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1/32 Ju EF-126 „Elli“ / EF-127 „Walli“ (3 in 1 injected plastic kit)


Woody V

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It is waaay cool IMHO.  A fall together build for me.  Modeling News did a build last year IIRC.   Yupp
 

https://www.themodellingnews.com/2020/07/dry-fit-review-132nd-scale-junkers-ef.html?m=1

 

 

Edited by Rick Griewski
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Be aware that the designers of the model took the actual aircraft as a rough guide only and made several 'improvements'... So, if you want to model the machine as it was actually built after the war, it requires a LOT of work (I'm working on an entirely new ventral fairing and skid, among other things). And the twin engined version is pure fantasy. (There is the twin engined Junkers-Argus SFP that was possibly a further development of of the EF 126, but that was a much bigger machine with a classic retractable undercarriage, and the authenticity of the only known schematic of this design is unconfirmed; at any rate, you can't build it from this kit).

Edited by pvanroy
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2 hours ago, pvanroy said:

Be aware that the designers of the model took the actual aircraft as a rough guide only and made several 'improvements'... So, if you want to model the machine as it was actually built after the war, it requires a LOT of work (I'm working on an entirely new ventral fairing and skid, among other things). And the twin engined version is pure fantasy. (There is the twin engined Junkers-Argus SFP that was possibly a further development of of the EF 126, but that was a much bigger machine with a classic retractable undercarriage, and the authenticity of the only known schematic of this design is unconfirmed; at any rate, you can't build it from this kit).


I think most model builders of this type of late or after war era what if designs/subjects understand what you are saying.  I like them because they are interesting.  The variant without the Argus engine will look nice next to the Me-163 and ‘263 on the shelf. 
 

They are brilliantly engineered kits.  Many spare parts.   I tossed my extra Argus engines into a Me-262 kit.  I may come up with my own paper design.  

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10 hours ago, pvanroy said:

Be aware that the designers of the model took the actual aircraft as a rough guide only and made several 'improvements'... So, if you want to model the machine as it was actually built after the war, it requires a LOT of work (I'm working on an entirely new ventral fairing and skid, among other things). And the twin engined version is pure fantasy. (There is the twin engined Junkers-Argus SFP that was possibly a further development of of the EF 126, but that was a much bigger machine with a classic retractable undercarriage, and the authenticity of the only known schematic of this design is unconfirmed; at any rate, you can't build it from this kit).

 

What reference material are you using to build a more accurate representation of the actual aircraft from this kit?

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7 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

What reference material are you using to build a more accurate representation of the actual aircraft from this kit?

 

It is, admittedly, a very obscure subject. There are two photographs of the fifth prototype, one perfect side view, the other a three-quarter front view. You can find both on the internet, but unfortunately, the resolution is generally poor, and it seems the negatives from which the scans were made were also damaged. The best reproduction of these images I have found so far is in Göpfer's (2020) Flieger Revue X article on the work of German aviation engineers in the Soviet union post-war. In addition, there is also a photograph of a large scale wooden wind tunnel model of the final configuration, which is reproduced in Sharp (2020), and photos of a desk-top model in near-final configuration in Sobolew (2000), Gordon & Komissarov (2008) and Göpfer (2020). There are no images of the cockpit, but it is known from documents that the machine used a Heinkel ejector seat. The most complete account of the post-war activities of German aviation engineers in the Soviet Union is given by Sobolew (2000), and it also includes several pages on the EF 126. References useful for the EF 126 as built and tested post-war are:

 

- Butler, A.L. & Gordon, Y. 2008. Soviet Secret Projects. Fighters since 1945. Hinckley: Midland Publishing. 176 pp. [short entry on EF 126, has three-quarter front view of prototype]

 

- Göpfer, R. 2020. Deutsche Luftfahrtspezialisten in der Sowjetunion 1945 - 1954. Wissens-Transfer als Reparationsleistung. Flieger Revue X 81, 66-97. [thorough article, with best reproductions of both side view and three quarter front images of the fifth prototype, and of a desk-top model in final configuration]

 

- Gordon, Y. & Komissarov, S. 2008. German Aircraft in the Soviet Union and Russia. Hinckley: Midland Publishing. 320 pp. [thorough entry on EF 126; has three-quarter front view of prototype and schematic of intermediate configuration, not final aircraft as built]

 

- Sharp, D. 2020. Secret Project of the Luftwaffe. Volume 1. Jet Fighters 1939-1945. Horncastle: Tempest Books. 336 pp. [discusses wartime development of EF 126 and EF 127, and has image of wind tunnel model in final configuration]

 

- Sobolew, D.A. 2000. Deutsche Spuren in der Sowjetischen Luftfahrtgeschichte. Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn: Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn GmbH. 311 pp. [thorough treatment of EF 126 development and testing in the Soviet Union post war; includes schematic of intermediate configuration, and image of desk model in final configuration]

 

So, details of the aircraft built are hard to come by, but from the photographs it is definitely possible to get a decent representation of the aircraft with regard to geometry and dimensions. Using digital versions of the two photos from Flieger Revue X, I've been using a number of techniques to enhance resolution and improve lighting, balance and contrast to extract as much information as possible. Since the base images are not too great, there's only so much you can do, but it still is possible to get more information from these photos that way than you'd expect when you first see them. Another thing that helps is that the aircraft was designed for maximal simplicity in design and construction. As an example, the shape of the lower fairing actually just is a higher harmonic of the outline of the fuselage.

 

Filling in things like the cockpit, skid well, interior of airbrake, etc. require educated guess work, but there still are a number of reasonable assumptions that can be made to reconstruct these areas in a plausible way. Considering the cockpit, the best template is probably the He 162, considering that both aircraft were intended to be very simple and cheap to build, maintain and replace, and the fact that Junkers was one of the major producers for the He 162. Given that the machines were constructed for the Soviets, and were tested in the Soviet Union, it stands to reason they would have used Soviet R/T equipment (likely RSI-3/4). Inspiration for the interior of the skid, airbrake, skid well, etc. can be gotten from aircraft with similar arrangements from the period (for the airbrake internal support, I'm loosely inspired by the MiG-15 airbrakes, whereas for the skid, I've been looking at images of the Bisnovat 5).

 

So, in summary: because information on the machines that were built is so sketchy, it won't be possible to build a totally accurate model. However, there is enough to get a pretty decent representation of the overall aircraft, and the areas that need to be reconstructed can be filled in with reasoned guess work. However, the kit will require significant modifications to get there. Whether you care about this or not, is of course totally up to the builder, and his/her passion for the aircraft!

 

Edited by pvanroy
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1 hour ago, pvanroy said:

So, in summary: because information on the machines that were built is so sketchy, it won't be possible to build a totally accurate model. However, there is enough to get a pretty decent representation of the overall aircraft, and the areas that need to be reconstructed can be filled in with reasoned guess work.

 

WOW! It's plain to see that you did your homework on this and I hope this information gets read by others. One can easily imagine that somewhere in Russia there's a long forgotten box with all the documents and photos related to their work building their aircraft. It would be amazing if you did a WIP or at least a RFI with your extensive research. BRAVO and THANK YOU!

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I've almost bought that kit a few times.  Reviews are positive, but it JUUUUUST crosses the line for my personal build interest.  I love Luft 46 stuff, Huckebeins, Tribfluegels, etc., but confine my builds to stuff that actually flew.  Up until this thread, I thought that this existed only on paper.  

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