1/48 Lindberg JU-87B Stuka - Completed

Some nice progress Mike. Is that MG from the kit.

Yeah, Bish, its from the kit. I spruced it up a touch with some sprue bits on the drum mag and hollowed out the barrel tip, but its the kit piece. The only thing I don't like about it is the preportions seem to be too small. But as I've stated before some details are too thick or too small. It did paint up pretty though.

Mike, this is awesome!!  I cut my modeling teeth on Lindberg, Hawk, Monogram and Revell kits in the late 60s early 70s.  I have the canopy and one landing gear from this kit in a parts box. 

If it weren't for these classics who knows where the hobby would be?

Great job and inspirational as well.

Funny you should mention Monogram. I have been thinking all day about seeing if I could have a second chance with ol' Detroit Miss! I loved that kit and I never was able to do it any justice lol.

What I didn't know then, that I know now, is that half of the Testors kits I loved back in the 90's was that they were rebranded Hawk kits.

I miss those as well, and I'm glad to have been able to build that F4U-1 kit again. It turned out pretty dang sweet. Its now featured on Testors web page http://www.testors.com/project-catalog/recreate-history/148-f4u-1-corsair/

This build does bring up fond memories of long ago.  :)

M. Brindos

This build does bring up fond memories of long ago.  :)

Amen to that!!  And the Corsair is a beaut!

Thank you! :D  That was my first time with a siphon feed AB. I didn't work all that well, but it got the job done.

As for this evening, I sprayed the first color of Black-Green over the fuselage. I may have to do a little correcting, but I think for tonight this will suffice.

I started with an overall coverage of the color right out of the bottle.

And then lightened the paint with a little white and modulated a bit. It gives me the same effect as pre shading.

I'm rather excited to see the next color go on. I'm going to clear it and let it dry until tomorrow evening before I start masking for the next color. Cross your fingers this will work as I hope it will lol.

Excellent base coat!  The modulation of acrylic colors to bring out shading is an amazing technique.  

Toshi

Hi Mike,

You have me interesting in trying this technique.  I never done it before and looks like fun.  The Stuka is coming along great.  Good luck in the next steps. 

Thank you guys. Its the same technique I used on the Corsair. Modulating the colors to bring out highlights and shapes that would otherwise blend together. I've determined that I will most likely have to do some post shading to bring the camouflage together and unify the scheme for the look I'm after.

When I painted the Corsair I used about four different shades of that dark blue to give it a sun faded appearence, but that's not the plan for this build. I'd like to have a fresher look for this one.

I've also been looking for the correct splinter pattern for this aircraft. The best one I can find online thus far is on the Sprue Bros. web page. The pattern that comes in the instructions is ...incomplete, and I do not believe it is correct. Does anyone have a clear diagram of the splinter camouflage scheme for Rudel's Stuka? Those are the markings that come with this kit, minus the swas for the tail, which I will have to make a mask for.

Wow Mike, you really are making a silk purse from a sow's ear. I was skeptical.  Cool work so far!

Max

Thanks Max! Appearently I have a knack for that. You're not the first person who has said that about me lol.

All I know is that I enjoy what I do. I like doing it and I press on through mistakes and failures. Eventually I end up with something I appreciate.

I guess I have a weird attraction to sub-par kits though. I'm always picking up something the rest of you have passed on lol.

M. Brindos

Yeah, Bish, its from the kit. I spruced it up a touch with some sprue bits on the drum mag and hollowed out the barrel tip, but its the kit piece. The only thing I don't like about it is the preportions seem to be too small. But as I've stated before some details are too thick or too small. It did paint up pretty though.

 

Thanks Mike, didn't know if you had got it from the apres, i am still trying to work out what gun it is. You have done a nice job on it.

Apres? I don't know what that is.

I'm not sure what gun it is either. It doesn't look German at all. Looks like a French contraption to me.

Well I couldn't find a good splinter diagram so I went with my own. Its okay, but not very good. I might be able to get away with it though. After the second color went on and the masking came off I realized I lightened the black-green too much and the colors are almost blended together into one seamless tone. I'll have to use a filter over the black-green to bring it out better and up the contrast.

So all of that modulating and I still went over it with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya smoke and Vallejo clear matte to bring up the shading I was after. It looks good on the lighter shade and is about where I wanted it, but it only enhanced the modulation on the black-green and so its looking bad to me. Nothing I can't attempt to correct however.

Here are some pictures for thought and comment. I'd like to hear your opinions here. To me, the post shading is poorly done and the colors are off to my eyes. Both things I think I can fix.









Am I wrong? Let me know.

