S&P/Brent Ju-88G-6

[Siwi]

Small update from the end of this week (it's school holidays so I have a lot more modelling time than usual). The starboard wheel well was completed and both sides were painted. Although some sources show a dark grey, surviving aircraft have a green anodised coating in these areas, so a mixture of green and a little aluminium went into there and the firewall of the starboard engine.
I've decided to have a go at making this with the cowl off and the Jumo 213 visible, at worst I've still got the cowl part which can be stuck on if it goes wrong. As per my usual method of building in order of fragility, this will come later on in the build when I'll need to handle the model less.
Started on the cockpit by adding a floor, side and rear walls and painting dark grey (approx. RLM 66). After this, the raised floor for the radio operator's seat and the radios themselves were added, plus a grey box which I assume is ammo storage for the R/Os single machine gun. I didn't check photos took some artistic license with the six radios, making them larger and arranging 3x2 rather than 2x3. A little suggestion of knobs and dials was added using some paper discs and off-white pointed with a toothpick.
Also added the upper wing sleeves, and at that point decided to paint the outside of the model as it will unify the shade with these. I like the detail Brent has included but as far as I can see there should not be exhaust staining on the upper wing, and the mottling should be more subtle. So we'll be carefully going over with light grey, keeping the insignia and markings.

[paperengineer]

Wow, the additions to the model are superb! Great work so far, I will be following this closely

[Siwi]

The cockpit is finished, with all controls, seats and the canopy plus MG81 installed. As always, not completely accurate to the real thing but looks good. I seem to build things based on available resources and then find a picture of exactly what I wanted after it's all done.


The rudder pedals are absolutely tiny and may never be seen. Nonetheless, I placed them in a position matching the actual rudder.


Panel was made from several layers of paper, with instruments made by pushing in using the end of a wooden stick. Careful painting leaves these indentations white and suggestion of dials and gauges can be done using a 0.03mm pen. After that a thick coat of gloss varnish over it all and then matt on the black only to give some idea of glass. I may have made the panel from an A- or C-series 88, as after doing it according to a photo purporting to be a G-, I then found a model kit conversion which showed a different instrument layout. However the radar operator's panel is depicted on the starboard side with scope. Seats were two layers of paper with the harnesses made from reciept paper. I think these are my best seatbelts so far, again with buckles done using the ultra-fine pen. Added the stick, some levers and other details to the side walls.






The canopy was cut from the kit part and strengthened with superglue. At the second attempt the 'glass' stuck acceptably using double-sided tape, although it doesn't quite conform above the windshield. The MG ring opening was thicker clear plastic so that it could be proud of the framing. This form of mounting found on many German types seems a bit restrictive and awkward to use to me. The gun itself was strengthened paper after a few failed attempts to roll a tube thin enough. Ammo belt is four layers with a blunt knife pressed in to depict the cartridges. I think the stock and trigger guard are overscale but it wasn't likely I could make them any smaller, and it all fits.
The front radar pole and the 'Schrage Musik' cannon are also glued on now.

[Siwi]

And a small update: the aircraft now has the belly gun pod (note to Brent - I wasn't entirely sure where to stick this as it appears to cover up some other details) and the night exhausts for the port engine. Guns are thin tubes rolled between fingers even thinner and strengthened with paint and superglue. The exausts were fun to make. I got a decent rough metal texture by rolling masking tape over the part, then painting it with a layer of aluminium+black, then an uneven layer of copper and dark red. The scorching was done with a mid-grey alcohol marker, and I put more on the underside to create some artificial shading. Then I looked at reference pics and realised I'd glued them on before adding the support rings, so those had to be cut oh so thin, coloured with a copper marker and stuck to the correct places whilst mounted on the engine. Thin parts on a cylinder want to turn sideways when floating on glue, but we got them there. The small scoop of the supercharger intake also went on the port engine. Some shaving and sanding of the wing trailing edges was done too to give a more realistic profile.



Next will be landing gear.

