The Airfix Junkers Ju88 – some signs of progress

Inevitably, some of the things the Airfix Junkers Ju88 teaches us are similar to lessons learned from the Do217E kit. But five years had passed by the time the Ju88 appeared, and the state of the art had moved on. Most of the learning is about reliable sources (or otherwise) and how a story gets subtly modified each time it’s told.

This was probably the second kit I ever built myself. The Ju88 never featured in family war stories, despite my dad having a picture of one (in bits, on the ground). Most likely explanation – the dramatic box art caught my eye. Inevitably, the finished item was less exciting, especially as I didn’t feel motivated enough to paint it. (In my defence, a grown-up may have suggested that painting was optional).

So I ended up with a small, pastel blue model of a Ju88, which wasn’t particularly dramatic after all. I was small too at the time, so the size of the model wasn’t so disappointing, but it definitely lacked drama. I eventually built two of these kits but I don’t recall anything close to drama on either occasion.

Like the Do217, the Ju88 has lots of small parts like ailerons, which are supposed to be moveable. This means very carefully gluing them in the right places. Actually, what it really means is very carefully not gluing them in the wrong places. On the plus side, I had smaller hands and better eyesight in those days, like the children who manufactured your smartphone. On the minus side, I had less manual dexterity and much less practice in sticking ridiculously small pieces of plastic together. The net result: very few of those parts ever moved independently again until the final catastrophic breakup. Probably gradual disintegration, still lacking drama to the very end.

Authoritative information my arse

Something I didn’t discover until many years later was that the research behind this kit wasn’t 100% reliable.

The markings on the kit decal sheet “AD+DB” seem to have a bit of artistic licence. Perhaps the decals should represent the much photographed aircraft 4D+DR – flown by Hajo Herrmann in the Mediterranean theatre. There are even colour photos of 4D+DR so this hypothesis seems reasonable. So where does this element of doubt come from?

If the final “B” from the kit decals was actually an “R” it would indicate an aircraft from Staffel 7./KG30. In which case, the yellow unit badge for KG30 is correct. However the yellow “D” in the kit decals should be white. Otherwise it all unravels – “+DB” would mean a white KG30 badge and green “D”. 4D+DR is also apparently a Ju88A-5 – overall it’s bit late to find all that out now. Anyway, unless they were previously unknown factory markings or something, mixed up with a KG30 badge, AD+DB doesn’t look right. There’s also a white stripe missing.

Airfix then had another go with the reissued kit and got it wrong in a different way. Baumbach’s aircraft? – probably not. There’s an aftermarket decal set which has the same markings, also claiming to be Baumbach’s aircraft.

The instructions are better than the Do217 kit so there was obviously some learning going on chez Airfix. However they still assumed a lot of domain knowledge about aircraft if this was all going to make any sense.

And they tell us to paint the bombs matt black. This suggestion is actually a guess, but I didn’t find that out until the December 1971 Airfix Magazine arrived. Dark green or maybe light blue, we would need to look at photos for clues.

So a key takeaway from the Airfix Junkers Ju88 – check what people are telling you. They may appear to know their stuff, but even in the pre-post-truth world of 1963 this wasn’t always true. Just try a quick search for “grassy knoll” and see what turns up.