ICM Junkers Ju-88A-8 Paravane (48230) 1:48

[Mike]

Junkers Ju-88A-8 Paravane (48230)

1:48 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd

 

 

The Ju-88 was designed as a schnellbomber in the mid-30s, and at the time it was faster than current fighter designs, so it was projected that it could infiltrate, bomb and exfiltrate without being intercepted.  That was the theory anyway.  By the time WWII began in the west, fighters had caught up with the previously untouchable speed of the 88, and it needed escorting to protect it from its Merlin equipped opponents.  It turned out to be a jack of all trades however, and was as competent as a night fighter, dive bomber or doing reconnaissance as it was bombing Britain.  They even popped a big gun in the nose and sent it against tanks and bombers, with variable success.

 

The A series sported a pair of Jumo 211 engines in cylindrical cowlings producing over 1,000hp each, and was improved gradually up until the A-17.  During the Battle of Britain the British defenders flew balloons, or Aerostats above their main centres of population, tied to the ground via strong steel hawsers, with the intention of snagging unwitting enemy aircraft and bringing them crashing to the ground.  To combat this, some German aircraft were fitted with wire cutting blades in arrow-headed arrangements around the front of the aircraft to cut or deflect the cables and save the aircraft from becoming another casualty of the wily Brits.  The Ju-88A-8 was outfitted with such a contraption, referred to as a Paravane, and to counter the extra weight the crew was reduced to three, and the engines were upgraded to Jumo 211F-1 that produced more power at higher revs to counter both the weight and drag.  It wasn’t wholly successful, as the performance was worse despite the attempts to ameliorate this.  They were of course only of use at lower altitudes to which aerostats could be raised.

 

 

The Kit

This is a new variation on the original tooling of an A-5 and subsequent A-11 that were release by ICM, with new paravane parts on a single additional sprue added to make it specific to this boxing.  The box is the usual top-opening with an inner lid on the lower tray, and inside you will find nine sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a decal sheet and a glossy covered instruction booklet with spot colour inside, and the decal options in full colour on the rear pages.  If you have been lucky enough to see the other kits, you'll know that detail is right up there in terms of quality and crispness, with ICM improving leaps and bound over the last several years despite impediments, which is great news for us modellers, as they aren't frightened of tackling what to us may seem niche subject matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the addition of sidewall details in the capacious cockpit area of the fuselage.  Rear bulkhead, side consoles and seats are all added to the cockpit sides for a change, with an insert in the fuselage for the circular antenna and tail wheel added into the starboard side.  The instrument panel is supplied with decals, and fits into the fuselage during joining.  The missing floor is added to the lower fuselage panel that includes the lower parts of the inner wings and gives the structure extra strength.  It also receives the rudder pedals, control column, and the two remaining crew seats before being joined to the fuselage.

 

The tail plane has articulated flying surfaces, and the wings are supplied as top and bottom halves, with the flaps and ailerons separate from the box, having neat curved fairings so they look good when fitted at an angle.  The flaps include the rear section of the soon-to-be-fitted nacelles, which are added as separate parts to avoid sink-marks, and these and the ailerons run full-span, terminating just as the wingtip begins.  This variant was fitted with the under-fuselage gondola, and each side has separate glazing panels inserted from inside, and a seam running vertically through its length.  It is added to the hole in the underside of the fuselage, with the front and rear glazing plus zwilling mounted machine guns later in the build.  At this time the landing gear is made up on a pair of upstands that are added to the underwing in preparation for the installation of the nacelle cowlings.  The engines must be built up first though, with a high part count and plenty of detail, mounting on a rear firewall that securely fits inside the cowling.  Even though this is an in-line engine with a V-shaped piston layout, the addition of the annular radiators gives it the look of a radial, with their representation added to the front of the cowling, obscuring much of the engine detail.  The side panels can be left off to show all that detail however, and I'm sure someone will be along with some in-scale opened panels in due course.  The cooling flaps around the cowling are separate, and the exhausts have separate stacks, which aren't hollow but are large enough to make boring them out with a drill a possibility.

 

 

The completed nacelles fit to the underwing over the top of the main gear installation, securing in place with four pegs, two on each side of each nacelle.  The props are made from spinner, backplate and a single part containing all three blades, sliding onto a pin projecting from the engine front, which will require some glue if you want to keep them on.  At this point the instructions recommend adding the canopy glazing, which consists of a choice of two faceted nose cones, and the main greenhouse for the cockpit aperture.  The rear portion is made from two additional parts due to its double "blown" shape to accommodate the two rear-facing gun positions, so that the gunner's head isn't pressed against the canopy.  The guns are fitted through the windscreen and the two circular ports on the rear, although no ammo feed is supplied.  Under the wings the four bomb crutches on aerodynamic mounts are built up with anti-sway braces and installed, with bombs supplied that have two of their fins moulded separately, along with the stabilising struts that fit into notches in the fins.  While the airframe is flipped over, the two-part wheels, tail-wheel bay doors and twin main gear bay doors are added, both having good detail and the former a radial tread.  Exhaust covers are fixed over the individual exits, and a small number of actuators are glued to recesses in the ailerons.  Addition of the canopy mounted antenna completes the standard build, but the paravane parts are yet to be added.

 

 

There are four wing-mounted supports for the cutting blade, each one an A-frame that attaches above and below the wing.  They are joined by two more angled A-frames that project from the sides of the nose, all six supporting the two blade symmetrical sections that meet up in the centre and at the wingtips.  This and the other delicate parts are best left off until main painting is complete, but that’s your decision, not mine.

 

 

Markings

The kit includes three markings options, and although there are no Swastikas on the sheet, they are supplied in halves for those that want them.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Junkers Ju 88 A-8 Paravane, 5./KG 30, 1941
• Junkers Ju 88 A-8 Paravane, KG 30,1941
• Junkers Ju 88 A-8 Paravane, KG 51, 1941

 

 

 

The colours are picked out using letters that correspond to a table on the front page, which gives the names and paint codes in ICM, Revell and Tamiya ranges, so should be easy to convert to your paint system of choice.  The decals are printed in good register, colour density and sharpness, with additional instrument dials included on a clear carrier film to help with cockpit painting.  All the stencils are legible, with a thin carrier film cut close to the printing.

 

As is common now with ICM kits, there is a page of the instruction booklet devoted to the masking of the canopy, using the printed shapes on the right of the page and the diagrams on the left to create your own masks if you wish.  It goes up to 64 thanks to the faceted greenhouse glazing.

 

 

Conclusion

ICM's range of Ju.88s, He.111s and Do.17s are a good example of how far they have come in recent years, adding value to their brand, and improving their reputation with each release.  The kit is well-detailed and comprehensive in what it includes, and the Paravane gear is a little bit out of the ordinary, which is always fun.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[vppelt68]

I just drooled through this kit instructions and checked the inbox review here. It looks like all the pieces needed to build this kit as the earlier A-6 variant are there too. Why is this important? Well, even though the balloon cutter planes saw limited combat action, the paravane stripped A-6:s, with their wing and fuselage attachment points still there, were pressed into action among regular A-5 bombers that they practically now were. And action they saw, from the Arctic to Africa.

Thanks for the review and pics, Mike!

 V-P