Ju 388 L-1

[Wouter]

As one finds more and more reference, there's more to be added. I think I have a 97% complete picture of the cockpit now. The other 3% will be an educated guess. That will be the backside of the IP and the mechanism of the beobachter (observer) jump seat.

Maybe it's common knowledge, but I 'discovered' that it folds out sideways. In doing so, the seat will be raised to more or less the same height as the pilot and radio operator. I found a very clear picture of the jump seat, but how the folding mechanism works is still not clear.

[Wouter]

More work... I installed the horizontal bar for instrument panel. That's not the hard part, there's just one way to install the bar. Okay, you have some room to play with the height, about 1 mm up or down, but not much. After doing so I thought it was a good moment to dry fit the IP and see if it would fit under the canopy. Eh.... no it doesn't. Major bummer. I have seen the pictures from John where it does fit, but then it's not at the right height. Back to square one and out with the measuring tools. The IP provided is 9mm wide and 22 mm long (without the supports). Translating that back to 1:1 scale it would be 70 cm high and almost 30 cm wide! I think that is a bit of a stretch, no?

 

 

 

So I looked up some original documents on Luftwaffe instruments. After some searching I found out that the four instruments forming a square, each have a 89 mm diameter. With some extra room around the instruments that translates to a 20 cm wide IP (1:1) and 6,3 mm in 1:32 scale. I did this for the other instruments as well to get the height of the IP. It should be between 45 en 50 cm high. That's 15,6 mm in 1:32. Long story short, the IP is about 2,5 mm to wide and 6 mm to long. That's seems to correspond with my fitting issues. So, back to the drawing board for me. I will build a new IP using the excellent PE instruments from Airscale.

 

The some goes for the Sichtgerät 217 on the right side of the IP. Look at the picture below and you can see that the one provided in the conversion is not nearly deep enough. Besides that is to wide. Real life measurements (1:1) are 119 mm wide, 172 mm high and 300 mm deep. That's 3,7 mm, 5,4 mm and 9,4 mm in 1:32. The PE version from the conversion is 5mm wide, 7 mm high and about 5 mm deep. That won't do. So I will build scratchbuild that part too.

 

[Wouter]

Continuing on the post above, instead of scratchbuilding I thought, maybe it's time to try something different. I have done some 3D modelling in the past as a modder for a game (Operation Flashpoint - precursor of Arma), so I have some basic 3D skills. Besides that, i only have Sketchup and that program is easy to learn, hard to master. But I only need some basic shapes anyway. The actual printing will be done at shapeways. I'm opting for 'frosted detail plastic' as that gives the smallest printing option at 0.3 mm.

 

Before you start 3D modelling you need some basic reference set up. Luckily for me I 'discovered' that the Germans had drawings for, well, about everything. And you can find them online! Like this one

 

And this is what it look likes in real life

 

The drawings provide all the measurements needed in millimeters. Just perfect!

 

After setting things up I started modelling the instruments needed. After the first one it gets easier because the basic shape for most instruments is the same. And there is no need to go all out on detail since that can't be printed anyway.

The instrument above resulted in this:

 

 

Jumping straight to the end result. Here's is the completed IP with 7 instruments and the radio equipment for the Fg217.

 

 

 

While going at it, there is another part which I wanted to try; the upper wing antenna for the FG217 warning system. You can see it here:

 

 

And in detail

 

 

3D modelling resulted in this (ready for printing)

 

 

 

Anyway, the files have been uploaded to Shapeways and an order has been placed. If it's not satisfactory I will resort to scratchbuilding. But if it is, I will try things again in the future! I'll keep you updated.

[DocRob]

Wow Wouter, that is quite a project you started here. I really like the work in the cockpit area and the general attention to detail. Will these fragile antennas be robust enough 3D-printed?

Cheers Rob

[Wouter]

Hi Rob,

just received word from Shapeways, the antennas can't be printed. The minimum unsupported wire thickness should be 0.6 mm and the are 0.3 in my model. I'm not going to alter this and will resort to scratchbuild with brass rod's.

[DocRob]

Hi Wouter,

that's what I thought, brass should be strong enough. Albion Alloys have Slide Fit brass tubes in their programm. Like the name says different diameters can be slided into each other There is one set with 0.4 - 0.6 - 0.8 - 1.0 mm and it seems that they have  a 0.3 - 0.5 - 0.7 - 0.9 mm set as well. Maybe that helps.

With plastic you have even to reduce the pressure of your airbrush while painting .

Cheers Rob

[Wouter]

Hi Rob,

you've read my mind. I just stocked up on the Albion Aloys fit and slide tubes (expensive stuff). I did a quick mock up last night with a 0.2 rod and 0.4 /0.6 tubes. The effect is quite convincing and pretty sturdy, so it should do the trick. But it was worth a shot with the 3D printing. At least now I know I don't have to try that again until 3D printing technology advances enough to make this viable.

That being said, I'm still curious how the IP turns out. For now I'm pretty positive that should work with 3D printing, but we'll see.

