Dragon 1/48 Junkers JU188E-1 'Avenger'

I've been on a bit of roll of late and this month completed yet another long-term commission build, which is for the same customer that I built the Arado Ar234 for. Before starting this kit I read-up on a number of reviews and talked to some of my friends who have built the Dragon JU88's, so that I had a much better understanding of what to expect and what I was letting myself in for.

As a consequence I chose to assemble the fuselage as 2 separate halves, by attaching each forward section to it's respective aft section, which alleviated any potential fit problems and also minimised the amount of filing/sanding required later. I then assembled the wings in the same manner, which again minimised the amount of filing/sanding required particularly at the wingtip join. I then assembled the cockpit interior, enhanced this with the addition of an Eduard etch set (49400) and also added some replacement gun barrels from Master Models. The cockpit was then painted and weathered, enclosed within the fuselage and it fitted like a glove. With the wings and fuselage now completed I then assembled the fin, tailplanes, undercarriage legs, engine nacelles, propellers, bombs - sourced from 2 Verlinden sets - and bomb racks. The entire model was then re-scribed, given a light sanding and then assembled, with everything going together without a problem - even at the wing to fuselage joins.    

From the outset I wanted to finish this model in a unique paint scheme and after coming across this photo (at left) whilst searching for reference material, I decided it was the one to do. With the canopies masked - which was a tedious job - the model was then sprayed with a coat of Tamiya Surface Primer (L). After a light sand with Micromesh 4000 the underside was then sprayed with Gunze H55 Midnight Blue - as I felt that black was to stark - and the upper surfaces then sprayed with H417 RLM76 Light Blue. A heavily thinned mix of H65 RLM70 Black Green was then used to spray the spots, which was done by first laying out the pattern according to the photo and then building up each spot layer by layer, which in the end took some 10 hours to complete - a truly marathon effort.

The model was then given a coat of Future, the decals applied and the panel lines given a light pin wash of Paynes Grey (undersides) and Raw Umber (upper surfaces). I then re-applied the spots over the decals and at this stage felt that the camouflage looked a little to stark. To soften this I made up a heavily thinned mix of H417 RLM76 Light Blue and misted this over the upper surface camouflage, until I got the scale affect I was looking for. The exhaust stains were then applied using a heavily diluted muddy brown mix - built up in layers - followed by a heavily diluted grey mix - aft of the exhausts - and finished off with a heavily diluted sooty black mix - around the exhausts. With the painting now complete the model was then given an overall coat of Vallejo Satin Varnish, after which the wheels, undercarriage doors, crew hatch, propellers and aerial leads were then fitted. It was then just a matter of removing the canopy masks, painting the windows with Future and I was able to call this one 'done'.

In the end I really enjoyed doing this model, it was a much easier build than I'd expected and getting the camouflage scheme right was a challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed.