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The Tin Shack (Junkers DI in 1/48) [Finished]


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Well, why should one finish a model, when he can start something new?

This made clear, here's something I came along rather by chance recently, but couldn't help almost instantly starting it. It's the Junkers DI, from Roden, 1/48.

 

42798884xf.jpg

 

In case you aren't aware of this little plane - as I was when I ordered it, to fill a shopping basket just before a inventory discount expired - this is Junkers proposal for a fighter plane, by the end of WWI. The Albatros aces like Udet didn't like it, one can't say it's overly elegant or fast looking, it arrived to the western theatre to late to proof it's battle worthiness or gained any other medal of any kind.

 

Later it once was called the best fighter for all weather situations. And; it was the world's first single wing all metal fighter plane in the world (the first all metal plane was the Junkers J.I, but it was rather a ground attack aircraft in more conventional 1½ wing configuration).

 

So, this one was well a head in certain aspects of some other more modern airplanes. Anyway, I wasn't aware of that model at all.

So, why did I bother and start building it initially?

Two reasons for that; once being stuck with some other builds in the more complex process of mounting upper wings and rigging, I found the idea of a single wing plane, with only a few parts and no rigging quite appealing.

 

And second I wanted to try out some techniques on full metal painting techniques, which I found this could work for as a test mule. So, this will be an unpainted version, were is almost not pictures available for. Which is fine for me - if it's looking good in the end, it's fine for me. No call for historical accuracy.

 

If you enjoy this little WWI extravaganca, be welcome to join this hopefully rather short build.

 

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That’s an interesting aircraft!

Since your planning on using this as a test subject for painting metallics, here’s a tip from when I did my Ford Trimotor build. After painting the base metallic color, I tried brushing dry metallic powders randomly down the wing corrugations to add variety and interest to the finish.  I was quite pleased with how it turned out:

 

44620461660_d34c803968_b.jpg


- Bill

 

 

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20 hours ago, billn53 said:

After painting the base metallic color, I tried brushing dry metallic powders randomly down the wing corrugations to add variety and interest to the finish.

Honestly, that looks terrific. What powder did you use here? And how did you fix it? That's nothing I did before, but looks very promising.

 

I think of experiment with some structure in the base coat, and/or maybe different aeras with various Alclad colours, i.e. Semi Matt Aluminium, White Aluminium, like that. 

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While pondering about the finish, I'm still stuck at the interior, which is rather basic.

 

42803274xr.jpg

 

I already painted it in some dark grey and will probably add some more drybrushing, and some parts will be added, but this will not be an overly crowded cockpit. Fine with me, let's keep it easy.

 

Two things, tough; first - the dashboard has no dials, decals, whatever, and I think there has to be something done about that. I'm a bit of a dashboard fetishist.

 

Second; the seat consist of two parts, where as the back has to be bend in shape. Spoiler alert; it did break. Alternative needs to be found.

 

But here's for the dashboard:

 

42803389iw.jpg

 

I have some WWI dials and gauges, which I randomly spread across it. It's not perfect, but adds a little life and will be covered in the cockpit, so it's fine with me.

 

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What does look quite good is the engine; two options are provided, for the BMW and the Daimler engine. This is, I think, the daimler one:

 

42803397km.jpg

 

42803398lp.jpg

 

That's fine enough if you want to keep it ootb or is a good base for super detailing it (which I won't here).

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2 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

Honestly, that looks terrific. What powder did you use here? And how did you fix it? That's nothing I did before, but looks very promising.

 

I think of experiment with some structure in the base coat, and/or maybe different aeras with various Alclad colours, i.e. Semi Matt Aluminium, White Aluminium, like that. 


More details on the techniques I tried (and ultimately used) are posted here:

 

 

I used AK Interactive XTreme Metal paints: base of Matte Aluminum with some paneling in White Aluminum and Dark Aluminum. I also applied a Flory wash, if I recall correctly.  The powdered metal pigment was from Uschi van der Rosten, but such pigments are available from other companies as well. Afterwards, I sprayed a light mist coat  of Matt Aluminum to tie everything together. My surface wasn’t particularly glossy (I wanted a well-worn appearance) so the pigments adhered pretty well without fixative, and later I clear-coated for decaling.

