CanAdrian's single engine Junkers 52

[Adrian Hills]

in the 1930s Junkers made some very rugged aircraft that were particularly well suited to the Canadian climate. The Junkers 52 was one of these so they bought one. Unlike what you normally expect to see when you look at this aircraft there is only one engine which is not supplemented by the two on the wings.

 

To achieve a model of this aircraft I am using an Italeri floatplane Ju 52/3m (The 3m meaning three engines) and a conversion kit from Bird models. This company's engine for the nose is excellent but I cannot say the same for the resin supplied to disguise the removal of the wing engines. I have various alternate methods to overcome the wing engine problem and there will be more of that later.

 

The model will be finished off using the excellent decals from J Bot

 

Please bear with me on the image hosting thing as I am now trying to use imgur as my Flickr account was full years ago and I'm fed up with deleting images.

 

https://imgur.com/aPvCJA6

 

https://imgur.com/mRzO2c5

 

https://imgur.com/Uu5tYJw

 

https://imgur.com/eIEGeNb

 

Cheers

CanAdrian

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

No pictures. Pity as it sounds fascinating. How big is the single engine?

[Adrian Hills]

2 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

No pictures. Pity as it sounds fascinating. How big is the single engine?

Hi Big Nose (sorry, just a reference to your interesting looking Lanc nose section build 🙂 ), am trying to use a different image hosting website and hope to get things up and running properly soon 

[zebra]

This will be interesting! I'll be building something from the same airline, but a bit more recent.

[dogsbody]

This one:

 

 

 

 

I took this photo at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, in Winnipeg, in 1987.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Adrian Hills]

Thanks Chris, It is that aircraft I have decals for 🙂

[JeroenS]

Hi Adrian, would you please post some info on the exact kit you'll be using?

[Adrian Hills]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

Hi Adrian, would you please post some info on the exact kit you'll be using?

Please read my first post

[Adrian Hills]

As pictures are a bit of a problem will only post something actually interesting and useful. I have this evening cleaned up the main components and glued the enormous floats together. These will be waterlined - something worthy of pictures. Now getting my head around the nature of the conversion ie were cuts need to be made for nose and to disguise missing engines on wings.

 

Cheers

CanAdrian

 

Feeling particularly proud as a fellow Canadian, Hugo Houle, won today's stage of the Tour de France. The last stage win by a Canadian was by Steve Bauer way back in 1988 !

[Adrian Hills]

Have looked more closely at this conversion.

1)The rudder is quite a bit bigger on the floatplane aircraft.

2)Large access door on opposite side than one provided in kit.

 

3) side windows need blanking and re-cut with circular holes.

 

4) Engine removal on wings needs to look good as it will be a focus.

 

All of these problems can be solved if I sacrifice my other Italeri kit

 

1) Rudder ribbing is quite fine and I can use other rudder as well as horizontal control surfaces to a grafted together shape. This method worked ok on a Junkers F13 tail modification.

 

2) Ribbing on large side access door a lot finer than rest of fuselage. There is enough room on the donor kit to cut two doors from the coarse fuselage ribbing. One as a blank for starboard and the other the 'Canadian' port door.

 

4) Rather than fiddle hacking up the resin wing section it may be easier to graft pieces from the donor kit

 

This is why I do plastic modelling. I like a challenge 🙂

 

[Adrian Hills]

The donor kit has now given up a fuselage section which I have used as a blanking plate for the large side door on the starboard side. I believe the single engine Ju52 would have had only one of these doors as, just to port and not starboard as such a big hole effects the structural integrity of the fuselage and according to an image (p4) of the prototype Ju52 in the eponymous Squadron Signal publication there is no door on the other side.

 

The image below illustrates not only the 'ribectomy' to the donor kit, the section fitted to the working fuselage but also the kit door. Note how fine the ribbing is in comparison to the main fuselage ribbing. Yet to look closely at photographs to see which is most appropriate - the other donor side has enough room should I need to nick a bit. 

