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Dragon Models 1/48 Ju-88 P-1 w/40mm PaK 75 |
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Kit Number 5543 |
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Reviewed By Doug Hamilton, #21985 |
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MSRP $50.00 The JU-88 was a family of medium range bombers created by the famed Junkers design bureau in 1936. Initially designed as a bomber, this series of aircraft fulfilled many missions during the war. Luftwaffe planners were never at a loss to figure out a new mission for the 88 family. Missions include that of bomber, pathfinder, night fighter, scout, and tank buster. It’s in the tank buster visage that this kit is produced. Based on an A-4 airframe, the P-1 versions served in the Eastern Theater of operations. Armed with a huge 40 MM Pak 40 howitzer mounted in an under-fuselage gondola, this version proved to be lacking in many respects. Due to the slow rate of fire, the gun could only fire two rounds in a single pass, while losing air speed and maneuverability over the entire range of its flight envelope. This proved to be the undoing of what held certain promise for busting Soviet tanks. The aircraft was used by few front line units, and was withdrawn from service after it was determined it was just too slow and unwieldy. Dragon has produced a wide range of JU-88 kits over the years, and this example is another fine offering in that series. Based on the A-4 Bomber version, there are many additional parts included in this kit so a standard A-4 version may also be built, as well as a P-N1 version with the lighter KWK-39 gun and fluted muzzle brake. It’s obvious that a great deal of commonality has been build into this series of kits, which an enterprising modeler can use to their advantage to create nearly any version of the JU 88 ever produced, depending on which kit is used as a base. Check your references before starting a project of this type. Molded in light gray plastic, the kit features about 250 parts on 10 individually packaged sprues gray sprues. Also included are 4 clear sprues, 1 fret of photo etched metal parts, a large instruction sheet, and decals to mark one airframe. The parts are molded very cleanly and have crisp engraving, as is usually the case with Dragon kits. I found no flash, and what ejector pin marks were found were in places that were not visible after construction. Assembly was very straight forward, and I encountered one minor problem in the 14 steps as laid out in the instructions. I wound up modifying part C-1 by removing a small portion of the interior bracing to allow the foot pedals to sit parallel with the fuselage centerline. This was the only correction I found necessary to make in the kit. The rest of the kit is very well engineered, and goes together well. Any way you look at it, this kit builds very nicely. The parts fit well, and when completed, the finished model LOOKS like a JU 88. There is a certain level of accuracy built into this kit, and the modeler doesn’t have to do a lot of correcting, and fixing to get this model to look good. Painting and finishing proved to be a bit of an adventure. As I had never painted a 70/71/65 scheme I thought I would try a new painting procedure. I began by priming the whole aircraft flat white. This showed any additional seam work that was needed. After a quick repair of the right wing root seam, and a quick spot prime of the affected area, I painted the lower wing tips, flash on the lower nose and fuselage band RLM 04 Yellow. I them masked off the 04, and painted the RLM 65 on the lower surfaces. I them post shaded the 65, and when dry, masked it off. Turning the model over, I painted the 71 Dark Green, and post shaded that color. I decided to enlarge the drawings of the JU 88 in the Luftwaffe Colors 1936-1945 book written by Michael Ullmann, which are in 1/144 scale to 300% and cut out the appropriate color areas as masks. This technique worked well on the large flat wings, but left something to be desired on the curved fuselage areas. I wound up masking the fuselage with regular masking tape and proceeded to shoot the RLM 70 over the unmasked areas. I post shaded the 70/71 areas, and at this point gloss coated, decaled and flat coated the model. After the flat coat was dry, I took the masking off the reveal a fair hard-edged camouflage job. I completed weathering with some pastels, and added all the landing gear, props, antennas, and rest off the little parts I had left off earlier. And presto, I had a finished JU 88 model on my bench! The markings that come with the kit identify the unit as unidentified, but my research shows the aircraft with these numbers (5K + LP) was in fact a JU88 A-4, assigned to KG-3 (Blitz) on the Eastern front in 1943. As the P-1 variant was based on an A-4 airframe, it’s likely that the markings are correct for this aircraft. The “In Action” series Volume 113 (See recommended references below) page 42/43 show pictures of a JU 88P-1, but do not show any codes. A white, winter scheme is also shown in the painting guide, and uses the same codes. I added a 600 MM swastika to the tail, as one is not included in the markings. The completed model looks very good. It scales well next to the JU88 G-6 I built a few years ago, also by Dragon. I liked building this kit a great deal. It’s easy to complete, and the completed model looks very cool with the huge gun hanging under the nose. It didn’t take a long time to complete; I estimate I spent about 80 hours on it. I highly recommend this kit to any Luftwaffe enthusiast, JU 88 aficionado, or anyone wanting to build a nicely detailed aircraft kit. My thanks to Dragon Models LTD, for supplying this sample for review, and IPMS 1st Vice President John Noack for allowing me the opportunity to complete this fine kit. Suggested References:
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