Luftwaffe RECCE aircraft.......

[popeye]

Thanks Rich -

MrSurfacer 1200 airbrushed,
thinned with MrColour thinner for enamels at 50/50 minimum
to get a thin but well keyed undercoat.

Watch out - do not use MrColour thinner for Acrylics with Mr.Surfacer !

Good modelling, Rolf

[popeye]

The Resin exhausts will be painted, inserted and secured trough the open engine gondola only after all painting is finished and before the engines are inserted definitively - this is why I warned you not to fit them earlier.





For fitting the antenna made from 0.7mm metal tube I prepared an insert from plastic tubing to attain a secure location of the mast in the fuselage.





I also prepared new periscope units from clear sprue to be able to simulate the clear heads – to replace the Resin kit items.

[johnsheehan]

simply astounding!!

[popeye]

Before glueing the wings on I wanted to apply the markings and factory code.
With the friendly help of Peter A. from FF I had been able to decide on a documented example of a 388 L-1 off the Junkers factory line at Merseburg: W-Nr 340 083, factory call sign RT + KC.
I would have loved to model a first line a/c but there is no confirmed use of any 388 L in squadron service.

There are no hard facts on camouflage colours for 388’s but several sources agree on factory standard splinter in RLM 70/71 for topsides of bombers and recce variants.

From published profiles and available fotos, sides and lower surfaces seem to be lighter in tonality than RLM 65 - so I started with 76.
The ensuing discussion on Flugzeugforum resulted in something of a draw of differing opinions.

I even applied 65 over the fuselage sides as a test but was not convinced with the result – the contrast did not tie in with pictures.
In the end I arrived at something of a compromise by applying a filter of 65 over 76.

Standard splinter pattern according to Ju 188 scheme was applied to the top of fuselage and wings in RLM 70/71

[popeye]

As I couldn’t find suitably sized Iron Crosses in the style needed in my decals, I used examples in white from an old Microscale sheet as a pattern to cut stencils from signwriter sheet ( 3M Plancal) and airbrushed them, using RLM 22.





The code letters came from a rare TallyHo sheet 72043 - if this was still in print and on sale I would readily buy more…..



No Swastikas were applied to the tail as I wanted to use uncensored pics of the finished model on the German forum – maybe I shall add that later on.

[popeye]

The Resin exhaust were painted with a mix of gunmetal and copper and at last inserted trough the still empty engine gondolas, followed by the “engine” cores.




The FDL tail gun was “pimped” with metal tubing for the twin guns and put aside to be inserted in the end.




After some restrained washing of panel lines with oils and application of light exhaust stains it only remained to attach the landing gear legs, wheels and landing gear doors…..




periscopes, antenna mast and antennas on the fuselage and





the PE aileron brackets, underwing antennas and the “Yagi” antennas for the Neptun rear warning radar on top of the wings, not necessarily in this order and not as rapidly realised as read….





The aircraft had a short life. First flight was on August 25th 1944 at Merseburg.
On September 6th it was delivered to E.Kdo 388 at Rechlin with an acceptance flight logged the day after.
On September 11th it was 70% destroyed when turning over in an emergency landing, while the pilot, Major Behrens, head of the E.Kdo 388 was injured.


I would like to thank those members of Flugzeugforum.de who helped with hints, remarks and pictures along the way, especially so Peter A. who kindly answered my questions and provided help with data, pictures and the historical facts noted above.





The model is more or less built out of the box, improved as described without any additional aftermarket parts except for the generic decals from TallyHo and was airbrushed using Vallejo Air Acrylics.
Construction is not really straightforward due to the lack of clear cut locations in general. If a realistic model is your aim, the modification of wing incidence and reworking of the landing gear gondolas is mandatory.

