History

The Junkers Ju-88 was probably the most important multi-engined aircraft used by the Luftwaffe during World War II. Intended originally for level and dive bombing, it was later adapted to many other roles, excelling as a radar-equipped night fighter. Beginning with the Battle of Britain in 1940, the JU-88 became the standard day and night bomber in Luftwaffe units, and when the British sent up barrage balloons with cables dangling to ensnare unwary bomber pilots, especially at night, the ingenious Luftwaffe engineers came up with a system whereby a plane could fly through the cables, cutting them with special cable cutting units installed on the front of the airplanes.

Initially, the units were fitted to Heinkel He-111’s, designated He-111H-8. Later, a number of Ju-88A-5’s (designated Ju-88A-6) were fitted with the devices, although they were heavy and created a lot of drag, slowing the planes down and making them more vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and night fighters. Even though the Ju-88 conversions were only of limited value, Junkers converted 14 Ju-88A-4’s to accept the cable cutters, installing the fittings and equipment. However, there is no record of any Ju-88A-4 flying with the cable cutting system installed, although several were later converted with cutters mounted in the wing leading edges and also in the nose of the aircraft. Most operated with the leading edge mounted cutters in place of the external units.

So, given those facts, what we have here is a model of an airplane that never existed in this form. Your options here are to build the model depicted in the kit as a “might have been” model, or, and this would be a lot more work, convert the Ju-88A-4 into the earlier model Ju-88A-5, which had different engine nacelles, props, canopy, and other features that would require considerable surgery if you’re going to do it right. Even then, the color scheme would be pure conjecture, unless you are better at finding photos on the internet than I am. Even Green’s book hardly mentions the type, and there is no illustration of either the Ju-88A-6 or Ju-88A-8. On line, the only pictures depicting a Ju-88A-8 were drawings from the Hasegawa kit box and instructions. I’d like to know where Hasegawa got their information.

In any event, the two color schemes provided in the kit are for aircraft of KG30 and KG76, both in “estimated” 1941 night bomber markings. The KG30 aircraft carried “4D+GN” codes, while the KG76 has no codes and all insignias blacked out. Both make impressive models of “The Plane That Never Was.” Maybe it’s like Luft 46, but back in 1941.

The Kit

The Ju-88 has been offered in kit form for many years, starting with the Airfix, Frog, and Revell kits from the fifties and sixties. Later, Italeri produced a series of kits, as did Zvezda, both of which were improvements on the earlier three. Hasegawa first released their Ju-88A kit a few years back, and this kit is a reissue, but this one includes the balloon cable cutter attachments not found in earlier kits. Molded in light grey styrene, the kit consists of 24 separate sprues, and also includes rubber and photo etched metal. I didn’t count the parts, but there are more that 100, some of which are not needed for this particular model. Panel lines are recessed, and most parts fit with little or no trimming. Interior detail is better than most, and decals are provided for some instrument panels. Some units, such as the landing gear, consist of numerous parts, but this only adds to the detail. The props have a unique method of attachment – you install a small rubber washer behind the crankshaft next to the radiator, and after the model is completed you just insert the propeller shaft into the hole, where it fits snugly in place, turns slowly, but will not fall out. It could be pulled out and replaced later. That’s a lot better than some kits where the prop has to be installed before painting.

Assembly

This kit goes together pretty easily, although there are a few items that require special attention. One could wonder why they molded the ailerons separately while leaving the flaps, which were sometimes left in the “down” position, molded permanently in the up position. The aileron hinges, molded separately, require some trimming to fit properly. The wingtips are molded separately and require some work get them lined up correctly. In fact, I used a substantial amount of putty to fill seams, etc., but not much more that would be normal for any kit of this type. The rear portion of the canopy requires some trimming to get it to fit right, and the gondola under the nose is made of four clear sections plus a machine gun which has to be installed before the gondola is attached to the fuselage. This gondola requires some trimming, and fit of this part was definitely marginal. There was no interior detail here, but not to worry, as you couldn’t see anything through the glass anyway.

