Ju 87 Stuka GB

Nice fabricating Mike. I like your attention to details.

Thanks, Nathan! Well, final assembly is underway. I painted the vision "chute" under the cockpit 65 as it'll be nigh impossible to mask the clear window later. The wing is installed and drying overnight, using the tape tensioning method to pinch the root joints tight. Tail surfaces are underway, there's a lick of filler needed around the end caps, then they can mount, using the braces to fix the angle, then the braces will come off and be reinstalled after painting to ease masking.

At this pace, I'm hoping to be painting in a few days.

M/TB379

That coming along really nicely Mike, great work.

Teddz: Your Stuka looks really good! I nice, clean build!

Mike: You're making really fast progress! And it's looking most excellent too! I love the cockpit work and that scratchbuilt landing light!

Zvezda: Looking good there! Nice idea with the 2-tone pre-shading!

Scott: Now that's one big a** Stuka you got there! Looking very nice!

Tom: It's great to see someone else using that Aires cockpit! My set has been lying in my AM stash for quite a while now, but didn't have proper saws to cut all those casting blocks off the parts.

Well, I got all the tools i need today so I'm good to go! Should be able to start cutting resin this Saturday!

Scott, I think I see that panel you are referring to. Don't let it keep you up fussing, mate!

Mike, I really like that landing light and thanks for the IP pics how you did it.

Thanks Bish, Clemens and Greg! Okay, progress since last night -- I filed the mating surfaces and mounted the tailplanes. Here she is with them in place and the wing tape removed, but the brace struts are not glued in, they just helped set the angle:

Then I mounted the prop back plate to the engine -- I'm not a fan of the engineering here, it's wobbly and imprecise and obliges you to fit the prop before overall painting, never a good arrangement. As it happens, the lock part that fixes the prop stub inside the cowling fused solid to the interior so the prop won't turn anyway. In the next shot the landing gear has been filed and press-fitted. The tailgear has been masked and painted, but is not yet installed:

My next challenge is the fitting of the engine; the upper and lower parts on the fuselage are a close, tight fit, but the sidewalls in between have about a .010" gap. I could fill it with strip styrene, the question is, should I bother, or live with the gap?

Also done today, the exhaust bays were masked, and the exhausts themselves undercoated in tire black, which will be a good base for the rusty steel effect later.

Target for tomorrow -- finish improving the propeller blades, install the flap actuators under the wing, assemble the bombs -- possibly get to the canopy and/or spray the spinner cone RLM 24.

Cheers, M/TB379

Nice to see her on her legs Mike.

Thunderbolt379

I'm not a fan of the engineering here, it's wobbly and imprecise

Man do you ever have that right Mike! I spent a LOOOONG time on the engine cowling area lining all the parts up and sanding away some ridiculous seam lines caused by all the imperfections.

 Great progress on this thing! She's looking good

Mike you are quick!

Very nice built. I think you might live with the gap, since the cowling is all yellow. I also like your landing light.

I just messed up mine and will have to fix it somehow.

That's some Stuka production line you got going there, nice work.

Nice handiwork there, Thunderbolt!

I have decided to do my build as part of a diorama. Something I've never done before. There, I said it. Now I've really done it!

O, nice. What sort of scene are you planning.

Bish

O, nice. What sort of scene are you planning.

Sounds good. One thing I like about 72nd is the wide range of ground equipment for doing dio's which seem limited in the larger scales. So will be nice to see a big scale aircraft dio.

Bish

Sounds good. One thing I like about 72nd is the wide range of ground equipment for doing dio's which seem limited in the larger scales. So will be nice to see a big scale aircraft dio.

I'm looking forward to seeing it. have you ever done a dio before.

Bish

I'm looking forward to seeing it. have you ever done a dio before.

The key is in the planning. The best built model in the world can be ruined by a poorly thought out scene. I always draw out my dio's as a rough sketch to give me an idea of base size, orientation of the primary subject and placement of everything else. But as I go from 2D to 3D it evolves along the way.

I plan on doing my 32nd aircraft on a simple base, but I couldn't imagine doing a 72nd aircraft or 35th armour build that isn't in a dio.

Bish

The key is in the planning. The best built model in the world can be ruined by a poorly thought out scene. I always draw out my dio's as a rough sketch to give me an idea of base size, orientation of the primary subject and placement of everything else. But as I go from 2D to 3D it evolves along the way.

