Official Nexa 1630mm Junkers JU-52 Transport (Balsa ARF) Discussion Thread

[Rmawer]

Well you musta sent Murphy over here. I just glanced at those motor mounts before and was sure they were right. BUT - I got two lefties also. That means someones running around with two righties. Oh well, like you all I did was reverse the vertical piece after fighting the glue. Sigh

Well, Murphy struck. again. No nylon straps for the Landing gear attachment, both antennas are missing, and horn supplied with the tail wheel doesn’t match the instructions. In fact, it’s the typical horn you use on the vertical pushrods for ailerons. I’ve already contacted Motion about this. First Nexa Model I’ve owned. Not impressed so far.

One minor item. Cut away the film for the rudder. NOTE - the slot is MUCH longer than the actual rudder. Now I’ve got to put a wood filler to fill the gap

BTW - motion actually contacted me regarding the screwed up motor mount. They said they checked stock and I must have gotten a bad one. I’d recommend you submit a problem report so they know I’m not the only one who got a bad one.

[airotroy]

Well you musta sent Murphy over here. I just glanced at those motor mounts before and was sure they were right. BUT - I got two lefties also. That means someones running around with two righties. Oh well, like you all I did was reverse the vertical piece after fighting the glue. Sigh

[airotroy]

Well, I’ve joined the ranks of owning a Nexa JU-52. I’ve always been fascinated with this plane and when I saw Motion started selling it, it was a gotta have. Started assembling it and immediately ran into an issue. The mfr or whoever packed the kit, packed two left hand motor mounts. For the first time I was grateful for cheap glue joints as I was able to break the joints and reverse the offending vertical portion. Anyone else run into a similar issue?

Now here’s the funny part. I’d already installed the left mount before installing the right one which is where I discovered the issue. According to Murphy’s 50/90 law, if you have a 50/50 chance chance of installing the wrong part, there is 90% chance you will pick the wrong one. Fortunately Murphy was asleep when I did this !!!

Thanks to all for the previous posts as it gives me ideas of what to watch out for.

I'v yet to start on mine as I'm still waiting parts. Coming from China this may be a life long project - but I did check the motor mounts and they appear to be correct. I can screw enough up without Murphy but sorry for your issue. Keep us updated on your progress. Lots of good help here I'v found.

[Oxotnik]

Rmawer, welcome to The Squawk and, more importantly, to the group of enlightened Tante Ju owners. :-)

[Rmawer]

Well, I’ve joined the ranks of owning a Nexa JU-52. I’ve always been fascinated with this plane and when I saw Motion started selling it, it was a gotta have. Started assembling it and immediately ran into an issue. The mfr or whoever packed the kit, packed two left hand motor mounts. For the first time I was grateful for cheap glue joints as I was able to break the joints and reverse the offending vertical portion. Anyone else run into a similar issue?

Now here’s the funny part. I’d already installed the left mount before installing the right one which is where I discovered the issue. According to Murphy’s 50/90 law, if you have a 50/50 chance chance of installing the wrong part, there is 90% chance you will pick the wrong one. Fortunately Murphy was asleep when I did this !!!

Thanks to all for the previous posts as it gives me ideas of what to watch out for.

[Oxotnik]

I grabbed three 40A ESCs for the 64mm Freewing Stinger. I'm going to be running my RX power bus directly from a 2S LiPo battery; so, I've disconnected the Red Wire from all three ESCs.
https://www.motionrc.com/products/fr...-64-hp-40a-esc
I've mounted all three ESCs in the battery compartment and have made up 3-phase motor-wire extensions, to run from the fuselage to the outboard motors. I mounted the ESCs on the sides of the battery bay (2 on one side, the third on the other side). Also, I soldered up a 3-ESC-to-one-battery harness. My servos are high-voltage, and can handle 8.4vdc; so, I’m connecting 2S LiPo directly to the RX. HV Servos and a dedicated 2S RX battery are a bit of overkill for the Ju, but I’ve gotten in the habit of doing that for my larger, more complex, and expensive planes (such as my Black Horse Do-335 and Phoenix A-26), and decided to stay with that architecture/philosophy for the Tante Ju.



I've been out of town all week, and just got home a couple of hours ago. I was expecting to see the replacement landing struts (which were missing from my box), but they weren't. Contacted VQ, and my struts had fallen through the cracks. They're in the mail now, but I, obviously, won't be flying my Ju this weekend. :-/

But, on a happier note, my replacement 91" Phoenix A-26 was sitting on my front porch (must've been delivered last night, after my friend had done a pups and mail check for me). So, I'll start working on getting an A-26 back in the air. :-)

[OV10]

Thanks. Have the HK prop drive 28-36 1000's on order along with the Prop Drive 28 Series Accessory Pack that was also recommended. Charley also recommended the Master Air Screw 9x7 3blade props. What ESC's would you guys recommend for this setup and being new to multi motor setups how do you wire the 3 esc's in parallel so one 4S battery can be used ? Thanks in advance.

airotroy As Chuck and Tony have both said, welcome to the Squawk family.
Regarding ESC recommendations, I didn't have the size written down in my manual which is highly out of sorts for me but I seem to remember that I was using some Detrum(Dynam) 30A ones.
If I were to make a recommendation four plus years later I would go with something like the 30A FlightLine ones being used on the B-24/OV-10.

https://www.motionrc.com/products/flightline-2000mm-b-24-30a-esc-outboard

https://www.motionrc.com/products/flightline-30a-esc

Now these ESC's are OPTO which require a separate UBEC wired into the power source which is ALWAYS a good practice on more than one motor systems.
Regarding parallel wiring for the ESC's it is pretty much a straight forward matter of connecting all three of the red (+ positive) leads together into a battery connector and the same for the black (- negative) leads.
You could make a single plug adapter with the UBEC as part of the setup by using the B-24's power connector as an example whereas instead of two motors you would make it for 3.
Happy soldering

[airotroy]

Thanks. Have the HK prop drive 28-36 1000's on order along with the Prop Drive 28 Series Accessory Pack that was also recommended. Charley also recommended the Master Air Screw 9x7 3blade props. What ESC's would you guys recommend for this setup and being new to multi motor setups how do you wire the 3 esc's in parallel so one 4S battery can be used ? Thanks in advance.

