Ju 87 Stuka GB

Mike, your good photography surely makes it nice to view the stunning detail on this Stuka. Radiator looks fantastic, and thanks for the how you did it is this Stuka will be my first radiator (that I can remember, anyway)

Back to the canopy, my worst lifting so far was my first build back and that was MM sprayed over a dipped in Future TBM canopy. Far as I recall, the MM pulled up whilst the Future remained intact. Personally, I have no plans to use MM on canopies again.

Most recent was Vallejo Model Air over a not dipped in Future canopy, and to my surprise it worked well.

You make a good point re the strips being so thin on this particular canopy. I'd think that could add to the problem, and has me a little worried about my first Stuka here.

Tbolt

Tamiya lifted on you? That has never happened to my using Tamiya but I guess there's always  a first time.

I live in a house so I have the luxury of painting in the garage with the large car door open and a fan blowing out to get great ventilation. I'm like a foot or two from the driveway directing the spray out of the garage. I do wear a respirator when shooting Alclad or if it's a long complicated scheme.

I love Humbrol paints in the small tins. As a matter of fact I just sprayed the bottom of an aircraft commission with a 30 year old Humbrol tin. The paint flowed fine and looked ok. I like to lightly polish with a soft cotton cloth the areas I painted once the paint dries but the darn paint was coming off like  dust. I decided to use some thinner and stripped  it off for fear of further deterioration. No biggie as it took me 5 minutes the strip the paint off. I guess it's time to toss that old tin out!

PJ -- that's most interesting about Acryls having a tendency to lift. I have given up all spraying in enamels at this time, they are just too dang toxic -- I packaged up over a hundred tins of Humbrol and bottles of Model Master, against some future time when I have a proper spray booth and a top of the range respirator and extractor fan. I have seen a little lifting once before, earlier this year I did a Hasegawa Spitfire and there was some minor lifting, not enough to really worry about but it was there -- and that was an all Tamiya job! :-( I'm not sure which way to jump on this. Anyway, I'll try the decal trick initially. They may flake off over time, that's a possibility... In the end I'll probably have to remask and paint!

M/TB379

Tbolt

Are you using MM Acryl? If you are, then I have found that it will lift in some parts unless an enamel primer is used to give it bite. It has lifted even after using MM acryl primer.

It sucks when that happens specially when a perfect paint job has just been completed. Tamiya's acrylics will not lift and IMO spray better than MM.

Great work on that masking/ painting.  I tend to re-use masks also. They may have a little paint on em but they stick down just fine.Awaiting your return to see you button this puppy up.

Greg -- yes indeed, I have been able to reuse masks, they often come away very cleanly indeed. These have a fringing of shattered paint coming off with them, which makes reuse doubtful. It can only be an adhesion issue, or that the bars between these panes are so thin the paint can't develop enough grip. The masking job on the 1:72 G-2 I did for RD IV last year was necessarily coarser in terms of scale representation, and seemed to work fine.

Here's the state of play: I did the radiator by drybrushing aluminium over the raised areas, then using Florey wash for the recesses, I think it came out quite acceptably:

I then fitted and painted the wing guns and mounted the propeller to the backplate:

Note the unpainted area where the sliding hood fits. I've continued to remove panels and it's maybe not too bad to salvage with a combination of careful painting with an ultra fine brush and decals if I can make them up. I'll let you knowhow that goes!

Remaining jobs elsewhere on the airframe are only the pitot, which happens after handling is done, and the dust and carbon work. otherwise it's down to getting the canopy into shape, which perforce happens before the radio mast and antenna wire can be fitted.

It'll probably be Sunday before I can make any significant inroads now, so I'll see you the other side of Halloween!

M/TB379

PS: Yes, I'll be adjusting the angle of that gun barrel...

Mike, love your paint job and finish.

Darn it re the canopy. I agree, not likely the masks fault. when this has happened to me I oft times re-use the masks (I remove them VERY carefully in case a re-do is needed). Otherwise, I mask the messed up panes the old fashioned, pre-Eduard way. You'll get it, mate.

Nathan, your coming along great. Thanks for those IP pics. I've not seen much PE on exteriors (though my stuka has some, I think), is fun to see it in the works. BTW, please stop calling me Shirley.

Bish, thanks a million for the extension mate! Oct blew by, I accomplished nothing at the bench (again), and I was getting worried about being late on yet another GB!

