Completed Promodeler 1:48 Ju88C converted to A model

The Hobbyist

I can't help but ask as to why you would try to concert a C model into an A model--- seems like an exercise in frustration to me, when there are so many good A model kits out there.  In addition, the gear in an A model's nose is going to be vastly different than in a C model, which carried extra guns in the nose.

 

At the time I bought this model it was the only one I could find at that time in 1:48.  From what I can tell this kit is an updated version of the promodeler Ju88A-4 kit but it's missing the external bombs and one gun port otherwise the rest is there. I see that ICM has  Ju88A-5 kit in 1:48 and I've heard good thing s about their kits

lawdog114

Do you like movies about Gladiators?

 

Yes, yes I do.  I did manage to find a copy of the instructions  Right now I'm trying to make the clear plastic gunport. So far the closest I've come is with testors clear canopy glue.  Krystal clear dried rubbery and with a ton of bubbles and I can't keep the sprue plastic hot enough to force it into my mold. Any ideas as to how to make a clear plastic part?  And don't call me Shirley

wow, haven't heard so many 'airplane's references Condensed into a few posts. love it

Well it would appear that I'm out of luck with the parts request.  The kit is no longer supported.  I can still do an A1 version with one rear gun but I will have to modify the front canopy by putting a hole for the front gun in it.  The front canopy with the gun slot does not fit well with the rear canopy that has the one gun.  I'm still trying to make a part out of testors clear cement and I'm still searching for a different material to try.  I guess I picked a bad week to give up amphetamines.

Greatmaker

Well it would appear that I'm out of luck with the parts request.  The kit is no longer supported.  I can still do an A1 version with one rear gun but I will have to modify the front canopy by putting a hole for the front gun in it.  The front canopy with the gun slot does not fit well with the rear canopy that has the one gun.  I'm still trying to make a part out of testors clear cement and I'm still searching for a different material to try.  I guess I picked a bad week to give up amphetamines.

 

Well, you'll have to do more than that to do an A-1.  The engines cowls were visibly different.  The 1 was round on the bottom. The wing tips were shorter and more squared off too.  I'm one of the people who have been clamoring for an A-1 in this scale.  Maybe ICM will come through on the heels of their A-5.  Good luck luck....we are all counting on you. 

waikong

wow, haven't heard so many 'airplane's references Condensed into a few posts. love it

 

That's right.....I had the lasagna

lawdog114

 

 

Greatmaker

Well it would appear that I'm out of luck with the parts request.  The kit is no longer supported.  I can still do an A1 version with one rear gun but I will have to modify the front canopy by putting a hole for the front gun in it.  The front canopy with the gun slot does not fit well with the rear canopy that has the one gun.  I'm still trying to make a part out of testors clear cement and I'm still searching for a different material to try.  I guess I picked a bad week to give up amphetamines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, you'll have to do more than that to do an A-1.  The engines cowls were visibly different.  The 1 was round on the bottom. The wing tips were shorter and more squared off too.  I'm one of the people who have been clamoring for an A-1 in this scale.  Maybe ICM will come through on the heels of their A-5.  Good luck luck....we are all counting on you. 

 

Well I'm afraid those modifications are above my pay grade. I have sorta fabricated another gunport but when I looked at the canopies for the A-4 that were included with this kit I didn't like how thin the canopy framing looked. The 1:32 A-1 model's canopy looks very similar to the C-6's one in the kit....minus the front gunport....which now mine has. So I'm afraid as far as historical accuracy goes my effort will not come close.  Most likely I will end up with an A-1 looking canopy and camo theme, A-4 engines and gondola, and C-6 decals.  I did try to make some decals for the A-1 version but I'm not happy with the color depth.  They look to faded compared to the kit decals.  I will try my best on the old bird.  At least it will be quasi cannon.  I saw one build out there with german camo and decals but with red with and blue american striping.  Surprisingly it looked pretty cool

lawdog114

 

 

waikong

wow, haven't heard so many 'airplane's references Condensed into a few posts. love it

 

 

 

 

That's right.....I had the lasagna

 

I had the fish

Well I made some progress in the pit.  To jazz things up a bit I decided to make some seatbelts.  I watched a YouTube video on it and thought that's easy peasy.  Guess again. My already high admiration for anyone who can scratch build skyrocketed even further.  So have a good chuckle at my belts.  I'm sure they will look much better when they are covered by canopy.  I guess a good quote for today would be

Mayday! MAYDAY!........mayday? mayday? that's a Russian holiday.

It's a Twister...a Twister

I thought your belts looks darn good, then I read your update and looked again. Nope, I was right, they do look pretty darn good. I haven't had any luck with building belts unless I have buckles to use. Without buckles I just can't seem to make them look this good.

BK

BrandonK

I thought your belts looks darn good, then I read your update and looked again. Nope, I was right, they do look pretty darn good. I haven't had any luck with building belts unless I have buckles to use. Without buckles I just can't seem to make them look this good.

