Stuka Jon N

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Scale builders I am planning on building a JU-52 This is the Junkers Cargo Plane. I would like to simulate the corrigated metal this aircraft was built from. Any ideas or suggestions
Stuka John N

R101

If you want to simulate corrugations then here is a picture of my Ju52 on which I used tissue printed on the inkjet. Lokks OK from a distance.

mking1

On small areas, such as control surfaces, I’ve used strips of balsa glued to sheeting to simulate the corrugated metal. That sure would be a daunting task on the JU. I’ve also looked into using the plastic sheeting material that simulates corrugated siding or roofing used in model buildings but it didn’t fit the scale I was working in. I have seen a JU52 with all corrugated surfaces fabricated out of fiberglass. I think it was purchased from some outfit in Germany. If interested I’ll see if I can locate the supplier.

Miles.

fockewulf37

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John ,
Are you building from plans? What size is it going to be. What engines? I just finished my 3 engine plane and it flies great.


Ty

Ozelot

I saw a Ju 52 a few years ago where the builder had used ordinary cardboard. It was the kind of cardboard used for boxes etc, I.E a layer of corrugated cardboard sandwiched between two layers of flat cardboard. He sprayed water on one side and let it soak for a while. Then he carefully peeled away the soaked flat layer. The remainder was then contact-glued to the plane and when painted it looked absolutely stunning. If I understood things right he had done a lot of experimenting before he found the correct type of cardboard...

Jens

DAS 20V

I would suggest you find your corrugation material that you plan to use (whatever it might be) and build around its scale rather than the other way around. Corrugation is made by running a material between the mesh of two gears. The cardboard corrugation variety can be purchased cheap through a cardboard making Co. such as Weyerhauser or found in a craft store or box and packing supply stores.

Stuka Jon N

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Landrel Have not decided on the size yet. I have the plans that were in RCM mag. a few years back. I can scratch it to what ever size I chose. This set of plans is 84" w/s I thought of a 25% enlargement which would give me a w/s of approx. 105". Would love the scale exterior.Will keep investgating John N

BobH

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You might check out the building supplies dept. of a good Model Rail Road hobby shop. Corrugated metal is often used for building roofs and sides and its shold by the sheet. BobH

Steve Collins

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The JU-52 from Fiber-Classics has the corrugation already molded in on their composite surfaces. One of their JU-52s was at Toledo this year.

The PIPE

Dear John N:

The PIPE Here...and I've got a set of CAD-drawn plans nearing completion of the WORLD WAR I low winged "wrinkled wonder" JUNKERS D I in Giant Scale!

John, sometime soon I'll scan and send you BOTH a British article on doing up corrugations using LITHO PLATE sheet aluminum (the stuff printing shops use and then usually DISCARD) when they do up printing jobs in their firms that came from one of the "RCM & E" Scale Special Annuals" that I have from the early 1980s (these old mags are a GOLD MINE of ideas ), AND, a similar article that appeared in one of Leo Opdycke's WORLD WAR I AERO "Scale Specials" from the same period on using litho plate for the corrugated aluminum covering!

I've also got an OLD set of Björn Karlstrom scale drawings of the Ju 52/3m in civilian trim that DOES show where all the corrugated panels go...and the "Tante Ju" (German "pet name" for the Ju 52/3m) uses THREE different "pitches" (like the "pitch" of a screw thread) of corrugations in its skinning!

The Junkers D I uses only ONE size of corrugation (30mm in full scale) all over itself, and I'm rather "convinced" that with all the research I've done on it for MANY years, that my still-to-be-finished planset for the Junkers D I (as the Junkers company ITSELF built it...NOT the "Junkers/Fokker" combined corporate "construct" that Kaiser Wilhelm tried to create in WW I) may be the MOST ACCURATE, for scale outline and STRUCTURE, ever attempted for an RC model of one...I've even got ALL the details for the joystick and rudder bar in VERY rich detail on those drawings! The no-longer-available Windsock Datafile #33 on the Junkers D I is what I've mostly based my plans on...almost entirely on the PHOTOS in that book, NOT the scale drawings (they've got some inaccuracies )...and if you'd like I'd be very glad to "scare up" those two litho plate corrugating articles, JPEG them, and send them to you for your needs...along with the Karlstrom drawings on the Ju 52/3m itself. (Possibly even an X-RAY view of the Ju 52 could come your way as well...I'll be looking!)

Also, be SURE to head for http://www.junkers.de.vu/ for a TON of info about ALL the aircraft built by "the first innovator on aircraft structure technology"-the German professor who William Stout and Andrei Tupolev looked to for THEIR early all metal aircraft design technology...HUGO JUNKERS himself! (He was sort of the Burt Rutan of early era aircraft materials and construction technology-NO KIDDING!)

Hope to hear from you by Email VERY soon!

Yours Sincerely,

The PIPE!

Uncle Heinkel

I've been working on a 1/10th scale Ju-52. Built from enlarged Graupner electric plans and beefed up for glow engines. 120" wingspan, approx. 30 lb for 3 Saito 91's.

I did the corrugation with plastic strips glued in place. I don't recommend doing it that way unless you are very patient. Took a long time but looks realistic to me.

Just need to finish the canopy and then paint.

DAS 20V

Perhaps you could lay up corrugated patterns and vacu-form thin sheets of plastic over the pattern and then trim them to size and shape as you go?

