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.
