Oh! Another Vac!

Hi everyone!

My good friend Angelos Pateritsas, "usual suspect" for providing me with rare vac and resin kits, gave me another present yesterday: an Airmodel 1/72 Ju 290 vac kit!

The Junkers Ju 290 was a large German, four-engine long-range transport and maritime patrol aircraft used by the Luftwaffe late in World War II that had been developed from the Ju 90 airliner, versions of which had been evaluated for military purposes, and was intended to replace the relatively slow Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor which by 1942 was proving increasingly vulnerable when confronted by Royal Air Force aircraft; the Fw 200's airframe lacked sufficient strength for the role in any case. The Ju 290 was also intended to meet the need for large transport aircraft. A bomber version, the A-8, was planned, but never built.

Ju 290 A-5, works number 0178, D-AITR, Bayern of Luft Hansa flew to Barcelona on 5 April 1945, piloted by Captain Sluzalek. The aircraft suffered damage to its landing gear on landing and was repaired with parts brought from Germany by a Lufthansa Fw 200. It remained in Spain because the Spanish Government ordered that regular Luft Hansa flights on route K22 be terminated from 21 April and was turned over to the Spanish authorities.

After a two year grounding, it was acquired by a businessman who put into flight status to use it as a transporter, given its great capacity. Transferred to Madrid, it was finally acquired by the Air Force in 1950, receiving number 74-23. It was based at Matacán Air Base in Salamanca, as a multi-engine teaching platform and also as long-range transport, tasks that it carried out until 1955, when the lack of spare parts and the arrival of the DC-4 grounded her for good.

As is often the sad case, there was no interest in preserving an absolutely unique historical specimen and the great German bird was scrapped.

It is said that that Ju 290 was affectedly loved and much missed by the Ejército del Aire and Spain in general...

The Airmodel is a typical vac kit of a large plane: (in 1/72 it will have a length of 40cm and a span of 60cm!)

There are four massive vac sheets of excellent quality vacformed styrene , that represent most of the parts, including propellers, primary LG, wheels, engine faces etc. Detail is very good!
"Smaller, detailing" parts, such as LG struts, cockpit parts, antennas etc are not represented and have to be scratchbuilt.
Two different vac clear sheets are provided, taking care of all clear parts required to build the different versions. The sport good clarity, their framing being a tad on the soft side...
Decals are not provided, but it will not be that hard to obtain some, or using your spares, if you are lucky to have a big decal dungeon!
The instructions are in A3 size and in German only; they provide a short but solid history, some general assembly notes that, being in German, I can only roughly interpret, a global assembly drawing, detail assembly partial drawings, useful cutaway drawings, an excellent 1/72 3-view drawing and the different versions camos (only port side views and one top view):

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Though an experienced modeler will find his path through these instructions (with the net aid, of course, among others...), it would be nice to have at least an English translation, so a few more modelers would be attracted and not lose heart in the process. I am aware that Airmodel is run by wonderful people, who will provide any possible support, so I may email them for, at least, an English translation.
Upon opening the hefty bag, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Angelos had carefully separated 85% of the parts!

This leaves another 15% for me!

Then there will be the inevitable careful smooth sanding, in order for the parts to be able to be joined. After that, the process will resemble more or less a (VERY!) limited run BIG kit put together, with extra reinforcements taken care of wherever they will be needed, in order to reassure the structural rigidity of this monster vac!

The Ejército del Aire Ju 290 did not carry any guns, the gondola was removed and all turrets were faired over, so this must be taken care of during the construction.

So, here it is!

With Revell, having issued (since 2003 and seemingly re-issuing) an excellent mainstream 1/72 Ju 290 at a "normal" price (making it the obvious choice) and with this amazing company Planet Models offering a "definitive", but very expensive, resin kit, is there a place for the more challenging Airmodel kit?
Well, it depends! At a price of only 23 Euros, there might be a few experienced fellow modelers who would decide to undertake the vac parts preparation and putting together, as well as the scratchbuilt required, the end result being equally beautiful as with the Revell and Planet Models kits.

Yours truly: 1. Having set a rule of always having a resin and/or a vac "in work"

2. Having an affection of building unbuilt kits, let alone finishing already started kits
   cannot do anything else, but lovingly decide to undertake this build...

There are quite a few modeling projects running at the moment, so I put all those vac parts in a Heller 1/72 C-160 box, keeping it near my production line, yet in "idle" speed for the moment.
After finishing my resin Airmodel P.1078, it will take its place!

Just imagine an all-metal Ju 290 in Ejército del Aire markings!
Now how cool will this be?

Images attribution: Francisco Andreu/AviationCorner.net and Juan M. González/AviationCorner.net

Thanks my friend @airbum!
I 'll do my best to deliver!

That’s a mammoth size vacuform Spiros. I would never dare building it but I’m sure you’ll deliver a beautiful model. I like the choice of a Spanish post war bird...Truly unique choice

You are a glutton for punishment, Spiros (@fiveten). You have to be brave to tackle a vac kit, and a large one at that. I will be building something a little easier while I am watching with great interest at how this one comes together.

You are a braver man than I to tackle this vac kit! Looking forward to it...

Thanks Greg @gkittinger and Walt @luftwaffe-birdman!
The JU 290 is a MUCH larger plane than the Condor:

JU290
Length: 28.64 m (94 ft 0 in)
Wingspan: 42 m (137 ft 10 in)
Height: 6.83 m (22 ft 5 in)
Wing area: 205.3 m2 (2,210 sq ft)
Empty weight: 24,000 kg (52,911 lb)

Condor
Length: 23.45 m (76 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 32.85 m (107 ft 9 in)
Height: 6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Wing area: 119.85 m2 (1,290.1 sq ft)
Empty weight: 17,005 kg (37,490 lb)

The JU 290 was BIG!

This build should be a real engineering project, Spiros (@fiveten). I am sure you have already planned some kind of wing spar and perhaps internal structure for the fuselage to support everything.