Stuka Jon N

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Uncle Heinkel What kind of plastic strips did you use on your JU-52 Looks pertty good. Where did you get them John N

lslewis

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Uncle Heinkel - I think your plane looks super good! John N. a.k.a. Stuka Jon could do so well.

Uncle Heinkel

Thanks guys! I used Plastruct strips, 3 different sizes and also some corrugated sheet for the control surfaces. It's not exact scale but then the plans aren't either. I spent a small fortune on the strips.....John, I definitely don't recommend doing it this way.

The corrugation is done. It was a labor of love, a long process, strips glued end to end. I just have a few more pieces of the greenhouse canopy to finish and then a few odds and ends and it's time for paint.

The door will open in flight and paratroopers will literally be flung out.

I had a specific paint scheme in mind but I just saw that someone has done it already on another forum. I might go with my original plan which was the Ju-52 from the movie,"Where Eagles Dare", a winter camouflage scheme.

It's a great flying airplane......John, keep us posted on your progress.....

H.

DocYates

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If any one is interested, I have a set of plans and professionally cut wing cores for the RCM Ju-52-3m from 1972, WS around 94 inches. I paid $50 for them. WIll sell them with the plans and original magazine (not just the article) for $75. Looks like I am never gonna get around to building it.
TOmmy

jeff edmondson

I have also been seduced by the corrugated maiden. I am working on a 1 inch scale J-9 (D.10). The corrugated covering is a common place that many builders chose to stop at for these planes.

Here is what I have learned so far...
1. There was a thin foam product available from Titanic Airlines (Ger) that captured this covering very well. It was available in 3 sizes. Today I can find none of it.

2. There are two tools available (about 15.00 ea.) that allow you to make your own corrugated material. They consist of a pair of interlocked ribbed rollers that allow you run your stock through. They both work very well. The first one is made by Uchida the "Corru-Gator"(http://www.uchida.com/what/art/paper_crafts.htm#Mega). It accommodates 9" wide stock. The second is made by Fiskars. It only allows 6" wide stock, but has a plier like handle that controls the depth that the two rollers mesh together. This allows you to feed in thicker stock and work it through to make progressively deeper passes. This would allow the use of aluminum soda can as stock. Somewhere on the web is a site that describes using this tool to make sheds for train layouts. These tools are part of the huge scrap booking hobby.

3. Good old corrugated "card board" is not so old, and is a great source of covering too. The spacing of the "flutes" (packaging industry term for corrugated products) that comes from the above mentioned tools is very similar to typical cardboard boxes. The industry has a wide variety (many are new) of flute sizes available. They are identified by a letter. "B" and "C" are the most common and the largest. The industry make them up to "F" or "N" sizes too. These are very small. In addition to the flute size, the thickness of the outer layers and the inner webbing can be varied for a huge number of combinations. Then there are also coatings (like inside your pizza boxes) that protect or allow high quality graphics to be printed onto.

For my 1"=1'-0" sized planes the output of the two rollers is too big. Hey "Pipe" when you say the size is 30mm, what dimension is that? Is it the thickness from the top of a peak to the bottom of a trough? Is it the distance from peak to adjacent peak. Or...?

I have searched for, and bought several sheets of the smaller flute sized material. The various craft and scrap book stores have corrugated material with these so called "mini-flutes" (in the "E" and "F" sizes). Note these places sell stock that only has one flat side- the ribs are exposed. I am trying ways to reduce the weight of this material by peeling off layers. Some sheets are made of card stock, some are paper, some are combinations. It is a learning phase right now.

If you are working in a large scale... there are 48" wide rolls of the "B" flute material, in several basic colors, with ribs exposed on one side, that are quite cheap.

jeff edmondson

Regarding the plastic sheets...

Evergreen makes "metal siding" which is not shaped like the duralumin on the Junkers. It is angular, like half of a hexagon. They do not make sheets in the desired corrugated shape- which is basically a sine wave. Plastruct makes three sizes of "corrugated" shape sheet. The largest size has flat bottoms in the troughs. The smallest size looks squashed as the peaks are not that far off of the troughs- looks more like a scribed sheet than formed.

This just in...

I have found, at a very good Model Railroad shop, wood sheets with beautiful and correct sine wave shape. One face is flat, the other with the ribs. The wood is a spruce, I think. They start with about 1/8" thick stock and mill one face. There are three different sizes: 1/8, 3/32, and 1/16, this is the distance from one peak over to the next. The sheets are all 3"x11", and come two per pack. They are about $3.50 here. They are made by Northeastern Scale Models Inc. (P.O. Box 727 , Methuen, MA 01844 1-800 343-2094). It would be great if they loaded up their machine with some balsa stock, and cut some sheets.

Again in the larger scales- you could just cover the whole ship with this wood.

jeff edmondson

The address and ph.# I gave came off the package. After a little web journey I have found this.

There are two divisions of the N.E. Model group. The one on the west coast does laser cut wood kits for the Train and Doll house hobbies see... http://www.nesm.com/

The one in 'Bahstin' Mass, has all of the wood stock see...http://www.northeasternscalelumber.com/index.htm

This page has the corrugated products (scroll down to near the bottom-rhs) http://www.northeasternscalelumber.c...iniatures.html Note there is even one more smaller size than the 1/16" I noted before. And the sizes they are quoting are 24" long sheets.

After reading their pages, I would say that the wood used is not Spruce, but is Bass. It is a very high grade of stock. Bass is not much more heavy than hard balsa. Any how I'll email them to see what it would take to mill some balsa stock.