Junkers Ju 188 Rächer 1/72 Scale Model

German Ju 188E-1 -This is a model of a fast, medium bomber that flew missions over Britain in early 1944. By 1942 Germany needed a better plane than the Ju 88A if its bomber pilots were going to have a decent chance against the new Allied fighters. The Luftwaffe's plans for a second generation of bombers, however, failed to produce one. As a stop-gap measure, Junkers upgraded their Ju 88B, a prototype they had developed along with the Ju 88A. Although similar to the Ju 88A, the Ju 188 was different in many ways, including a bigger tail, pointy wings, and a large, egg-shaped glass cockpit area with a dorsal machine gun turret. The Ju 188 was also designed to be fitted with various engines. As a result, the Ju 188A used Jumo 213 inline engines, while the Ju 188E used BMW 801 radial engines. There were production problems with the Jumo engines, however, so most Ju 188s were fitted with the BMW engines, making the Ju 188E the most numerous variant. The Ju 188 entered service in late 1943 but only about 1,000 were built because the plane's performance wasn't much better than the Ju 88S, and building fighter planes became the priority in 1944.

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