 

I guess this makes me a 'rib counter' rather than a 'rivet counter' 😉

 

 

I need to let glue dry on hatch before attending to alteration of windows. Will perhaps look into tail modification 

 

CanAdrian

 

 

 

 

 

[Adrian Hills]

Here is my basic attempt to at least represent the enlarged tail as required when the aircraft was fitted with floats/skis. 

 

As the extended rudder was pretty similar to the fin I nicked it off the donor kit. I cut into the bottom of the removed section as I noticed the rudder was quite low and extended down to be in line with the fuselage. The fin on the working kit had to have a section cut out. To complete the top of the rudder I took the bottom section from the original rudder and cut to same angle as rest of new rudder.

 

I'm have some jolly good fun doing this 🙂

 

 

 

[81-er]

Nice work on the mods, Adrian

 

James

[zebra]

I'm very impressed with your work on this CanAdrian. The 'ribectomy' and the blanking panel on the starboard side (rib graft? riboplasty?) look very neat indeed.

10 hours ago, Adrian Hills said:

I'm have some jolly good fun doing this 🙂

 

It looks like it!

[Old Man]

Melding corrugate sections is serious bull-goose loony modeling, Sir!

 

Quite a project.

[Adrian Hills]

Have done considerably more research. Firstly Clive_t’s build of this aircraft has given me an awful lot of help and inspiration. He is obviously a very accomplished modeller, something I’m not. But there is a lot in his build thread that will help me.

 

This aircraft had quite a life including fit of three different engines - did that change the shape of the nose ? Different tail configurations, extension of which was probably to reduce yaw caused by floats. And two different floats, the latter being larger.

 

I am erring towards an early iteration with originally supplied floats, just because in 1931 they were dark in colour - RLM Dark Green? Was that colour available then ? Similarly 02 for interior as I’d like to reflect the fact that the Canadians bought a German service aircraft . This then makes my tail that I just made wrong!

 

As I’m using the Bird models conversion will just go with that nose and decide this is a representation rather than a super accurate build.

[Adrian Hills]

For the basic anatomy of the aircraft I think I will go with an image reported as from 1931 shown in the Suadron Signal book, see below. The tip of the tail cannot be clearly seen in this image so I will go with what I have made, but modify it slightly.

 

 

Note the tail wheel is still attached.

 

I have seen a suggestion that this A/C was painted white. I think this is a mis-interpretation as the Squadron Signal book calls it a 'white elephant', but I think this probably refers to sentiments in "Flying Colours; A History of Commercial Aviation in Canada" by Peter Pigott that states the Ju 52 was 'an extravagant purchase' and due to unreliability of the engine only flew for sixty eight days in its first year - hence a 'white elephant'.

 

Any comments on the colour of the floats in the above picture would be most appreciated.

 

Now to do some actual modelling as I need to cut a passenger door in that starboard blanking panel I have just fitted !

[Adrian Hills]

The problem I am having is that I am an academic and am dealing with secondary sources. For my Doctoral research one particular Professor strongly emphasised the value of primary sources -ie what was written down at the time. Unfortunately, for the purpose of this project I have neither the time or the inclination to fly to Canada and do in depth research. So what you have is my best shot from the few publications I have as well as online searches.

 

From Russian website "Junkers Ju-52/1m (seaplane 1930-1932) (seawarpeace.ru)" using Google translate,

 

"The fact that the design of the aircraft of this type was successful is evidenced by the fact that during many years of operation only minor changes were made to it. Only the BMW VII aU engine could not withstand the test of the harsh Canadian winter and in January 1936 it had to be replaced by the British Rolls-Royce Buzzard, which was also a V-shaped 12-cylinder aircraft engine. With it, the aircraft formally received the designation of the modification Ju 52cao. Due to the change of engine, the vertical tail was also changed, increasing its size. Later, they began to use mainly a wheeled chassis, the tires of which were replaced by modern low-pressure pneumatics."

