Ju
290A-5
The Junkers Ju 290's history is convoluted having started out as the Ju
89, an
entry in the Ural bomber program, which when canceled was morphed into
the Ju 90 using the Ju 89 wings and tail and replacing the original
bomber fuselage with a transport style fuselage. The Ju 90 went through
a period of gestation in which the wings were redone, the vertical
tails
were enlarged, more powerful engines were installed, the fuselage
lengthened and a hydraulic loading ramp installed in the rear portion
of the fuselage. With all of these changes the designation was changed
to the Ju 290. As these changes were taking place a variety of
defensive armament was also added to the air frame. The first production
A-0 aircraft was completed in October of 1942. This, a second A-0
aircraft
and five A-1's were completed as transports and armed similar to the V8
aircraft. These were rushed into service flying supplies to Stalingrad.
Most of these aircraft were lost or heavily damaged in this operation.
The decision to convert the 290 to that of a maritime role resulted in
a demand from the Fliegerfuhrer
Atlantik for
a replacement for the Focke-Wulf Condor which was proving too
vulnerable in this role. The Ju 290A-2 was a straightforward adaptation
of the A-1 apart from an increase in navigation equipment, the
provision for a second turret mounting a 20-mm MG 151 and large
capacity fuel tanks in the fuselage. The first A-2 was completed in the
summer of 1943 and two similar aircraft were delivered in July. These
were followed by three A-3's which were similar except for using a low
drag rear turret and modified rear gunners position. An additional
three
were built with more powerful engines. Five A-4's that followed these
differed only in having the low drag turret used in both positions.
The A-5 version was the result of recommendations for heavier defensive
armament, increased protection for the pilot and co-pilot, and
facilities for fuel dumping in an emergency. The A-5 was equipped with
improved protection for the fuel tanks, heavy gage armor for the pilot
and co-pilot and the aft lateral gun positions were aerodynamically
improved and the guns were upgraded to 20-mm Mg 151's. The crew
compliment was increased from seven to nine. A total of 11 A-5 aircraft
were built.
The
Kit
The
Revell kit comes
in
a large and rather flimsy end flap opening box with a rather
nice
rendition of the Ju 290 on the front. Inside the box is one
large bag
containing all the sprues with an inner bag that contains the
clear
parts. The decals in my kit were tossed in with the rest of
the parts
and suffered because of this, see comments concerning decals.
Not the
best packaging I've seen but everything was pretty much
intact, no parts off sprues but there was scuffing on some of
the parts
from shipping. The parts are molded in a light grayish green
very
similar to RLM 02 in color. The parts are cleanly molded with
virtually
no flash and feature recessed panel lines which are uniform if
perhaps
a bit large for the scale but not enough to distract from the
appearance. I found no sink marks on the air frame surfaces
and only one
or two ejector pin marks that may be an issue. A nice touch is
an open
slot between the flaps and ailerons and flaps on the wings.
The control
surfaces are all molded in the neutral position. One thing I
didn't
like was the sprue attachment points which are all quite large
and
heavy for a 1/72 scale model. I have seen smaller attachment
points on
1/32 scale models. Care needs to be taken when removing parts
from the
sprues and in some cases sawing them free might be an option
to sprue
cutters.
The cockpit is reasonably well
detailed for the scale with rudder pedals, control columns, a
nicely
molded instrument panel with instrument detail molded into it.
The
pilot seats are a bit strange being split down the middle. The
seat
cushions have belts molded in but no harnesses are supplied.
There are
bulkheads to divide the forward fuselage area into the various
areas
for the radio operator and other crew positions. The floor
extends all
the way to the rear of the fuselage but except for some
fuselage
structure opposite the rear side door and the weapons
positions there
is little other detail. The upper deck of the fuselage is
molded
separate so it can be removed to view the detail that
otherwise won't
be seen much once the fuselage is closed up. The rear ramp is
separate
and can be installed either open or closed. The gear bays are
enclosed
but there is no detail to see. The landing gear itself is
nicely done
and the wheels have separate hubs for easy painting. The tires
are not
weighted. The engines are a bit one dimensional but once in
the close
fitting cowlings with a fan in front of them they won't be
very visible
anyway. Parting line flash is minimal. The bottom wing center
section
is molded integral with part of the fuselage making the wings
a five
piece affair that should provide a solid structure when glued
up. The
radar antenna are typically too large for the scale and
delicate as
well and might be best replaced with some scratch built
antenna from
fine wire if you have the patience. By my count there are 225
gray
parts. See photos below.
The clear parts are nice and clear with a few showing some
stress marks
from the molding process. I suspect these will disappear when
coated
with Future. The cabin glazings are separate rather than in a
continuous strip as often seen which will be helpful if you
plan on
doing any additional detailing in there. There are 35 clear
parts for a
kit total of 260 parts. See photo below.
The decals are thin and well registered and include markings
for four
aircraft, not bad considering only 11 of this variant were
built. A
fair amount of stenciling is included as well as decals for
the
instrument panel, intended as an overlay and fronts for some
of the
radio equipment. There are even readable BMW logos for the
engine
cowlings. A decal is supplied for the instrument panel but the
instruments on the decal do not correspond to the instruments
on the
panel which is a bit odd but in this scale it probably won't
be that
noticeable. The bad news it that the sheet was pack in the bag
with the
rest of the parts and had creases and some of the decals
had
chips of paint missing. While they looked nice on the sheet,
see my
comments in the build section for my experience with these.
