs in the side windows of the canopy; it will also help with camouflage and weathering

 

If you think you need aftermarket landing gear, i would ditch the SAC gear and go for G-Factor; it's brass as opposed to soft(ish) white metal, and will give you the security you are looking for, plus good detail;  I would use aftermarket wheels (Aires from memory?)

 

I would use Master Model gun barrels for sure - the kit barrels are just not good enough if you are serious about this kit

 

SImilarly, I would forget decals for anything apart from the geschwader markings and maybe the odd stencil; use masks instead (and no, you don't always need to spray light colors first, the dark; use proper paints and you can spray what you want when you want - see below)

 

if your airframe had external bombs - check your references - then I would look to MDC resin bomb racks

 

i would use Eduard (or similar) instrument panels, and also some replacement seatbelts as these will all be very visible; I would not go for a replacement resin cockpit though because i) Revell did an excellent job with the kit version and ii) there is nothing out there that is an instant 100% upgrade; the CMK stuff looks cool but once you start going through it piece by piece, you realise that it actually offers very little over and above the kit parts

 

I would definitely use a canopy mask (Eduard I guess)

 

Uschi rigging line for the antenna wires

 

unless you are a skilled or adventurous modeller - and particularly inlight of what you said about an earlier attempt - I would steer clear of the Profimodeller upgrades; there are a lot of them but some are crazy complex for something you just won't see; they are useful however once you branch out into MG-FF armed versions etc etc

 

finally, what paint are you using? I would highly recommend MRP Paints; they are what most people would term lacquer but noticeably superior to anything else that i have tried, and generally have an excellent reputation.

 

hope this helps

 

Nick

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additionally... the definitive list of reference photos can be found on Large Scale Planes forum here  ; Guttorm Felstadt (I have spelled his name wrong probably) worked on the Ju88 A-1 in the Norwegian museum, so these will be the best shots you will find anywhere

 

there were quite a few great Ju88 builds on LSP some years back but the photoshop monster has robbed us of their content (not much fun with just text) but here's a link to the thread which I hope will be of help to you

 

LSP build thread

 

PS I would maybe look to use resin gun breach / body replacements; the guns were undersize in the He111 kit, but can't remember about this kit - just check Jeroen's build

Edited by nicholas mayhew
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The SAC ones if they are the same as the ones that I bought for my 1/32 scale Spitfire are soft white metal and are not as strong as the kit ones so I did not use them, they did not look any better than the kit undercarriage either, on the other hand my 1/32 scale Revell He 219 is quite happy on it's kit undercarriage and that is quite a large kit.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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SAC have a terrible reputation - they are soft metal crap and i cannot understand how they are still in business after all these years

 

G-Factor are brass and a different kettle of fish altogether

 

having said that, whilst fairly complicated, the kit gear will be fine and may be quite a bit easier than trying to glue small kit parts to brass

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4 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

Why? The plastic ones wouldn't be able to resist the weight of the model.

The others have answered your question quite eloquently; SAC gear legs are a total waste of money, are made of soft white metal and crucially DO NOT add any strength to the structure......in fact some who have used them have reported that they gradually sag. Your kit so your call. 

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19 minutes ago, galgos said:

The others have answered your question quite eloquently; SAC gear legs are a total waste of money, are made of soft white metal and crucially DO NOT add any strength to the structure......in fact some who have used them have reported that they gradually sag. Your call. 

Don't know what to do then. I used the plastic gear on my original model and the shaft were the wheels go broke after some time. The second model with the SAC gear didn't live much longer than a few months, so I'm not really sure what to do.

Buying a brass gear is out of the question after my local mail sent a parcel I was waiting to another person.

@galgos could you provide some links that say the SAC landing gears sag as time goes by? I'm interested in reading them.

Edited by Sturmovik
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  • 4 years later...

The cockpit would appear to fit together well. I would add that its incomplete though, the Kuvi 2 LARGE aiming sight for the pilot is totally missing, as is the LARGE cockpit heater trunking , the oxy regulators are crude, and missing one, its missing seat belts, an incredible omission by Revell,  and Radu Brinzan (spelling ?) were the best until he handed over the range to his mate who broke the business I read, The floor is plywood , look at the Norwegian Ju88A1. The side skirt is a light coloured canvas with brown leather edging, not dark grey as I keep seeing modellers do, as they dont bother to even look at the german cockpit image diagram available on the www. Medium blue pipes run along the stbd wall for oxygen feed , additional to the rubber hoses missing for the crew oxygen pipes, Other items benefit from detailing,, study Ju88A1 pics Norway. Guttorm had placed many large images on LSP. I have them all. I also know Guttorm. Its also needing a different tail fin and rudder ! The fin is a jet fin lacking the chunky rounded leading edge. Revell visited the Ju88 yet were blind it seems as it also needs the mainwheels replacing wiith correct ones. 

 

I only add this for anyone reading this thread thinking it was about what the cockpit entailed. It might prove useful.

 

New book out by Richard Franks on the Ju88A1 and after, though the 1/32 kit gets a clean bill of health despite the corrections needed etc. The tail fin and wheels and cowlings are bad Revell errors.

 

Finally rlm71/70 was a VERY low contrast scheme, I keep seeing what looks like 71/02 fighter high contrast, as in the LSP link given earlier. Wish modellers would look at a paint chart or even WW2 pics rather than make the thing look wrong after all the build work. Beware GS (the usual culprits) , and other paints. Use Colorcoats or Xtracolor. from makers who care !

 

Merlin

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