VT-52 Jerab / Kranich II

AZ Model, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Mark J. Davies

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The prototype Kranich was designed at DFS by Hans Jacobs in 1935, and was an enlarged and developed version of his record breaking single seat Rhönsperber. The Kranich was produced from 1935 until the late 1950's. It set world and various national two-seater records over a 20 period.

Before WW2, Germany’s government decided that gliding should be one of the main methods of training military pilots. The Kranich was chosen to be the standard high performance training two-seater; enabling dual instruction could be given in almost every aspect of flying, including blind flying and the use of oxygen and radio. Many hundreds of Kranichs were built in Germany before 1939, and during the war they continued to be made in Germany, Sweden, Spain and Czechoslovakia. After 1945 they were made in Poland, Yugoslavia and Spain.

This kit consists of a quite well moulded sprue of limited run parts for the airframe. Some flash is evident, but fortunately this is mainly on the sprue runners rather than the parts. Surface detail on the airframe consists of very fine raised lines corresponding to the structure underneath the doped fabric. I feel this is very well done indeed, and is just right for the scale.

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Thumbnail panels:

I was puzzled by quite large protuberances below the kit’s wing roots just aft of the leading edge. In real life these would equate to a rectangular section of about 75 x 200 x 150 mm. This is a most un-streamlined and unlikely shape to find on a glider. I have built the Czech Master Resin kit of the same glider, and it doesn’t have these blocks, and nor do any photos of Kranich’s I have studied.  What can be found in the vicinity of the blocks’ locations are windows or clear panels in the fabric of the lower wing (presumably giving the rear occupant some view of the ground as the wings obscure downwards visibility). AZ Model’s box-art and colour diagrams show a rectangle in the location the limp is found on their kit, but as these are only profiles. I suspect some confusion in interpreting plans as to what should be here may have occurred. I suggest removing these blocks altogether, and then checking references to see what windows or clear panels should be allowed for, if any. 

A small PE fret provides seat belts, two instrument panels complete with photo-film for their instruments. A small pitot is also provided, but will need to have some Mr Surface or white glue added to make it a bit less 2-dimensional/

Two vac-form canopies are supplied. They are generally well formed and should prove simple to fit.
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Decals for three civilian schemes from Czechoslovakia (as it was at the time), England and Finland are provided. The decals look to be well registered with good colour density.

The aircraft history is in Czech only. The instruction sheet has a parts map, and the assembly diagram is concise and quite adequate for the task. Interior colour call-outs are in Czech

The resin and PE parts each have their own zip-lock bag and the all parts and decals are sealed in a larger zip-lock bag. The box has nice artwork on the front and coloured painting guide on the back with decal locations indicated. Colour call-outs are in English.

I have built a resin Kranich glider by Czech Master Resin, and the kits are notably similar although the CMR kit preceded this one by many years. They compare very favourably, but I think the finesse resin can provide over styrene gives the CMR a slight edge. I should just mention that I had no need with my resin kit to reinforce the butt-join of the wings to fuselage using superglue. I would imagine that the same would probably apply to this styrene kit that uses the same butt-joint method, because wing weights should be similar.

I recommend this kit to glider fans, or anyone who wants an attractive and different subject in their collection.

Thanks to AZ Models for this review sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2008 by Mark Davies
Page Created 13 December, 2008
Last updated 13 December, 2008

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