 

Good luck and I’ll be following along if you don’t mind 😉

 

 - Bill

 

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1 hour ago, billn53 said:

More details on the techniques I tried (and ultimately used) are posted here:

Oh - the Miskatonic expeditions Ford Trimotor! I read your WiP way back then, but following another aspect - I was researching which plane Lovecraft (most likely) meant the expedition used by Peabody-Dyer. I play in Team Wal, as far as this one is concerned. But this is a larger discussion I don't want to open here for now. 😉

 

But, consequently the model I want to apply my - hopefully new and soon working- technique is Amodels 1/72 Wal, which I want to modify to fit the purpose of the Miskatonic expedition. 

 

I love to add some little Lovecraft easter eggs in my builds. Fthagn! 🕳️

 

But for now; back to the Junkers!

 

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The seat. If anyone ever could tell me how to bend this f...oobar seat, I'd get wise, i guess. I used 89 - 90°C degree water, and it already started to neck (is that the correct term?) before it nearly got to be somewhat soft enough to be bend. So it broke. Pooh-pooh (or whatever would be the correct term to transscribe my rather heavy swear into this rather child-freindly forum). Snarf. 

 

Anyway; scraped it and got me some leftover PE wicker seat wannabe to mount. Here it is:

 

42805713qq.jpg

 

Good enough for this /&%)/&% pile of styrene, I'd say.

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And some first attempts in preshading with the basecoat.

 

Here's the parts, unpainted, just a few leftover random stains from a dirty workbench...


42805775fp.jpg

 

Masked...

 

42805776xw.jpg

 

and painted;

 

42805777bk.jpg

 

One part is missing, which is the top piece for which I bought a resin part from Karaya. Parts provided with the kit have parallel lines, while the original had convergent lines. Tbh, not that big of an issue, but as I bought the set for the exhaust, which had an already open end (something i usually mess up,)  I thought I could use this as well. Let's see how long this will take. 

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As this is meant to be a Mojo build for me (a term I just learned over at @(ex)Sgtrafman 's relaxed and beautiful Chipmunk build, I take my time with this.

 

So I only managed to glue together the front pieces of the cockpit. Fit is good, in general, but a few parts have a rather significant offset, so I had to tweak them a bit to fall into place. But so far it's a rather stable joint and with a few part makes a nice little engine and cockpit section. 

 

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I feel I will slide in a bit more styrene parts, maybe for a tank or cartridge slide, just to add some life it. Not to gain accuracy, what this build is definitely NOT about... 😉 

 

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On 1/13/2022 at 12:41 PM, billn53 said:

Nice instrument cluster.

Thanks. It was the mere minimum I had to do here - but just the naked plastic isn't, well, it simply is not an option. I'm thinking of suggesting to Alexandre from Quinta Studios to do some generic WWI dials and gauges.

 

A few more parts installed...

 

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Must be the angle of the camera, as the seat turned out to be only slightly sloped, I think/hope it will not really be apparent once the fuselage is closed...

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Lovely build I have this exact kit in my stash so I'll follow with interest. 

 

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l love these types and I have built a JI and a J6 but I went for the cami option in both. I would say that certainly for photos of the early junkers there is a bit of a side if a tin barn look about them, rather than a pristine machined look. 

 

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3 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

…I'm thinking of suggesting to Alexandre from Quinta Studios to do some generic WWI dials and gauges.

 

 

I’d second that. I recently built a 1/48 Jenny (the old Lindberg kit).  I used a set of generic instrument dial decals, but they were significantly oversize for 1/48. 

