Hasegawa 1/72 scale Junkers Ju 188A/E
An improved version of the Luftwaffe’s ubiquitous Ju 88, the Ju 188 served as bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, and night fighter.
Kit:No. 01563
//
Scale:1/72
//
Price:$54.99
Pros:
Clean molding; pristine clear parts; three construction options
Cons:
Complex instructions with regards to the build options; a pilot and crew would be nice
Comments:
Injection-molded, 253 parts, decals
Builders of 1/72 scale German World War II aircraft, rejoice! Hasegawa’s Junkers Ju 188A/E is here, and surely does not disappoint.
The box contains 253 total parts, but only 207 of them are used. You can choose from three different wildly painted aircraft. I chose the easier, hard-lined scheme of the Ju 188A rather than the dizzying squiggly or splotched paint schemes of the Ju 188E. Any of the three would look fantastic, however.
Instructions include a brief history of the Ju 188 as well as a color guide, parts-tree breakdown, and a decal and paint guide. You’ll need to choose which version of the Ju 188 you want to build to install the parts for that particular plane. The directions can get a bit confusing in this aspect when it comes to deciphering what parts go with which variant, so you will need to closely look at them. However, I didn’t have to stray from the instructions at any time during the build.
Like most aircraft models, the build starts with the cockpit. The detail there is surprisingly nice. I did need to add a bit of filler in joining the main cockpit assembly to the fuselage. I would recommend waiting until the very end of the build before installing the cockpit’s glass parts to prevent fingerprints and smudges on the crystal-clear canopy parts.
The wings fit perfectly to the fuselage, leaving very little need to mess with the wing roots at all. This also helped keep the dihedral of the wings correct, saving quite a bit of time on the build.
The rest of the build went just as smoothly, with no major issues. Just follow the instructions very carefully.
I painted my model using Testors Model Master RLM 66 and RLM 70, and Floquil RLM 65 and 71 enamels. After letting a clear gloss coat dry, I added the decals. They were a little on the thick side but reacted well to Micro Sol and Micro Set solutions. A flat clear coat on top evened everything up and made it look life-like.
My Ju 188A took about 15 hours to complete, about what I had expected. The model exactly matches the dimensions in my references.
Hasegawa really did an outstanding job! Even with the instructions being a little complicated, anyone who’s built a few kits should have no problems.