Nathan -- it must be a poor bond -- the windscreen didn't flake so badly, just a couple of spots. I'm wondering if it was finger grease that got onto the sections as they were done... Time before unmasking was as long as it took to paint the bird, which I'm guessing was a week -- there's really no going any faster when the job is so complex. Yep, Acryls, they brush well, but they creep under masking tape bigtime if brushed on, so that's out. The way it's pulling up, I would not be surprised if the entire canopy had to be redone, and to tackle that from scratch would be a major PITA... I've tried the Chopper II and it'll cut light card down to fine tolerances, so it may cut decal paper the same way. I'll find my sheets and the least I can do is test it -- spray some 02, cover it with 70 plus satin coat, and try seeing if I can come up with fine strips, whether by guillotine or a new Xacto blade. If I could get enough strips of about the right width I could patch it together as decals... It's a total pain to happen on the last lap!

M/TB379

mustang1989

They make walk way strips in PE? Man you gotta be kiddin' me!! That means I'm gonna have to build ANOTHER Stuka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Yes, I'm afraid it does...

Bummer Mike. Not sure you can blame the masks though. Poor paint bond to the clear part? How long did you wait to unmask? MM Acrylic paints? I'd say just re-mask those panes with Tamiya tape and re-paint. Or, mask along one frame at a time with a single strip of tape, and then brush paint each frame. Do MM Acrylic paints brush ok?

Right, guys, this  model will not be finished today, in fact it'll probably be shelved until I can solve the problem. The problem is this:

When you buy an expensive product you expect it to work. I've used 15 Eduard mask sets before and this has never happened -- I have no idea what I have done differently, if anything. In this instance, I may as well not have bothered using it.

I can spray clear decal film into the right colours, the problem is cutting it in thin enough strips. I have a Chopper II plastic guillotine, I could experiment with cutting decal paper with that, it might work. If so I can apply a series of fine decal strips to complete the pattern. I certainly can't brush paint canopy strips worth a dang.

Any thoughts would be very welcome!

Cheers, M/TB379

Interesting problem -- the issue of the masks lifting the paint on the canopy is persisting, I've moved onto the forward sliding section and the panes are so close that two adjacent pieces of masking lifted the paint between them completely. Has anyone encountered this before? Any tips? And no, I don't have a "fresh #11 blade" to draw along the edges of the masks...

M/TB379

Thanks, guys! Nathan -- that's some formidable work going on there! She's gonna be spectacular! Re the lower wing crosses, they are single piece decals straddled by the airbrake parts, and ROG provide four small decals which are a cross section through the insignia, to be laid onto the bars of the airbrakes. In the last photo I had the first one in place -- all four are now done. They took about three applications of setting solution to get them to wrap tight.

I'll do my best to finish her today, though I need to go out for a few hours and will be away most of tomorrow also. I started unmasking the canopy last night, and the paint has lifted in one or two places, so I'll need to touch up when the masking is away. I'm counting nine or ten small jobs to go, so I'll just plug away at them through the day.

M/TB379

WOW, Italeri really are pulling out all the stops. The only kit I have so far built that had the strips was the Academy G-1, in 72nd of course, and they were very well depicted. I have not noticed if my Eduard sets for the Fujimi kits have them, will have to keep and eye out for that.

They make walk way strips in PE? Man you gotta be kiddin' me!! That means I'm gonna have to build ANOTHER Stuka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Bish

Mike, that's looking great, can't wait to add it to page 1.

Nice progress Nathan, which PE set are you using,

The kit's!! Nice little pe fret Italeri is including in most all their kits these days. The dang Eduard Exterior kit is around 30 US Dollars, and I paid $42 for the kit! I only need a few pieces anyway. I think the seat belts, and walk way straps are a must on stukas, whether they are pe or scratch made.

Nathan T

Ahh gotcha. Thanks Mustang.

Mike, that's looking great, can't wait to add it to page 1.

Nice progress Nathan, which PE set are you using,

Ahh gotcha. Thanks Mustang.

I think I see what youre talking about. The main decal will slide under and there should be two smaller thin sections that apply as such

mustang1989

Hey Nathan. The underwing crosses go over the dive brakes. Fun fun fun! lol

Perfect. So I need to snip off the front of the decal and glue that on top of the dive brakes?

Progess is coming my way slowly but Shirley. The wing landing light is really giving me fits. First, the mismatch with the wing halves, but also the clear part cover does not fit the leading edge profile. I just glued it in place best I could, then shimmed around it with strip styrene, and sanded it out. I needed so much sanding that the wing leading edge has a slight wave to it if you look at it just right. I got it sanded ok now and had to rescribe around it again. Tough to do. I then realized that I drilled one too many holes in the wing leading edge for the MG guns and had to fill that, which is right next to the landing light and now I will be rescribing that again....