References:

Junkers Ju 388, Vernaleken/Handig, Aviatic Verlag, also available in English from Schiffer
AJ Press, Ju 188 / 388, Nr. 11 & 12
Ju 288/388/488, KH Regnat, Vom Original zum Modell, Bernhad & Graefe, also available in English from Midland, Black Cross Series.

www.ju388.de/
www.internetmodeler.com/2000/july/first-looks/specialhobby_ju388.htm
www.ipmsusa2.org/reviews/Archive/Books/Aircraft/Midland_Ju-288/Midland_Ju-288.htm

www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/axis/luft/wanta388.htm
modelingmadness.com/scotts/axis/luft/ju/ju388.htm
hsfeatures.com/features04/ju388v2jf_1.htm
hsfeatures.com/features04/ju388ljf_1.htm

[COLIN SHIPTON-KNIGHT]

Rolf,

What can I say.........

A fascinating build thread, and what marvellous results.

Well done Sir.....

Colin

[popeye]

.
on popular demand as the saying goes

some info on building nostalgic kits bought 40 years ago .....

Airfix Do 17 E/F and Frog Do 17 Z revived

[popeye]

.
In 2004 - having been lured back by the then new He 111 by Hasegawa to building Luftwaffe again after a break of some 25 years I was hooked on Luftwaffe again.

I had always wanted to have a collection of Dornier 17’s and my ancient conversion of a Do 17 P was a sorry sight – after more than 25 years the wings were hanging down….


As I was convinced we would never see a new kit of any Do 17 variant I dusted off some old boxes – 2 each Airfix and a Frog Do 17 and started on a parallel build of a Do 17 F and a conversion to a Do 17 P, crosskitting Airfix and Frog.

[popeye]

Well, life is full of surprises or Murphy’s law. Halfway into my build RS announced the first of their 17’s. But I was already committed and the RS kits still far away.

Airfix E/F and Frog Z kits date from the 60/70’s and are decidedly basic compared with contemporary kits.

The Frog kit suffers from overly thick forward wings and leading edges, unrealistic engines and rudimentary cockpit detail. No problem I thought, as I would only need the complete wings for the conversion.

[popeye]

.
The Airfix kit.

The Airfix E/F also has no detail in the cockpit and the clear parts were quite thick and crazed. Those would be replaced with Falcon parts whittled away anyhow. And in spite of much glazing not much can be seen inside the small cockpit.

Comparing with data and drawings the kit is surprisingly good. The length in front of the wing seems a tad short, the engines are a bit close to the fuselage and therefore the propellers a bit small in diameter, the rear cabin door on the left too far to the rear. Nothing can be done on the first two issues without major surgery however and the “faults” are not extremely noticeable on the finished model.

Wings, engines and landing gear gondolas are looking good but may be improved.

A “firewall” in the rear of the engines is mandatory as is some blanking off of the exhaust openings from the inside. Intakes and exhausts of the oil cooler need to be reworked.




The louvres / grilles on the sides of the engine gondolas need deepening as they are quite prominent in reality.

Ailerons and flaps are oversimplified. Do 17’s up to the “K” version all had Friese ailerons AND Flaps (cantilevered surfaces) with the characteristic and very noticeable gap running from outer tip of aileron to inner end of the flap.

I cut out ailerons and flaps after joining top & bottom of the wings and modified them accordingly.











Speaking from experience I would recommend doing it the other way round, cut and add a blanking strip before joining top & bottom. This should prevent sagging of the rear edges.

[popeye]

.
The landing gear is surprisingly fine, only the rear members might be thinner.
The small wheels are correct in diameter but the profile is to deep. Either fill partly with some putty or use aftermarket units.
The mudguards of course need much thinning or replacing.

The fuselage needs interior strengthening at the cut out for the wings – remember the sagging wings of my first example ?





The rear edge of the rear door should be about in line with the gap between wing and flap. Not absolutely mandatory to correct. I did not replace the door but the clear parts in both doors needed replacing with bigger windows.





Empennage: horizontal and vertical parts need thinning of 0.5mm on both inner surfaces. The R/H vertical tail is toed in at 3.5 degrees – a nice detail easily simulated.
If you want to fit the rudders in off center position you will also have to modify the static balances accordingly.

