Wingnut Wings

1/32 Junkers J-1

Kit Number: 32001

Reviewed by  Rod Lees, IPMS# 10821

MSRP: $79.00 Available only from the manufacturer: www.wingnutwings.com First line of business. Thanks to Mr. Matt Fitzgerald, Mr. Ronny Bar, Mr. Richard Alexander, and Mr. Steve Anderson (more of whom later)… This team has produced one of the best models I've ever had the pleasure of building. I am sincerely indebted to them for providing this model to IPMS USA for our review. Great job gents! "Wingnut Wings"… This company from New Zealand has set the internet on fire, and rightfully so. I am a closet "WWI" buff… When I lived in Germany back in the late 1980's, I think I visited Verdun at least six times. Sobering landscape, interesting museums, and overall cool stuff. The Deutches Museum was Mecca… (That time period was when they had the DO-335 on display there… and I was able to get close up shots of everything except the cockpit.) Needless to say, for an AF military guy interested in European theater of operations, both WWI and II, I was in heaven. And I won't discuss Duxford, Normandy, and the IWM here… No time! Let's just say the Wingnut Wings group has done more than their homework. When I saw what Wingnut Wings had to offer, I thought "I'll see"… 1/32 is a scale I like to work in more and more as I get older, and they have some truly tempting subjects on line and coming down the pike. (How about that Gotha? Should be a flying model in 1/32nd scale… it's gonna be big enough). When the opportunity to do the Junkers J-1 came up, I had to throw my name in. I liked the fact there is virtually zero rigging on this aircraft. With the exception of having to fabricate control cable runs, it would be an interesting build. Turns out it was relatively simple; the only difficult time was getting the upper center wing installed, but I overcame that with patience. Three or more hands would not hurt, either. It is, after all, a Biplane, and the upper center wing section usually makes or breaks the overall effort. When I received the box, I noted the impressive box art is done by an American Society of Aviation Artists Fellow (ASAA), Steve Anderson. As an artist member of ASAA myself, I was impressed by his work. Excellent is a passive description for this box art; it exemplifies what should be a standard for all such works. Well done Steve! As to the second impression, "Man, this box is HEAVY", I found out why when I opened it. Each runner (sprue) is packed in shrink wrap, and the box it totally filled with parts. Not just small parts, but huge, well-engineered parts. I was first struck by the molded internal bracing, spars, and alignment plugs included on the main wing structures. No sagging wings after a month here; and it all fits together with a click. Almost perfect engineering is demonstrated throughout the box. Be careful if you are a "dry fit" lover, because you will have a difficult time getting some parts back apart; they fit that well. I need to mention the instruction booklet at this point; it has not only history, but a new industry standard for instructions. Full color with CAD parts layout; absolutely stunning. Included are full-color shots of the interiors of the two remaining aircraft (Canada and the Deutches Museum, respectively), full color plan and side views of each decal scheme, and black and white period pictures. I started the build on Saturday evening; did some pre-painting, including the wood panels on the inside of the cockpit sections. I used my substitute for British Gray-green, Testors SAC bomber light Green (Testors #1993, FS 34159) from a rattle can. By Sunday evening I had the entire fuselage constructed and the tail feathers installed. If you take your time, you will not need any filler, just a bit of light wet/dry sanding to clean up the glue seams. There are two types of fin/rudder, one corrugated, and one without. My chosen version was without. DON'T toss the spare parts, you'll need them a bit later… The instrument decals are readable; Even the compass decal, which goes in the wing, has four colors on the decal. Impressive, truly great work. I learned each instrument decal on the panel shifted after I placed them. Bad modeling skills, that… and I noticed it only when I took the photos and blew them up, because you can tell they are not oriented correctly… Be forewarned about making sure everything works out when you do yours. The rest of the details are straightforward. The brass seat belts appear to have a lacquer clear anti-corrosion coating on them, which makes it that much easier to paint them in preparation for painting. Once installed, there is NO way I can complain about the cockpit details! The armored seat is well done, with braces for the armrests including miniscule lightening holes in them. The yoke and bell crank assemblies are all there, as are fuel tubing and throttle controls. The instructions then have you put the cockpit upper deck over the whole thing. The control rods are inserted through guide slots and stick up. Be careful not to break them off, they will fit into access holes in the upper wing when it is assembled. Don't forget to paint the pilot's coaming leather; I did and had to be extremely careful in a 'touch up" effort at the end of the build. One clear part is included for an optional windscreen; my chosen scheme did not have this, so I didn't have to install or mask it.

