1/48 Lindberg JU-87B Stuka - Completed

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'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.

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

Toshi

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

Pictures!  :D

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

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

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

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

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

BK

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.  :)

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.

Oh, so I'm not the only one, for some reason, that thought the blue should be green as well. I remember the Monogram kit had these markings in green. But the google search only showed light blue. I didn't question it. Hmm.....

There was that, and most references say this is Rudel's Stuka. I didn't dig any further than a basic search.

There should also be an "A" on the front of both wheel covers as I recall.

I have a set of superscale decals with the A in blue, but this give a date of 1943, which don't make sense. But then one of the osprey books has a colour plate with the green. But then according to that, there is also yellow on the back of the spats.

I have been trying to research Rudels aircraft for about 20 years for a multi kit build i have wanted to do, and his early aircraft are hard to track down. I have sen one image which is supposed to be T6+AD but with no yellow band and drop tanks, which makes it an R-2. I think one problem is that in 1941, he was not the celebraty he would later become, so his aircraft would have drawn little attention. So a lot is down to passed down accounts and guess work.

That leaves a lot of questions. Especially when there is more than one credible source. This is the kind of mystery I could sink my teeth into, if you get my drift.

This is another aspect of what makes this hobby addictive. Knowing who's plane your building, where it served, what theatre, and in what time. Who else was in those places at those times? That's what makes this interesting to me. But then, I've always been into history.

Of all the things I could collect and watch on YouTube, or TV, I always gravitate to things history related.

I have hours of videos and related meterials collected, but I'm the only one in my family besides my Father who appreciates this kind of stuff.

Hello!

Your Stuka is lookin' good!

The research is one of my favourite modelling activities. That's also because it can turn up stuff crazier than all the what-ifs you see around.

I always say building a model is like telling a story - and it's so damn hard to tell a good story if you don't have a good idea on what you're talking about...

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

M. Brindos

That leaves a lot of questions. Especially when there is more than one credible source. This is the kind of mystery I could sink my teeth into, if you get my drift.

This is another aspect of what makes this hobby addictive. Knowing who's plane your building, where it served, what theatre, and in what time. Who else was in those places at those times? That's what makes this interesting to me. But then, I've always been into history.

Of all the things I could collect and watch on YouTube, or TV, I always gravitate to things history related.

I have hours of videos and related meterials collected, but I'm the only one in my family besides my Father who appreciates this kind of stuff.

 

I am the same, i see modelling as an extension of my interest in history. I much prefer being able to place a kit at a certain time and place. Thats not always easy with German armour where you often find most of the markings are Unidentified unit.

Last year i did a DFS 230 glider and spent houirs reading up on the action i was doing, looking at the make up of the differant squads, what they were equipped with, their targets and once i setteled on a squad, even going to far as to be able to put a name to each of the figures i added. I really enjoyed that.

I think i am pretty setteled on my Rudel build now and now i finally will have some display space i plan on starting it next year. After 20 years of research,  it better be good.

Hi M.Brindos .

     I have followed this with tongue in cheek . Why ? Well if you go some ways back , you'll see I recommend LINDBERG ship kits for the same reason . If you put the work in them they can be real nice models .

    Also,  as I've said the Lindberg 95' Coast Guard Cutter , Is accurate in all the important ways , according to my source, who commanded two during his time in the C.G.

 True , they are old technology , but they can be fun builds . I bought that Stuka for the same reason ! Plus , I can't get enough M.E.262s .   T.B.         P.S. Plus the fact that you are doing a kick A## job too ! .

Pawel

Hello!

Your Stuka is lookin' good!

The research is one of my favourite modelling activities. That's also because it can turn up stuff crazier than all the what-ifs you see around.

I always say building a model is like telling a story - and it's so damn hard to tell a good story if you don't have a good idea on what you're talking about...

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

 

Hi Pawel, good to hear from you, my friend. Thank you very much for the compliment.  :)

I think most of us here would agree that its the history behind the machines and figures (if you get to know who they may be) that are the most intriguing part of any project.

I think we pretty much all start out with the "ooo! that looks cool" phase and then wonder where this machine came from. We are a different kind of history buff I suppose lol. Artists of history I think I will dub us.  ;)

I hope all is well with you and that life is easy where you are at. :)

Bish

 

 

M. Brindos

That leaves a lot of questions. Especially when there is more than one credible source. This is the kind of mystery I could sink my teeth into, if you get my drift.

This is another aspect of what makes this hobby addictive. Knowing who's plane your building, where it served, what theatre, and in what time. Who else was in those places at those times? That's what makes this interesting to me. But then, I've always been into history.

Of all the things I could collect and watch on YouTube, or TV, I always gravitate to things history related.

I have hours of videos and related meterials collected, but I'm the only one in my family besides my Father who appreciates this kind of stuff.

 

 

 

 

I am the same, i see modelling as an extension of my interest in history. I much prefer being able to place a kit at a certain time and place. Thats not always easy with German armour where you often find most of the markings are Unidentified unit.

Last year i did a DFS 230 glider and spent houirs reading up on the action i was doing, looking at the make up of the differant squads, what they were equipped with, their targets and once i setteled on a squad, even going to far as to be able to put a name to each of the figures i added. I really enjoyed that.

I think i am pretty setteled on my Rudel build now and now i finally will have some display space i plan on starting it next year. After 20 years of research,  it better be good.

 

I concur. German armor is the most ambiguous of all modelling subjects at times lol. Lots of room for artistic license there.

You researced it all the way to the entire crew and its loadout of passengers?! I've not done that yet. That would be a very big challenge in figure painting. Getting the faces just right so that they could resemble actual people who were there. That is something else.

If such is the case, then yeah, not only do I also hope it will be good, but dang, I'm really looking forward to seeing that in progress!!!