The Ju-52 served as the primary transport for the German Military throughout WWII. Originally designed and built as a single engine transport, the seventh prototype was built with the now familiar three motor design. The engines were actually license built Pratt & Whitney Hornet engines, the BMW 132A-1. It first flew in this configuration in April of 1931 and was deemed to be a vast improvement over the single engine version. All previous prototypes were converted to the three motor configuration.

Initially designed as a tranport and airliner, the need for an interim bomber caused some to be converted to a bomber version that served along side transport versions in the Spanish Civil War. After deliveries of early He-111's were underway at the end of the war, the bomber versions were converted back to tranport versions.

During the war the Ju-52/3m was produced through 1944 in various versions, including the version I wish to build, the Ju-52/3m g5e. This version was put on floats and powered by an upgraded version of the initial BMW 132A-1, the BMW 132A-3 (132T-1) rated at 830HP. This was a substantial improvment over the 660HP of the earlier versions.

The float version of the Ju-52 was used in Norway and the Mediterranean Theaters. There were also civilian versions of this aircraft before the war. I intend on building a bird from the Mediterranean Theater, and hopefully putting it in water setting, a first for me.

Fot the build I have the Revell boxing of the Monogram Ju-52 and it looks like an excellent kit. As good as it looks I decided to supplement the basic kit with Quick Boost Pilot and Co-Pilot seats and Metallic Details Ju-52 Engine Set. I don't know how I ended up with two sets of Eduard masks but I did, one in tape, one in vinyl, together they will make masking a lot easier.

There is one item though that was aboslutely necessary to make this build possible and I had been on the look out for a long time for this item. That item is the Master-X Resin Float Conversion kit for the Ju-52. I found this on eBay for a decent price and snatched it up. The vendor is Rare Plane Detective who is actually fairly local to me, and I make sure to visit his booth at all the local shows.

The directions for the floats are basically non existant and for the installation of the floats you have a drawing on the box top and sheet inside showing the struts but not identifying any of them. It should make for an interesting puzzle and build.

I hope you will enjoy following along on what I am sure will be a lengthy, but fun build.

13 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Awesome entry, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman! Very nice extras! Looking forward to it!

I got started by glueing the wings together, and I have to say that the fit was very good. The seam will be a fairly easy cleanup. I think I can get away with only using a little Mr. Dissolved Putty to fill the small voids.

Looking at the kit I could not resist doing some test fitting. This is so far is one of Monograms better engineered kits. The fuselage is broken into four parts, representing the two sides, the top and bottom for the fairly rectangular shape. The fit is very good, if not a little fidgety, but then I had nothing inside to help hold things in place.

I also thought I would show a little more about the floats. This kit is old and long out of production and as can be seen is a cast not printed resin kit. The one thing that is really quite nice and also important is that the struts supporting the plane to the floats are resin but with a piece, or pieces, of Piano that were placed in the mold prior to the pour. Individually the struts each are stiff with a little flex but once glued into position on the plane and float should make a pretty stable and strong platform. It should be noted that none of the struts are labled or marked in any way. There is no right or left, forward or aft nothing. The photoetch for the access hatches are nicely done.

Excellent progress, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman! Everything moves smoothly so far!

Some good progress on it, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
Quite some additional work required to get it together nicely but with your skills that should not be an issue.

This is some very nice progress, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
Good idea to leave the doors open.
Really nice cargo truck, this will look nice next to the Ju

Excellent progress and really great looks, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman!
Love the little Tamiya vehicle, as well!

Those crates and drums looks great, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
You printed them yourself?