[popeye]

.
Cockpit:
I did only fit seats, instrument board and control column. In spite of much transparencies you don’t see much inside after fitting of the clear parts and painting frames




The “F” has an open dorsal gun position and the kit part can be used. Guns however will have to come from your spares – the kit items are way to thick.

[popeye]

.
Airfix and Frog kits married to obtain a Do 17 P:

Almost everything above also applies to the “P” variant as well except for wings, engines and canopy.

Starting with the “M” version the wings seem to have been modified. Even if I was not able to find any written evidence, all available pics show split flaps in place of the former cantilevered flaps.
There was also a change to more powerful radials and the landing gear gondola was increased in depth to enclose the small wheels completely when retracted.

Only from the “Z” version onwards the landing gear seems to also have been strengthened and bigger wheels used.

BMW 132 radials were fitted to the recce “P’s” in place of the “Bramo’s” on the other versions, due to better high level performance and better fuel consumption.




Crosskitting the “P”:

Airfix fuselage and empennage and the Frog wings were prepared for mating. You just need to add some plasticard to close the gap between Airfix fuselage and Frog center wing box, file and sand to shape







The Airfix fuselage has two dorsal “depressions” running from behind the wing to the rear – not evident on any original. Fill and sand to shape.

The landing gear gondolas had to be shortened and modified in the rear by cutting off the end and building up a new “tail” with 2K putty.





The leading edge aera of the Frog wing was filed down top and bottom to reduce the thickness. There is enough plastic to be able to obtain a profile comparable to the Airfix wing.

The front end of the gondolas had to be increased in diameter to the size of the cowlings.




Lacking other spares I used BMW radials from an Italeri Ju 86 kit to replace the engines of the Frog kit. Outside diameter had to be reduced by 2 mm and I had to add the two air intakes between the upper 3 cylinders. These were fashioned from stretched plastic tubing. The carburettor intakes on the Frog cowling are to be removed as the BMW was equipped with fuel injection.







The BMW 132 had an aerodynamic body between spinner plate and engine front.
This was simulated with a piece of plastic tubing of suitable size.

The engine covers were improved with cowling gills from plasticard, spinner and props from the Frog kit were used, only the prop blades were slightly shortened and sanded to shape according to pictures.

The dorsal gun position on the “P” was longer and closed at the rear with a round moveable armoured glass. As I couldn’t find something suitable in my spares I had to vacu-form that part.

[popeye]

.
Well – that’s about it. The rest was normal construction and painting. I just added loop antennas made from copper wire as the kit items are only thick rings while the real thing was two metal circles in parallel.

The RS Do 17’s are nice short run kits with Resin detail - I only have been able to inspect an example in the box later on and cannot judge on building it.
If you have Airfix and Frog in the stash you might be happy using them. If not, the admittedly high price for an RS example may be no objection.

It only remains for RS or another manufacturer to issue a new Do 17 Z soon, otherwise the ancient Monogram example will have to be used for completing my Do 17 collection….


Dornier Do 17 F-1, G2 + BH, 1 (F) Aufkl Gr 124, 1939, pre war
Paints: Agama Acrylics (Xtracrylics) pre war colours RLM 61/62/63 and 65
Decals: Original Airfix Do 17 E/F sheet, still useable after exposing it for two weeks to sunlight to get rid of the yellowing after more than 30 years stashing…



Dornier Do 17 P-1, 7A+LM, 4 (F) 121, 4 Staffel, II Grp (F) Aufkl. Grp. 121
Polish campaign 1939 / 40
Paints: Aeromaster (by Vallejo Acryl) “Aircraft Colors” toned down, RLM 70/71/65
Decals: lifted from two Frog Do 17 sheets.


References:
Profile Publ. 164 / Aeromodeller plans / Kookaburra Technical Publications /
AirDoc Nr. 3, Do 17/Do 215 / Dora Kurfürst & rote 13 /
Bernhard&Graefe, Do 17 - vom Original zum Modell / Flugzeug – diverse / Internet.


I would like to aknowledge help with data and tips by Peter F. of ipms.Austria.