Cheers, Wouter

[Mikester]

Wow!  Great to see some progress on this one again, you're doing some very cool stuff!

[Wouter]

To put my money where my mouth is I did just that tonight. Since I have to wait for the 3D printed IP to arrive, I cut up several pieces of brass tubes to see if I could make it work. Well I managed to build an antenna and I'm quiet pleased with the result. For now I only have the finished result but since I have to build another one, I'll make some more pictures as I go. I'll post them here so you guys can see how I made it.

 

Cheers, Wouter

 

 

[Wouter]

As promised, my short how to on the antenna's. Putting Albion Alloys fit and slide to use.

 

 

Cheers, Wouter

[Wouter]

Big update incoming.

 

Last week my IP from Shapeways arrived in a rather big box.

 

Lot's of bubble wrapping

 

Inside a tiny plastic bag containing the even smaller 3D printed parts

 

Exciting, let's get it out shall we?

 

 

Certainly looks like what I made. With a coin for scale

 

 

 

First impression, pretty good. All important detail is there. Material is pretty hard and slightly translucent, but can take some handling. On the back side there's still some support wax (needed during printing) visible. So far, so good.

 

 

More...

[Wouter]

The instruments are nicely rendered on the backside. With some magnification you can see the printlines.

 

 

 

And after a coat of Mr. surfacer 1200 the detail comes out:

 

 

 

 

In short, I'm pretty happy with the results. Certainly a good canvas to work on. Now, let's get on with the build.

 

 

More...

[Wouter]

While waiting for the IP I used My time to figure out a few things. As posted a earlier i did some tests with the canopy inner and outer framing. The test canopy did not have a good rendering of the frame but the canopy I wanted to use did have. So this means I don't need to use the Tamiya tape technique. But one thing I noticed after I gave the canopy a dip of future, was a severe yellowing. At first I did not know why, but then it downed on me; I let the model on my bench for over a year, right by the window. Sadly one year in dayligth was enough to cause the yellowing.

Lucky for me, I still had another canopy to work with. Now was a good time as any to get the lower and upper part of the canopy just right. Therefore I used a slightly wider styrene strip on the upper part. With some careful glueing and placement I have a nice ledge on which the lower part slots. This ensures a, well not perfect, but pretty good fit with almost no visible line between the parts. I'm confident that I'll get the last bit right with some slow drying epoxy from HPH.

 

 

 

Another thing I need was the fairing on the backside of the canopy. I made this from a 0.12 mm brass sheet. After several iterations I made one which did the job.

 

 

 

 

More...

[Wouter]

With the IP in my hands, i started further painting and detailing. For the decals I used the excellent Airscale series. They fit on the instruments, instead of in and thus needed some encouragement with decal setting solution to fit. After drying, i added a drop of HpH's slow drying epoxy to seal de decals and create a litlle 'glass'.

 

 

 

On the backside I added all the necessary wires. The wires will help holding the IP to the instrument panel bar. The real thing was anchored on the bar and on the canopy, but that is not possible with this model. 

 

More....

[Wouter]

With the IP finished I slowly can start thinking about wrapping up on the cockpit. Some pictures of the state it's in right now. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but here's what I added:

 

- rear cockpit armor plate above the radio units.

- observer seat 

- pilot's seat

- control stick

- more details on the 'peiltochterkompass' (the big one on the right side

- added the IP to the instrument bar

- added the oxygen instrument's to the instrument bar

- added a control valve for the airconditioning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wouter]

 

 

 

 

That's it for now. Enjoy, and feel free to ask any questions.

 

 

Cheers, Wouter

 

[Wouter]

IP is complete! I installed the Fug217 viewing device. Take note that this device was actually not attached to the instrument bar but rather to the canopy. Since i won't be able to do that (well technically I could, but the risk of falling/breaking from the canopy would be to great of a risk) I had to adjust a little. I created a little bracket from brass. This bracket is attached to the instrument bar and then protrudes to the front. The sichtgerät (viewing device) is then attached to this bracket. The bracket itself is almost invisible due to all te wires beneath it and the little Fug217 controller in front. Lastly I attached some brass rods which represent the actual attachment points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers, Wouter

[Wouter]

I made a little drawing explaining how the observer seat works (well best guess).

 

Here's the seat in it's stowed postion behind the pilots seat.

 

Side view

 

Top

 

Front

 

And here it's in  the fold out position. I haven't figured out the exact mechanism yet, but the seat has arms attached and during the fold out these pivot the seat not only sideways, but also up to about the same height as the other two seats. I hope the pictures are self explanatory enough.

 

Side view

 

Top

 

Front

 

This construction was a necessity, otherwise the observer seat would block the entry hatch ( the large hole behind the seat in the fold out position).

 

And for the icing on the cake, here's the one and only picture I found of the illusive observer seat!

 

 

Cheers, Wouter

 

[Wouter]

Good evening all.

 

Just before preparing to close up the cockpit, Brian a.k.a. Levier kindly provided me with another very helpful picture. It's an overhead view to the front of the cockpit and it also shows the jump seat. With this picture and the other reference I have, i was finally able to solve the puzzle. With the permission of Brian, here's the picture. Thanks again Brian!

 

 

Like I showed earlier the seat is attached add two points to the floor. I thought the rods that form a triangle are part of the rotating meganism, but no. there is an arm beneath the triangle. The triangle itslef is fixed and anchors the seat against the side wall in the fold out position. It's then attached at three points. Simple but clever solution. So now you know.

Here's a new graphic showing what I mean.

 

 

 

Well, new info means more details. I went back to the observer seat in my build and changed a few bits and bops. Shifted the attachment point on the floor, added a piece of rod representing the front rotating arm and i added a handle on the side of the seat (presumably used to activate the folding mechanism).

 

 

With this last piece of the puzzle I am now ready to close the cockpit!

 

I already made the frame on the inside of the front part of the canopy . Plus masking and not to forget, the moisture traps (little white circles) in the windows. The lower canopy is now glued (drying as we speak with 24 hour epxoy)  to the cockpit. With this part attached I could also make the fresh air handle. This is the long thin rod from the canopy to the side of the pilot seat (with blue knob). Fiddly but very important detail because it's pretty visible. 

 

If I have enough time this weekend I will concentrate on the upper canopy and with a bit of luck I'm able to close it up. Major milestone! I'd recon the build is pretty straightforward from thereon

 

Cheers, Wouter

 

 

[Wouter]

Evening all, or goodmorning if you're somewhere else on the planet 

 

I have been procrastinating on finishing the cockpit, since I dread the tedious masking. So I turned my attention to some other things that needed to be done. First the landing gear. Since I don't have the G-factor undercarriage and the model is quiet heavy I was looking for a way to strengthen the kit parts. I came up with this solution:

 

Unaltered kit parts

 

clean the inside

 

Hard metal rod and brass tubing fitted

 

This was glued using 5 min resin. the gear was now rock solid.

 

 

Somewhere along the way I found this picture

 

You can see that the oleo is much more compressed then the Revell kit parts. I went back to reference photos and almost every plane has the compression. Besides that, on several Ju388 the oleo proctection covers (socks) are missing. Enough elements for me to alter the landing gear. Since altering the previously strengthened parts wasn't an option I needed a new pair . Luckily I was able to acquire a cheap Ju88 A1. I figured I could use the 'old' gear on that kit at a certain time in the future and use the 'new' ones for my 388. I approached the landing gear the same way like last time, but cutting out the covers. These were replaced with a piece of brass, representing the oleo. I made sure the brass pices were shorther than the 'socks'.

 

 

both done

 

Extra details added and the brake line

 

 

So, pretty happy with that. Looks a lot more at what I can see in my reference.

 

More...

[Wouter]

Next up; something that brought me back to this build. The fantastic replacement propeller set by Henri Daehne! Oh boy, if haven't seen these in real life yet you're in for a treat. Excellent casting, superb detail and very accurate. Ok, one minor flaw due to resin shrinkage, the hubs had a few dimpels. These where easliy fixed with some filler. The resin used is pretty hard but also flexible. The blades are razor sharp at the trailing edge, but due to the flexibel resin the can take a beating. You have to purposely bent them (to far) to damage or break them.

 

Here is a blade compared to the kit part, it's like night and day in details and shape

 

After a little cleaning, cutting to length and adding the counterbalancing weigths you quickly have eigth blades

 

and after painting

 

Pre assembly

 

and finished. I place them beside the kit part for comparison. If you're qoing to build this kit, do yourself a pleasure and buy this easy and relatively cheap upgrade. Henri Daehne also makes a version without the hub for even more detail!

[Wouter]

I'll finish with a few glamour shots (on the old legs by the way)

 

Cheers, Wouter

 

 

 

[Wouter]

Just had a very lengthy masking session with the upper canopy. Fresh blade, masking tape and a lot of patience. Now I can add the inner structure, moisture taps and other details. After painting I can glue the canopy in place, Woohoo! Can't wait to get there.

 

 

[Wouter]

In another very lengthy session I finished the inside of the canopy. Framework, details like handle's, light fixture, wiring and not to forget the moisture taps in (almost) every corner. All 22 of them.. gasp. In finished of with painting the framing. In the picture it looks a bit messy because I didn't paint the whole frame on the inside, only the ribs. I figured this won't be seen when I have painted the outside framing.

 

 

 

So, this was the last step before closing the cockpit. Before I'll do that I'm going to take some better pictures of all the details, so I can always look at those when I mess up    !

 

Till next time,

Wouter

[Wouter]

Well, to put my money where my mouth is I dug op my dslr. The cockpit was placed on a makeshift photobooth to get some decent pictures. The dslr does take a lot better pictures then my mobile, so I should do it more often. I made the picture pretty highres, but tried to keep the filesize down for those on crappy internet.

 

Now this is done I'll guess I'm going to close up the cockpit/canopy this weekend.

 

Enjoy!