380 Everyone's favourite Aunt - the Ju52/3m

[Heather Kay]

Having barely completed my last build in the Battle of Britain 80th group build, here I am again! These group build things are addictive!

 

You must all know by now I have a bit of an obsession about 1940. You will be very much not surprised to learn there are quite a few Heller boxes in the stash now, of some rather ungainly French bombers of the late 1930s. If I have time, one or two of them might make an appearance here.

 

When I was trying to find a good kit of the ubiquitous German transport plane, the Heller one came high up the list of recommendations. First issued in 1979, by all accounts it’s a pretty accurate rendition in general shape and size. I couldn’t find a Heller box when I started looking, but instead ended up with a Heller kit in a Kovozávody Prostejov box.
 

 

The important thing for me really was the kit might contain suitable markings for my 1940 thing. 
 

 

This box does. It’s also nice that full credit is given to Heller for the plastic.

 

 

The instructions. This is it as far as assembly goes. KP have just lifted the Heller drawings. I’ve taken a precaution by sourcing a PDF of the original Heller sheet, which is a good bit clearer. The rest of this booklet has colour profiles for the four different schemes in the kit.

 

Seeking a transparency masking set, I was pleased to find one that incorporated a set of markings as well. Knowing how the Ju52 corrugated surface can cause issues with transfers settling, I thought this might be worth a go. Then again, getting the precut vinyl to settle neatly might be even worse!

 

 

 

 

 

The plastic. I’ve seen the figure of 101 parts on the Heller boxes, and it seems about right. There’s enough here to keep me busy, with enough internal detail to satisfy without being fussy. 
 

I'm quite looking forward to getting stuck into this big old bird, but quite where Tante Ju will live when she’s done is quite another matter.

[Wez]

Heather Kay,

 

I'm glad you've joined this GB with this great kit, I have a KP boxing which will be built as an AAC-1 Toucan.

 

Eminently eligible, welcome to the GB and thanks for volunteering to be a co-host.

[TonyOD]

Following that one like a shot. About to get that self same kit. 🙂

[JOCKNEY]

Great one Heather

Such an iconic aircraft, best of luck.

Cheers Pat

[theplasticsurgeon]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

Having barely completed my last build in the Battle of Britain 80th group build, here I am again! These group build things are addictive!

 

Oh so true! See how many GBs I do.

Welcome to the mad house Heather.

[Rabbit Leader]

Good to see you again Heather, although we all know you haven't been lurking too far. 

Heller's Ju 52 kit looks like a real winner and I'm sure you'll bring her home quite nicely. 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

[CliffB]

A great choice Heather and hats off to KP too, for four tasty decal options.

 

Cheers

[TonyW]

That kit looks a fair bit more refined than the old Airfix offering, it will be a treat watching it come together.

[Max Headroom]

This’ll be good. I never knew KP had used the Heller moulds. I always thought ‘Auntie Ju’ had a lot more character than a C-47.

 

Its hard to tell from the pics, but there are a couple of things to look out for to avoid accidentally building an AAC.1! French ones were retrofitted with C-47 wheels and the ones on the sprue look more like those than ‘proper’ Ju-52 wheels. The other thing is the window aft of the port side door. Ju’s have a porthole whilst Toucans have the cut off rectangle type as moulded. Squinting at the instructions there appears to be an option here.

 

Trevor

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Max Headroom said:

Its hard to tell from the pics, but there are a couple of things to look out for to avoid accidentally building an AAC.1! 

Good points. Heller are currently boxing the kit as an AAC.1, and I think they may well have based the moulds on one. Obvious, really. 
 

Part of me would like to catch all the details and correct as necessary. Another part of me is quite happy to build a mildly flawed rendition. I’ll do some further research in time and decide which way I’ll swing.

 

[Toryu]

That's definitely one of the more complex kits. Great choice Heather - let it fly!

 

Cheers, Michael

[Heather Kay]

15 hours ago, Toryu said:

That's definitely one of the more complex kits. Great choice Heather - let it fly!

 

 

I am itching to get stuck in and bits stuck on. I’m taking this pre-build hiatus to bone up on the type, and work out if any modifications might be needed.

 

For a type that was in production for so long, and subsequently served for as long as they did, major changes were remarkably few. My quick visual survey via the interwebs shows a window aft of the access door on the port side. This is apparently where the toilet was situated. It seems the early planes, and those that began life in civilian use, had a circular porthole. Military spec planes, with the upper dorsal gun position, seem to have a rectangular window. It’s this later version Heller have moulded. The marking set I have shows most fuselage glazing was painted or plated over, so I won’t worry too much about nice clear glazing and full interior detail there.

 

A question remains about the starboard side fuselage, though. I have a cutaway drawing that shows the two-part cargo loading hatch as the model has. I am very tempted to say the basic kit is pretty much correct for the early military specification planes.

 

That means, apart from some painting complexity, I can pretty much build right from the box. I must say, also, that having studied the mouldings more closely, it’s a very finely moulded kit. The DF loop is a work of art at this scale, and shows Heller were very much at the top of their game in the late 1970s.

[Rabbit Leader]

Agree entirely Heather. Those moulds produced between 1977 - 82 are extremely detailed and crisp and (to me) are the pinnacle of Heller’s kit development. 

[Heather Kay]

I suppose Heller weren’t really on my radar back then because most of their catalogue didn’t interest me. I missed out, so it’s great we can still find these kits. Where else would I get all those fabulous French bombers otherwise?

[fightersweep]

8 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

I suppose Heller weren’t really on my radar back then because most of their catalogue didn’t interest me. I missed out, so it’s great we can still find these kits. Where else would I get all those fabulous French bombers otherwise?

I bet that all changed when your 1940 obsession developed? Heller certainly cater nicely for that subject. I think that's what attracted me to them back in the day. So many curve ball subjects, many of French origin of course, but other wonders such as the SAAB Safir, J.21, PZL P.23, Reichenberg and Natter, Bucker Bu 133 etc. Even with the "bread and butter" subjects, Heller gave us a bit more. Who else did an injection moulded Bf-109B, Bf-109K-4 or a Spitfire XIVe. One thing occurred to me last night for the first time. Unless I missed something, Heller never appeared to touch WW1 subjects. I bet they could have given us some gems there!

[theplasticsurgeon]

2 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Agree entirely Heather. Those moulds produced between 1977 - 82 are extremely detailed and crisp and (to me) are the pinnacle of Heller’s kit development. 

What a great observation, which had never occured to me previously.  But now that it has - I looked over my Heller completions,

Hurricane IIC,  Me163, P-39 Aircobra, Saab Viggen    1977.

Tempest, T-6 Texan, F84 Thunderjet, F8 Crusader    1978.

Mirage IV, F86 Sabre, Spitfire 16    1979.

T33 Shooting Star, Saab J21    1980.

T28 Trojan    1981.

Constellation, Saab Lansen    1982.

All great builds, and there's probably more in other conpany's boxes.

 

This post really belongs in the chat thread.

[Heather Kay]

6 minutes ago, theplasticsurgeon said:

This post really belongs in the chat thread.

Oh, I don’t know. I’m always happy for my threads to wander about off topic for a while. They usually get back on course eventually. 

[fightersweep]

...There was certainly something special in the wine dispensers at the Heller factory between the mid 70s and early 80s. I think they produced some of the best kits out there during that period.

 

I like the ZG 26 scheme for the 52. Presumably a Geschwader hack/transport for the Zestorer unit.

[mike romeo]

Hi Heather,

 

Good luck with this.  I too will be trying to finish it in this GB, so I'll be looking for tips here.

 

Rgds

 

Martin

[Max Headroom]

22 hours ago, fightersweep said:

...There was certainly something special in the wine dispensers at the Heller factory between the mid 70s and early 80s. I think they produced some of the best kits out there during that period.

 

I like the ZG 26 scheme for the 52. Presumably a Geschwader hack/transport for the Zestorer unit.

Was this during their tie up with Humbrol? May explain some of the choices.

 

Trevor

[alt-92]

On 9/27/2020 at 12:57 PM, Max Headroom said:

Was this during their tie up with Humbrol? 

 

Looks like the standard 70/71/65 to me. Which wouldn't be odd considering it's transport/interim bomber role...

[edit]

Unless you mean subject choices, in that case: carry on!
Although the Humbrol period was later if I'm not mistaken.

[bbudde]

I will look at this one . Imho the best kit in 1:72 after all till now. The structual surfaces there beats the beloved Italeri range.

Cheers

[Rabbit Leader]

Having the Italeri Ju52 and quite liking the surface detail, I’m really intrigued to see what these Heller 52’s are all about. This is not the first time I've heard the Heller kit is the leader in this scale, so may need to check one out soon enough. Hopefully the moulds have not been effected too much over time as I’d rather pick up a new boxed kit for the better quality decals.

Cheers.. Dave 

[Heather Kay]

I will do some better closeups of the corrugated surfaces later. It does look a superbly moulded kit, I have to say. 
 

