Hi, guys... I've managed to set aside some time to start this model, a recent release from the Ukranian company, Mikr-Mir. It is nicely moulded in grey plastic, with good, clear transparent parts; there are two German options for colour schemes - a pre-war Lufthansa finish or a wartime Luftwaffe training aircraft. The external surface detail is well executed in regards to the corrugated surfaces. The cockpit is sufficiently decked out with pieces as to make it interesting, but I think some additional parts could have been provided, such as an alternative undercarriage option or even the provision of an MG for the upper dorsal hatch. I would have to advise that if choosing the Luftwaffe version, be sure of the colours you need. The instruction sheet suggests overall dark green, but other sources appear to show a more likely pale grey. As I haven't yet got to applying the transfers, I can't comment on them other than to say they look good on the sheet. The instrument panel has a non-adhesive 'transfer' which has rather good, raised detail and certainly looks the part as far as I'm concerned. A little water-based glue should see this attach well to the plastic piece. The seat belts are made from the same material and are nicely detailed but I found these unwilling to be compliant when trying to attach using the same type of adhesive, and difficult to arrange the side belts over the sides of the seat. Eventually, they fell apart and I had to resort to some spare Eduard seat belts instead. They are of the same type - non-adhesive, but I chose to apply a very small amount of polystrene cement to these, left them 'standing up' when attached to the sides and back until such times as the adhesive was completely dry, then bend them over the sides and back of the seats, which was a more successful way to do things.

Although generally so far the parts have gone together quite well, there are some fit issues; the cockpit bulkhead is slightly slanted and although I am sure it was installed correctly, it seems to sit too far down, thus inhibiting the attachment of the wings. This is easily sorted as the bulkhead can be trimmed and it won't be seen once the wing is in place, but it also resulted in the top of the bulkhead being too short, so when the upper fuselage cover goes on, there is a gap between the top of the bulkhead and the underside of the the fuselage cover. I fashioned an extension using plastic card which is hardly ideal, but it covers the space and hopefully, will not be overly obvious on the finished model. The forward cowling sides are a little short where they meet the fuselage, and I thought also a little narrow, so plastic card inserts were added to pad out these areas. I had to be careful in applying filler as the edge of the cowling sides are smooth but attach immediately forward of corrugated areas. The front edges of the fusleage were too wide at the junction with the leading edge of the wing and had to be coaxed inwards slightly to allow the wing to fit, and I will need to fill in a gap either side as well in due course.

Tail surfaces fit okay, but there are gaps here as well. I think these can be addressed with care; all side windows are slightly too big and will need reducing in size and several dry runs to ensure accurate insertion into the spaces. The good news is that I got two complete transparent sprues, so if any mistakes were made, I had something to fall back on. Contrary to that, however, there are parts showing on the box art and in the instructions that aren't actually provided! The small generator on the right side of the fuselage is showing in the box art, but no mention is made of it in the instructions. The prominent radio mast is mentioned in the instructions, but not provided with the kit... hope you're keeping up with all this!

I appreciate these are all small things that a good modeller can sort, but it is a little strange that these items are not in the box.

My understanding is that a wider range of 'Ju W' variants is planned in 1/72 scale, but I'm not sure if this is the intention in 1/48 scale. The model does offer potential to modify and enhance and I'm sure many will choose to do so. Anyway, I hope you'll stay with me on this one and see how things develop. Thanks for looking in... ;-).

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

This is a really wonderful entry, my friend @paulh!
Nice to read your building experiences and the ways chosen to sort them out.
Really looking forward o it!

John, Spiros and John vdB, thanks to all of you for your comments. I hope to have some additional photos to post in the near future. A bit of scraping, cutting, sanding and blending to do next!... ;-).

So, the next part in this build... the wing has been attached and the initial undercoat of pale grey applied. As referred to in my opening post, the forward nose area onto which the engine will be mounted, required some tidying up. This was quite successful on the top and sides, but there is quite a noticeable area on the underside that abutts against an area of corrugation that is not really matching up. My options are to go ahead and fill the space to smooth it out, and possibly damage the corrugated area excessively, leave it as it is or try and do something halfway between the two in order to address the issue... I need to think about that one for a while longer.

The wing to fuselage joints went better than expected and once happily fitted and sitting at the correct angle, I used Perfect Plastic Putty - which is water-based - to seal the join and did the same with the rather evident gaps around the tail planes as well; immediately after application, the putty was pushed into the gaps and any excess removed as soon as possible using a dampened cotton bud. Inevitably, some of the putty will spill over into the adjoining corrugated surfaces, but going over them again with the damp cottom bud should remove all excess satisfactorily. I was pleased with the smoothness of the end result. The aileron and elevator control surfaces were then attached. I left the rudder off for the time being as it would be easier to paint it separately, rather than risk an overspray of dark green onto the blue undersides.

Once I was happy with the first couple of applications of RLM71 dark green, and it had dried out, I blanked off the relevant areas with Tamiya tape, then applied the darker RLM70 black green. The undersides were painted in pale blue RLM65. I always enjoy removing the tape to see how well the contrast looks, and it was no different on this occasion... nice and sharp.

So, the next stage is to settle on a specific colour scheme, and I have not progressed the model further as I found it quite a task to get a scheme I liked. I may also have to apply tacital markings, such as a yellow fuselage band and lower wingtips. I had some colour schemes in mind so I sent off for Microscale's 1/48 scale post-war West German lettering and numbers. I have them in 1/72 scale and they're really good for some WW2 aircraft as well; they're black with white outlines but sadly, the 1/48 scale sheets I received were all out of register, so I had to return them, hence the delay in sourcing an alternative scheme.

So, attaching the undercarriage, adding a couple of small details that I've noticed are applicable to the kit, then gloss varnishing and applying the markings hsouldn't be too far off now, and I'll have further photos to post soon. Thanks again for looking in... ;-).

9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Steady progress, Paul @paulh
Besides the great looking applied camouflage, I also like the way how you created the shading.

Nice progress, my friend @paulh!

This is a truly wonderful result, with many improvements over the original challenging kit, my friend @paulh!
Congratulations and happy new year!

Great work and a really nice kit by the looks of it.
The top colours of RLM 70/71 look spot on, which paints did you use for that?