Kit: No. 5944
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: ProModeler by Revell-Monogram, 8601 Waukegan Rd., Morton Grove, IL 60053-2295, &847-966-3500
Price: $33.50
Comments: Injection-molded, 169 parts, decals.
Pros: Excellent exterior and interior detail, good fit, good decals, interesting subject
Cons: No crew figures, wing/fuselage joints need reinforcement
Originally developed as a passenger aircraft, the Ju 52 was adapted to the bomber role and used by the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. It wasn’t much good as a bomber, so the Ju 52 was relegated to transporting troops and cargo. In that role, the Ju 52 served the Germans throughout World War II on all fronts.
The first thing you notice about the kit is the fine execution of the corrugated skin of the Ju 52. Even tiny rivets have been molded inside the fine furrows of the panels! Where applicable, the corrugation is continued on the inside surfaces of the fuselage. You also get a detailed cockpit, cabin, and rear gunner’s compartment. Wheel spats and ventral gunner’s “dustbin” are provided for the optional Spanish version. The main tires are flattened to represent a loaded aircraft. Four German paratroop figures are included, but there is no flight crew.
All interior components fit perfectly. The seats are well molded and feature superb raised belts that are easy to pick out with paint and a fine brush.
After the cabin windows were installed, the one-piece fuselage top was cemented along natural panel lines. Again, fit was perfect, but I super glued a length of stretched sprue here to subdue the seam. The lower fuselage fit the same way. The only filler needed on the fuselage was at the seam under the nose.
The wings and stabilizers were then glued together with super glue; again the fit was nearly perfect. Taking advantage of the wing’s flat leading edge, I filled the seam with super glue.
The left wing fit snugly to the fuselage, but there was a small gap at the right wing root. In addition to fixing the gap, I decided to reinforce the wing/fuselage connection with two lengths of sprue inserted into holes I drilled into the fuselage’s wing stubs and the faces of the wing roots. These become main spars and take some of the load off the cemented joints.
The entire model was assembled with gap-filling super glue. Even with the detour of installing the spars, this was the fastest build of a 1/48 scale multi-engined aircraft I’ve ever assembled.
I wasn’t sure about the recommended German color standard RLM 62 for the topside light green, but it does look like a weathered RLM 70, so no problem here. German transports often got whatever paint was available anyway.
Two aircraft are provided on the well-printed decal sheet: one from No. 2 Staffel KGzb V I Milos, Greece, 1941, (the scheme I chose), and a Spanish Nationalist machine. Extra Solvaset with cautious pin pricking got them to snuggle into the corrugated skin.
Final assembly was almost trouble-free; I had to shim the rear of the cockpit greenhouse to achieve a perfect fit.
The finished model is big – 24″ in span – and it scales perfectly to the dimensions in the out-of-print Squadron/ Signal Ju 52 in Action. If you don’t get carried away with painting every tiny interior detail (oooh, I was tempted), you can make a beautiful model from this kit in less than 50 hours. You’ll need some building experience, but if you’re ready to assemble your first large, multi-engine aircraft kit, choose this one.
– Gregg T. Williams