Excellent build of the Heritage Aviation Junkers Ju388 conversion set by Arnold Cremers who kindly sent through these pictures. The Ju388 was the last of the line and the apex of Junkers Ju 88 development. Developed primarily as a high- altitude heavy fighter to counter the Mosquito and the B-29, with bomber and reconaissance variants also planned, the Luftwaffe placed high hopes in the Ju388 and by the summer of 1944 it was one of the five main types cited in Delivery Plan 226 to fill all planned roles for the Luftwaffe during 1945. However aside from a pressurised cockpit and remotely controlled defensive armament the Ju388 offered no real adavantages over the later versions of the Ju88G series and fell victim to the hopeless economic and military situation in that latter months of the war and the prioritisation accorded the Ta 152 programme. That said at least 75 of the type were built but most were used only as test beds for the somewhat temperamental BMW 801 TJ powerplants.
Arnold's model was built using the Revell/Dragon Ju 88 C6 with the Heritage set.
Arnold reports that the resin parts of the Heritage Aviation set are very good, the only setback encountered was the vacu-formed cockpit canopy which proved to be too big for the resin front cockpit part. To solve this problem Arnold glued the canopy to the front with some wood glue and after a day to dry he put some 2 part epoxy glue around it to create a strong bond followed by some putty and sanding. Super work Arnold !
Ju388 L-1 WNr. 340 083 seen in September 1944 at Merseburg and coded RT+ KC. This was the first Ju388 to leave the factory equipped with ram air intakes. In the background is WNr. 340084. EADS photo from Christoph Vernaleken and Martin Handig's superb Schiffer Junkers Ju 388 history which reconstructs for the first time the complete story of the Ju388 and is highly recommended by this blog!
