The first step is to get reference material together for some light reading. There is very little available in the 188. Most notable are the books from AJ Press, Ju-188/388 Parts 1 and 2. Regretfully, they are written in Polish, but the pictures are fantastic! The Squadron/Signal Ju-88 in Action part 2 was also used.

Now that the reading is done, let’s crack the box and see what we are up against. While I did not count sprues or parts, the blurb on the box top indicates that there are 204 parts present. The box was indeed full! As this kit was to be built 'out of the box', no changes were going to be made. The only additions were the bombs and antenna wire, but more on that later.

Construction started with the cockpit. Straight from the box it looks a little sparse, especially the pilot's left console. It was all painted a medium gray, with details picked out in white (throttles), red, brown and black (radio console and instrument panels). There are no seatbelts supplied with this kit, and with hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had added them. While the color choice for the cockpit is a little light, it is easier to see the details. The cockpit was set aside and work progressed. The fuselage is split in two, front and rear. At this point, I glued the front and rear sections together. It makes for a much nicer joint than by following the instructions and gluing a front completed section to a rear completed section. Next up were the wings. Each wing is made up of a top and bottom main section and a top and bottom wing tip. It was at this point that holes have to be drilled in the bottom wing for the bomb racks. Supports for the landing gear must also be installed before the wings are committed to glue. The wing tips were a very poor fit. This was the ugliest part of the entire kit, in that the fit really sucked! This is by no means a shake and bake Tami-gawa kit. After much fitting, and hair pulling, parts were committed to glue. Much sanding and more hair pulling were next. After some re-scribing, they turned out ok. The ailerons were next. Ohmigosh! They did not fit! After more fussing and fiddling I got them to work. They seemed a little long and they were mildly warped.

At this point the cockpit was installed, after dry-fitting of course. The Ju-88 series has a series of plugs and inserts for the fuselage, that while instructions call for their installation much later, it is way easier to do it now, before the fuselage is glued together. These inserts are for the antenna along the spine and two inserts on the lower left side. Now, that is done, the left side was offered up to the right side, and, the fit was not bad. Liquid glue was run in the joints, and it was set aside to dry. It was here that the propellers were assembled. Each consists of nine pieces, and when done and dry both were painted RLM 70 Black Green. The nacelles were next. The fit was good, and when these assemblies were offered to their respective wings, I was surprised, as the fit was actually not bad. After a little bit of filling, the wings and fuselage were sanded and a little bit of re-scribing was done. So far things have gone well, but there was a long way to go. There is an insert for the belly, between the wings. On this kit, the insert fit quite well. Now the wings were joined to the fuselage. Again the fit was ok, but there was a sharp and distinct joint. A reference check shows that this wing root joint is correct. The tail feathers were added next and once again the fit was actually quite good. This big box of bits and pieces is starting to look like a Ju-188.

Next is the canopy. These parts are 'very' thin, and also very clear. The canopy is molded in two parts. After some dry fitting, the parts are glued together and when dry masking began. A liquid mask was used and after spending one cross-eyed afternoon, it was done. The canopy fit perfectly, although some spreaders were used inside the cockpit until the glue had dried. After an inspection, we are ready to start painting. The entire underside was painted RLM 65 Bright Blue. After it dried the belly was masked and the canopy was sprayed dark gray, after which the entire upper surfaces were painted RLM 71 Dark Green. After a couple of days this was masked in a splinter pattern. After an afternoon of taping and cutting the remaining area was sprayed RLM 70. All the masking was removed, and it didn't look too bad. In between coats of paint the landing gear was assembled and painted RLM 02 Grey-Green, as were four SC 500 kg bombs. The wheels as included in the kit appear to be on the thin side, however they were used, and after filing the bottom flat were painted. The kit was then gloss-coated and then decals were put on. A combination of Aeromaster and Third Group decals were used. With a little bit of coaxing they snuggled down nicely. The kit was then dull-coated and canopy masking was removed. All the fiddly pieces were then looked after, landing gear, bombs, landing light, and a couple of windows. After all was dry, the antenna was done using invisible thread fixed with CA glue. The props were attached and it was done. Model Master enamel paints were used throughout. The decals by Third Group and Aeromaster were very well done.

While much has been said about the difficulties with Dragon kits, this one was not that bad. The worst area being the wing tips and a few mismatched panel lines. I did not check the dimensions for accuracy but the completed kit definitely looks like a Ju-188E. This project took several months to complete, mostly through an hour here and an hour there. While the high parts count suggests a complicated and difficult build, it really is not. I had a great time doing this kit. If you like German twins, and can actually find it I highly recommend this kit.