Revell 1/72 Junkers F.13W Seaplane

REVELL 1:72 JUNKERS F.13W [SEAPLANE]

Reviewer: Hrvoje Šafhauzer (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 10 August 2009

Kit Details:

Aircraft: Junkers F13 W Seaplane
Scale: 1/72
Kit: Revell #04213 (1994-boxing)
Parts: 66 silver injection molded (9 marked "not for use") + 11 clear injection molded
Surface detail: Finely corrugated
Options: Possibility to build a landplane with appertain fin & rudder assembly
Decals: 2 options
Price: 15 Bosnian Marks (approx 7.65 EUR) in 1997, more recent boxing slightly less

Aircraft History:

Very early Hugo Junkers realized that doing a makeover of former warplanes would not do in emerging civilian air traffic for very long after WW I. Drawing on the experiences obtained by their J.7 (fighter D.I) and J.10 (attack CL.I) combat planes, the Junkers Company developed a real great granddad of the airliners – the model F.13. A design team lead by Junkers Head Engineer Otto Reuter was tasked with the job, and an all metal, cantilever wing monoplane had its maiden flight at 25^th June 1919, powered by 160 HP Mercedes DIIIa engine.

Construction was revolutionary for that time, with corrugated metal skin, including the control surfaces, fully enclosed and heated cabin for (mostly) 4 passengers, and side-by-side seated pilots provided with full dual controls in a cockpit without front windows but with big front openings, and otherwise enclosed. All-metal construction provided sturdiness and longevity of the plane, and maintenance was to be less demanding than for the wood-and fabric, especially biplane, contemporaries. No everlasting bracing wires adjusting there! The first request came from the USA in 1919 and was placed by Larsen for 23 planes, followed by a Polish order for 16 planes. Not a bad thing, considering the market was being saturated with cheap surplus warplanes in those times. That was the start of production run that wasn’t to end until 1932, producing a total of 332 machines. Naturally, during production, various improvements were introduced, and the F.13 created a backbone of air traffic in many European countries during 20s, especially in Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe, including USSR.

Various in-line engines in the 160-310 HP range were installed, mostly Junkers own L 2 and L 5 engines, and experiences gained by the F.13 helped in developing other Junkers planes like G.23 and W.33/34, and their military derivatives during the 1920’s, albeit with production out of Germany due to restrictions imposed by Allied Control Commission. One such factory was located in Fili, close to Moscow, in USSR and that was where A.N. Tupolev obtained his first experiences in the design of the all-metal aircraft. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, most of his designs exhibited the features of the Junkers practices. The most successful aircraft of this formula was World-renown Ju-52 series, lineage of which could be traced clearly to the F.13. In fact, Junkers abandoned the corrugated skin concept in the mid 1930s after the failure of the Ju-60 design to reach the performances of the contemporary and competing Lockheed Orion and He-70 fast passenger single-engined planes.

Being of sturdy construction, and easily adaptable to ski-equipped or floatplane form and for carrying freight, F.13 was in service in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and Europe, some of them being in use until the late 1940s. In many cases, they were the first equipment of the burgeoning companies that later became trademarks in the airline business. Understanding low financial resources of the tentative customers in the early 1920s, Junkers also established his own air transport company, equipped with F.13s, to keep production lines open and make it more affordable to others. That company, Junkers-Luftverkher, used no less than 60 F.13s and was later merged with some other company to establish Deutsche Lufthansa, which continued to use these reliable planes until 1938. The Finnish Air Force used several of F.13s during WW II, for liaison and light transport purposes.

In 1969, a derelict wreck was airlifted from Kabul junkyard to Germany in a Bundesluftwaffe Transall, restored by Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm, and exhibited in Deutsches Museum in Munich, becoming a showpiece. That was a plane presented to a former King of Afghanistan, Aman Ullah Khan, during his state visit to Berlin in 1928.

