Junkers Ju-86 airliner, modified Italeri 1/72nd kit

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

One of the greatest pleasures that this hobby has for me is to turn bad things into good things.

To take a kit that leaves much to be desired, and make it into something better, gives me a lot of satisfaction.

So: bad things into good things, which is why I long wanted to convert a despicable thing with hateful, totalitarian symbols and more than obscure intentionality into something of a better nature, in this case an airliner.

Over the years I gathered references about machines that operated in Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Bolivia and Chile, noticing the differences among them.

Long ago fellow modeler and friend Sönke from Marzipanland sent the old Italeri kit, to be rescued. It long sat in a deep and forgotten crag in the garage.

I knew of the Kora conversion sets to adapt the Italeri kit to these civil versions. They include resin parts and decals. I was never tempted, neither by their quality nor by their price. The resin parts are somewhat heavy and coarse, feeling heavy-handed. The decals do not strike me as fine products either. Still -and as I am often forced to say- who else is going to provide these after market accessories to satisfy the needs of a small group of modelers wishing to represent lesser known types? so we accept what we get with a -somewhat reluctant- thank you.

I plainly discarded the Lufthansa version, just a cosmetic half-disguise of its true intentions and nature, and sooner the Swiss version too, having seen it quite often modeled.

My attention turned towards the Australian version, registered VH-UYA, which has an interesting story. I was able to gather some reasonable material, discovering in the process that some renditions of it (drawings and models) steered quite far away from reality, mostly regarding the colors of the plane, but that's a story for another time.

None of the mentioned versions needs burdensome kit alterations.

But some of the machines operating in South America (Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano and LAN of Chile) had Pratt and Whitney engines.  

That's what one of the Kora after-market products offers, then: one set of the new engines, cowls and nacelles, and the decals for those two planes.

LAN actually had four JU-56Zs, from 220 to 223, but Kora only provides regs for one: 220.

This, therefore, will involve some deep surgery, and the usual addition of some details missing in the kit, which provides an open cabin door... to no interior other than bulkheads and cockpit. It seems Italeri thought that the passengers just floated around the cabin, or hanged from straps, underground-wise. Cheeky monkeys, passenger plane without seats. This was, of course, an afterthought, a mold adaptation to squeeze more copies off the military molds.

 

When I say "rescued" kit, I mean it:

The kit had endured the "Igor" treatment, thus we have some parts already glued that shouldn't have been, raised panel lines erased -unfortunately before using them as guides to trace the engraved ones-, sections of the fuselage excised following and ebil plan that was left like Beethoven's 10th symphony, and so on so forth.

As it stands, it looks like a post-apocalyptic gathering of plastic.

 

Another wonderful aspect of my subject choice is that only a few, bad images can be found on the Net of it, which invariably makes things so much more interesting.

 

And so we start:

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Reason somehow prevailed, and after pondering the remains of the kit lying on the bench for some time, I ordered a new kit.

Therefore the one sent to me by my friend will be used as a trial airframe, experiment base and spare parts repository.

I do have many images of this airliner interior, so I guess I could start there while the Kora set and the second kit arrive.

 

Just in case: I am not, at all, whatsoever, interested in any military uses of this plane, photos or drawings of it in that guise, or as a civil German airliner; and that includes links, or references.

Please respect the civil nature of the build, and let's keep it within the South American, or Australian, passenger-carrying sphere of interest.

Anything else, please open a different thread. Other than that, you are most welcome to the usual chit-chat, leg-pulling, and general debauchery.

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

[dogsbody]

I have one of the Italeri airliner kits in my stash.

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Britman]

I applaud your morals Moa and your modeling prowess. Looking forward to your endeavours as always. I built this year's ago when it first came out and was very impressed with the kit. Could it be that time and production alterations have not been kind.? 

