Looking good so far!
**** DONE: 1/48 Ju88G-6 NJG6 - Night War of WWII
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- Thread starter
- #82
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Can do... the reflector glass got knocked off again (for the umpteenth time) anyway.
The front fuselage is buttoned up now and all looks well. Preliminary fit between front and main fuselage looks pretty good but I'll have to look a little more carefully at that soon. If the gun sight attachment isn't too secure, I will pull it out until later since there will be some seam work that will put put the little bugger at risk.
A quick check of the fit of the clear pieces. Looks ok but it's hard to see gaps between clear pieces and the fuselage without paint on the frames.
I marked out the position of the additional fuel ports and other panels on the top of the fuselage. But I blew the scribing. I made the mistake of scribing with the template held down with my thumb... it needs to secured. I stopped after two blown attempts and re-puttied the top.
Back to a clean slate on top... I'll attack the scribing more deliberately next time. I have to re-group mentally and will put this aside until I have the right mindset for this work.
So I went back to the main landing gear wells and dressed up the top of the wings with some piping that will be seen through the square openings I cut in the wheel well bottoms.
The wheel wells have been painted.
I've added some random tubing to the landing gear walls and added a bulkhead to block off the rear of the wheel well. Probably unnecessary but it was easy enough to do.
At this point, I can glue the wing halves together. There is a minor contour discrepancy on the engine nacelle between the wing root and the engine nacelle mounting ring piece. Since the required shaving on the wing side may go beyond the thickness of the plastic, I will have to add the engine bulkhead and fill the gap before I reshape this area. The discrepancy is actually quite small if you press fit the pieces tightly so it shouldn't be a big deal.
Plenty of added detail there John, looks good too !
Crimea_River
Marshal
John,
I've glued the full fuselage together now but have not posted any pics. I did have to pinch the the front section together to line up on the rear, made easier by that V-cut that I made, and also had to add some spacers to raise the small piece that covers the radio boxes. Even so, I found that there was still a step that I now have to deal with that would have been eliminated had I added more spacers. I would recommend you leave all that scribing until you've dealt with the connection of all of the fuselage parts, otherwise you may be rescribing again anyway.
I've glued the full fuselage together now but have not posted any pics. I did have to pinch the the front section together to line up on the rear, made easier by that V-cut that I made, and also had to add some spacers to raise the small piece that covers the radio boxes. Even so, I found that there was still a step that I now have to deal with that would have been eliminated had I added more spacers. I would recommend you leave all that scribing until you've dealt with the connection of all of the fuselage parts, otherwise you may be rescribing again anyway.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Nice work john.
Nicely done man...
T Bolt
Colonel
Wonderful detail John
- Thread starter
- #89
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Thanks guys! Appreciate the heads up Andy! I am not in a rush to start the scribing work after my botch job so I'll check the fuselage fit before doing anything.
After cobbling the wings together, you can see the added tubing get hidden a little bit.
And then it gets covered up even more once the main bulkhead is put into place!
After double checking the fit of the spinner and backing on the engine cowling, I noticed that the recessed line around the middle of the spinner was missing on the half of each spinner. Either sand it away completely or rescribe the line. I went with the latter. Very carefully I might add since I could not use Dymo tape and had to do this freehand.
Another head-scratcher... I noticed small bumps on the fuselage at the wing roots. One on the top and one on the bottom.
But the wings do not have matching bumps. Is this some sort of observed feature of the Ju88 like the little bump on the 109 wing root? Do I have to grind these bumps down?
The little nose cone has been attached. No locating pins so Tamiya Extra Thin cement was applied to short segments working around the joint and adjusting the fit along the way. Not a perfect fit but pretty good.
The wing approach light is an interesting piece of plastic engineering. Instead of a clear lens cover and separate light bulb/reflector, it is a solid piece of clear plastic with a "bulb" represented by a hollow recess in the center of the piece.
I dropped some silver paint into the recess to simulate the reflector and then painted the body of the light black. It looks like a mini Lava Lamp (remember those?). Fit into the wing is very good and I have the option of putting it in after painting.
After cobbling the wings together, you can see the added tubing get hidden a little bit.
And then it gets covered up even more once the main bulkhead is put into place!
After double checking the fit of the spinner and backing on the engine cowling, I noticed that the recessed line around the middle of the spinner was missing on the half of each spinner. Either sand it away completely or rescribe the line. I went with the latter. Very carefully I might add since I could not use Dymo tape and had to do this freehand.
Another head-scratcher... I noticed small bumps on the fuselage at the wing roots. One on the top and one on the bottom.
But the wings do not have matching bumps. Is this some sort of observed feature of the Ju88 like the little bump on the 109 wing root? Do I have to grind these bumps down?
The little nose cone has been attached. No locating pins so Tamiya Extra Thin cement was applied to short segments working around the joint and adjusting the fit along the way. Not a perfect fit but pretty good.
The wing approach light is an interesting piece of plastic engineering. Instead of a clear lens cover and separate light bulb/reflector, it is a solid piece of clear plastic with a "bulb" represented by a hollow recess in the center of the piece.