[rifleman]

outstanding work looking awesome well done

[Siwi]

I moved on to the landing gear, starting with the mainwheels. My usual method was to cut out the kit parts, stick them to (usually) 2 layers of 1.5mm mountboard and then carve/sand them to shape with some old thick paint as a filler and smooth exterior layer. This produced acceptable results but I found several issues: the mountboard is quite soft and will compress and bend when cut into small parts, as well as being untidy when sanded. So, for these wheels I tried the rolling/coiling method. In order to make the start of the coil much easier I looped the inner strip over some wire and glued it to itself- this was then rolled up, rather than trying to get the end to stick at such a tiny diameter. A picture explains this better.
Using the kit parts as a template I made the hub and the wheel as seperate pieces, so that painting and shaping were easier. At this point there was the usual puzzling over photos to work out what the tyres would have looked like on the variant in question, and I quickly decided to make them with treads, not really caring if these were correct for the G versions (I think they were smooth, but these look less interesting, have tiny mould lines that would be impossible to create, and there's the fallback of 'by this stage in the war they would have used whatever was available'). Treads were 2x9mm strips and a flat spot was cut on the underside. A tiny length of wire for the brake line is glued in the centre of the outside (the Ju-88 has only a single strut).
The other thing I wanted to try out was a more realistic rubber shade - I think matt black with a bit of grey mixed in seems to look good, plus a little drybrushing with brown-orange to suggest brake dust and dirt from the ground.
I was also keen to add a more 3D dorsal DF radio aerial, so carefully cut a hole with a fresh blade and then made a 'tub' with the star-shaped aerial and a clear cover. This was very carefully inserted and glued, as losing it into the fuselage would be almost impossible to retrieve!

In the end making these went much easier and quicker than expected, like a piano piece that looks really complicated and turns out to basically be in C major.

[Rata]

Nice work Siwi. Those wheels look very convincing.

[Siwi]

Yesterday and this morning I made the actual landing gear struts and actuators. The Ju-88 had very little variation in this mechanism across all variants, so I didn't get too much into checking the exact shape of things. There is a single main oleo strut for each wheel, with a cam that rotates it 90deg as it folds back into the gear bay, and a sort of triangle-on-a-stick hinged strut that actually pulls it up.


Struts are rolled tubes with a wire in the centre (which is bent to form the axle of the wheels), and the triangle things are a central part with relief strips - pictures should make it pretty self-explanitory. There are a couple of mounts inside the wells which made getting everything in there quite a tight fit. Could still do with a bit of support and steadying but it's holding the weight of the aircraft and everything is aligned. Checking against pictures the gear is a tiny bit long, but I guess if the plane was empty of fuel and crew it would probably sit this high.



My football team got a rare (for this season) win whilst I was making this part, which meant that I stopped periodically to chew my nails as they defended a slim lead for 60 minutes...

[Tapcho]

This is coming along real nicely. I found an other 'reference' of the field maintenance of Jumo engine. This time a drawing by famous German wartime artist Hans Liska.

Tappi

[Siwi]

Tapcho, thanks for digging that up. This is pretty much what I intend to build, not sure about making the crane tower but with the radiator and front panels still on and maybe prop off too. I was in the RAF Museum a few weeks ago and there is an exhibition of fifty avation artworks which include sketches and paintings from war artists such as this.


Last week in between music practice sessions I did the tailwheel, crew hatch and the radar prongs for the 'Morgenstern' arrangement. Gluing these tiny thin parts required slowing my breathing down and careful control of the tweezers, but with the help of two kinds of superglue they amazingly managed to all get acceptably in the right places and line up. (NB the kit parts are too small for all but the frontmost x, and I couldn't find any reliable measurements for how they are spaced fore and aft) The rear radar pole is a bit simplified to allow for the kit design, it should have a short supporting strut above but it's too firmly glued to change that now.

Tailwheel mostly from kit parts, I did attempt more internal detail but then found it wouldn't attach inside the wheel well so just made a strong pole to mount it on. Wheel doors are on too with a bit of relief detail on the inside.