Scale aviation modeller international

the barrel at the appropriate point

and drilled a locating hole to add the

brass barrel. However, I did not fit

the barrel at this point. I left them

until the very end before attaching

them, as my carpet monster is on

a strict diet and must not be fed!

The two rear guns have separate

barrels that incorporate flexible

covers and covered gun sights. The

plastic barrels and the gunsights

were removed, and again Master

Models supplied the barrels.

Eduard supplies replacement etch

for the sights, but these actually

seem to lack some of the three-

dimensional details of the plastic

parts, so I drilled the plastic parts

out, added the etched bead sight,

and reattached them to the barrels.

Once painted and detailed

these were carefully set aside,

only to be lost later and have the

modelling desk turned upside

down trying to locate them!

With the weapons dealt with,

I now turned my attention back

to the glazing. Starting with the

front part of the main canopy, the

internal frame, Part G165, was

detailed with etched and plastic kit

parts. The rear cockpit coaming,

Part J6, needed a touch of filler and

sanding to get a neat finish. The

lower side glazing panels fitted

neatly into place before the front

canopy was put into position.

By now there was a substantial

piece of plastic on my workbench.

It is a sizeable model in 1/

scale, but easy to handle due to

the fuselage being a nice size.

Apart from the undercarriage,

guns, aerials, and a few other

dangly bits, the model was now

nearly assembled and ready

for painting. The final stages

were to add the external bomb

load and the propellers.

You get two 250 kg and two

500 kg bombs to attach to the

racks. There are no locating pins

on the four bomb racks, but the

contours of the rack’s mating

surface only allow one way for

them to fit, and the instructions

show their positions very clearly.

The propellers are simple

assemblies, but there

are some sink marks in

the blades’ roots that have to be

filled. The central pins, Part F115,

need a hole drilled along their

length so they can be fitted onto

the motors’ drive shafts. Once I

had assembled the airscrews I slid

them onto the drive shafts, put four

AAs in the power box, connected

the power plug and switched it on.

The cockpit light came on first.

It goes out as the landing light

comes on, then the wing tip and tail

lights come on. Next the starboard

propeller begins to spin, followed

shortly after by the port one.

Then I realised that they were

spinning the wrong way! (I did

warn you. Ed.) There isn’t a colour

chart in existence with enough

blues to match the colour of the

air around my workbench!

PLASTIC SURGERY TIME

All I had to do was open up the

seams on three sides of the belly

panel and cut along one panel

line to be able to remove a section

and gain access to the wiring.

Fortunately the moulded seams and

my cuts are all along the opening

edges and hinges of the bomb bay.

Thanks to Revell’s colour coding

system I quickly found the required

connections and swapped them

over, and tested to ensure that

the propellers were now spinning

in the correct direction. Just in

case of any further wiring issues,

I made the panel removable with

the use of some magnets and a

piece of plastic card to form a tab.

The last thing to do was

assemble the main undercarriage

legs. The kit’s wheels were

replaced with some beautifully

cast Eduard resin replacements,

which feature flat spots.

Eduard provides etched brake

lines, but they are a bit two-

dimensional, so I replaced them

with lead wire and strips of tape to

represent the attachment brackets.

Finally, the last thing I added before

painting, was Profimodeller’s

turned brass pitot tube.

PAINT AND DECALS

As already mentioned, the kit

comes with two schemes. However,

the Editor gave me EagleCals

Sheet #154 with three additional

and unusual schemes. Two are

based on the standard splinter

camouflage of RLM 70/71, but

the one that I took a shine to was

a Greece- based Junkers of 1./

LG1, which has upper surfaces

painted RLM 79 desert sand, with

RLM 80 dark green mottling.

The airframe was pre-shaded

with dark grey, but before I fired

up the compressor, there was a

Crew entry hatch and lower twin guns added

Undercarriage legs. Eduard’s two-dimensional

etched brake lines were replaced with lead wire

Resin replacement wheels

Modified kit parts, fitted with Master Models

barrels

14 • JULY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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