 

Keith

[StephenCJ]

I once stopped building models for about 10 years because I only built warplanes and got sick of doing killing machines.  Now I build both and enjoy the hobby much more.  I really didn't know you could build civilian aircraft until Moa came to Britmodeller.

His WIPs are a wonder to watch.  Thank you Claudio

Stephen

[Vesa Jussila]

Interesting subject again. This is waiting in my stash too. I have same problems try to decide what version to build. But in my case there are some other projects first.

[Bangseat]

Shaping up to be a fascinating build! It'll be so much more attractive without the gun turret. Have you ever done an Fw-200? And good call on the new kit - your amazing results are definitely worth investing some greenbacks in.

 

I too have some taboos, I steer clear of Nazis. No disrespect to those who don't of course, unless they build it into some sort of wierd alternative history diorama in which case I start to feel slightly uncomfortable..

[rob Lyttle]

Wow 

The Lloyd Aereo "Illimani" plane looks good! 

Should be an interesting project ✈️

Polished bare metal?? 😎

[Marklo]

I don’t build anything with swastika on it, which since I used to mostly build Luftwaffe types makes it tricky to get rid of some of my stash. I do still do a mix of military and civil models, as something of an amateur history buff I find both interest from a historical interest point of view.

 

I do have great respect for Moa‘s position.

[rob Lyttle]

7 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Luftwaffe types makes it tricky

How about an FW190 Reno Racer... 😊❓✴️

[Marklo]

Pretty close this was a captured evaluation machine. Technically it’s a civil scheme so Moa won’t get cross at me for posting military types in his thread ( as I did with my Snark)

Edited April 8, 2020 by Marklo

[corsaircorp]

Hello Moa !

Let's ride for another pretty interesting build !!

Can't wait to see the result !!

Sincerely.

CC

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

10 hours ago, Britman said:

I applaud your morals Moa and your modeling prowess. Looking forward to your endeavours as always. I built this year's ago when it first came out and was very impressed with the kit. Could it be that time and production alterations have not been kind.? 

 

Keith

Hi Keith

I may have not expressed correctly: I think the kit is still a fair one -generally speaking- if we account for the "senior kit" effect (raised panel lines, somewhat chunky bits, etc).

Still, squeezing a civil version from the military one, is not just abracadabra, and completely omitting passengers seats for a passenger version (with an open cabin door option) is not Italeri's highest moment. Other details pertinent to the civil version were also lost, whilst military parts were not replaced by real civil parts (fuselage belly, cabin floor) but left as they were. As I said above, in spite of all that, we have to be thankful that someone at Italeri thought of a civil release, same case for the Junkers Ju-58, which is really a half-way, half-hearted "conversion". Both seemed more geared to get some extra bucks from those molds than to provide a bonafide civil version. Same case for some other "civil versions" in the market then and now, in cases just cosmetic adaptations.

But I see with joy many good, pure civil releases these last years. There is hope for mankind

Cheers

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 hours ago, Bangseat said:

Have you ever done an Fw-200? 

Nope, it presents the same issues, but also there were some used by other countries that may be viable.

There is a Russian one used by their Polar Aviation that looks very good and would possibly be a choice if I ever model it.

Also the Danish version that is offered in the civil kit (there are others).

Revell also offers a Brazilian machine.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

Wow 

The Lloyd Aereo "Illimani" plane looks good! 

Should be an interesting project ✈️

Polished bare metal?? 😎

Indeed it looks good.

But the harsh conditions in South America would have perhaps determined that the "polish" wouldn't have lasted for more than a few days, though.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Hello Moa !

Let's ride for another pretty interesting build !!

Can't wait to see the result !!

Sincerely.

CC

Thanks CC

I am at the moment plotting the cabin layout and features, looking at references.

I guess to scratchbuilding those darn seats it is again!