Painting and Finishing

Once the model is completely assembled and ready for painting, the glass portions need to be masked. This is a tedious process, requiring some intricate cutting of masking tape, but with some patience, it can be done in an hour or so. At that point, the bottom color (black) can be applied. Be sure to do the gear doors separately, as the inner surfaces should be painted in the interior color of RLM 02 grey. Then the bottom can be masked, and the splinter pattern of 70/71 can be applied to the upper surfaces. Once a gloss coating is applied, the decals can be placed in position. One of the white underwing cross decals curled up after only a minute or so in the water, so I ended up using a set from my spare decal box, which were better anyway as the white on the decal sheet was really an off-white shade. I replaced the fuselage side crosses, but used the swastikas (yes, the kit DOES had swastikas) and the fuselage codes from the kit decal sheet. There aren’t a lot of small maintenance decals, common on most Luftwaffe aircraft, and only two fuel triangle markings and two unit badges are needed. These went on easily, as did the landing gear and other details, so after a coating of Dullcote, the model was ready for the photo etched balloon cable cutters.

One odd inclusion in this kit was the small radio antenna located under the fuselage. The instructions call for the use of a small clear plastic rod, Part No. CA8, or MA12 from the PE sheet. This goes underneath the rear fuselage, and represents the antenna for the FUB1-2 blind landing approach antenna, which actually consists of six small posts with a wire connecting them. This part is actually also included in the PE sprue, and the PE part is much better than the short clear rod. I can’t imagine why they included that in the original kit, as it would be easier to scratcbuild. Even the PE part is a bit too fine, and the best choice would probably be to just scratchbuild it from wire and plastic rod. The instructions, incidentally, are one of the weakest parts of this kit, as they are not a lot of help in some stages of construction. They are especially confusing on the part about the cable cutters, as there are a lot of very small parts, and incorrect locations can cause a lot of headaches and maybe even drive you to putting it away for a while as you enjoy a can of Coors. After that, you should wait until morning before you continue working.

The Cable Cutters

The cable cutters consist of one sheet of photo etched brass, and they are easy to cut out with a round-bladed Xacto knife. They are, however, extremely delicate, so you need to be very careful in handling the parts, as they bend very easily. In addition, some of the pieces are very small, so keep track of everything since they have a habit of crawling away from the workbench. I decided to airbrush the entire PE sheet with RLM 71 green, which is actually following the instructions. Some of the parts need bending, and I would suggest tweezers or very sharp needle-nosed pliers. My parts all bent without twisting, a crowning achievement. Be careful with the nose mounting brackets as their location is not too clearly marked, and it is easy to glue them in the wrong positions. I did, and wound up not using two of them. The instructions are confusing, and I think another page of drawings would have been helpful. The English in the sparse written descriptions is also strange. Example: “Parts MA1, MA5, MA14, MA16: Please folded to look like someone who has some mold”. That actually belongs in a Presidential Debate, not in model kit instructions. Some of the drawings in the cable cutter section are drawn to 1/72 scale, while others are not. All in all, the instructions can be deciphered if you have a background of working at Bletchley Park, but a line drawing of the completed assembly would have been very helpful.

When I finished the basic assembly, the parts didn’t line up, but after breaking a bracing strut loose, the parts more or less popped into place. The nose struts were the hardest to install, as they did not seem to line up with the small mounting brackets that are supposed to be glued to the sides of the nose immediately behind the bombardier’s windows. Once the struts and cutter bars were in place, I secured everything and did a little touch-up painting, and attached the antenna wires.

Now that the model is finished, I’m afraid to touch it, as knocking something loose would be a disaster, requiring weeks of repairs. So it will go in the cabinet, to rest there for many years.

Recommendations

This is basically a good kit, and there are other versions of the Ju-88 that can be done from this kit. To do it again, I would convert it to an A-5 to get an accurate model, but since I haven’t found a photo or drawing of either A-6 or A-8, even an A-6 would be conjecture. For a standard JU-88A-4, this kit is as good as any other. The only problem I had was the fact that the plane never flew in that configuration. But if you like models of unusual aircraft, this one is for you. If not, get a different version.

Thanks to Hasegawa USA and Steve Collins of IPMS for the review kit. It did provide hours of enjoyable modeling.