COBI Junkers Ju 88 Set 5733

COBI's Junkers Ju 88 is a 1:32 model built from 1,160 blocks, 45 cm long with a 61 cm wingspan. The propellers, ailerons and bomb bay doors move, the bombs detach, the wheels retract, and a pilot figure sits in the cockpit. New brick shapes were made for the glazed nose. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

Fast, until they loaded it

The Ju 88 was designed as a Schnellbomber — a fast bomber, built on the theory that if an aircraft is quick enough it does not need defensive guns, because fighters cannot catch it. The 1936 prototype hit over 500 km/h, which at the time was faster than most fighters.

Then the requirements changed. The Luftwaffe wanted it to dive-bomb, so it got dive brakes and a strengthened airframe. It wanted defensive armament, so guns and gunners went in, and a crew of two became four. It wanted more bombs, so external racks were fitted.

Each addition was reasonable and the cumulative effect was to remove the speed that had been the whole concept. By 1940 the Ju 88 was slower than the Spitfires and Hurricanes hunting it, and it needed the guns it had originally been designed to do without.

It was nonetheless one of the most useful aircraft of the war precisely because it had been over-engineered: level bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, heavy fighter. Almost 15,000 were built.

In the COBI range

The de Havilland Mosquito is its British counterpart — the same idea, executed with wood and without the compromises.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,160 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:32 · No stickers
Model dimensions: 45 × 61 × 15 cm (17.7 × 24.0 × 5.9 in)