The Kit:

Molded in Korea there are three sprues with silver injection molded parts. A sprue with 18 parts caters for the parts specific for the floatplane version. The clear sprue contains the windows and windscreens. There is discoloration due to the material flow during the molding process and this is clearly visible on the bigger parts, which disappears under paint coats. The parts are almost flash-free and I found no sink marks, in fact after buying it, and then opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised with the kit quality in comparison with previous Revell offerings from the 1980’s. The wing’s inner surface is adorned with a Revell logo and imprinted year 1992.

Instructions:

Instructions are typical Revell fare of 1990s, printed on newspaper-grade paper and with no historical or technical details at all. Six pages slightly smaller in size than A4 are arranged as a foldout, a practice abandoned by Revell later. Color codes are provided for Revell paints only, as usual. Construction is described by 18 mostly understandable steps, however some details like necessity to drill additional holes in wing undersurface for float struts were omitted, as well as passenger cabin front bulkhead detail painting on one side. The kit was re-released in 2006, this time molded in Poland, with new more detailed instructions, new decals and more colorful schemes for both landplane and seaplane versions, and here is a boxtop of that boxing, kit #04249.

Colour Schemes & Decals:

Two marking options are provided, both floatplanes in South America, registered D217 and D218. Box side states that D217 was named "Flamings" (Flamingo) and D218 "Kauz" (Owl), but decal sheet provides no names at all. Both options are in typical natural metal and anti-corrosive black painting scheme Quite understandable – early 20s were not the time when resources were to be spent on painting the flamboyant liveries. Demarcation stripes for the front fuselage sides are included - nice touch! Decals are printed in Germany, not in Italy like more recent ones, so these could be troublesome.

Construction:

Things as usual start with prepainting. To be honest, I had prepainted the seats and couch in ruby red, and engine front, instrument panel, engine parts, rudder pedals, control column wheels and holding handles in black using household gloss enamels, quite a few years ago. (The photo of the parts shows the parts from more recent boxing, but these are exactly the same.) At the time, I had contemplated doing a Finnish AF wartime plane based on an internet photo and started obtaining information. Eventually, I decided to be less belligerent and to make it in civilian livery. Following the instructions, Revell R314 satin beige was used for floor, passenger cabin interior and bulkheads, and seat and couch framings. For cockpit and engine compartment interior, instrument panel front side, control columns, and engine bulkhead I used R45 light olive, as well as for passenger-cockpit bulkhead framing. More recent instructions suggest light gray, but I retained light olive. Curtains in cabin and propeller were painted in household gloss ochre. Cockpit "eyebrows" were painted in R87 earth brown, as well as some details on propeller. I drilled an exit port in exhaust "horn" and painted it in my mixture for exhausts of R84 leather brown and R91 steel. When the paints dried it was time for actual assembling.

Instructions start with assembling the engine, but after test fitting I decided to leave the exhaust horn til the very end of assembly, since it could pass nicely through port in the upper engine compartment panel and avoid being an an obstacle with assembling and handling. Next came placing the windows in the fuselage sides. For starboard side I used Revell Contacta professional liquid glue, and for the port side I used R02 clear matt, both yielding the same results – I managed to smear nice clear windows reducing visibility into passenger cabin. Using the Revell Contacta glue from tube I assembled bulkheads and seats to floor, using the pins fuselage side for positioning parts. Propeller was assembled to engine front and all was left to cure.

