Junkers J.2 (E.I)

1
September 18, 2021
The Merlin kit has some very rough parts, with lots of flash and a lot of variation from side to side
2
September 18, 2021
The radiator part was opened up at both ends and a radiator made from sheet styrene and bits of mesh
3
September 18, 2021
All flying surfaces had to be thinned - here the ailerons, with the one on the left already thinned and the other still original
4
September 18, 2021
Wings and tail pieces before and after thinning. Tail has also been thinned down
5
September 18, 2021
All flying surfaces now thinned and new panel lines inscribed
6
September 18, 2021
The kit has a white metal propeller - here it has been cleaned up and an etched metal boss added
7
September 18, 2021
A shaft was also glued into the back
8
September 18, 2021
The actual aircraft had a serial on both side and also under each wing, but the kit decals only have 2 for the fuselage. I made some copies of the fuselage serials and printed them on decal paper for under the wings
9
November 27, 2022
Front of the fuselage had to be reshaped - reference drawings show it more tapered rather than the square front end of the kit. Here I've shaped the right side - the left side is the original shape.
10
November 27, 2022
Both sides now reshaped (one time I could be thankful for the over-thick plastic in Merlin kits!), and some filler on one side where I'd chopped some plastic out in error.
11
December 14, 2022
New panel lines scribed.
12
February 4, 2023
The nose of the kit doesn't match the drawings. It is part of the fuselage halves so to work on it I taped the halves together, glued only the nose and, when dry, separated it from the halves with a razor saw. Here I've already increased the height of the nose with scrap styrene
13
February 4, 2023
Nose reshaped to match the drawings (shrunk down from 1/48 to 1/72 on a copier)
14
February 4, 2023
The sides also needed building up with styrene and putty and were then sanded to match the new nose shape. Some sections became very thin and needed to be backed with more scrap styrene.
15
February 4, 2023
Further work on the wings - extended the wing roots with styrene to match the drawings. Also built an axle fairing out of aerofoil shaped styrene and different sizes styrene rod
16
February 6, 2023
Cut out a slot on the right fuselage half for the exhausts
17
February 6, 2023
Found a half engine with the right cylinder spacing. Added some exhausts and built a support structure to hold it.
18
February 6, 2023
Engine painted and engine bay painted black. Engine glued in place.
19
February 6, 2023
A floor and some structure added to the cockpit
20
February 8, 2023
Interior complete and painted. The metal wicker chair came with the kit but the control stick came from the spares box, a basic panel from scrap styrene and some etched bezels and an etched rudder bar.
21
February 8, 2023
Fuselage closed and wings attache
22
February 9, 2023
Tail surfaces glued in place - some cleaning up of the joints needed
23
February 10, 2023
Radiator glued on and drain plug made from a punched styrene disc and small piece of 0.4mm styrene rod
24
February 11, 2023
Undercarriage components - all out of styrene card, rod and aerofoil sections
25
February 11, 2023
All undercarriage components glued together. Also carved a tail skid out of card styrene
26
February 11, 2023
Undercarriage and tail skid glued in place
27
February 11, 2023
Upright and with wheels and prop temporarily on
28
February 2, 2024
Some further rework of the engine/exhaust area, based on closer inspection of photos of the real machine
29
March 9, 2024
Exhaust made, using an old Albatros exhaust (Revell I think based on the red plastic!) and styrene rod. Just pushed in place at the moment
30
March 9, 2024
Radiator return pipe (?) added above the engine, made from styrene rod and soft copper wire. The close up photos show some filling repairs still to do.
31
March 29, 2024
First coat of primer on - it showed up some areas that needed some filler
32
March 30, 2024
All painting done and remaining small parts attached
33
March 30, 2024
The old Merlin decals have yellowed badly, so I found some crosses of the same size and cut some white fields from white decal sheet
34
March 31, 2024
Decals all on - just rigging to do

Comments

21 18 September 2021, 06:54

Cuajete
Following.

14 December 2022, 18:22

Transall NG
A collector kit !! I have only two pics from this aircraft, but there may be no more...
Good work.

14 December 2022, 21:59

Uwe Kaeding
Thanks guys. Transall NG - have a look at the Aeronaut Books book Junkers Aircraft of WWI Vol. 1: Junkers J.1-J.4. Plenty of photos of it in there, and some nice 1/48 scale drawings that I've reduced down to 1/72

15 December 2022, 12:19

Skyhiker
Interesting

15 December 2022, 14:18

Robert Podkoński
Watching too, of course!

4 February 2023, 05:48

Uwe Kaeding
Welcome aboard! Work on the exterior is almost done (although I may need to beef up the wing roots a bit when comparing to the drawings). Next I'll have to figure out a cockpit interior.

4 February 2023, 06:55

Cuajete
Great and hard job so far 👍

4 February 2023, 10:06

Transall NG
I appreciate this kind of work ! 🙂

4 February 2023, 20:00

Uwe Kaeding
Thanks guys. Slowly moving forward.

4 February 2023, 22:47

Uwe Kaeding
A little bit of re-profiling of the nose section, based on a closer inspection of photos of the real thing

2 February, 00:53

Cuajete
👌

2 February, 19:46

Nicolas
Joining in.

2 February, 19:52

bughunter
It is nice to see an update after a year 👍
You mentioned down scaled references from 1:48 to 1:72. Where one can find those drawings? I checked your project but found no assigned books. Thanks!

2 February, 20:03

Uwe Kaeding
Thanks for the comments and likes. Bughunter, yes, haven't been doing a lot of modelling in the last year - work getting in the way. Anyway for references I've mainly been using the Aeronaut Books book Junkers Aircraft of WWI Vol. 1: Junkers J.1-J.4 (vol. 30 of their Centennial Series). I haven't really looked at adding my reference books onto Scalemates yet.

2 February, 21:37

bughunter
Thanks! Here it is: Book: Junkers Aircraft of WWI (by Colin Owers)
Just link it to the project like a kit. SM is wonderful 👍