At this point the instructions would have you assemble and install the engine. I did not do that; instead, I decided to wait until I finished the rest of the model before spending a bit of time on the engine. I installed the lower center wing section after assembly and painting. A word on the wing parts; all will fight TIGHT and accurate. I used liquid cement, and was able to assemble and clean up the small seams on the leading edge in ½ hour. The lower center section sets the stage; make sure it aligns with the perfectly-fitted horizontal stabilizer and the fin assembly, and the rest will be fine. After overnight cure of the cement, I proceeded to paint the majority of the model. Again, SAC light green served for the overall green, with Tamiya light German blue (AS-5 rattle can) for the lower sections. I then used Polly S German WW1 Mauve, cut with a bit of dark gunship gray to make it less "purple", to paint the camouflage scheme. I painted the wing struts on the sprues; that made it easier. The instructions show a basic scheme on a crashed bird. It's obvious there were no airbrushes back then, but I took license because I hate the look of brush-painted camouflage and used my badger 150 to do tight camouflage. Besides, trying to get into the corrugations in this scale with a brush would look like poo in my opinion, and would only be an exercise in frustration, not to mention the paint bleed/travel down the valleys. Assemble, paint and install the upper under wing radiator assembly. (Paying attention to fore/aft orientation; I tried to force it in to place backwards, but then woke up…) THEN… Begin the strut installation process the next day after the cement has set totally; it takes darn near three hands to install the upper center wing, and I was building this like the majority of modelers out there who don't build rigging cradles to get the job done. Be patient, use liquid cement sparingly in the strut mount holes, and use CA to lock it in place only when required. I can't say more on this! The previously mentioned aileron control rods were a bear to get in place; I kept bending them and missing the holes. In retrospect, I should have cut them off and installed after completion. Much ado has been made over the outer upper wings and gaps between the ailerons and the center section. Yep, it's like that. Don't know why, don't care. Modeling skills applied here. See the photo I have of my fix…. I used the leftover end plates for radiators that were not used on the model to fabricate upper and lower aileron extensions at their base; use a sanding stick to put a bevel on the after inner section of two 1/8" wide parts, corrugation fore/aft in line with the aileron), and glue them into a "v", corrugations facing out. Attach to the base of the ailerons. It only requires two corrugations about 5/8th inch long on top and bottom. Liquid cement works well here. Then, using the leftover tail section parts, Dremel most of the backside of one part away until you have thin ¼ inch sections with corrugation on one side (front to back, corrugations oriented toward the airflow). Cut them off, and install in the location where the aileron gap filler goes; again a bit of liquid cement and care, and it looks fine to my eye. No extra parts required (even though the tail section corrugation is a bit smaller than the wing, who cares?). The instruction sheet has an excellent photo from the rear of the aircraft showing how it "should be", including how bent up the aileron flow separation gap fillers are. Trying to simulate that without actual metal would be fun; anyone up to it?

On the outer wing sections, the fit is so tight they could be installed and removed later if desired. I found I had to remove some of the base of the wing box tabs to get them to totally seat. Probably the paint on the tabs, but they aren't going anywhere soon! I eventually glued them in place. PLEASE be careful here if you do; because if the cement sets too quickly you will most likely do a functional check flight on the model when you can't get the wing back on or off as the glue sets halfway through the install process. T'is that tight… be forewarned.

Back to the engine… Two things here: you have option to use a set of cylinders that have pushrods molded in place, or, as in my choice, you can use plastic rod and make more realistic pushrods. I hear there is a photoetch set on an "upgraded" version of the kit that contains these items. I opted to use Evergreen ® plastic rod with good results. The rocker covers to the cylinders are delicate and look proper. I did not have any idea on the ignition harness, and will address that some other time. The engine maintenance panels may be left open; I chose to close one and open the other. The engine mounts "right proper" to the wood bearers… an impressive little model in it's own right.

The landing gear is sufficient; I would expect to replace the axle with a metal rod if I were to do this kit again to prevent "Age spread" and wheel castor problems. This is a heavy model. The bungee cords are provided as separate plastic items, painted silver or aluminum. The rest of the parts are strong and make a great standard lower gear assembly. The wheel outer sections are separate, making painting easy. Even the covers with stitching over the inflation valve is included.

Time for Decals. Not much else to say other than gloss coat, apply, and follow your favorite decal process. They went on perfectly over the corrugations. I had a couple of bubbles to deal with, but Solvaset fixed them. (and in one or two places, judicial application of Tenax 7 worked as well. I still need to touch those up, but the fact the decals "Snuggled down" is a testament to Cartograph's decals. Again, top of the industry standard. . Armament details on the kit include the Parabellum LMG14/17 with an optical sight, or the Parabellum LMG15 with drum canister feed. Both are executed with finess; and as the machine gun main armament on the aircraft is a major focal point, this is a good thing. My version used the latter; the separate cartridges on the belts were carefully painted and clipped into place around the drum, with a touch of liquid cement to hold it. The mount includes the "over the center" lever for locking the weapon in place. Nice. Flare holders are included with empty, half-full, and full racks; paint and apply to the side of the fuselage.

Last points: Paint and install the propeller. I used the "Drive you back to drink" small brush technique to hand-paint the dark laminations. I glued the engine access door open; a picture in the instruction book shows internal bracing but I did not pursue that. Install the elevator control horns, and use some fishing line painted black for the control cables.

Dullcoat the whole thing, and photograph to share with the world. My overall assessment - A 10. Period. I've built hundreds of models, and this one was one of the best efforts from ANY company I've seen. Nothing really to add; it was a good time, motivating, and well worth the effort. I built the kit in six days… that's the kind of engineering we have come to expect, facilitating the whole building process with a great results with a little extra effort.

One last point: I took a couple of pictures of this model with my Hasegawa JU-87G to give an idea of the changes in ground support aviation between WWI and WWII. From the Junkers company perspective, father and son. A telling view when you see how massive the two are, and how close they are in relative size… Buy one and help these guys keep the fire going… you won't be disappointed!