WOW438 Junkers Ju 188

Description

Well we have made plenty of Junkers 88’s and a Junkers 388 so we thought it was about time we made the very attractive Junkers 188!

The Junkers Ju 188 was a Luftwaffe high-performance medium bomber built during WW2, the planned follow-up to the Ju.88 with better performance and payload. It was produced in limited numbers of approximately 1200 machines, due both to the presence of improved versions of the Ju 88, as well as the increasingly effective Allied strategic bombing campaign against German industry and the resulting focus on fighter production. 

By 1942, it was becoming clear that Junkers’ candidate for the important Bomber B program, the Ju 288, was not going to be ready anytime soon and that the Ju 88 was increasingly at the mercy of rapidly improving RAF and US fighters. The RLM finally decided that even the small gains in performance in the Ju 88B were worth considering and asked Junkers for an improved aircraft as the Ju 188.The first three production Ju 188 E-1 machines were delivered with BMW engines in February 1943, followed by another seven in March and eight in April. A conversion testing unit was formed up in May and after testing were attached to an operational unit, with the first mission, an attack by three Ju 188E-1s on a factory in Lincoln, taking place on 18 August 1943. By the end of the year, 283 Ju 188s had been delivered (including Ju 188Fs) and two new factories were added to the production effort.

Our 1/32 scale hand carved Mahogany model is available as a limited edition of 3 models.

Löwengeschwader’ (Lions Wing) was formed in 1939 and had a wide and varied operations during WW2.  Serving in theatres from Poland, through the Battle of Britain, the Med and the North Sea.   On 20 February 1945 they flew their last combat mission. In May 1945 it began to rescue encircled German soldiers from the m Courland Pocket as the Soviets closed in. The Gruppe’s last operation, on 9 May 1945, was approved by the Western Allies. They surrendered to Allied forces at Gardermoen and Trondhiem, Norway on 9 May 1945.

The JU188 is in the final markings under German ‘ownership’, the aircraft was captured by the British at the end of the war at Lubeck. The aircraft spent some time at Duxford, along the way it did received RAF Roundels.  It was proposed to be used by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm station at Gosport for torpedo dropping trials, but this did not take place and the aircraft was scrapped in November 1947.

This model comes loaded down with 2 torpedoes and a very nicely detailed interior. The figures and other accessories in the photos are shown for scale comparison purposes only and are not included.