1/48 ICM Junkers Ju-88C-6 - KG 40 Luftwaffe

Depicted as an aircraft flown by KG 40 based in Lorient France in November 1943.

Not my usual subject choice. and If I was going to build a Ju 88 I'd have probably have chosen a Battle of Britain aircraft. But I had this kit and no one wanted to buy it so a mate and I settled on a  mini build off of WW II German twin engined aircraft. I chose the option the box with the pox as I figured it would stand out in the cabinet. It does I'm not sure I made the right choice.

For the record he chose the Dornier Do 17. You might see it one day at Bruces Scale Models  - but it'll be rubbish

The Kit

ICM 1/48 Junkers Ju-88C-6 Kit No. 48238

Aftermarket

• Eduard Steel Pre Painted PE Belts - for the Ju-88A4 but I assume they are the same.
• CMK wheels -  the kit doesn't have the correct later wheels.
• Some metal barrels for the some of the canons and machine guns (can't remeber the brand)
• Brass tube for the big nose cannon blast tube. 

This is a pretty good kit. It is quite well detailed. The cockpit in particular is pretty nice straight from the box.

It has a full engines. I didn't bother putting them all together as I didn't want to display them.

The only fit problems I encountered with the nacelles.  Gary at Scalespot-Models suggested you could fit the nacelles and then fit he main gear assemblies later. I couldn't get them to fit on this variant (he was working on the A series) so I just glued them in. They are pretty solid assemblies so I'm not to worried about them getting in the way.

I did have to remove a bit of materiel from the locating lugs on the nacelles, plus I removed some material from the edge of the wings where the nacelle mates, to remove the gap between the upper wing and the nacelle. Once I got this right I glued in the main gear assemblies in - only to find these push the nacelles out getting a gap of about 1.5mm.

At this stage I just decided to glue them, fill and rescribe. I filled the gap with a CA and talc and sanded it smooth. 

The only other real gripes are that the wheels are the wrong type (early as oppsoed to late) and there was no Swastika for the tail marking, but that is standard for ICM.

Markings

• Home made masks made on my Silhouette cutter for the national  markings 
• Kit decals for the stencils. These performed pretty well.

Paint

• RLM 71 Dunklegrun - Mr Hobby and Mr Color
• RLM 70 Schwartzgrun  -  Mr Hobby, Mr Color and Tamiya
• RLM 65 Hellblau - Mr Color
• RLM 76 Hellgrau - Mr Color
• RLM 02 Grau - Tamiya and Mr Color
• Black - gaianotes black grey
• Vallejo Acrylics for details 

Clear Coat's

• Gaianotes Gloss 
• Gaianotes Flat 

Weathering

• Shades of the base colours were used for post shading prior to decaling. These were applied  through various airbrush stencils to break up the colours. 

• Oil paints for the wash and some streaks
• Coloured pencils for streaks 
• Tamiya Weathering sets for the mud on the wheels. 
• AK Interactive enamel products for the internal washes 

Conclusion

This was a fairly enjoyable build. ICM have come along way from their early kits and. I'd have no hesitation in building more of their modern tooling if this is a representation of what they are like. 

I'm pretty happy with the result although I'm not sure of the chosen scheme - it looks like it has the pox.  I think it will be heading for the for sale pile sooner rather than later. 

The Photos

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1/32 Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc 485 (NZ) Sqn RAF

This aircraft is one flown by Flying Officer Johnny A Houlton st Merville France 1944. Johnny Houlton is credited with the first kill on D day flying this aircraft.  But as part of 2nd Tactical Air Force 485 Sqn moved to France shortly after D Day and operated a lot of the time flying ground attack in support of ground troops.

This actual aircraft is still flying in the UK today as a two seater.

The Kit

• 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire MK IXc Kit No. 60319

This is the first of Tamiya uber 32 scale kits I have built and generally it does live up to the hype. The only area I had issues with was the front cowls. But this is primarily because they are intended to be removable so getting them to be fitted permanently proved a little tricky.

Aftermarket

• Barracuda Studios Starboard Cockpit Sidewall
• Barracuda Studios Cockpit Upgrade
• Barracuda Studios Spitfire Seat with backpad
• Barracuda Studios Spitfire Door with separate sidewall
• HGW Fabric Seatbelts
• Yahu Instrument Panels
  
  I spent a couple of weeks working on the cockpit. The kit cockpit is pretty nice and to be honest everything bar the seat belts will be hard to see when fuselage is joined up.
  