I plan on doing my 32nd aircraft on a simple base, but I couldn't imagine doing a 72nd aircraft or 35th armour build that isn't in a dio.

Indeed, it is important to get the balance right. You want to enhance the model, not detract from it. Most of mine have between 3 and 5 figures and one, at a push 2 vehicles. But it also depends on the size of the aircraft. For my He 111Z I added 2 vehicles and 9 figures. But the size of the aircraft and the scene I was depicting justified that.

There are a few 'rules' to building dio's that someone came up with. The 3 main ones are not to have lots of empty space, this is when viewing from the front rather than above. Balance but not symmetry. And the last one is nothing should be parallel to the base. Now I don't 100% agree with the last one, I have done this in the past and it works. But since I started doing dio's at an angle, they do look better.

I always have an image in my head and that's the main thing I work off. They are not often exactly how I pictured it because sometimes its not practical, but it is nice seeing that idea coming to life in front of you.

Thanks, Bish. I appreciate the info. I need to also decide how big I'll make the base for this big bird, given the amount of things that will go into the dio.

With 72nd kits its pretty easy for me to just take a fuselage half and the wings while they are still on the sprue and use that to measure the base, and vehicles are pretty easy to work out and factor in. But with larger builds, especially ones like your Stuka where the wings and fuselage are not in one piece, I would wait until the wings and fuselage are together. You can measure the length and width of your vehicles and just cut that out from paper to work out there placement and so on. I find I can leave aircraft bases until later on as they are usually quite simple. Unless your doing it close to a hanger or being hidden in trees, its juts a flat piece of ground.

I know some people have wings over hanging the edge of the base, but I prefer to keep everything within it and I try and leave about 2cm around the edge. For 32nd, I would probably leave a bit more to keep it in proportion.

Thanks, Bish and Mustang!'

Zvezda -- did all Stukas in the Greek campaign have yellow cowls? The kit instructions depict a scheme without yellow, just blue in the code numbers and spinner cone, and I had not questioned that at this point.

68GT -- in awe of your production line. I remember the Fujimi G-2 I did for RD IV last year being pretty fiddly!

Panzerpilot, I've not done a diorama yet, though I've collected materials for them, I'll be watching with interest!

M/TB379

Great idea, to "dry fit" various items, by shape/'size on there. I was thinking along the same lines for the footprint. To have the whole aircraft well within the boundaries.

Sounds like you have it all worked out nicely Tom. Really looking forward to this.

Quick question for the experts -- with the fixed tail gear of the Stuka, was it painted RLM 02, or 65 to match the exterior of the fuselage???

M/TB379

Mike, you may notice that the tail wheel is fitted into a small bulge. At this point, the top colours carry onto the underside All the pics I have seen seem to suggest that this colour is carried onto the tail wheel.

This pic is of the RAF Museums Stuka and you can see what I mean. I am not sure if the canvas cover was fitted on all aircraft, I had not noticed it before.

Thanks for the info, Bish. I checked some other photos and the RAF Museum bird seems to be a late series plane, a -D or later, going by the chin rad design. I pored through pics, profile paintings and such, and it seems there was variety, but the fixed tail gear strut does not seem to have ever been 02, it was either 65 or the wrapped top camo colour (I found the wrap effect on G series planes).

I think I'll paint this part in 65. The kit plans suggest this, but don't say so explicitly, and the scheme depicted seems to have a 65 underside right back to the rudder.

The amount of variety never ceases to amaze, and you have to keep at the research, that's for sure!

Well, today I got the engine mounted -- the fit is nothing spectacular, even though I filed it in the hopes of bringing it closer. The gaps are not *too* bad, but I removed and refixed it at one point. The engineering is probably to blame, as the subassembly, once fitted as close as possible to eliminate seams, is skewed off to starboard at the bottom by (more than) a few degrees... I accepted this as the joints, if poor, would be much more noticeable than the misalignment.

I finished the prop blade rubbing down, fitted the flap actuators and started work on the bombs, plus the main bomb "trapeze" is in place. It's not really worth a photo, so hopefully there'll be one tomorrow, with the canopy on.

Cheers, M/TB379

Ye, the RAF Museums is a D-5 though I believe it was converted to a G-2 at some point. I have not looked in depth at the earlier versions yet. It might well have been down to who was on painting duty at the factory that day.

Sounds like your making great progress, really looking forward to see the colour go on.

On a separate note, are you still planning on running the NF GB.