Cheers

[Marklo]

I might just add my two cents having worked in aviation (among other things) for several years; raised panel lines are a physical impossibility. (Unless you count ribs etc in fabric covered types) by their nature modern monocoque construction is made of sheet metal riveted to ribs etc as will have recessed panel lines or no panel lines at all where they been filled to improve aerodynamics, although even these do become visible through relative movement of the panels, but only at very close up ( next time you get in an airliner look for the panel lines, they are visible as fine cracks/lines in the paint work) rivets can be flush recessed or raised ( on engines everything in the airflow was machines flush after being riveted, but anything also was left proud) 

 

Ahem soap box away, end rant

 

looking forward to the build.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Marklo

[dogsbody]

Admittedly, there is little difference between the bomber kit and the airliner kit, other than the fuselage. There is no passenger cabin detail at all. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure though, that Moa will be able to construct all the needed detail that can be seen through the open door and through the windows.

 

I truly admire Moa's work. What he can do with just the very basics is fantastic. Modern jet liners boring, but Moa's Golden Age models are a totally different thing

 

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, dogsbody said:

Admittedly, there is little difference between the bomber kit and the airliner kit, other than the fuselage. There is no passenger cabin detail at all. 

 

I'm sure though, that Moa will be able to construct all the needed detail that can be seen through the open door and through the windows.

 

I truly admire Moa's work. What he can do with just the very basics is fantastic. Modern jet liners boring, but Moa's Golden Age models are a totally different thing

 

Chris

Hi Chris

You may have brought another point to consider.

Whilst most civil variants had a short tail, some had the longer tail.

As I research the subject, I found that drawings of the Chilean airliners show a long tail, whilst the only two (not good) photos I have hint to a short tail.

I am contacting an knowledgeable friend to see where I stand with this particular airframe.

Cheers

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Whilst the (so-called) box art on the Italeri kit shows a long tail Lufthansa machine with associated "hump" over the elevator -which the original plane didn't have-, it also depicts on the box, in a smaller frame, a Swiss machine with (accurate) short tail.

So which is it, Italeri? which is the tail style you are catering for?

 

[dogsbody]

Who knows? Just Italeri trying to get as much mileage out of the different molds they made. Will that be diesels or radials, Sir? Short tail or long?

 

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

OK, it's confirmed, the Chilean planes had the longer tail.

I know there are kits with that feature, but getting a third kit is too much.

Two paths: add a scratched longer tail cone... or build Illimani (Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano), which had the shorter tail.

Drat, that deceiving, misguiding box art.

In retrospect, it looks like getting the Revell 4260 civil release (Z-2) with radials and long tail (again, if the box art doesn't lie, like in this case) would have been a sounder approach?

Still, decals would have been needed to be commissioned (for the Latin American variants). I believe that those BMW radials were licensed P&Ws anyway, which would have served the purpose.

In any case, the soil has been prepared a little regarding choices for future civil Junkies.

 

Oh, a modeling quagmire, and I still didn't glue a single part!

 

 

 

[billn53]

38 minutes ago, Moa said:

 

In retrospect, it looks like getting the Revell 4260 civil release (Z-2) with radials and long tail (again, if the box art doesn't lie, like in this case) would have been a sounder approach?

 

Here's an in-box review of the Revell 4260, with sprue shots. Just don't blame me if you go ahead and buy that one, too!

 

http://www.modellversium.de/kit/artikel.php?id=10520

 

Edit...

 

and someone's build in Swiss guise

 

http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/Flugzeuge/Breuning/Junkers_Ju86Z-2_SwissAir.html

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 minute ago, billn53 said:

Here's an in-box review of the Revell 4260, with sprue shots. Just don't blame me if you go ahead and buy that one, too!

 

http://www.modellversium.de/kit/artikel.php?id=10520

 

 

Thanks, Bill, for finding and posting the link.

Yeap, it has the longer tail indeed.

Cheers

 

[dogsbody]

If it was any other time, I would send you my radial-engined bomber so you could do a tail transplant. But alas!

 

 

 

Chris