 

Perhaps an answer to my quandry over rudder profiles so perhaps I do need to use the earlier rudder profile - Chiz !

 

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

9 hours ago, Adrian Hills said:

For the basic anatomy of the aircraft I think I will go with an image reported as from 1931 shown in the Suadron Signal book, see below. The tip of the tail cannot be clearly seen in this image so I will go with what I have made, but modify it slightly.

 

 

Note the tail wheel is still attached.

 

I have seen a suggestion that this A/C was painted white. I think this is a mis-interpretation as the Squadron Signal book calls it a 'white elephant', but I think this probably refers to sentiments in "Flying Colours; A History of Commercial Aviation in Canada" by Peter Pigott that states the Ju 52 was 'an extravagant purchase' and due to unreliability of the engine only flew for sixty eight days in its first year - hence a 'white elephant'.

 

Any comments on the colour of the floats in the above picture would be most appreciated.

 

Now to do some actual modelling as I need to cut a passenger door in that starboard blanking panel I have just fitted !

I know this is way out there but my guess would be red for the float color. Easy to see in the water and tell if there is a change in attitude (float damage and/or sinking). Two it matches the stripes on the sides theoretically though the photo shows slightly different shades. Could be different batches of paint ? Three maritime use of red on the lower half of boats/ships is also a possible connection ? 

[dogsbody]

Did some searching and found this:

 

https://1000aircraftphotos.com/NorthernCanada/28.htm

 

https://royalaviationmuseum.com/aircraft/ju-52-1m-cf-arm-retrofit/

 

http://seawarpeace.ru/deutsch/seaplane/01_main/junkers_52_1.html

 

 

There's not much out there on this one aircraft!

 

 

 

Chris

[Adrian Hills]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for those references. The Russian on is particularly useful as cited in my last post.

 

Will need to write to the Winnipeg museum and see if they know what colour the earlier floats were.

 

I think the Canadian Airways wing panels were orange rather than the post war dayglo red depicted by some modellers. J Bot decals provide colour panels with their decals of this aircraft and they are distinctly orange.

 

Yesterday I cut a section out the blanking plate fitted on the starboard side for the other door. Kit original personnel door fits fine. The tips of both donor kit lower wing sections were glued together and later they will be re-profiled to form the pre-1936 squarish rudder

[Viking]

This a really interesting build, you are a brave man Adrian taking on those corrugated sections! It is going to make a fascinating comparison against a standard Ju52, I love off beat subjects like this,

 

Cheers

 

John

[Adrian Hills]

A Tale of Two Tails. I have now fiddled with the lower wing tips from the donor kit and made them approximate the pre-1936 squarer tail. A bit cooler in the evenings to model as I'm sure many fellow modellers in the UK are sweltering a bit - not conducive to modelling.

 My first effort above with the second effort below. Am glad the ribbing frequencies of kit tail and wing tip are similar.

 

 

Here you see what I call 'the squarer' tail on the aircraft photographed with darker colour floats and the corresponding lower power engine. compare with photos of the rudder seen when it had silver floats and extended rudder to counteract yaw. (hope I'm making sense!)

[81-er]

Your new rudder looks far more like the picture, well worth the effort

 

James

[Adrian Hills]

Have now confronted the window configuration. Basically I cut some of the verticals out of the working fuselage and added the angled pieces removed from the donor fuselage. I chose this method as I thought the angle was the most difficult cut to look regular. On the working fuselage I kept a central vertical to stabilise the window orifice and then backed it up with plasticard. This made it easier to fill in the gaps with further vertical sections - used because they are the same thickness. Hopefully Tamiya putty, thinned with Revell glue will hide my sins (If only life was that easy !)

Also seen in the image is the inclusion of the passenger door on the starboard side grafted into the blanking piece filling the loading-bay hole. front windows added as they will be painted over.

 

 

 

This is what I am trying to emulate. I decided against doing the area using one piece of ribbed section as I don't think I have the skill.

 

Now time for bed 🙂