Italeri's 1/72 scale
Junkers Ju 86 Civilian

by Bob Aikens

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Anyone who is interested in finding out more about this aircraft cannot do much better than going to Julian Herrero's fine build and history article (Hyperscale 2003). Trying to improve on that is like trying to re-invent the wheel. I took inspiration from Julian's pictures in trying to get my model to look respectable.

The model pictured here was done straight from the box using the kit decals with no enhancements other than masking tape seat belts, Like most of my builds nowadays it was "keep it simple and don't overeach yourself".

A mild case of 'modeler's block' percipitated this build - having trouble getting something to do from my meagre and dwindling stash, a visit to the small local hobby shop provided a temporary antedote. Almost at random I chose this re-box of the old Italeri kit from the mid - 70s.

Building was pretty straightforward and simple - plain elbow grease eliminating seams. Due to some sort of modeling 'Law of Unintended Effect', even quite basic kits seem to have at least one small saving grace. The one on this model is the nearly perfect [retro] - fit of the engine nacelles ; they slip onto the wings like fine tiny gloves!

Painting was done in two Alclad tones, but I didn't do the requesit laying down of a dark glossy undercoat.

Quite a number of fillings, sanding and primings were needed to get a merely acceptable level of smoothness, so I didn't take it any farther than a good rub-down with 3600 cloth paper.

As might be expected, this didn't produce the usual nice smooth Alclad surface. So I was forced to use several layers of Testors Glosscote to ready the surface for decaling.

The decaling proceeded in the way that it does when you use Italeri kit decals.

Overall this was an interesting and mildly challenging build. The model represents Ju-86B -O, Kismet Race aircraft, 1937. Using circle masks I painted on the white tail disks - and being unsure if a hakenkreuze would have been applied for the race, I left it blank...

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2008 by Bob Aikens
Page Created 15 May, 2008
Last Updated 15 May, 2008

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