Recent discussions on the Ju 388 mentioned the Ju 290 named "Alles Kaput" which was returned to the US by Col Watson of Watson's Whizzers at the end of World War II.
Now that Trumpeter has produced a 1/48 injected Ju 200, does anyone know of an extant or planned conversion kit to do the Ju 290 (A7?) ? If so, it would be great if Cutting Edge or some other company would do the decals. I've got a couple of photos of the nose. One just after the return flight (8-2-45) which listed the crew (Pilot Col Watson, Co-pilot Capt McIntosh, Engineering Officer Capt Maxfield, Navigator
1Lt Brock, Engineer TSgt Brock, Radio Operator TSgt Joncas, Crew Chief SSgt Stover, Electrical Specialist TSgt Holm, Instrument Specialist TSgt Friske, Air Mechanic TSgt Dressler, Mascot Schnaps -- presumably a dog?). By October of 1945, the crew's names had been painted out. I'd be willing to make them available to a decal company or conversion kit company.
My friend's cousin says his sisters boyfriend's uncle knows someone who knows someone who said that a conversion kit to make a Ju290 from the FW200 is under consideration.It's expected to be available in 2010. It will be a solid metal fuselage with resin landing gear. You'll use everything from the FW200 except the fuselage,wings,landing gear,propellors,engines,clear parts and the decals.
On 11 Sep 2005 09:32:04 -0700, " snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote:
Well... here's something I posted back in 2000:
While checking the 2001 catalogs the other day at a local hobby shop, I gladly found out that one of the major companies (I can't remember right now which, but you get the idea: Revell-Monogram, Italeri, Dragon/DML, Hasegawa, Tamiya) is anouncing the release of a 1/48 Ju 290/390 kit for the new year/century/millennium! Yes, that's right, the "Great Dessauers" finally at a reasonable price ($50- or $60-something).
From what I could see in the pictures, the kit comes with 5 trees of injection-moulded, clear grey plastic, plus a clear tree with the cockpit, windows, turrets, etc., plus some PE parts. They seem to have opted for something similar to DML's Ju 88G-1/G-10 kit, with some cutting and glueing you can turn the basic fuselage into the elongated one, and with the wings it's even easier since you only have to add the innermost sections if you want the Ju 390 (since they have their own landing gears, you don't have to worry about the model collapsing; and of course, you have the whole 6 engines and propellers on the kit, so if you build only the Ju 290 version, you'll have several pieces for your spares box). The kit features a semi-functional "Trapoklappe", so you may build it resting on the tail wheel or with the ramp open (allowing interior detail to be seen). My guess is it couldn't be fully functional because of the weight, the tail would try to "sit down" making the ramp close. They could have solved it by providing a noseweight, but maybe they intended to release an A-7 version (the one with the "bulbous", clear nose with an extra MG); or maybe not, after all, the Ju 290/390 _was_ a tailsitter. Don't ask me how they handled the different windows (rectangular versus round), i don't remember and I'd have to take another look at the catalog photos of the part trees; maybe they did separate fuselage walls, floor and roof like in the ProModeler Ju 52/3m, or maybe the windows required some cutting work too...
The kit seems to come with two decal sets, one for the Ju 390 V2 and one for a Ju 290A-5 of FAGr 5. They both are to be built with the Hohentwiel radar array on the nose. I just wish they had made a decal set for a KG 200 one... I would then line it up with the B-17 and B-24 in KG 200 markings (incidentally, does anybody know of aftermrket decal sets for those in 1/48?). Well, sure some aftermarket company will release one. And I'm betting they will also release conversion kits for the A-7 (if the manufacturers themselves don't have it already planned, as with the Tamiya Do 335A-12), including the bulbous nose and some guided missiles/glide bombs, the A-8 and A-9, and maybe even the Ju 290Z (hey, it would be very simple, the additional center section dosen't even carry an additional engine like the one in the He 111Z does!).
Now I'll be waiting until one of the local shops gets some of these, I only hope the price increase due to import, customs, taxes, etc., doesn't rocket to sky heights... Man, it IS a huge kit, my guess is it's like the B-29... the dimensions are in the same ballpark, plus/minus an inch or two. (The Ju 290A-5 had a wingspan of 42,00m, length of 28,64m and height of 6,83m; the Ju 390 V2, a wingspan of 0,32m and length of 33,60m; and the B-29, a wingspan of 43,05m, length of 30,18m and height of
9,02m)
They also mentioned a later release of the Ju 90, I think it was for next April...
Now, a cultural note:
Around these latitudes, December 28th is called "Innocents' Day", and commemorates the slaughter of the children ordered by Herod when he learned Christ had been born. It is typical of this day to play pranks on unsupecting people, to see if they qualify as "innocents". In other words, this day fulfills the role that in some other places is given to the so-called "April Fools' Day". In yet other words, none of what I wrote further up is true (though I wish it were, and if you believed it, you must agree it isn't all that improbable). So, take this without getting angry, and Feliz Día de los Inocentes!
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