Or: Bang for the Buck, Part IV

by Rafi Ben-Shahar

Detailing sets can do wonders to regular kits in terms of enhancing the overall appeal of the final product. However, in many cases, the price of the detailing kit may exceed the price of the actual model, which may discourage many potential builders from buying these gem products.

On the other hand, many of the detailing sets are so comprehensive that they could serve more than one model. Many modellers begin their purchases with the basic plastic kit and then collect multiple detailing sets for it, the cost of which often far exceeds that of the basic kit. The economic-minded modeller should do exactly the opposite; purchase one comprehensive resin set but several basic kits. I do that and I think I have more modelling fun and many great looking, superdetailed models for the price of one detailing set.

Adding Aires to Dragon

Readers may recall that the Junkers Ju 88 is one of my favourite modelling subjects and I have built a number of them in the past (for example, see my previous article Nachtjäger – FuG Installations on Early Ju-88 Variants). The same aircraft and the Dragon kit will illustrated the principle in this article.

Among the 1/48 scale fans, Aires of Czech Republic has become famous for their accurate and delicate detail sets for many of the prominent model kits in the market. In this example, I used one Aires detailing set for the Jumo 211 engines and respective housing for three different Junkers Ju-88A\C models.

In essence, there is no point to overload any model kit with one detailing set. The reasons are as follows:

• You can’t see the forest for all the trees
• The building project may take forever
• There are plenty of spares that can be used for additional models if you choose to build only one kit
• Yet, you would not settle for one completed model kit of the same variant
• In any case, there is no point in detailing areas that can’t be readily seen on the completed model

Since I built many Dragon’s Ju-88s before, the installation of the Aires Jumo engines was an easy task that could be done once the models were almost completed, therefore not interrupting the normal assembly sequence. The tricky part was to figure out the installation of piping that wasn’t mentioned in the Aires instruction sheet. I used a number of reference photographs and still get the feeling that I missed some.

Readers will note that I built the third model with missing engines. Perhaps not everyone would do that, but I have my reasons. These firewalls would be almost impossible to see if I had put the engine assemblies in front of them. By exposing the firewall I made better use of the detailed resin part, added an unusual touch to the model and created that busy overall ”look” in shorter building time. Oh, wait – an I’m sure I could use the spare cowlings and propellers for something else…

This article was originally published in IPMS Stockholms Magazine in August 2007