Scale aviation modeller international

with Eduard’s excellent pre-

coloured Luftwaffe seatbelts.

I then turned to the fold-down

seat for the gondola gunner,

which is provided with an etched

backrest that is hooked into

place when required. The etch

set also supplies the gondola

safety harness and some internal

framework, as well as the frame

which holds the cushion pad for

the gunner to lie on. No cushion is

provided, but it only took a couple

of minutes to shape one from a

square piece of thick plastic card.

The cockpit rear wall, bulkhead

(Part C149), and the rear bomb bay

bulkhead (Part C150), have partial

wing spars moulded integrally.

These fit into slots in the fuselage

halves and provide a firm structure

to fit the fuselage to, which is

especially useful when you take into

account the slightly unorthodox

structure of the fuselages: instead

of the conventional left and right

fuselage halves, you get a separate

spine and belly plate. It was

engineered this way to allow Revell

to make various versions of the JU

88 from the kit, as different marks

had a different layout of panel lines

along the spine and underside.

By the time you arrive at Stage

Thirty-two, most of the cockpit

is assembled and work now turns

to the tailwheel and its bay.

Three bulkheads fit into

the fuselage to form

the undercarriage

bay. The instructions

would have you make

up the whole tail wheel

assembly now and attach it

in place, but it can be left off until

the very end to avoid damaging

it during the rest of the build.

The way the tail wheel is

assembled out of the box makes

it difficult to clean up seams

and paint. So, I made a slight

modification by trimming off

the wheel mounting pins from

parts G141 and 142, drilling a

hole through the leg to allow a

steel pin to be used as an axle,

and adding the wheel later.

The plans would have you fit

the electronic control package

at Stage Thirty-eight, before

the fuselage halves are brought

together. As the top panel of the

fuselage is a separate piece, I found

it just as easy to fit them once the

two sides were brought together,

as there is plenty of room to get

it all in through the open top.

Once the fuselage had set, I

began with the insertion of all

the electric goodies. The motors

went first, fed through the holes I

had drilled in the wing roots. The

red-wired motor fitted to the port

side and green to starboard. The

port wing tip light and the leading

edge landing light were then fed

through the hole, followed by

the starboard navigation light.

The tail light is passed through

the bulkheads that form the tail

wheel bay, then the battery pack

connector jack is passed through

the forward bulkhead, leaving its

wire hanging out of the wheel bay’s

fuselage opening. The last LED,

for the cockpit light, is fixed in

place just behind the radios in the

back of the crew compartment.

The circuit board is covered by

a protective sleeve and then placed

inside the main fuselage, along

with all the remaining wiring.

I now jumped ahead to Stage

Forty-six and fitted the top

All this detail will be seen through the cockpit’s

extensive glazing

Looking up into the cockpit

from where the gondola

will go The electronics package fitted into the fuselage

Starboard wing showing the motor, landing

light and wing tip light. The wing tip has not

yet been added. Note the silver foil, used to

prevent the light showing through the plastic

Cockpit instrument panel coaming in place,

showing where some filling and sanding was

required

Join line close up

The power jack which connects to the battery

pack

Starboard lower wing attached, and the wing

spars

10 • JULY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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