Junkers Ju-86 Airliner - LAN Chile - Modified Italeri 1/72 kit

Here is at last finally completed the model of the Chilean airliner that journeyed the long distances of its South American adoptive country.

And a long building journey this was too, given the fact that the Italeri kit is just a hasty and half-way effort to provide the features of the real civil version.

All the mishaps and necessary corrections/additions can be visited in the step-by-step building article:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/04/junkers-ju-86-airliner-modified-italeri.html

A full interior was provided, and the original short tail had to be modified into a long tailcone. The box art of this kit will completely mislead you into believing that you are acquiring a long tailcone version. Bummer.

The most blatant mistake of this old kit is that the two sets of windows were staggered in the original plane, a fact ignored by Italeri that takes a lot of time and some skill to correct.

Other many modifications were needed, and of course the addition of the aftermarket Kora set that provides resin radial engines and nacelles plus the decals for this version.

On that, I can comment that the fit of the Kora nacelles is not, let's say, comfortable, and if you don't need the decal sheet it provides or the other bits, you are better off buying the radial engines and long tail version offered in one of Italeri's releases (4260). If I had noticed that before, I would have done exactly that. On a secondary note on the decals, the ones provided for the prop blades seem inaccurate, since all photos of the radial versions show invariably a Junkers triangular logo on those blades.

Photos show at least two different liveries, the one provided by Kora and another that has a more stylized lettering for "Línea Aérea Nacional" above the windows, instead of on the aft fuselage. Other features can be glimpsed in photos: a LAN big lettering under the right wing, and at least in one machine an anti-glare panel on the nose.

I drew immense pleasure from the conversion of a machine of sinister origins and use, into an airliner that happily is not wearing despicable symbols, but instead had a good use transporting civilians and goods, and being useful for peace, not war.

LAN (Línea Aérea Nacional) had four of these Junkers, starting flying them in 1937-8 (depending on the source), they were capable of carrying 10 passengers in relative comfort with the necessary sturdiness for the rough conditions that many times the airline industry of the time had to operate in.

This old kit as said is not very accurate and it is devoid of cabin detail, having also raised panel lines, but the fit is quite good, and the engineering uncomplicated, which is appreciated.

As many other old vintage kits, it can be converted into a fair representation of the original withy some love and time. I would say that the skill required for this conversion is within the reach of committed modelers that had already ventured into some kit-improving and detailing.

Provided you invest some time and effort, you can obtain a large number of civil airliners from this kit. As stated in the building article, Kora Models has some sets that cover a few of the choices (not sure how accurate they are, mine had some glitches), but combining different issues of the Italeri kit (radial, inline, short tailcone, long tailcone) and doing your decals you are also set for a nice ride.

Since there is so little material about this Chilean machines (I have all what is to be found online, by the way), I am eager to know if fellow aviation enthusiast from Chile could come forth with more photos. For what I can tell, no registrations or logos were painted on the upper surfaces of the wings,. and only one photo hints at "LAN" painted underneath the right wing.

These planes were never together in reality, but the photo makes an interesting comparison: