What's on my desk? Part 42.

Hello,

Here we are again.

I've been working on the Junkers F13 all week. Getting close to finishing the cockpit/cabin. I'm really enjoying this kit. It's a great model of this important little plane, the worlds' first all-metal passenger aircraft. The use of corrugated metal gave it strength and made for easier maintenance than the usual wood-and-linen construction of the time.

As usual for aircraft models, you start construction with the cockpit (and cabin, in this case). There are some bulkheads in the rear that fit between two plastic raised lines. The bulkheads were a little too thick, so I sanded them down until they fit. These will be completely invisible later, so no need to be very precise.

I checked the sprues for attachment points that would get in the way of paint, cut these away and cleaned the parts on-sprue. Then I primed them with white Vallejo, took everything home and airbrushed some base colours.

The tan on the floor, walls and seats is Ammo-Mig 200 Middlestone, the brownish colour below that is Tamiya XF-59 (Desert Yellow), and the aluminium is Tamiya XF-16. My XF-16 was a bit old and half dried out, so it's a bit grainy. I would have preferred to use Ammo-Mig 194, (I really like Ammo's metal paints) but had run out at home.

I then used oils to paint the seats, stippling it to provide some texture. Primarily Burnt Sienna, mixed with some Raw Umber for darker tints. A small dot of Ammo-Mig 195 Silver was used for the buttons on the double seat.

The pilots' seats received their belts and were glued in place. I used some Neutral wash on the corrugated metal, to bring out the detail, then drybrushed it with Light Metal. The wood parts of the steering wheels were also done with oil paint, streaked instead of stippled this time.

The instrument board is quite sparse, but still nicely detailed. You can clearly see the grainy surface here due to the old XF-16. It's actually not that bad and gives a little turned aluminium effect. The instruments are small decals, covered with some gloss varnish to simulate glass.

The F13 has an open cockpit, so there's a bulkhead in between cockpit and cabin to protect the passengers from the elements. This has a window and comes with two curtains.

Judging from photos of the real thing, the cabin walls were covered in some kind of fabric with an obvious striped pattern. I tried to replicate this with streaked oils, but it doesn't really come through. Ah well, at least I got the base paint tinted a bit, which gives some variation.

At this point I installed the windows. A tight fit in some places, but I got them all in, more or less clean. The left side cabin door is separate, so you can pose it open and give a better view of the interior.

While the oils were drying, I built the engine. Nicely detailed, even in this scale.

Next up: put seatbelts on the seats, mask the windows, assemble the fuselage. Once the cockpit/cabin is put together, the rest of the construction will go pretty quickly.

That's it for now.

See you next week!