Manufacturer: Italeri
Scale: 1/72
Additional parts: some parts from the spare part box
Model build: Apr-Jun 2014
Junkers Ju 52/2m
Italeri
1/72
1/72
Iron Annie's Angry Cousin: The Flight of the Ju 52/2m
Madrid, 1937. The Spanish Civil War raged, a crucible for testing the latest war machines. Captain Franz Schmidt, a grizzled Luftwaffe pilot with a steely gaze, surveyed his unusual assignment: the Junkers Ju 52/2m, a bastard child of the iconic "Iron Annie."
This monster – as Franz's crew nicknamed it, was a strange beast. It lacked the central engine of its lumbering cousin, replaced by a bristling nest of machine guns and a glazed bombardier's compartment. Franz traced the sleek lines of the fuselage, a concession for speed that hadn't quite materialized. "Faster than a brick," he muttered, his crew chuckling nervously.
Their mission: a daring nighttime raid on a Republican stronghold. Franz strapped in, the roar of the souped-up BMW engines a constant thrumming in his ears. As they lumbered into the starlit sky, enemy searchlights clawed at the darkness. Suddenly, a blur of silver – a Republican Curtiss Hawk fighter.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Franz barked, the Ju 52/2m lurching like a wounded beast. The tracers arced towards them, a deadly ballet. Franz's gunner, Hans, unleashed a hail of lead, the rattle a counterpoint to the pounding of Franz's heart. The Hawk peeled away, damaged but not destroyed.
Relief was short-lived. Another Hawk materialized, this time flanking them. "We're sitting ducks!" cried Hans. Franz gritted his teeth. This "improved" bomber was proving to be a deathtrap. An idea, desperate but audacious, flickered in his mind.
"Hans, target the landing gear!" Franz yelled over the engine roar. Confused, Hans hesitated. "Are you mad? We'll crash!" "Just do it!" Franz roared. With a burst of fire, Hans shredded the Hawk's undercarriage. The fighter sputtered, veered off, and plummeted into the darkness.
Sweat slicked Franz's brow. They limped on, reaching the target just as dawn began to paint the horizon with streaks of orange. Franz lined up the Ju 52/2m, its bomb bay a gaping maw. The bombs arced down, blossoming into fiery explosions that lit up the Republican compound.
But victory tasted like ash. Relief at surviving was tinged with the knowledge that the Ju 52/2m was a flawed experiment. It lacked the firepower of a true bomber and the nimbleness to evade modern fighters. As they limped back to base, the rising sun glinted off the plane's corrugated skin, a stark reminder of its monstrous ambition and its ultimate failure. The Ju 52/2m, Franz thought, would forever be a footnote in history, a testament to a desperate attempt to bend an outdated design into a role it was never meant to play.
When Junksrs started to develop the Junkers Ju 52, two differetn versions were build. The Ju52/1m, first flown in 1930 was powered by a single 685hp BMW VII engine. Only 6 of those planes were build.
The much more successful version was the three engines Ju 52/3m, first flown in 1932, where several different engines in the range of 550-880 hp were used. Over 4800 of those planes were build.
Now, as there was the Ju52/1m and Ju52/3m, what about a hypotheical Ju 52/2m ?
In the early 1930s, the Ju52/3m was used as a bomber by the Luftwaffe, simply as other modern bomber planes were missing at that time.
Ad the aircraft prooved to be not very succesful as a bomeber, too slow and to lightly armed, Junkers tried to improve the Ju 52 in its bomber role until more modern "real" bombers were available.
The result was the Ju52/2m, which was first flown in April 1933. The concept was to remove the center engine, replace it this an additional MG arment and bombardier view, increase the number of MGs on board and add the more powerful BMW 132 K with 960 hp. While still havine less power than the Ju52/3m, the lesser weight and improved aerodynamics was thought to give it a slightly higher speed than its three engines variant.
Which prooved to be wrong. With a top speed of 280kph, it was even slower than the Ju52/3m. The improved MG armamaent prooved to the useful - a total of 7 MGs - but with the introduction of fast, monowinged fighter planes, the Junkers would have been an easy target for modern fighter planes.
The planes were tested as part of "Legion Kondor" in the Spanish Civil War, but like the Ju 52/3m, the slow speed made them easy targets for fighter aircraft.
Therefore, only 8 Ju 52/2m were build and maily used as a testbed for other bombers. Radio equippment, bomb sights and autopilot systems were among the components tested on those planes.
The Ju 52/2m is based on the Italeri Civilian Ju52/3m model. This kit also contains severl parts that are used fro military versions of this plane. The center engine was removed and replaced by the nose of an Airfix Do 215 model. The external bombload is from a Tamiya 1/100 A-7 Corsair kit.
The color scheme is the early 1030s Luftwaffe scheme and was airbrushed with Revell Aqua Color. Decals are from the spare parts box, only those on the tail are form the original Ju 52 model.
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