Junkers J.I Build
Well, here I am again. On Friday, February 7, 2003, I purchased the Eduard Junkers J.1, affectionly known by it's crews as the "Flying Furniture Van". And it's easy to see why. It was a big, heavily armored low level observation plane. About 100 were made and they flew from 1917 until the end of the war. Anyway, after having built the Merlin kit about 10 years ago, I wanted to see how easy an injection molded kit of this plane would be. I have decided to do another one day build since I have a day off. So on this day, February 12, 2003, I will attempt to build this model in a day. I'm off to a slow start but let's see if I can catch up.
First, the model comes on three trees of plastic and provides for two different versions, early and late. There are three rudders, two stabilizers, two exhausts and two sets of decals. I have chosen the early version. I didn't count the number of parts but guess is there about 75 parts on the three trees. The molding is excellent, there is no flash on my kit and the decals are good as far as their registery. Enough said, let's get to the building of this beauty.
At my usual time, 4am, I started removing the parts from the trees.
7 min 22 seconds: Both wings, tail pieces, fuselage pieces are removed and the top wing is glued together.
13 min 02 sec: Lower wing joins its upper conterpart. There will some leading edge work necessary.
27 min: The wings are together. I love the one piece wings verses the 3 piece system of the Merlin kit. I have the tail surfaces and fuselage sanded. The dry fit on the fuselage is near perfect. With just a little sanding the lower wings fits to its fuselage attachment section.
53 mins: After taking some photos, the air brush was fired up and the gray was painted. I used Floquil RLM Gray (02). While waiting for the paint to dry, all engine parts were cut out. This is a very delicate area so you must work slowly so as not to damage parts. :-)
1 hr 17 min: The engine is complete. It went together without any problems.
1 hr 35 min: The interior is complete and inserted into the fuselage. Again, no problems encountered.
2 hr 27 min: Major problem. The engine is too wide for the opening and had to be removed after it was glued. It fit perfectly before adding the exhaust. Both sides of the upper fuselage wall were thinned as much as possible and the exhaust manifold section was trimmed. The fuselage fits better but not as good as I would like. The rear and bottom fit is perfect. It's in the upper nose section that the problem occurs. I made it fit with super glue and clamps. My suggestion is to thin the side walls, thin the exhaust and intake manifold below the top of the engine compartment and it should fit without any problems. My exhaust sits a little crooked but I will straighten it out with a little heat after it dries.
2 hrs 30 mins: Fuselage is together, a little trimming is done on the wings and fuselage. It is now time for breakfast and typing. Tech Support is setting up the page.
Computer problems delayed my return to the model but they have been solved by the capable hands of Tech Support.
3 hrs 30 min: The next hour was spent applying putty and sanding. There is very little sanding to do and most of the time was spent trimming parts waiting for the putty to dry so I could sand it. This completes this phase of the model. Now to the spray booth.
5 hours: The next hour and half was spent painting and applying decals.
The lower color, Floquil German Light Blue (63) was applied and allowed to dry. Floquil paints dry very fast, especially when sprayed and within 15 minutes I was masking off for the green upper colors. Again Floquil, this time German Dark Green (71). Fifteen minutes of drying time and a gloss coat is applied and allowed to dry.
At this time the lower wing and hortizonal tail is attached and is allowed to dry. The undercarriage is attached and requires only minor trimming to fit into their designated holes.
The decals are now applied over the gloss coat.
One comment on the notched strip on the tail. This turned out to be a very easy decal to apply. There is no film in the notch that has to be trimmed so the decal slides into place. I discovered on the second side, apply the decal in front of the stabalizer and slide it into place. It's a little short but touch up painting will solve that problem.
7 hrs: It is now time for the most tedious part of the kit, the struts. First, they all fit exactly the way they are designed. I prepainted all of the struts while still on the sprue. Then, one at a time I cut, trimmed and attached each strut. There are struts everywhere; six for the lowere wing, two for the rudder, two for the undercarriage. And this does not include the eight for the wings. All of the smaller struts are very easy to attach. The instructions give you the location for drilling attachment holes if you desire. I did not see the need to and the results were good.
The hardest part of the kit is the attachment of the upper wing. I first set the four main struts with super glue at the approximate angle of fit. Then, turning the model upside down, the four struts were attached to the upper wing with super glue. After checking the alignment, the four cross struts were attached while the model is still upside down. I did not trust the four struts to hold the weight of the upper wing. As tedious as it was, there were no problems other than a slight difference in the space between the wings from one side to the other. This is mainly caused by the speed with which I build the kit.
9 hrs: All of the little fiddly bits, (hand holds, control horns, etc) are attached and the touch up painting is done. With that, one completed kit.
This is one of best designed and engineered kits I have ever built. With the exception of the engine width problem, the kit basically falls together. It is a difficult kit especially with the attachment of the upper wing but that is the plane not the kit manufacturer. The instruction sheet is very detailed, giving very clear step by step instructions. I followed them to the letter with no surprises. The decal sheet is excellent and I have never applied decals that came off the sheet so quickly. This is the "non profipak" kit but has everything that the person who builds out of the box could ever want. All cockpit detail disappears under the top wing so I personally see no reason to super detail the cockpit. I highly recommend this kit for the building who wants to add an unusual kit their collection. Eduard is to be highly commended for this excellent model.
Last Revised 6/2/2005