Junkers Ju-86 Airlines of Australia - Italeri 1/72nd scale kit conversion

 

This build started as a "rescue" kit that came to me partially built, as explained in the step-by-step posting:

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

It is a companion of the recently-completed Lan Chile Junkers:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/05/junkers-ju-86-airliner-lan-chile.html

My thanks once more to friend, fellow modeler and Ornithopters' member Sönke for kindly donating the rescue kit.

My gratitude also to those who helped providing useful information during the build, especially Günther Ott of ADL in Germany. Any inaccuracies in the model are entirely my fault. Last but no least thanks to Mika Jernfors of Arctic Decals, who warned me about the stagger of the seat rows and windows on the original plane, and made a wonderful decal set for it.

At the beginning I planned to use it to try some tricks to be applied to a new model (finished as a LAN Chile airliner), but I grew fond of it in spite of the challenges it presented. To start with, Italeri made very little effort to adapt the military boxing into the civil one, leaving many grey areas and some serious mistakes to be fixed by the modeler.

I ended up correcting some of the inaccuracies of this old kit and providing some additional interior, and commissioning a decal set for it to be finished as VH-UYA, a machine that saw some limited service in Australia. 

The most blatant mistake of the kit is that the two sets of windows were staggered, the right side being ahead of the left, a fact ignored by Italeri that takes a lot of time and some skill to correct.

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

VH-UYA presented some color challenges, as it the case when assumptions have to be made based on available black & white photos and/or vague, or generic descriptions. The color choices, which involved some  degree of speculation, were adopted after much consultation and study.

Unfortunately, for several reasons, it did not have a long career in Australia. Many sources repeatedly state engine issues for all Jumo 205-equipped planes. This diesel engine apparently gave more than one headache to its pilots, mechanics and users.

There is some anecdotal information on the Net about this plane, so if you feel curious, do a search for the type and registration, instead of me parroting here what its already out there.

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 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 research 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 possible choices (not sure how accurate they are), but combining different releases of the Italeri kit (radial, inline, short tailcone, long tailcone), and doing or commissioning your own decals, you are also set for a nice ride if you are so inclined.

These planes were never together in reality, but it makes for an interesting comparison: