1/48 Lindberg JU-87B Stuka - Completed

Its not really Rudels bird, though it is often stated as such. Those are the Gruppen commanders markings, but Rudel wasn't at this time, 1941. This aircrfat was flown by Siegfried Steen. On 23rd Sept they returned from a sorite, the one where Rudel sank the Marat. Steen stood this aircrfat on its nose so for the next sortie took Rudel's, or was Gruppe TO. Steen and the aircrfat failed to return. So my guess is that Rudel, having lost his mount, flew this one at least until he got a new one or Steen's replacement was in situ.

One thing that has confused me is the A and spinner being blue when it should be green, but i notice most sources show it blue.

They came in the box lol. Not the most accurate decals, but mostly in register. They work well with this kit though. I only had to do a rudimentary google search to find out how to paint it more accurately like Rudel's bird. I didn't even know these were Rudel's markings until I did that. The instructions would have you paint the entire prop and spinner, along with the bombs, in light blue. I knew that couldn't be right, so I did a little research to figure out what it should actually look like.

Now I am where I am with this build and i'm liking it.  :)

O, nice, didn't know you were doing those markings.

Grant, thank you. I love painting figures and I've put a bit of time into it. I started with Warhammer 40k figures and Ral Partha. They're about 1/48 scale or so, as you probably know lol. That, and a mindset change (I used to dread and hate painting figures) got me started in actually applying my skills to figure painting and now I love it. Especially the good figures because its much easier on the eyes.

Thank you, Bish. They're okay. I really should have taken the extra time to mask them properly because they would've turned out all that much better. So much for short cuts, eh? I should've known better, but at least they don't look horrile lol.

So... decals? Yes I did manage to get them on last night!

I think I've finally figured out how to use the Vallejo clear gloss as well. Of all their paints, this one seemed to be the most mysterious to use in an AB. I don't know why, but I couldn't get a good cote until yesterday. You've got to thin that stuff just right and give it a good spray, but not too much or too little. This strikes me as odd because every other paint I've used of theirs is much more forgiving with the mixtures.  :/

The only decals that gave me any trouble at all were the big Balkencruse on the bottoms of the wings. The left one especially for some reason. I just couldn't get the water completely out from under it.

These decals are almost exactly like the old Monogram decals. They seem too thick to lay down properly and still give you any surface detail, but they actually laid down very well and stuck like they were supposed to. I have one very tiny spot of silvering around the "A" on the left side fuselage, but that's it. I'll fix that easily enough later.

All of the decals eventually went down like paint. I used a copious amount of TET on that left underside wing and it ate some small holes in the decal because of it, but some minor spot repairs with paint was all that was required to fix that issue.

So here is before a matte cote;

And after a matte cote this morning;

I've just to finish up a few details and this can be called finished. The radiator grill, tail wheel, and the exhausts need to be painted and I'm done with the details. I will add a panel wash last and sort out any of the last minute stuff and that should be it.

Great work Mike, i do like the look of those Swastika's.

Stunning work Mike! Great work with the figures that lacked much detail!  Ionly wish I could do figures so well

Thank you, Tojo. I've now touched up those swastikas on the tail and painted the wing walks. Right now it's got a cote of gloss drying on the upper surfaces and I'll gloss the bottom later tonight I think.

I pretty sure I won't be getting any decals on it tonight as I know I should let the gloss have a good drying time before I do. That's just been my experience in such matters lol.

Sorry I missed the whole process Mike,but I'm definitly liking what I see.

Well in tonights last adventurous episode I finally decided to make up the Swas stencil and get that taken care of.

Its not as square as I'd like because of the method I used was not very precise. Perhaps next time I'll try using a sticky note instead of card stock.

It really could be worse.

Good morning, Toshi! The hardest part of getting the yellow laid down was that is kept drying on the needle and didn't want to keep spraying lol. I just had to keep cleaning the spray tip after every pause. The color is Vallejo Yellow. I mixed a touch of red and black to it to change the tone a bit, but it went on quite thin and I modulated the color as I sprayed, using the blue under it as a preshade. As you can see, it worked out quite well.

Thank you, Lawdog. That's quite mighty praise! :D

Beautiful job on the yellow.  I find it a very difficult and a tedious color to AB and work with (Mixing) at least for myself.

Toshi

Thanks, Brandon! :D

It should look better with the decals on it. I'm stalling on making a swas mask for the tail. Can't be too hard, obviously, but I'm afraid of messing it up.  :P

I love what you've done here. The colors look absolutely stunning.

BK

Ronald, Thank you very much! :D  These are the same processes I use on my armor builds. I paint my planes like I paint my tanks lol.

Mike, I am honered to be able to help you advance your techniques. That makes me happy. :D:D:D:D

Mike, I really like the way you paint your aircraft. I am learning some stuff here and I appreciate it.

Oh wow i am observing a fantastic work of paint, i like friend ............. 

Pictures!  :D

Next up is decals. But not today. I'm going to let this paint cure.

The yellow is on! I'm just waiting for the clear cote to dry. Pictures very soon!

I see the bluish tone and the pre-shading.  looks great, I'll be waiting on the yellow highlights!

Toshi

I've got the undersides sprayed now. Its a little amateurish because I'm now having problems with mixing my paints correctly, I assume. Seems that just one single drop too many of thinner in the mix makes things a bit wonky. Also I've only got three air pressure pre-settings and I had some better results at a higher pressure with one mix than I did with another. Forgive me, I'm still learning. I haven't been using an AB as long as I've been using hairy sticks lol.

Anyways, these are horribly washed-out pictures because of the direct sunlight (drying a clear cote), but you can see some of the blue-ish tones in there. It looks better in first person lol.




Next up later this evening is the yellow tail band and the wing tips.

Good morning Tojo! You missed the part where I explained that there is no preshading. It's all modulation and post shading. :) I have yet to not completely paint over any kind of preshading lol. Good to hear from you. :)

Ah. Crown, either a filter or even a slightly different shade of green can get you what you want. I suspect you already know this though. For this project I've used German Dark Camouflage Green and U.S. Dark Green, both by Vallejo. They were close to the right colors.

Its funny what tricks your eyes can play on you when it comes to colors. Close enough usually works because paints typically don't exactly match from one vehicle to the next. There's always a variable in there. So I don't worry about exact matches of colors usually lol.

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

Nice work Mike,preshading and paint look great.

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

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

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.  :)

Extremely impressive!  The splinter camoflauge looks absolutely amazing.

Toshi

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.