Historical Background

This book provides the modeler with highly accurate 1/72 and 1/48 scale drawings of the Luftwaffe’s Junkers JU-188 and JU-388 series of medium bombers. At the beginning of the book, a very brief description of the aircraft is given, along with some information of the basic changes made when the JU-388 evolved. Of course, the JU-388 did not enter large scale production, so the vast majority of the information provided deals with variants of the JU-188 series.

Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white metal replacement parts. Its line of replacement landing gear has been expanded to include a set for the Kinetic 1/48 IA-58 Pucara. The set is including a total 13 parts covering the main landing gear struts and nose landing gear. These parts are drop-in replacements for the plastic parts.

Considering the size and weight of the IA-58 Pucara in 1/48 scale, investing on a sturdy landing gear is likely to be a good idea. Considering that the Pucara is a tricycle landing gear with a large tail, you will be adding a fair amount of lead weights that would sit on top of the nose landing gear. In addition, when using white metal landing gear you can always ‘tweak’ the landing gear strut for an improved alignment of the parts which again in a large model airplane is an extra advantage.

You can see from the pictures the parts are very cleanly molded and formed, without any visible molding lines (typical of plastic parts).

"From the moment the DDR was formed in 1949, many of its citizens chose to leave to start a new life in the West. By the mid-1950s, the trickle had turned into a flood as large numbers rejected Walter Ulbricht’s Communist paradise. His ‘Workers’ & Peasants’ State’ could not afford to lose the skills and productivity from these key workers, so he proposed a radical solution – physically stop them leaving by fencing in the whole population. His plan would fortify the Inner German Border from the Baltic to the Czech border and would build a Wall around West Berlin to stop the flow of East German refugees to the West. It was a bold, innovative, and desperate move from a morally bankrupt and failing state.