Anyway, on to the pics:

All the flaps and ailerons are glued back on now. I had to use some little pieces of sprue to make new hinge points. The balance weights and hinges were quite fiddley. Note the oil cooler is painted, but there is a rather large hole in the bottom cowl thats empty, even though the engine is in there. Maybe I should've added some piping or something?

Engine cowling fit pretty well to the fuselage. Armor plate and wing walk pe is glued on. Exhausts are fitted now because I'm going with a night scheme and the flame dampers will go on over these later. 

More pe balance weights on the elevators. Nice of Italeri to include this sort of stuff in the kit! It adds a nice touch.

Resin gun sight added and ready for the clear part.

Landing light trouble...

Rudder deflected without having to do any extra work. Nice job Italeri! Tailwheel canted with it. 

Sanding and rescribing is done on the fuselage underside. 

The blank area in the cowling I was talking about.

Canopy masking is done and I made some inside masks for this piece. Head armor glued in place and I added two small braces inside with micro tubing. 

Almost ready for primer. Wheels are painted and glued inside the spats now. Feels good to get this far!

Hey Nathan. The underwing crosses go over the dive brakes. Fun fun fun! lol

Very nice work Mike. I painted my radiator/ oil coolers on my D first. I plan on masking them off somehow, then spray my rlm 65. Do the underwing crosses go over the divebrakes, or just slide underneath them?

Great work Mike...

Yes I wouldnt recommend solvaset unles you run across a particular stubborn decal, it could melt or distot the look. I keep a bottle on hand but use sparingly.  Also on silvering, someting that works for me iftrouble aarises isto try setting decal into the gloss finish before it sets up. Usually works for me. Again, excellent work!

Doug

I'm closing in on the finish -- progress today includes inspection and final touch-ups, overall wash and air dry, final clear coat to seat all decals, exhausts painted and installed, along with the warload, divebrakes, underside antennas, tailplane braces and landing gear. Slivers of insignia now being applied to the divebrakes, which may be a long process to get them to conform -- lots of setting solution required. Here she is:

I'll continue with the decal slivers and may begin unmasking the canopy today.

Remaining to do: mount the antenna mast, add two decals to it, rig the wire and paint it. Add the degree decal to the pilot's left side window. Paint the running lights, touch-up masts and antennas; paint the radiator -- this last one is confounding me. I had meant to mask and spray flat aluminium, to be followed by a dark wash, but the thought of remasking the whole front end of the plane is confounding. What did others do? It's not easy to spot techniques in photos. I can't assemble the prop to the pre-attached backplate until the radiator is dealt with. Then there's the barrels of the wing guns to add, dust and carbon work, and this beast is ready for the gallery shots.

M/TB379

Thanks Bish for the extension. I was eyeing the 1/48 Italeri G-2 Kanonenvogel but I would have to order it and I have the ROG one in my stash.

Tbolt

Try looking in the RR section as Walthers is making Solvaset now.

Thanks, Bish -- this Stuka is completion number nine for the year and I have five more in an advanced state, with two extras just beginning, for 16 in the year, my most productive year ever. I have no idea what next year will bring but I'm scheduling the same and will do my best!

M/TB379

I know what you mean Mike, and please don't feel obliged to risk over stretching things, I know how easy that can be. And I know what you mean about next year, I am already fully booked and trying to get a bit ahead of myself just so I don't risk over running.

Nice choice PJ, will add you to Kette 12.

Thanks, PJ and Bish! PJ --  don't remember seeing Solvaset on the shelf in this country, I've heard much about it -- strong enough to melt some decals, but just what's needed for stubborn ones! These are ROJ decals and they took a long time to separate from the backing (large ones soaked four of five minutes), and did not want to slip much, but grabbed good and hard when they were in place. It sounds like you'll be doing the same kit as me -- watch out for overall alignment, the engine line-up is not great, to seat it so the seams are at their minimum means the engine is in fact twisted off to the right, and at the same time the tail surfaces, while they may form an excellent right angle with the vertical tail, are clearly several degrees out of parallel with the average line of the wing -- it doesn't show unless looking at it square-on, but it's definitely there.

A three-month extension, Bish? I suddenly have visions of a Fujimi 1:72 D-5 in winter scheme! Ahem -- I'll let you know, I have a very tight schedule to the end of the year (a completion a week!) and next year is already well rostered too...

Now, let's get this B-2 done!

M/TB379