I started adding a green oil filter to the tail. Its working perfectly. Pictures soon!  :D

Alrighty then! I'm happy with these results. I used Veridian Green artist's oil for the filtering. In the picture below you can see the filtering applied to the tail section and the left wing. The fuselage and right wing are pre-filter.

Filtering complete; Indoor

and in daylight;

And a freshly sprayed clear cote;

I like how the contrast picked up and into the green spectrum. Just a simple operation of rub it on and wipe it off. Of course I went through a ransom of q-tips in the wiping off portion of the job, but they are fairly inexpensive lol.

Holy cow !

What an amazing difference with the filter added.  I probably would've started over with the paint job in error.  TY for posting this ,I learned a great deal

That carving work to the pipes really add to the build. You are doing that old gal  justice.

Thanks, Jay. Painting it all over again would have been far more time consuming with all of the remasking in reverse. Adding a filter was the easier solution to the problem. If I'd gone with a red filter the color would've changed to brown, and a yellow filter would've changed it to an Olive color. Filters are fun. I changed the entire color of my 1/72 Churchill from green to brown with a red water color filter. It actually really easy to do if you want to change a tone or an entire color without repainting all over again.

Try it, you'll like it. lol

Solid exhaust pipes really detract from the look of a model. Its like leaving flash or seam lines on things. It may seem small and unimportant to the casual modeller, but its those small things that are the difference between a good model and a great one. Well, that's my opinion on it anyways lol. I don't always produce a great model.

If I can find the time I'm going to try to spray the bottom tonight. Big plans for the weekend and I have much to prepare lol.

Have a great weekend my friends. Happy modelling!!

Hey Mike,

Just wanted to add my 2 cents.  Great job with this old tub!  You are really making it shine!  I've walked by that 2 for 1 combo pack and just couldn't pull the trigger on it.  It was probably the crappy box art and my fear of most things Lindberg!!  Really appreciate you sharing your build and showing us your different painting techniques.

That rear gunner's machinegun looks a little strange.  It reminds me of a British Lewis gun used on WWI biplanes and on Tamiya's LRDG trucks....Weird!  Checked out a few pictures on the web and it looked like the German MG had a dual drum magazine that straddled the weapon's breech.  Interesting interpretation......

Coming along great; can't wait to see it all decaled up!

TAD

I walked past this 2'fer for the exact smae reasons you did. The only reason I bought it was it was marked down. I figured, what the heck, maybe something decent will come out of it. At least some painting practice. Little did I know it would fit together better than some Revell and Hasegawa kits I've done.

That MG is a laugh. Its nothing like the one that should be there, but I'm sticking with it.

Indeed, me too! I hope the decals are going to stick well. If I can get away with not having to LC these things I'll be happy as a clam lol.

Extremely impressive!  The splinter camoflauge looks absolutely amazing.

Toshi

Thanks Toshi. I don't know about extremely, but I'll take a little bit of impressive lol!

Since I fixed my compressor I've noticed a huge difference in the way my masked lines turn out. I'm used to having to lightly sand down or somehow hide the demarcation between the colors. Not this time. Boy, oh boy, it went on without a hitch and the masking turned out perfect. Daylight even reveals that the tones of my colors are correct. Maybe not the true RLM colors they should be, but the tones are correct and that's giving the effect I wanted to have. Which looks like the correct RLM colors to me lol :D

The last time I finished a Stuka it was a 1/72 Ju-87(G?) by Testors. It was a lovely kit and I used MM Dark Green and MM Medium Green. They were the wrong colors, but the plane looked really spectacular to my young eyes. Something about the sharp angles of the splinter pattern and the contrast between the colors that gave it an agressive look. Especially with the huge underwing cannons! :D

My best friend in Elementary, Aaron Hipps, built up the Monogram kit. I believe he used MM Olive Drab and Testors Dark Green. I remember that it was a beautiful plane even in the wrong colors. There's just something about the gull wings. Wether its a Stuka or Corsair, they just sing to my spirit man.

[sigh] enough of this dribbly reminiscence. I'm hoping I can do even better with the 262 later. There is a lot of room for improvement with that kit. With exposable engines and guns! Not to mention the pit canopy operates as well. :)  that should be entertaining.

Thank you, Toshi, for the compliment. That means a lot coming from you.  :)

That camo is stunning I to have the same issue with the two tone green/ dark green 

Mike, you are fun to watch in action. You are far more committed to modeling than me. I aplaude you for that. Sometimes more than I need to know but I always learn something from your work and posts. Keep up the good work!

Watching!

Max

Nice work Mike,preshading and paint look great.

   i have trouble with the right tones with RLM 70/71 I must of miss read.