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In
1939, the Swiss government purchased three Ju 52/3m from
Germany
to be used with the Swiss Air Force. The planes arrived in
Switzerland
in October 1939 and were based at Duebendorf airfield in the north of
Zurich
.
They were assigned the Swiss Air Force serial numbers A-701, A-702 and A-703 as
well as the civil registrations HB-HOS, HB-HOT and HB-HOP.
These
Swiss Ju 52/3m’s were used as cargo planes and flying classrooms for
navigators. In the very harsh winter of 1950/ 51 they delivered food, fodder and
fuel to villages in the Swiss Alps cut off by avalanches. Another memorable
mission was the transport of jet engines for license-built Vampires from the
UK
to
Switzerland
in 1951.
One
of the trio (A-702) starred in several war movies, the most popular probably
being “Where Eagles Dare” produced in 1969 featuring Clint Eastwood and
Richard Burton among other well known actors. For this movie, it was painted in
a green-grey camouflage scheme including a full set of German insignia (coded
CN+4V). After the movie shots had been completed, the aircraft was stripped of
the German markings but retained the camouflage scheme – now with Swiss
insignia – until the end of its military career.
In
the 1970s, the A-701 was flown in a light grey paint job, the A-702 retained the
above mentioned camouflage whereas the A-703 was operated in natural aluminium.
After remaining in Swiss Air Force service for more than 40 years, they were
eventually withdrawn from active duty in 1981.
In
1982, a group of aircraft enthusiasts purchased them and founded the
“Ju-Air” line. Since 1983, this privately ventured organization has offered
sightseeing flights over
Switzerland
and neighbouring
Europe
from their home base at Duebendorf.
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Click on
images below to see larger images
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Having
seen one of these birds at an air show at Duebendorf airbase in 2000, I had to
build one of them. There has recently been a very nice release of a Ju 52/3m in
1/48th scale by Revell of Germany. As 1/ 48th scale is too
large for my liking, I had the choice of three kits which are currently offered
in 1/72nd scale:
One
is by Airfix (first released in 1965), one by Heller (no clue when this kit was
released) and one by Italeri (appeared in the mid 1970s in several versions). In
my opinion, the Italeri offering is the best kit on the block, sporting some
decent details and being of quite accurate fit. Italeri item #150 comes as a
civil Ju52/3m with decals for two Lufthansa planes (D-AQUI of the Lufthansa
historical flight in 1986 and D-ABIK in the mid 1930s), a Scandinavian Airlines
System plane (LN-KAF) and two Swiss aircraft (A-701/ HB-HOS in 1985 and A-702 in
1978).
I
assembled the kit basically straight out of the box. As the kit could not deny
its age, there was some need for filling and sanding on several occasions. I
chose to build the Swiss A-701/ HB-HOS as it appeared in 1985 which could be
done without any modifications to the kit. The quality of the kit decals is in
order but only the most necessary ones are included. Applying the decals,
however, was a pain due to the corrugated sheet structure of the Ju 52/3m. It
required a great many of Micro Set/ Micro Sol setting solutions as well as a lot
of patience (do not start to apply a decal around 2200hs and expect to be in bed
before 0100hs …). After all, I enjoyed assembling this kit!
Building
the Swiss A-702 as it appeared in 1978 would have required some slight
modifications such as adding two tear-shaped antennas onto the rear fuselage and
building the interior as cargo bay rather than as passenger cabin. Fortunately,
most required parts but the two antennas are included in the kit. However, the
assembly instructions do not mention this difference in the Swiss planes.
Happy
modelling!
Dominik
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