ICM Ju.88A-4 w/German Personnel & Torpedo Trailers (48229) 1:48

[Mike]

Ju.88A-4 w/German Personnel & Torpedo Trailers (48229)

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 installed a big gun in the nose and sent it against tanks and bombers, with variable success.

 

The A series was powered by a pair of Jumo 211 engines with annular radiators in cylindrical cowlings producing over 1,000hp each, and was improved gradually up until the A-17, with the A-4 a general improvement from previous versions, including a longer wingspan, more powerful engines, and more potent self-defence weapons.  It also benefited from stronger landing gear to cope with the weapons that could be loaded onto the stations under the inner wing panels.

 

 

The Kit

This is a new variation on the original tooling of an A-series airframe that was release recently by ICM, with new parts added to make it version specific to the A-4, and adding a separate torpedo, trailer and a set of crew figures to place around the finished model.  The box is the usual top-opening with an inner lid style, and inside you will find twelve sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, decal sheet and a glossy covered instruction booklet with spot colour inside, and the decal options in full colour on the back cover, plus two additional sheets for the figures and the trolley.  If you have been lucky enough to see the other boxings, you'll know that detail is right up there in terms of quality and crispness, with ICM really improving over the last few years, which has been great news for modellers, as they aren't frightened of tackling what to us may seem niche subject matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the fuselage, installing the sidewall detail inserts in the capacious cockpit area, along with some dial decals to bring out the detail.  Rear bulkhead, side consoles with decals and a crew seat are all added to the cockpit sides rather than the floor 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 a decal, and fits into the front of the cockpit opening during fuselage closure.  The missing floor is added to the lower fuselage panel that includes the lower inner wings and gives the structure some strength.  It also receives the rudder pedals, control column, and the two remaining crew seats back-to-back before being joined to the fuselage from below.

 

The tail plane has articulated flying surfaces that can be installed without glue during closure of the fins, and the wings are supplied as top and bottom, with the flaps and ailerons separate from the box, and neat curved fairings so they look good when fitted deflected.  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, fitting the lower glazing after joining the two halves.  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.  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, made from of a high part count with plenty of detail, and 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 cooling gills around the cowling are separate, and the exhausts have separate stacks, which aren't hollow but are large enough to make reaming them out with a drill a possibility, with optional semi-cylindrical flame hiders that fit over them.

 

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 piece containing all three blades, sliding onto the axle 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 faceted nose cone, and the main greenhouse for the cockpit aperture, with a forward firing machine gun pushed through a hole in the windscreen.  The rear portion is made from two additional parts due to its double "blown" shape to accommodate the two rearward gun positions, so that the gunner's head isn't constantly pressed against the canopy, spoiling his situational awareness.  The guns are fitted through the two circular ports on the rear, although no ammo feed is supplied.  Under the wings the two torpedo crutches on aerodynamic mounts are glued, with the torpedoes made up from halves with separate props and fins, along with the fairings that fit between the pylons and fuselage sides.  While the airframe is flipped over, the two-part wheels and twin main gear bay doors are added, both having good detail and the former a radial tread.  Addition of the canopy mounted antenna completes the build, but this is likely to be done long after main painting for safety's sake.

 

 

Torpedo & Trailer (48404)

This set is contained on a single sprue of grey styrene that contains parts for a complete torpedo, plus a trailer to transport it around the airfield.  The trailer is made first, with six cross-members installed on a cruciform chassis and fleshed out with a set of tubular frames and sections of tread-plate on either side of where the torpedo will sit.  A pair of wheels glue to the short ends of the crucifix, then the torpedo is built from two halves with a double row of blades on the screw and a pair of perpendicular fins at the rear.  The break-off tail is made from two T-shaped end panels, with four vanes stretched between them.  The wooden tail slots over the torpedo’s fins, and the finished weapon is lowered into the cradle running along the trailer’s direction of travel.

 

 

There are two colour options for the torpedo, which varies only in the colour of the empennage around the screw at the rear.

 

 

German Luftwaffe Ground Personnel (48084)

This extensive set is supplied on one sprue that contains seven figures, plus a dog.  There are three officer-types, one carrying a briefcase, another a walking cane, while the third, a pilot-type is holding one hand out in askance of an unknown question, with the other hand on his hip.  The maintenance crew includes a gentleman standing over the others with hands on hips, while two spanner-twirlers discuss a repair, one with screwdriver in hand.  The last figure is sitting on an imaginary wheel, finishing off his lunch by offering the last part of it to a dog, while he holds his plate/bowl in his opposite hand.  The dog is working for his/her living, raising a paw to solicit the tasty morsel from the mechanic.  It’s of an indeterminate “mutt” breed with pricked ears and a brush tail that would probably be working overtime if the figures were animated.

 

 

A greyscale set of drawings of the figures on the rear of the instruction sheet covers both the parts and colour call-outs, both referring to the parts diagram and colour table on the opposite side.  The colours are given in Model Master and AKAN shades as well as the names in English and Ukrainian, as the kit was originally released before ICM’s own paint system was available.

 

 

Markings

The kit includes four markings options from the relevant theatre, and the first page of the painting section details the application of the numerous stencils that are supplied with the kit.  There are no Swastikas on the sheet, but the Balkenkreuz are included, and if you’re struggling for historical accuracy and they’re permitted in your territory, you can always buy them separately.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• 8./KG26, Grosseto, Italy, late 1942
• 1./KG77, Italy, September 1943
• 7./KG77, Orange-Karitat, Southern France, April 1944
• 3./KG26, Bardufoss, Norway, February 1945

 

 

 

The colours are picked out using letters that correspond to a table on the front page, which gives the names and paint codes in Revell and Tamiya ranges, so should be easy to convert to your paint system of choice.  The decals have good register, colour density and sharpness, with additional instrument dials included on a clear carrier film to help with cockpit painting.  The stencils are all legible, and they inspire confidence, with a thin carrier film cut close to the printing, with a few exceptions where lettering has film that could have been dispensed with to reduce the menace of silvering.  Applying them to a gloss surface is the most reliable way to reduce silvering however.

 

 

Conclusion

ICM's expanding modern range of Ju.88s, Do.17s and other types 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 with a nice quartet of decal options that say "build me", coupled with the figures and the extra torpedo on a trolley, it’s great value.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

 

[vppelt68]

Tip of the day: Paint a yellow fuselage band with decal option A, 1T+AS, and you get a plane from the Arctic theater in late summer of 1942. It had WNr. 140006, and was shot down 8.9.1942 over Petsamo airfield by a Bf 109 of JG 5! (Valtonen 1997, p. 375)