The Parts

AMtech has included three new sprues of parts for this interesting aircraft. The new parts are molded in a dark grey (similiar to the unspatted landing gear on the Hs-123 kit) and are of great quality with fine detail. The new parts include rear fuselage halves, fuel tank, cockpit, H-4 radar, support wheel, mistel brackets, drop tank assemblies and an H-3 warhead (for use if modeling the H-3 variant). The remaining parts are from the AMtech S-3/T-3 and AMT kits. The older parts have good surface detail with finely engraved panel lines. The cockpit seats are too thick for scale and have molded on harnesses. There are some sink marks throughout the kit that will need to be fixed. Of note are the ones inside the cockpit and on the underside of the rear fuselage where the alignment pins are located.

A preliminary dry-fit of the new fuselage parts was conducted with good results-much better than the previous fuselage components. The conversion into the H-3/H-4 creates a number of new joints on the fuselage that the modeler will have to pay special attention to during the construction process.

Instructions and Decals

I've been a fan of the way AMtech does their instruction booklets ever since I built their Hs-123. You can see from the pictures that they present an actual picture of the kit parts being assembled or after assembly to give the modeler a better view of the construction. I like this technique and AMtech has done another superb job on these instructions. The instruction booklet is ten pages in length starting with a description of the aircraft on the front page, followed by construction steps and then finished off with three pages of aircraft color and decal schemes.

The Decals for this kit are printed by Microscale and are of superb quality. The swastika is a two-part decal like other AMtech kits but don't let that worry you. The same procedure was used on the Hs-123 kit and the decals line up perfectly. Decals are provided for four markings. My experience with decals provided in AMtech kits has been very, very good.

Since there are no known photographs of the H-3 or H-4, the color schemes provided in the instructions are nothing more than guidelines. Without the physical proof of photographs, the modeler can be quite liberal with the paint scheme they want to apply as well as weathering. This should make for some interesting Ju-88's at the local contests. The instructions provide guidelines for two H-4 aircraft and one H-3.

Recommendation

I have to recommend this kit. The new sprues of parts go a long way in enhancing the kit and providing the modeler an interesting aircraft to build. Even though the kit doesn't come with a mistel fighter to pearch on top of the mounting brackets, the Ju-88 H-3/H-4 will make for a very interesting addition to your collection. Comebine the kit with one of the excellent 1/72 Fw 190 kits available and you will have an interesting combination indeed.

Review sample generously provided by AMtech.