BK

 

Thanks Brandon. Just had another successful use for perfect plastic putty. The guide holes for the dive flaps on the right wing were a mess.  One was missing and the other turned out to be in the wriong spot.  After trial and mostly error the are ok now.  Just had to fill the two "allied bullet" holes with putty

Today was construction day.  I got the wings, engines, and most of the body put together. One thing struck me as odd about the engines.  As I was building them I realized they were two of the same side.  I went back and looked at pictures of the 1:48 Dragon models as well as the Promodeler A-4 and C-6.  Be darned if they weren't all the same.  I see they fixed it in the newer 1:72 kit.  Oh well as T'Pau would say "The air is the air"

lawdog114

The cockpit looks great. Those seat belts don't look bad either. Hospital? what is it? A large building with lots of doctors and patients....but that's not important right now Ted...

 

Wouldn't you know after everthing was made a found a whole set of PE belt buckles.  Construction has come to a screeching halt by a little thing called TAXES.

"Johnny what can you make of this?"

"This? Why, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl"

Well for what it's worth I'm not sure if it is a very confused fighter or a very confused bomber. In the end my homemade decals just didn't look good next to the real thing so I just went with the fighter decals.  As you can see I didn't paint the dive brakes.  I lined them up and carefully applied some Tamiya tape...Oops got some on the decal.. Spent the next two hours cutting and pasting to fix it so no painting on that one.  Some firsts on this one. First homemade seatbelts, first double masking for camo, first fabrication of a part, and first re-purposing of PE parts.  Used some control knobs PE to make some gunsights, and I had to make a gunport for the back out of some melted clear sprue forced into an impression.  Had some issues with the masking.  I did use an eduard set but despite my burnishing the edges down I had alot of bleed through.  I wonder if it was because I waited a couple of weeks between masking and painting and maybe the tape lifted off. Guess I should have burnished it down again. Had some issues with the final canopy fit despite repeated test fits.  One of these days I'm gonna glue the canopies on before painting like the big boys do.  Also had problems with the decals silvering.  I found out that an application of liquid decal film went along way to help with that.  I guess my gloss coat wasn't as smooth as I thought. Anyhoo I hope you enjoy the pics. This is the first time I used the camera on my new Iphone 6S. Methinks it takes too good of pictures

"Jim never vomits at home"

Nice work on the 88.

On the decal silvering, I believe that happens because air gets between decal and plastic? I typically trim as much carrier film from around the decals as possible so as to avoid that situation. And I really don't see an obvious issue with your work on the canopy. Next time out mask the canopy and then attach it prior to doing any painting; I think you will find that is no big deal and works like a charm.

Me thinks it turned out great considering the issues you had.  Its not that great of a fitting kit to begin with.  Maybe try painting the divebrakes thusly...

"Can I ask you a question?  Whats that?  It's an interrogative statement used to test knowledge, but that's not important right now...."

lawdog114

Me thinks it turned out great considering the issues you had.  Its not that great of a fitting kit to begin with.  Maybe try painting the divebrakes thusly...

"Can I ask you a question?  Whats that?  It's an interrogative statement used to test knowledge, but that's not important right now...."

 

That's what I was trying to do as I had seen your post from your build. however I tried to tape off the pattern to line up with the underlying decal when they met and it was love at first touch.  Lost about a quarter of the decal

Aggieman

Nice work on the 88.

On the decal silvering, I believe that happens because air gets between decal and plastic? I typically trim as much carrier film from around the decals as possible so as to avoid that situation. And I really don't see an obvious issue with your work on the canopy. Next time out mask the canopy and then attach it prior to doing any painting; I think you will find that is no big deal and works like a charm.

 

Thank you. 

I just have a dickens of a time getting a smooth surface.  I seem to get a rough surface with testors glosscoat.  I've tried heavy applications, misting applications and testors acrylic gloss.  I've even tried sanding the stuff but that's about as successful as herding cats.  I though about glueing this canopy on but the masking covered areas where the gunports ended up and I didn't know how to fix that issue. Before you glue the masked canopies on do you ever "seal" them with future?  The reason I'm leary of glueing them on is that I had one build that I did that on and I got primer on the inside of the canopy. It looked sealed to me. With the primer I use its almost like it etches the clear plastic so once it's on, it's on.  The only thing that will take it off is laquer thinner, and as I found out on my B-17 it can melt plastic.

Very nice !! I need to get one of those added to the stash.

BK

Thanks Brandon, It had some challenging aspects.  The back canopy was in halfs and the gondola.......Oh the gondola.

tempestjohnny

Came out really nice. I've built the G-6 and I have 5 more various variants in the stash

 

Thank you sir. I just wished I could have gotten the decals, gunport, bombs, and bomb racks from revell