Ju 87 Stuka GB

I've not had much progress to show lately, it's the heavy season for marking in this semester -- but, I've got a few bits and pieces done. The mid fixed portion of the canopy took a little fiddling, the armoured headrest of the pilot seat needed to be filed/scraped down a little in size to allow the fixed canopy to mount snuggly over it, and of course the scraped areas needed to be repainted.Here's the state of canopy and masking:

I'll press on, I'm thinking of masking the other two parts off the model, then securing them with whiteglue so I can slide them after painting. I have the MG to finish painting and install too.

I satin coated the blue spinner cone, so next up for that is to mask the blue portion. I have all locator holes and points now treated with rubber solution, so as soon as the canopy is done I can get her into the paintshop.

With regard to markings, I've done a lot of searching online and have found aircraft that seemed to be in the Crete campaign both with and without the yellow cowling. If they have the cowling in yellow, the rudder will be as well, it seems. I found a colour profile that seems to be an aircraft of the same unit, III/StG 77, but whether Stab or not I'm uncertain. Codes have been close, too. My gut tells me to trust Revell Germany, they got the markings for the desert snake spot-on, so why would they stumble on something as obvious as the yellow cowl and rudder for the Greece option? There's a practical aspect to the choice as well, if I'd been going to do a yellow cowling I'd have painted it before mounting to the bird...

I'm hoping to get to the canopy interior colour and the overall preshade in a couple of days (I'll be away tomorrow...)

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Great work Nathan, some nasty gaps at those wing joins.

..more... The Oil cooler under the nose is fairly poor in the kit. Soft detail and it just doesn't fit the profile of the inside cowling like the real thing. There should be no gaps, so I used a strip of sprue around the cooler and it turned out like this:

You can still see a small gap on the bottom and sides, but its better. The back side is not like the real thing either, but it faces backwards so I'm trying not to worry about it:

Now on to filling gaps. This kit has its highs and lows. I bought it because I thought it would be alot better than the Hase kit. Turns out they are probably a wash either way. This Italeri kit does have a much better detailed cockpit, and does come with the nice little pe fret and some awesome and great preforming decals. But the fit of the wings all around is poor, and in tough places to try and repair. Who else is building Italeri Stukas, and what are your thoughts?

Man, time to get cracking here again! I've been making progress and have the cockpit sprayed and weathered up. Its now all tucked away in the fuselage. Here's the only shot before closing things up, pre seat belt installation:

The instrument panel came from the pe set provided in the kit. It has you sandwich dials from the decal sheet between two pe pieces. I thought it looked prett great, better than just dry brushing a plastic panel. The only thing is the decal dials were just printed a bit over scale, but it worked. Not quite as crisp as a acetate sheet you normally get in resin sets:

All buttoned up now:

I also got the cowling pieces glued together with minimal seams, and thinned the sides where you can see through the little scoops:

Dry fitting the cowling to the fuselage shows a great fit with no gaps, unlike the fidely Hasegawa cowlings. I can't say the same for the wings though. Started out with gaps like this at the root:

Got them to eventually look like this:

The leading and trailing edges were tougher. The trailing edge made me cut out the flaps and aileronns at the begining of the build:

Got some work to do on the bottom too:

Sounds like an interesting idea, look forward to seeing that.

While I was working on finishing the logo for my SHIELD project, I got to thinking how I could incorporate some more of the T4 billet I have for the Junkers build... I took a good look at the logo and though that would look awesome on the base with raised logo and lettering (either polished or brushed, don't know yet) and a high gloss black enamel background. I'll probably do that after it's done and I'm making the base for it.

A little progress to report, I was working and out yesterday and working earlier today, so only a little has happened. The payload is assembled and most locator holes are now masked with rubber solution, I've mounted the wing gun blisters and sprayed the spinner cone a mixed RLM 24 (well, a match for the blue on the fuselage codes at least). I've prepped the dive brakes for spraying off the bird, and am starting on the canopy. The decals that go on the inside may be a bit superfluous, as they are not RLM 02, and the Eduard mask set seems to have everything covered, albeit from the outside.

Does anyone have any experience with the decals for struts on the inside? I've read a few reviews and one reviewer called them very conspicuous unless "cut," but it was unclear if he was referring to the carrier film. Any thoughts?

Cheers, M/TB379

I think your right! Thanks...

Doug

Yes it is, guys -- three weeks out from start at this time and a year to build, it's going to be great!

M/TB379

A night fighter GB? Interesting. I missed the last one a few years back. I just happen to have a 109 night fighter in the stash. Hmmm...

Mike (Thunderbolt) is that the "defenders five" I saw listed? If so great! Love night fighters...

Teddz

it's a JET series 1550 engine lathe with about a 5 1/2' travel and it's just under 8' long.

it's a JET series 1550 engine lathe with about a 5 1/2' travel and it's just under 8' long.

Teddz

maybe later tonight... I have to finish up the billet aluminum housing for the SHIELD logo on my Bus build I started earlier. Taking a break from the lathe to make some coffee, check the milliput on the current builds and check emails. Then it's back to my dungeon until I'm done with the housing and have the logo components cut. Once I take it off the lathe, finding the center again is very difficult, so once the billet is on, it doesn't come off until the part is done. The lathe needs to be free tomorrow so I can make some parts for the CNC project.  

WOW, sounds like your keeping busy.

maybe later tonight... I have to finish up the billet aluminum housing for the SHIELD logo on my Bus build I started earlier. Taking a break from the lathe to make some coffee, check the milliput on the current builds and check emails. Then it's back to my dungeon until I'm done with the housing and have the logo components cut. Once I take it off the lathe, finding the center again is very difficult, so once the billet is on, it doesn't come off until the part is done. The lathe needs to be free tomorrow so I can make some parts for the CNC project.  

Look forward to seeing some pics Teddz.

I worked a bit on the Stuka yesterday... didn't get much done, just re-scribing and re-drilling the rivets anywhere they were sanded. Still have about 1/2 of the plane left to do, but once done and primed, it should look great.

Mike, good news. I have it on my build list for next year, which is now officially full (again).

I believe those yellow markings were standard for Operation Marita, if you have seen the newer Revell Ju 88A-4, the box art features an aircraft with yellow cowlings and there are images of it on Me 110's and Do 17's.

Mike, all the pics and references I have show yellow identification cowlings.

Perhaps there were some aircraft that did not have such colors, but I think our III/StG 77 planes were painted yellow from their jumping base in Bulgaria, since the start of operations. I will check further now that you mentioned it.

Hi Bish, that's a big Ten-Four, Nightfighters kicks off at the end of this month, it's gonna be great!

I might try to get to the spinner cone tomorrow, and make a start on the canopy, then hopefully it'll be straightforward to the end.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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. 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.