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15 hours ago, wmcgill said:

his online instruction booklet for the Wingnuts kit looks like has some good info & photos

That is maybe my main source of inspiration, as not that much is available online (and hasn't been part of the WNW docu). I'm wondering how Mr. Jackson managed to gather all this information. Well, maybe he did have a time of travelling around, talking with old Junkers, Sopwith, DFW contemporary witnesses, and collecting old photos. Well, living the dream! 😉

 

I can't use that much, as the Roden kit has a bit of a different layout (but would definitely rather trust the WNW kit) and lazy me doesn't want to go scratchbuilding the WNW kit in 1/48.

 

But what I did learn from , that for the fuselage only one piece of tin was used, so has to be considered in the shading.

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14 hours ago, billn53 said:

I used a set of generic instrument dial decals, but they were significantly oversize for 1/48.

I used them here as well, and one can clearly see that they are too big for this dashboard at least, and mounting the bezels wasn't possible as well.

 

I have the Oeffag Albatros decals from Quinta studio and will use them on one of mine, and of course they look terrific. I really look forward to work with them. I guess it won't be that extra work to make a sheet with only some of those - would be a rather simple job, I guess, at least compared with some of his other decals.

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I've added some random pieces of styrene, mainly something that could look a bit of a cartridge chute (but doesn't have an exit hole), and a piece at the bottom one could interpret as something tank-ish. Not much, but guess will leave it like that. Not much can be seen anyway.

 

42844760wz.jpg

 

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What's more important that the dryfitting looks good, even with the additional pieces installed. Yay!

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I use the Airscale 1/48 German WWI instrument decals and I think they give good results. Tbh on mist open cockpit builds even in 1/48 the detail isn’t that visible.

 

05f53a1e-22d7-429c-bc6e-9a2161f9b736.jpe
 

1bc6e8db-1cd4-4915-9ff1-389db962e34a.jpeEven in 1/32 not that much shows when the fuselage is zipped up.

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On 1/16/2022 at 3:13 PM, Marklo said:

Airscale 1/48 German WWI instrument decals

I used the same, including the brass bezels. These were just a tad too big for this dashboard layout, hence the bit quick and dirty look.But I agree these are not visible enough to justify too much scratchbuilding.

 

Anyway, I managed to lay a few layers of Alclad on the wings, and here's the result.

 

42865456oo.jpg

 

I sprayed a layer of semi matt aluminium across the base shades - see above - and the result was a bit wee. So I added a strip of golden titanium at the wing roots, which I saw somewhere on a WNW build and I thought looked good. I'm quite fine with this, though it might not 100% correct.

 

Then I wanted to put some additional stripes of lighter shade, hence I masked and sprayed some ALCLAD white aluminium. These are the almost black stripes you can see - you might have guessed, it didn't turn exactly how I planned it. First I thought I totally overdid it, but then I found a picture of I think another later Junkers tin surface and it did appear quite heavily striped, so I think I keep it.

 

As I said, this is a bit of a testmule here, so I'm fine with some deviations of the initial plan. 😉

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What does concern me is that I see some break in this build on the horizon, as I'm still waiting for the Karaya resin parts - these are said to arrive at Feb. 17.! As I want to mount the resin top I have to have it present when I want to close the fuselage, so...

 

I think of ordering some Uschi parts, among them the metallic pigments @billn53 mentioned, which might take some time as well. Talking pigments; did you apply them before the decals or after, for additional weathering effect?

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3 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

What does concern me is that I see some break in this build on the horizon, as I'm still waiting for the Karaya resin parts - these are said to arrive at Feb. 17.! As I want to mount the resin top I have to have it present when I want to close the fuselage, so...

 

I think of ordering some Uschi parts, among them the metallic pigments @billn53 mentioned, which might take some time as well. Talking pigments; did you apply them before the decals or after, for additional weathering effect?


I applied the pigments before any decals.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys, the resin back and exhaust have arrived - they look quite good.

 

Here's the back already preshaded:

 

42932777jx.jpg

 

And, because I had to empty the bench for some reasons; doesn't it look clean. A WWI modellers stil life, with some Sopwiths and the Junkers waiting for some more plastic....

 

42932784pc.jpg

 

Won't look like that in a few days time...

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