I realized that my usual practice of gluing the seams and sanding them later would not do with such fine corrugated surface detail, so I resorted to my diminishing quantity of Humbrol liquid glue. Applying it sparingly I assembled fuselage sides to the bottom, trapping the cockpit and cabin in process. Engine front was dry-fitted for positioning nose, after which an engine compartment bottom was glued too. It all went well in spite of me being cautious, since Revell provided pins and locating flanges at the parts. Everything was clamped, and bulkheads additionally glued to fuselage sides through existing openings. While fuselage was cured, I glued together wing upper and lower part, as well as floatplane-specific fin & rudder. Later, using the kit painting instructions, I drew the paint demarcation lines at the wing and rudder surfaces as instructed using ordinary pencil. Time came for attaching upper fuselage, and I need to bend slightly the front part to fit better. There was slight overlapping of the edges, meaning that the bulkheads were slightly smaller than required, but it was trimmed easily. "Eyebrows" are providing excellent view into the cockpit, so details painting and bulkhead mating to fuselage sides should have precedence. Since I had to WW I era spare pilot, I left cockpit unattended. Next day, I glued wings to lower fuselage, followed by the horizontal tail surfaces and fin & rudder. Mating was good, wings needed some pressure while drying, and eventual small gap was filled with liquid glue. F.13 was angular crude looking plane, and wing to fuselage joints were not provided in any streamlining at all.

Floats consist of four parts each, looking a little complicated, but the flanges on the interior surfaces provide a positive mating point. However care was to be exercised in order not to smear the exterior surfaces with glue. So, I first assembled float bottoms and sides, first by spot positioning liquid glue, and applying the glue to the joints from interior using needle applicator, followed by dry fitting the top parts to get everything lined correctly. Learning from my previous He-51 B-2 build, I placed some lead pieces into the float fronts securing them with plasticine before I glued the upper parts. I applied the curved decals providing the paint demarcation lines in front of the cockpit. Now it was time for painting.

Painting:

I applied R99 aluminum over uppersurfaces, bar the areas intended to be with black bands, and for painting the underwing bands all using the wide brush. Next came painting with household black enamel the rest of the plane. For fin and horizontal tailplane leading edges, and wingtips I used fine brush, with wider one for rest, including the float undersurfaces. The paint was thick and dried slowly, but provided crude-looking appearance of bituminous protective compound, and two days were required to dry. I touched up details using R99 and R87 applied with fine brush.

Construction continues & Decaling:

So far everything went smoothly, so naturally then I run into troubles. The float struts arrangement and positioning requires patience and dexterity in spite of the slots and holes for them. Funny I had no such troubles with the floats on KP's Letov Š.328 some twenty years ago! I managed to break part of a strut, but it was easily corrected. In the end, various handles were glued into their positions, as instructed, followed by a dorsal (antenna?) mast, and with clear windscreens secured with clear paint at the end. Floats and struts were painted in black, and other small parts touched up with R99 aluminum. Propeller spinner was painted in R91 steel. Decaling time.

First, I applied fuselage markings, starting with the triangles beneath cabin. I decided to do D-218 (aka "Kauz"), solely on a ground that remaining unused decal sheet would be nice rectangle. Segments of registration decals are provided with black section, but I had to trim them out and reposition registration slightly. Obviously these were designed to be applied before painting a model in black providing a guide. Junker logo at nose sides, and other small things followed. So far there was very little silvering. Wing walkways are provided as the decals, and I applied them with no fuss. Wing registration followed, and very soon all was over. Almost. Noting that black is too gloss, I decided to overpaint it with R2 mat clear and painting the pilot seats and propeller blades too.

Conclusion:

Nice looking plane this is not! Utilitarian design, with wingspan wider than most WW II twin-engined fighters and with a fuselage length like Hurricane, it looks better when viewed from a distance appearing like a gull. This plane pioneered passenger air traffic, earning its immortality in aviation history. This particular kit represents a machine from mid-production, with improved engine cowlings, but with original fin and rudder shape.

For most of the construction, the kit fits nicely together, and should not present trouble to anyone but a complete novice, especially in a landplane configuration. Recommended for all, with strong advice to use liquid glue sparingly for the job. I myself have two more later releases waiting to be built.

Review courtesy of my valet, and extensive kits stash.

References:

Erstflug der Junkers F 13, Soldat und Technik 7/1989;
Revell kit instructions (2006 release);
Guida agli aeroplani di tutto il mondo, dal 1918 al 1935, by Enzo Angelucci and Paolo Matricardi.

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