Which brings me to an interesting point. Seeing all the other kits being put forward for this GB, it’s interesting how well even the oldest kits seem to have worn. Many comments about how little flash there is, how sharp the detail is. It makes you wonder if the Heller mouldmakers were using a higher grade steel than their contemporaries, plus the machine minders knew how to work the gear properly
 

I have had the misfortune to buy a Mister Craft repop of the Heller D.520. If I didn’t know better, it would have put me off buying any Heller kits of certain vintage due to the amount of flash throughout the runners and parts. The same can be said of a Smer box with a Bloch 152 in it. It seems the Heller employees cared more about the final product and didn’t just run everything flat out.

 

Now, how much longer must I wait before I can get cracking on Auntie? 

[Heather Kay]

And we're off!

 

A closer look at various things before the proper styrene bothering starts.

 

 

I printed out the Heller instructions to A3. My inkjet decided the black cartridge was dead, so the prints are in a rather fetching and not entirely unauthentic light blue! Here you can see how much clearer the larger print is compared to the KP A5 booklet. I also have the Heller variant of "locate and cement" to hand, which I’m following along in the spirit of the group build. This model will be finished to a standard I hope befits a modern kit and my 1940 collection.

 

The larger print revealed alternate clear parts are included for the plain WC window or the porthole variant. The aircraft I’m building seems to have had this glazing plated over, but I’m going to just go with painting over it and hope nobody notices. Repairing the corrugations so the panel is invisible would be beyond my abilities. KP uses Humbrol for their colour call outs, so I’m following those for the interior. The exterior will be painted with ColourCoats enamels.

 

 

A couple of peeps asked about the finesse of the moulding. Well, here is an upper and lower wing with a steel rule for scale. It looks okay to me.

 

 

On first looking when I got the kit I hadn’t clocked the moulded gap between fin and rudder. Nice.

 

 

It's perhaps a little rudimentary, but there is internal detail in the main cabin. The bulkheads also get moulded detail. The fuselage glazing is recessed so it appears flush to the outside. This makes it a tough job to sand the windows so they’re smooth and flat on the outside, so I’ve decided not to worry about it.

 

 

Would you look at that dainty DF loop? I mean, that’s as good as any modern kit, and the moulds for this date to 1979.

 

 

Moulded dials on the instrument panel are perfectly acceptable. I’m sure there is an aftermarket replacement, but this will be fine with some paint and a little dry brushing.

 

 

I took this to show the central console with the moulded engine throttle levers. It also handily shows there are some moulding flaws in places. A little flash and shrinkage on the components to the right. Nothing to write home about. I’m sure we’ve all seen much worse.

 

 

This is the worst flash I’ve found. There are fine traces along the edges of some larger components, and inside the fuselage window apertures, but all easily dealt with.

And so to work.

 

 

Wait, what? 
 

 

Um, isn’t that a bit of overkill for a plastic kit? A soldering iron? What is going on?

 

 

Well, this is going on. This pitot tube immediately struck me as something that wouldn’t survive five seconds in my world. A brass wire replacement will be needed.

 

After a few minutes of measuring, bending, cleaning and tinning, I had this.

 

 

Happy with the finished article, the hotting stick was turned off, and the metalworking gear swapped for styreneworking gear.

 

 

In a fairly short order, I’d reached this point. The fuselage glazing went in first. Then I used the hairy stick to paint Humbrol 240 (their RLM 02 equivalent) acrylic all over the insides. The IP, seats and cockpit bulkhead went in, after detail painting. The control columns had been assembled and painting begun. I’d also found a spare PE gunsight which has been squirrelled away for the upper gun mounting later.

 

The fuselage halves, well quarters really, are now joined and clamped while the cement hardens. A top part forms the roof, with a hole for the upper gun mounting. There’s also a filler part to close the hole if you’re building a non-bang-bang aircraft. Underneath, a large spatula-shaped part forms the belly and part of the wing fixings. The fit of these may exercise me a little, as hiding joins might prove hard if there’s any misalignment, thanks to the corrugated surfaces.

 

 

Masking tape belts have been added. It took a bit of interweb digging to turn up any images that show the cockpit seats clearly. The starboard seat seems to have had a full harness, while the port seat - where I’d expect the pilot/captain to be - only has lap belts. If anyone knows any better, please shout before I fit the greenhouse!

 

My aim is to spend this weekend getting as far as I can with the main construction. I know this GB isn’t a race, but it’s really not a complicated kit and I don’t want it to spend much time languishing on the shelf. That may well happen during the painting stage anyway!