Hasegawa's 1/72 scale
Junker Ju 88 A-4

by Fernando Rolandelli

Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Ju 88 G-6 is available online from Squadron.com

The Kingdom of Hungary, like every single other Central European medium-sized country, was one of the true victims of the Second World War, their natural path towards development and perhaps unrestricted democracy cut dead. A complex and, for the uninitiated, bizarre mix of Imperial pride, true Versailles and Trianon Treaties grievances (which continue to this day), fear of Bolshevism and a mildly Right-winged government made the country throw its lot with the Germans (and who would have said it was unwise, in 1940?), remaining more or less faithful to its ally to the bitter end (the epic of the Budapest siege, December 1944- February 1945 is second only to Stalingrad).

Germany was a stiff and intractable ally, and modern war material was made available with a paucity which can hardly be understood today. True that German weapons production barely sufficed her own needs, but Hungary had a capable and well established, though small, heavy industry, and production licenses were repeatedly refused, a few being allowed much too late. Therefore, for the most of the war, the Hungarian armed forces had to make do with what was available. Among the few modern aircraft types sold by the Germans was the ubiquitous Junkers medium, which needs no introduction, but a brief report on its use by the Hungarians does. On the whole, 51 machines were made available, coded B.121 and 405 onwards. Most were A-4s, with some C-6s and some recce D (23 examples, coded F.901 to 924. Some extra machines were operated in German markings. The bombers were operated by the 3/1 and 4/1 Bomber sqns, but in 1944 they amalgamated into the 102. They reequipped shortly after with Me 210Cas, so it can be inferred that no 88 were available at the end of the war, but a coherent history is extremely difficult to conjure.

The Kit

Hasegawa’s E25 Ju88A-4 kit does not need introduction either. It shows all the hallmarks of the brand: clean, flash free moulding; finely scribed surface detail; sparse cockpit interiors; and the dreary multi-version moulds which made assembly a nightmare. Three examples can be built, from KG51, 30 and KGr.106. To dress up the cockpit, I bought Eduard SS275, an Express Mask to help masking and some Superscale decals which included a Hungarian machine (more on this later)

The cockpit went on uneventfully; I made full use of the Zoom PE parts, and added scratch built munitions bins, as well as providing some wiring to the back of the panel. I added some detail to the wheel wells and undercarriage legs (including oleo brake lines to strut and wheel) and control cables to the rear one, as well. I rather use the kit’s machine guns, instead of a QB replacement I had available.

Airframe construction I expected to be nightmarish and certainly it was, the various parts that conformed the various subassemblies requiring careful mating if they are to be assembled at all; lots of putty and step-correcting work needed here. Canopy was also problematic; compounded by the partition in the middle (probably unavoidable given the double-bubble shape). I opted to glue it before painting, but left out the two round armoured machine-gun mounts for the final assembly; it worked.

The kit provides only the clear cover for the Fub L2 antennae, but every picture I saw showed the antennae itself (which is a kind of “towel rail” similar to the LORAN antennae seen in jets from the 70s); I scratch built it, but in a slightly simplified form.

Cockpit interior was painted RLM66, while all other interiors were painted RLM02.

Standard Luftwaffe bomber camouflage in RLM70/71/65 was painted using Xtracolour paints and hard masking. The Eduard masks were outstandingly successful, virtually saving my mental sanity (what is left of it, anyway). The prominent Hungarian flag on the tailplane was painted in the middle of the process, just before the RLM70 was added, by painting the entire area White, and then the flag colours; old regular Humbrol paints were used, as were for the Yellow theatre markings. The paintover of earlier German markings was mimicked by fresh RLM70.

The Superscale decals were a fiasco; the code they offer, “B-847” is bogus, and placement and size of the national insignia is also wrong. Therefore, I ordered some Kora decals (7221) which, though low run and printed on continuous carrier, performed flawlessly on a Testors Gloss coat, being extremely thin. It must be said that I couldn’t confirm the code “B-409” either, every one I saw was in the “-1xx” range, but at least it comes within the second series range.

For the weathering I started by a heavy preshading on the Light Grey primer, and then painted the 71, followed by the 70 (mixed with a bit of 71) in mottle fashion, giving an uneven finish which looks, to my eye, like worn paint. Some lightened variant of the same colours was also airbrushed as post-shade, both freehand and masked. Then, I used some washes and airbrushed streaks of dark umber colours to my taste. Given the small scale, I chose not to make any heavy effect, not even chipping, as it would be too conspicuous. All varnishes used after the decals were water-based acrylics, which make the surface impervious to oils and washes.

The Hasegawa kit is a high quality product, possible marred by the multi-version moulding, but builds up into a nice replica. Again, it is made to be built OOB, and adding detail is overly complicated, hardly worth the effort. The Hungarian machine is handsome and mildly exotic, and a fitting tribute to that proud and luckless people.

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Thumbnail panels:

References

• “Hungarian Air Force”, George Punka, Squadron/Signal Publications

• “Junkers Ju 88 In Action, Part 1”, Brian Filley, Squadron/Signal Publications

• “Hungarian Eagles. The Hungarian Air Forces, 1920-1945”, Gyula Sárhidai, Gyorgy Punka, Viktor Kozlik, Hikoki Publication.

Model and Text Copyright © 2012 by Fernando Rolandelli
Page Created 4 September, 2012
Last Updated 4 September, 2012

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