I dropped some silver paint into the recess to simulate the reflector and then painted the body of the light black. It looks like a mini Lava Lamp (remember those?). Fit into the wing is very good and I have the option of putting it in after painting.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Nice work again John.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Good stuff John. Another thing to consider is armour plating at the front of the pit, not replicated in the kit but clearly visible as raised panels is real life:
- Thread starter
- #93
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
The armor is interesting but I'm not sure I'm going to go that route. Lots of rivet detail too that the kit doesn't capture but I don't think I'm going to do any major riveting... another skill beyond me. The unevenness of the panels, even outside of the armor plate is interesting too.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Yes, I would agree, though I think that I will add the armour using thin plastic card. Terry gave me a riveting tool which I can use along the edges and I will need to discipline myself to stop there. The squiggle pattern on my bird will pretty much detract from almost all surface details anyway.
Wildcat
Major
She's looking good John!!
Great job !
- Thread starter
- #97
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
If I was going to do it, I'd probably use thin brass sheet. Easier to cut, form to the fuselage surface and rivet as well. Maybe I'll think about adding it. Do you know the upper limits of the plating?
Curious about about Andy's documented fit problems between the cockpit module and the fuselage, I did some careful pre-fitting today after work. I can't guarantee this but I'm not seeing the same problems that Andy and Sergio experienced. At least not in that magnitude. I put the pieces together using masking tape, trying to align the top surfaces along the wing root. You can see the cockpit module just a tad lower than the fuselage on the starboard side, perhaps contributing to the tiny step at the top of the fuselage.
The cockpit module is hair wider than the fuselage and the radio cover piece sits just a smidge too low but that looks more like a subtle shape difference than an actual difference in height. Hopefully, I can get buy with just some minor shaving and no major pinching or shims which may affect the fit of the canopy. Just to check, I dry-fit the canopy pieces to the cockpit module and it looks fairly good with no obvious trouble areas that I could notice.
I double-checked the fit of the ventral gun tray by retaping the cockpit module and fuselage together and again aligning the top edge of the wing root. Notice the strange bumps on the wing root. There is a step on the port wing which indicates either a possible fit problem or maybe the pieces just moved after they were taped. Really hard to be conclusive due the inexact nature of the pre-fitting. Still... I'm optimistic that I'm going to have decent fit between the cockpit module and fuselage.
The main landing gear has been painted and weathered.
Started cleaning up the wings. Started carving out the landing gear nacelle at the wing join to better follow the contours of the engine mount ring. It looks like I may have some shimming to do on the other side for a better fit. I'll report more tomorrow.
Curious about about Andy's documented fit problems between the cockpit module and the fuselage, I did some careful pre-fitting today after work. I can't guarantee this but I'm not seeing the same problems that Andy and Sergio experienced. At least not in that magnitude. I put the pieces together using masking tape, trying to align the top surfaces along the wing root. You can see the cockpit module just a tad lower than the fuselage on the starboard side, perhaps contributing to the tiny step at the top of the fuselage.
The cockpit module is hair wider than the fuselage and the radio cover piece sits just a smidge too low but that looks more like a subtle shape difference than an actual difference in height. Hopefully, I can get buy with just some minor shaving and no major pinching or shims which may affect the fit of the canopy. Just to check, I dry-fit the canopy pieces to the cockpit module and it looks fairly good with no obvious trouble areas that I could notice.
I double-checked the fit of the ventral gun tray by retaping the cockpit module and fuselage together and again aligning the top edge of the wing root. Notice the strange bumps on the wing root. There is a step on the port wing which indicates either a possible fit problem or maybe the pieces just moved after they were taped. Really hard to be conclusive due the inexact nature of the pre-fitting. Still... I'm optimistic that I'm going to have decent fit between the cockpit module and fuselage.
The main landing gear has been painted and weathered.
Started cleaning up the wings. Started carving out the landing gear nacelle at the wing join to better follow the contours of the engine mount ring. It looks like I may have some shimming to do on the other side for a better fit. I'll report more tomorrow.
Wildcat
Major
T Bolt
Colonel
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Coming along nicely John.
Interesting regarding the fit of the nose section to the main fuselage. I bought a built, 'scrap' model at a local flea market, to use for spares, which is obviously the same basic kit, in the 'A-4' variant. This has been built (badly !) by a very amateur modeller (no paint anywhere, lots of glue overflow etc), but the cockpit section is perfectly aligned with the main fuselage, and the canopy appears to fit properly too.
I'm wondering if there's been a batch variation, or maybe the mould tools getting worn ?
Interesting regarding the fit of the nose section to the main fuselage. I bought a built, 'scrap' model at a local flea market, to use for spares, which is obviously the same basic kit, in the 'A-4' variant. This has been built (badly !) by a very amateur modeller (no paint anywhere, lots of glue overflow etc), but the cockpit section is perfectly aligned with the main fuselage, and the canopy appears to fit properly too.
I'm wondering if there's been a batch variation, or maybe the mould tools getting worn ?
