Announcing new skin - Ju 52 for Spanish Air War scenario

Hi all -

Finally I have finished this Ju 52 skin for SAW after I destroyed big parts of this work carelessly

So this is my second attempt:



Junkers Ju 52/3m g4e, code 22-99,
Grupo de Bombardeo Nocturno 2-G-22
1a Escuadra (1a Brigada Hispana)
Spanish Civil War 1937



Excerpts of the readme:

The Junkers design Ju 52/3m, i.e. the trimotor version of this cargo and transport plane - the original design Ju 52/1m had a single central engine - participated in the Spanish Civil War from the very beginning in the last days of July 1936. The Spanish Navy loyally taking sides of the Republican cause, Hitler´s first twenty "Tante Ju´s" helped Franco´s reinforcements to leave the African continent in Morocco to assist the fascist uprise in the Spanish motherland.

The Ju 52/3m flew in the Spanish War long before the Legion Condor arrived in Mid-November 1936. Originally being designed as a cargo transport and a civil air liner the further development of the war saw this plane converted as a makeshift bomber.

Being successful in this role from the beginning the Ju 52/3m served throughout the whole war, officially starting with K/88 (Bombergroup 88) in Nov 15, 1936.

Having participated in the infamous raid on the Basque town of Guernica in April 26th, 1937, the improved and faster He 111 and Do 17 variants gradually took over the bomber role from the rapidly ageing Ju 52 bomber. The surplus machines were subsequently handed over to Spanish units. From March ´37 onwards the Junkers was used more and more for nocturnal raids and transport duties.

The variants used in the Civil War were the Ju 52/3m g3e and the Ju 52/3m g4e, the latter being easily distinguishable by a tail wheel instead of the tail skid. The Ju 52 stayed in Spanish service throughout the wartime, a number of 170 additional examples being built in Spain under license under the designation CASA 352. Those were in official use until 1954. Many of the preserved Ju 52s are Spanish-built CASA 352s.



The first Ju 52s having arrived in Spain retained the overall pale grey RLM 63 finish, but this was soon replaced by the then-standard Luftwaffe camouflage system of dark brown RLM 61, medium green RLM 62 and pale grey RLM 63 on the upper surfaces, pale blue RLM 65 beneath. (This system was followed by the well-known later RLM 70/71 green tones. Interestingly some of those colours were successfully tested with JG 54 on the Eastern front in 1943, officially reappearing as ground-concealing colours RLM 81-83 towards the end of the war). "22 - 99" is shown being painted according to this system, "2x" meaning a bomber plane, "22" significating the Ju 52 type and "99" standing for the 99th "Tante Ju" delivered to Spain.

Ju 52/3m g3e - auxiliary bomber with BMW 132 A engines, a machine gun compartment on the upper fuselage (MG 15), upward-folding bottom gun-gondola (MG 15) and a payload of 1,500kg of bombs
Ju 52/3m g4e - multi-role transport aircraft with BMW 132 A engines and cargo doors on the upper fuselage and right side; floats could be attached instead of the landing gear

This skin is meant to replace the Ju 52 in the Spanish Air War scenario, using the m410 slot. Unfortunately the 3dz is not quite correct because the ventral gun bay, the so-called "dust-bin" MG station is missing as well as the characteristic wheel spats of this early variant. Some rendering sequence problems occur on the starboard side of the fuselage in connection with the cargo door and the code area. Maybe some helpful soul is able to put this right!

Thanks to Pobs for his assistance! Thx also to the others whose work I have used to complete this skin.

Lovely one !

Why, Fran! That is beautiful.
We should have known you do nothing carelessly, but very thoroughly.
Congratulations on a magnificent first effort.

Really have nothing to criticise--but you probably notice I am a "highlight" freak. Bright areas where the sun hits, especailly on glass. But even the fabulous Flying Tiger doesn't do any better than what you have.

First class job Fran, great detail, including the blue cross
painted over the windows. This is a tough model to skin, thanks
for all the work.

ade

Wow, very nice bird. Very nice indeed.

Thank you for the flowers, guys, but not so thoroughly as you´re thinking, I´m afraid

Had been working for a whole afternoon with this skin and had it almost completed when my wife unintentionally and unnoticed disconnected the power plug from my notebook. I hadn´t made any backups until that moment so the whole file went pooof and I had to start again... oh how I hate things to be done twice

Concerning the highlights I´m just reading Merrick´s book about Luftwaffe camo and he states that reflections had to be avoided at any cost by choosing dull matt colours especially for ground concealment. That´s why tarpaulins were pulled over the shining cockpit area when the planes were parked on the ground. Pilots were reporting that in many cases they recognized their adversary by reflection flashes from cockpit plexiglass areas from the distance.

So I tried to set very low highlighting only to give some depth to the skinned areas. I´m sure Ade would be able to improve this skin.

Concerning the blue cross painted across the window panels I have to say almost all windows in this Ju 52 had been painted over except from the first one according to the profile and the existing photographs. The cross (later superimposed on the black disc) is the emblem for the Nationalist (=fascist) Airforce. The significance of the blue colour is unknown to me.

As fast as possible at Sandbagger´s.

Nice to see more big planes.

S!

Moggy DCM

Nice work Fran,

look forward to seeing it at Sandbaggers.



cheers,



Pobs

A lovely sister ship...

Elegant whitewall tyres, Doc

I´ve made some minor corrections and two filesets - one for SAW and one for OAW. Just sent to Mr Norris