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

[Woody V]

14 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

That guy did a nice job.  Woody, this might be the ticket for you after wrestling with that 190?

 

I ordered one, so....... 

[pvanroy]

On 1/28/2022 at 8:46 PM, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

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!

 

Well, I suppose I could write it up if anyone is interested. However, I think most people buy this kit with the intention of doing a relaxing what-if build, free from the constraints of total accuracy, so I think there wouldn't be too much interest. The technical  execution of the model is very good - the moldings are very high quality, the fit is excellent and the instructions are great. So, if you're not bothered by the inaccuracies, it's going to be a very easy and relaxing build.

 

It's also going to be quite a while before I finish - if you do want an accurate model, there is a huge amount to fix and correct, involving both scratch-building and 3D work. I've already done quite a bit, but I still don't think I'm halfway, and I haven't had time to get back to it over the past month due to more pressing commitments, so it's not going to be finished anytime soon!

Edited January 31, 2022 by pvanroy

[pvanroy]

On 1/28/2022 at 8:48 PM, Citadelgrad said:

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.  

 

The Luftwaffe stopped development of the EF 126 in March 1945, as they considered it to be totally impractical. The Soviets after the war also reached the same conclusion, but nevertheless ordered continuation of the project purely for research purposes, to explore the feasibility of pulsejet propulsion for manned aircraft. In total, five aircraft were built in Germany under Soviet supervision during 1946-47. The V1 and V3 were finished as gliders, the V2 was a static test airframe, and the V4 and V5 were powered. Flight tests with the gliders started in Germany, with the V1 being destroyed when returning from its second test flight due to pilot error (the test pilot was killed). The machines, together with the entire Junkers staff, were transported to the Soviet Union in 1947, where testing continued. Apparently, the machine flew really well, and it seems Junkers had managed to solve the problem of the acoustic effects of the pulsejet on the pilot and airframe. However, reliability of the pulsejets themselves was extremely poor. Because of this, and the fact that rapid advances in turbojet development had rendered the entire project irrelevant, flight testing was stopped at the end of August 1947, and the entire project was officially canceled in June the next year.

[pvanroy]

12 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Talking about Soviets, here is an idea for conversion.

 

 

Actually, there is a resin model by AMC of the Chelomey 16X in 1/32 scale, although that kit provides the later camera nose. It's quite a nice kit, but the nose is solid resin, so you need to drill out the camera window and make a suitable transparent cover. Unfortunately, photographs of the later camera nose are very thin on the ground...

[npb748r]

48 minutes ago, pvanroy said:

The Luftwaffe stopped development of the EF 126 in March 1945, as they considered it to be totally impractical. The Soviets after the war also reached the same conclusion, but nevertheless ordered continuation of the project purely for research purposes, to explore the feasibility of pulsejet propulsion for manned aircraft. In total, five aircraft were built in Germany under Soviet supervision during 1946-47. The V1 and V3 were finished as gliders, the V2 was a static test airframe, and the V4 and V5 were powered. Flight tests with the gliders started in Germany, with the V1 being destroyed when returning from its second test flight due to pilot error (the test pilot was killed). The machines, together with the entire Junkers staff, were transported to the Soviet Union in 1947, where testing continued. Apparently, the machine flew really well, and it seems Junkers had managed to solve the problem of the acoustic effects of the pulsejet on the pilot and airframe. However, reliability of the pulsejets themselves was extremely poor. Because of this, and the fact that rapid advances in turbojet development had rendered the entire project irrelevant, flight testing was stopped at the end of August 1947, and the entire project was officially canceled in June the next year.

great info, thanks for sharing - you are making today very much a learning day for me !!  You've also got my interest up in the kit and finding out more about the German and Russia projects.