  Still there is no point letting them go to waste so I've used Barracuda sidewall, Cockpit update set, and seat along with the Yahu Instrument panel and HGW Seat belts.

• Alley Cat Spitfire Mk IXe Wing Conversion
  
  The Alley Cat W wing conversion is pretty straight forward. Fit is pretty good, as long as you take care removing it from the casting remnants. 

• Master Models Spitfire Mk IXe Barrels
  
  Rather than use the Alley Cat resin barrels, which are for the shorter later E wing aircraft I used the early E wing barrels from master models. A worthwhile upgrade IMHO.
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
• Barracuda Studios 4 Spoke Wheels
  
  I used these to replace the kits rubber tyres

• MDC Bomb and Bomb Carrier
  
  This was given to me by a mate. Check out his (cough) work (cough) at his Web site and on Facebook . Actually I was really grateful for the bomb and carrier as they are long out of production and hard to find. They are very detailed and I spent a few hours assembling it . It didn't help that he sent me the wrong bomb 😀

• Quickboost Exhausts (for the Revell Kit)
  
  If your wondering why the Quickboost exhausts for the Revell kit and not those specifically for this kit. Well the set for this skit are, like the kit parts, individual stubs . Getting these aligned are pretty difficult. But if you are having the cowls open you have no choice. If you are having the cowls closed the Revell set are, like most aftermarket exhausts, are single pieces so all the stubs are aligned.  You do need to do some chiselling of the exhaust area on the kit to get them to fit. For me this was easier than aligning all those stubs.

Paint

• Dark Green  - Mr Color C361 with some Tamiya XF81.
• Ocean Grey - Mr Color C362  with some Tamiya AS 10 spots 
• Medium Sea Grey -  Mr Color C363 with some Tamiya AS 11 spots
• Black - Gaianotes German Grey
• White - Tamiya XF-2 with a touch of grey
• Various Vallejo Acrylics for details 
• Yellow -  Mr Paint RAF marking yellow
• Roundel Red -  Tamiya  - 75% XF7 Flat Red 25% XF64 Red Brown
• Roundel Blue - Tamiya - 75% XF8 Blue 25% X18 Semi Gloss Black 

To get the camouflage pattern I first painted all the upper surfaces Ocean Grey using AS10 from Tamiya and Ocean Grey C362 from Mr Color . I used airbrush stencil to add some random colour patterns

To get a slightly feathered edge of the dark green  I scaled up the instructions and printed them out on card (not paper). The card extra rigidity means the paint coming out of the airbrush doesn't push the edge down onto the model.

Decals and Markings

• The main markings are masks made by me on my Silhouette Portrait

• Nose Art was custom made by Custom Hobby Decals
  
  The the artwork is nice but the decal was quite thick. I needed a couple thick sealing coats and some wet sanding to flare it in.

• Stencils HGW Wet Transfers
  
  First time I have used these. The instruction say a gloss coat is needed prior to application. But   were they worked best for me was over the areas that had less glossy surface. They really need to  bite into the model so they don't pull off when you remove the carrier film. I think a flatter surface is better . There can be no silvering as you remove the carrier film.
  
  
  

  
  

Weathering

• Oil paints for washes 
• Pigments
• Tamiya Weathering Sets
• Weathering stencils from Artools, RB productions and USHI.

Build Thread

• Britmodeller

The Figures

• Masterbox RAF figures Set NO. MB3206
  
  I tried the new ICM set and a figure from Blackbox. Both the ICM set and the Blackbox figure scaled out to bewteen 6 ft 2 (ICM) to 6 ft 4 (Blackbox). Whilst they were beautifully moulded they looks ridiculously large by the aircraft
  
  In this image you can see the ICM ones on the ends, Masterbox the next two in, and Tamiya's one in the middle.
  
  
  
  
  In the end I went with the Masterbox set as they looked the right size. Unfortunately I din't really do as good a job on painting them as I'd have liked
  
  

The Base

• The grass mat is from Ammo by Mig
  
  IIRC It's actually 2 pieces joined together. The join isn't great. I'd prefer they made them in larger sizes for 32 scale subjects.
• The frame is cheap moulding from Bunnings.

The Photos

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