See photo
below.
The instructions are contained in a 24 page booklet. The first
page is
history and specifications, page two contains general
instruction in
eighteen languages, page three is a symbol chart and safety
notices,
page 4 is paint colors with Revell numbers only and color
names in
eighteen languages, page 5 and half of six
are parts maps and from that point through page 17 is assembly
instructions. Pages 18 through 21 are painting and decal
placement and
pages 22-24 are blank. While the parts are all numbered and
there is a
parts map I found it a bit annoying that all to often parts
that go
together while consecutively numbered are on different sprues
and the
sprues themselves have no identifying letters on them. This
results in
a lot of hunting for parts.
After
Market Goodies
Very little is
available
except an Eduard set for external parts and antennas and a
mask set..
Actually
very little is needed, for its scale it is very well
detailed.
Conclusions
This
is
a very nice kit, well detailed and well engineered and except
for the parts count should be doable by modelers of most skill
levels.
It might be a bit intense for a beginner.
Links
to
kit build or reviews
Another in box review
can
be found here.
References
"Monogram
Close-Up # 3 Junkers 290" by Thomas Hitchcock
"Warplanes of the Third
Reich" by William Green
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The Build
Like
most aircraft things start off with the interior.
Because little
of it will be seen I didn't go too crazy with the
interior, No photo
etch was available and the instrument panel is pretty much
hidden so I
didn't spend any effort on it. I did add belts and
harnesses to the
seats and had some PE radios from a generic set that were
added to the
radio operators position...
The
fuselage halves were joined, the fit was quite good with
only a minimal
amount of filler used, at this point the tail pieces are
just press fit
in place...
The
wings and engines have been attached. So far the only fit issues
were the 3 part engine covers which were a bit fiddly but they
weren't all that bad to deal with. Just need to add the rudders, do
some masking and a little touch up sanding and we'll be ready for
paint.
While setting up to photograph this I noticed the starboard wing
looked lower than the port. I don't always trust the Mark II eyeball
so I broke out my height gage. sure enough the starboard wing was
over 1/4" lower...
Port
Starboard
However when I checked at the outboard engines I found them to be
spot on...
Port
Starboard
The outboard wing joints on the bottom were both tight. I held my
breath, put pressure on the top of the wing over the joint and
gradually pulled up on the starboard wing. With a resounding pop the
bottom joint opened up very cleanly.. I found by trial and error
that a strip of .015 styrene in the joint brought the wing up to
within an eyelash of the port wing...
Oddly enough the starboard wing now appears to have slightly more
dihedral so I'm assuming the port wing must have a bow to it that
starts out gradual and increases towards the tip. In any event it is
not that noticeable compared to having one wing over 1/4" lower.
With
that taken care of the painting was done, I used WEM colorcoats RLM
72
and 73 on the top and Model Master RLM 65 on the sides and bottom.
Some
minor touch ups to do and a couple days for the paint to cure then
on
to clear coat. The
beast ate up a lot of masking tape and a lot of paint as well and
was challenging to handle during the painting process.
After
the clear coat had been applied and allowed to cure the decals were
applied. The Revell decals have a matte finish and always give me
fits
with silvering which meant that this portion of the build has been
anything but enjoyable. The upper wing crosses from the kit sheet
were
unusable so I replaced them with some Eaglecals, which normally work
well for me but these wrinkled up when I applied setting solution
and
would not lay flat regardless of solution used so they were stripped
off and replaced with some Techmods which worked great. The under
wing
markings went on OK but will need to be touched up as they had some
chips on them. The decals supplied for the fuselage were the same
size
as the under wing markings and were way to large to fit as shown in
the
instructions. I ended up scanning and resizing the letters and
printed
my own decals and sourced a smaller cross from another sheet. The
kit
supplies close to 100 stencils but by this time I had about had it
with
the Revell decals and only used the fuel and oil filler markings on
the
upper wing, work numbers and first aid compartment decals. Many of
the
others were dark red stenciling that would go on dark green surfaces
and hardly visible except for the ever present silvering. The wing
walk
markings were way too fragmented to use and scale wise were way too
wide anyway. No Swastikas were supplied so those needed to be
sourced
elsewhere as well...
All
finished now. This kit I think sets a record for the number of
fiddly
bits to be added at the end. Counting the antennas, control hinges,
actuators and mass balances there were close to 30 parts on the
bottom
alone. Elsewhere there were the turret clear parts, landing light
lens,
pitot tube, front and rear guns, antenna masts top side for the
clothes
line antenna and the nose radar antennas. The latter are way over
sized
for the scale and to me the photo etch parts were way too one
dimensional. I tried making something up using fine wire but the
parts
were too small and close together for me to deal with so in the end
I
used the kit parts. Even these were a challenge to clean up and
assemble. Looking at photos much of the outside detailing is
oversize
an to make it in scale would probably be beyond the capability of
injection molding and the parts would be too small and delicate to
handle as well. Anyway below are the final photos.
And for those who think I might have gone over board on the exhaust
staining...
This
was for the most part an enjoyable build. It is a handful when it
comes
to painting, applying decals and weathering due to its size but it
does
make an impressive model when complete.
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