[Twowingtj]

airotroy Welcome to Hobby Squawk.

My wife is also using the HK NTM 2836-1000kv motors that OV10 and Oxotnik are using. And at around $19 each, reasonably priced.

[Oxotnik]

airotroy, Welcome to The Squawk, and the Ju-52 thread.

I've installed the HK NTM 2836-1000 motors that Charlie recommended and plan to fly them on 4S. As has been said in previous posts, the cowlings are pretty big (diametrically speaking) and could take fatter motors. You probably don't want to go much longer than 28mm though, unless you totally throw out the fake plastic motor.

[airotroy]

New to squawk. Always enjoyed the JU52's history and look so I'm now the proud owner of the Motion Nexa. Doesnt seem to be any recommended motors available until June. The Flightlines they recommend are probably renamed Turnigy ?? Amazon carries these but are out as well. So I guess I wait. Everything came well packed and no damage that I can see. Looking forward to the build and learning what I can from this group.

[Oxotnik]

TwoWingTony and I have been PM'ing about pilot figures for the Ju-52. I'd been grimmacing that the Ju-52 didn't have a pilot or co-pilot. THen, I'd remembered that I'd picked up a BoB Bf-109 pilot figure several years ago and had it sitting on bookshelf, that would probably be the right size for the Ju-52. And, it is. 1/18 scale, just like the Ju-52. Perfect size. These are Ultimate Soldier figures (1/18 scale) and can be found on eBay. Prices are all over the map though.

BoB Bf-109 pilot. The life vest is wrong for the Ju-52, but i'd probably be the only person at my field who noticed. LOL. I guess if I got called out, I could claim that the Ju-52 was flying across the Med to Afrika.


Stuka Tail Gunner. Repaint his jacket to be black leather, and I think he'll look great as a Ju-52 pilot or co-pilot.


This one is a Panzer Officer. If I chopped him off at the waist, I would probably the only person who noticed that he wasn't Luftwaffe. I kinda like the officer's hat and headset. I'm thinking that this one will be the left seater.

[Twowingtj]

Oxotnik we are lucky indeed.

[Oxotnik]

Tower Hobbies has the Phoenix 91" A-26 back in stock. My wfie gave me permission to get a replacement, for the one that I trashed several months ago. She wasn't real happy when I got the first one (and she has no idea that that $400 ARF is really a $1200 airplance, LOL), but she felt sorry for me, when I trashed it. My wife supports my hobby, as long as it doesn't get in the way of doing/buying the things that we want and need to do. Supportive spouses are a definite plus. We're lucky to have them!!!

[Twowingtj]

She is Chuck. To her, it's better than flowers.

[Oxotnik]

Tony, like Charlie has said, the elevator and rudder servos on my VQ Splinter Camo are mounted under the H Stab. Photos showing the servos mounted inside the fuselage are out of date.

Sounds like your wife is really excited to have her Ju-52.

[Twowingtj]

OV10 Thanks Charlie. All I had for comparison was the pics on the VQ Warbirds' website.

[OV10]

Twowingtj Tony...…..there has been no changes from the VQ to Nexa control surface servo placements.
Mine had both the ELE and RUD servos in the tail and it is also shown at step 18 in the manual which I'll wager your manual is exactly the same as what I have that is 5 years old.
Venture to say that the pics on the VQ website you mention are way past due for updating.
As a matter of pic reference the first one shown on this thread and the product page show the fuselage profile without any servos in the tail which would lead one to
believe that the servos are in the normal central fuse location.
Its is still just a VQ bird with a different brand labeling and if I'm wrong I'll acknowledge to all and especially Alpha my verbal misstep.

To your strut question, you are correct. If you want to remove wing you have no other choice but to disconnect the oleo from the wing.
It really is a simple matter of removing a 3mm collar where the configuration of the gear assemble is shown on step 15 in the manual.

[Twowingtj]

Oxotnik Another possible change from the VQ version. In the pics on VQ, it looks like the rudder servo is mounted inside the fuse near the middle and uses push rods to both the rudder and tail wheel. On the Nexa, the rudder servo is in the tail, across from the elevator servo. A pushrod goes to the rudder and the tail wheel has a tiller arm that is attached to the bottom of the rudder. Also glad that VQ got your gear parts for you.

A question to those that have had the Ju: it looks like the oleo strut attaches to the bottom of each wing with a connector and wheel collar. I'm assuming, if you have to remove the wings for transport, that you have to connect and disconnect the oleo each time? Doesn't seem like there's any other choice.

Rmawer Welcome to Hobby Squawk!

[Rmawer]

Rmawer Welcome to the Squawk. As mentioned earlier to Oxotnik back on post #8, I used Hobby King NTM Prop Drive 28-36 1000kV motors.
You should not have an issue using those 3536 motors because the cowls are approx. 3 inch diameter.

Thanks for the response. Mine is due to arrive on the 28th