Ju 188 E1***FINISHED***

[vppelt68]

Neat job, Pete! V-P

[PeterB]

Based on an illustration in an Osprey book I have marked this up as a plane from 1/KG 66 which was stationed at Montdidier in France in July 1944. KG 66 were spun off from KG 6 in mid 1943, for most of their relatively short existence consisting of one Gruppe of five Staffeln, mostly using a mix of Ju 88S and Ju 188E-1, and were dedicated pathfinders during Operation Steinbock or “the little Blitz” from January to May 1944. Being fitted with various electronic aids to navigation, it seems they flew ahead of the main force and marked the target with incendiaries and flares. These would presumably be mostly carried in the internal bomb bays unless they were using the big 250KG incendiaries, so I have also given it 4 x 250 Kg bombs. and there seems to be a lot of individuality in their colour schemes etc. Some had mottles over the upper surfaces, some squiggles, and I have several photos of at least one flown by Altrogge with just plain 76 – even though Hasegawa show what seems to be the same plane with squiggles in their kit. He also had the turret removed, presumably to get more speed.

 

By that stage of the war operating over the UK even at night was ruddy dangerous – some 320 Luftwaffe planes were apparently lost in the 5 months of Steinbock through all causes, and operating over the Normandy beachheads in July would not have been much healthier. Perhaps for this reason the crew of this machine have taken steps to reduce the visibility of their markings – the underwing crosses seem to have been painted over and likewise the swastika, whilst the large codes normally on the side of the fuselage have been replaced by a miniature version on the tail - this has the full set but some only carried the last 2 letters. The fuselage cross perhaps ought to be in RLM 66 but I have used a white one and dirtied it up a bit to reduce visibility.

 

Bit of tidying up to do and then I will add the props and various odds and ends.

 

Pete

Edited November 25, 2022 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I suppose the cockpit is typical of Luftwaffe bombers of the period – 4 man crew with 4 guns as this Junkers plan shows!

 

The pilot is fully occupied and the “C stand” ventral gun has its own gunner, so the radio operator works the “B1 stand” gun at the rear of the canopy I guess, but that leaves the man in the right hand seat to work the “B2 stand” turret and the “A stand” nose cannon whilst navigating presumably, and probably bomb-aiming as well unless the ventral gunner could do that perhaps! Having both a turret and a rear gun in the canopy seems a bit odd, but then I guess the turret is the only gun that can be pointed out to the side as the rear guns would have limited traverse.

 

This is what it looks like on the kit -

 

Another thing you can just about see is that some, but not all 188 were also fitted with a sort of balloon deflector frame under the nose. I cannot really see it being much use as it would not protect the protruding barrel of the MG 151 cannon, and would in any case just send the cable into the engines or props which would probably prove fatal, but as Italeri provide it and the pics of my chosen plane show it was fitted I have used it.

 

In fact this was not an original idea as the earlier Ju 88A-6 was originally fitted with a much bigger tubular frame running around the nose and mounted near each wing tip where there was a cable cutter provided, the idea apparently being that a group of these machines would fly in front of a formation of bombers and clear a way through any barrage balloons they encountered. Unfortunately, though more likely to work than the one in this kit, the device was quite heavy and coupled with the counterbalance weight which had to be fitted in the rear fuselage it reduced the speed by around 15mph unless the bombload was reduced, and it did not catch on. It was soon removed but pics still show the mountings on some A-6.

 

The canopy was actually not a bad fit even if the Falcon version is supposedly more accurate - trying to fit the turret, guns etc to the vac form would have been a lot more difficult I expect. Once the RLM 76 I used to touch up has dried I will merge the joins in with some mottling and then I can finish the kit.

 

Pete

 

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by PeterB

[PeterB]

About 30 years ago, after my first redundancy, I used some of the money to buy three Italeri kits of twin engined German Bombers. I built the Do 217K-1 earlier this year, and now I have finished the Ju 188E-1!

Just needs a finishing coat of flat varnish. They are not as detailed as more modern kits, but much better than the old Airfix offering of similar planes, and also they were cheap! Must get round to doing the He IIIH-6 sometime.

 

Pete

Edited November 25, 2022 by PeterB

[PeterB]

With the flat finish on the black looks somewhat better I think.

Slightly tricky build at times but quite good fun.  If and when the sun comes out I will get some pics for the Gallery.

 

One down, three to go!

 

Pete

[Mottlemaster]

Nice one Pete and a great build thred . I have taken on board the thoughts on the bomb load for my 188 .

 

cheers

Alistair

[PeterB]

58 minutes ago, Mottlemaster said:

Nice one Pete and a great build thred . I have taken on board the thoughts on the bomb load for my 188 .

 

cheers

Alistair

Hi Alistair, 

 

Looking at the instructions I gather they provide ETC bomb racks but no bombs? The ones under my Ju 88 in the earlier photo are I believe SD 500 as they have tail rings - the SC 500 had box bracing. The former should I believe have red stripes on the edge of the tail fins and the latter yellow but I have not bothered. You should be able to download a copy of TM 9-1985-2 from the internet - this is the manual I use sometimes listed as German Explosive Ordnance. There are 2 volumes from the US Army, bombs being in Vol 1. The other Army manuals are also available under TM 9-1985-1, 3, 4 etc. This site has the similar USN "OP" Manuals I believe-/bulletpicker.com/ordnance-pamphlets.html. I would imagine the Brits published something similar but I am yet to find them. I know I am being a bit of a rivet counter with the bombs but as the old saying goes I don't want to spoil the ship  kits for want of "a ha'p'orth of tar"😆.

 

Pete

Edited November 26, 2022 by PeterB

[vppelt68]

Oldie but indeed a Goldie, Nice Job Pete 🙂

V-P

[PeterB]

Well, that is in the Gallery - one down two to go.

 

Pete

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff Pete

I really like the look of the 188, and your colour scheme suits it perfectly   congratulations mate 

Cheers Pat