Ju 87 Stuka GB

I've had that happen before check. I just looked at one of my Osprey books and it has a colour plate showing the same as that image you posted. But I don't always trust these plates. If it was me at this stage, I think I would leave it. the red looks much better and does make sense with the red around the K

Thanks, Bish.

For the sake of accuracy, what I ended up building was the Airfix 1/72 offering.  I scrapped the Revell.

And then, for more accuracy, regarding the spinner, after I painted it, I ran across this:

Not at all the same spinner!  I followed Airfix's kit instructions and painting guide, so I really don't know which one is more accurate.  But it's still a Stuka!

Always a pleasure to have you on board check. Lovely looking finish and I really do like the work on the spinner. have added one to the front page.

Thanks again.

Here is my finished Stuka.  The only after-market addition was a hakenkreuz from an old MicroScale sheet.

Thanks for hosting the GB, Bish.  It was a chance to build something different than my usual.  It was a pleasure to see the results that everyone has achieved with their aircraft.

Incredible level of work, Shooter.  Exquisite!

Greg

Shooter, amazing level of detail. Your added touches really add a lot!

Watching you build this, it's hard not to think about trying one of these 'big birds' someday! (But I need your skill level first :) )

And the space to display it

I think I may need to move home before I can start on mine.

Shooter, amazing level of detail. Your added touches really add a lot!

Watching you build this, it's hard not to think about trying one of these 'big birds' someday! (But I need your skill level first :) )

Shooter, that is some seriously nice work, love the detail in the engine. I would say that's a pretty good guess for the seat harness mount, I couldn't find any decent pics either. Is the fire extinguisher scratch built.

Here's a few update pics. I'm tying to bring everything all together for the big finish.

I drilled out a hole at the bottom of the antenna mast, made a support loop and ran the wire down towards the radios.

I glued a small piece of aluminum foil to the back of the landing light. Will have to do a little paint touch up on some of the CAM decals, they were some 10 years old and a couple were cracking on me.

Using small strips of foil to make hose clamps. Easy to do in this scale.

Adding placard decals to the engine areas.

The aft machine gun assy.

Looking at Ju-87 pics I will  need to add a handle grip to the rotating gun canopy. Did that using a larger gauge wire, paint drying on it right now.

Starting to add more hoses and wiring to the engine.

Added a fire extinguisher to the cockpit.

As for the backside of the pilot seat, I took some artistic liberties here. I just could not find a pic showing the backside of the Ju-87B seat. I could have simply pinned them to the back but what I did was to make a rough version of a harness retracting system.

I used the clear part meant for the rear gun sight as the base glass for the gun sight. Glad I held off on the sight installation till now, it would not have fit through it's opening as following the instructions, I still had to cut the sight in half which worked out fine.

I slapped a couple of placards on the oil filter, will be running more wiring through this side too.

Not too much left to do before I can call it finish. 

Clemens, Bish and Greg

Thanks so much for your comments. It was fun participating in this GB.

PJ, that is some truly impressive work. Truly.

So much to like it's hard to pick out anything in particular, but I can't help commenting yet again how much I like that multi-color camo, and your weathering is so spot on and really brings out everything.

This has been so much fun to watch, thanks for participating.

Praise more than well deserved PJ.

Holy smokes, the weathering on your Stuka looks amazing! Great work on the paint job and especially the decals as well!

Thanks Jonny and Mustang. Glad you like how the snake came out.

PJ: Dammmitt boy!! That thing turned out great!!!! And that weathering is awesome. No prob on the decals brutha! Just payin' it forward! 

PJ  awesome.   The close up of the panel line weathering is unbelievable.   Really looks like sand in the panel lines. Great job.  John

Thanks for the nice words gents!

Outstanding, PJ!

Plasticjunkie,

Looks great.  Nice "sun and sand" weathering.   WTG!

Gary

Love it PJ. The extra weathering has really paid off, really looks like it has been under a hot desert sun. Really nice build all round and was worth the extension for this alone. have added it to the front page, thanks for taking part, a pleasure as always.

Thanks guys but the fading was a bit light to my taste so I followed up with a filter of Turp and yellow ochre oil paint toning and fading it more. It even adds the dusty effect to the finish. It looks rough but it's smooth as a baby's behind. That North African sun took  a toll of most finishes.

I used my multiple hand thingies from Harbor Freight to install the aerial antenna wire then added a couple of small drops of Aleene's for the insulators.

Here is my finished B-2 in the colorful markings of 6./St.G2 "Immelmann" stationed at Tmimi Airfield, Libya, summer 1941 and flown by Lt. Hubert Polz.

My sincere thanks to Mustang for being a pal and passing down his snake decals and to Bish for extending this GB allowing me more time to complete my entry.

Bish,  please add the first picture to the completed list up front.

Thanks, Bish and SS.  I appreciate it.  Hope to finish up fairly soon now, but still have to mask the canopy, and it's got a lot of little windows.

CMK: That spinner looks fantastic! Some great masking work, as usual!

Ernie: your Stuka looks amazing as well!

Well, my replacement part finally arrived! I'm not happy with how the weathering in the cockpit turned out though, so I'll use the opportunity and repaint the entire thing. I'll try to keep you guys up to date on any progress i make...

That's not god having those on clear parts. Nice job fixing it.

Once I took a good look at the canopy, I noticed this.

Two nice little round circles moulded into the inside of the canopy.  I don't know if they are ejector pin marks, since they are raised, not sunken.

Anyway, it turned out for the best since I could sand down raised circles--but how do you fill sunken ones?  And, since they were inside, nothing damaged the moulded frame on the outside.

So I sanded and sanded and sanded some more, then polished everything with toothpaste, old t-shirt material and q-tips.  Finally got it some sort of presentable shape.

Greg

Thanks for the additional feedback re using the circle template, CMK.

GAF, that's a good idea, thank you. I'll have to try that.

Speaking of templates and drafting kits, I could swear I had a very thin metal shape template when I was in drafting in college. Before plastic was invented, perhaps? 

I might have to dig it out of storage and see if my mind is playing tricks on me.

Your mind is not playing tricks... maybe. 

You probably are thinking of an "Erasing Shield".

http://www.amazon.com/Westcott-ES-1-Erasing-Shield-3-5-X2-25/dp/B000YQIEB2/ref=sr_1_1/187-7898787-0351236?ie=UTF8&qid=1425435224&sr=8-1&keywords=erasing+shield

And French Curves... which have nothing to do with Gaulic Females....

Thanks for the additional feedback re using the circle template, CMK.

GAF, that's a good idea, thank you. I'll have to try that.

Speaking of templates and drafting kits, I could swear I had a very thin metal shape template when I was in drafting in college. Before plastic was invented, perhaps? 

I might have to dig it out of storage and see if my mind is playing tricks on me.

Greg,

You might also just try marking the circle out with a pencil, then cutting it out with scissors.  I have a nice, small pair of scissors for trimming.  Or you could place the tape flat on something like a glass pane and then cutting it with an X-Acto blade.

One other tool I have in my kit from my drafting days of long ago is a very nice compass (no, not the north/south variety!). 

Some god info there check. I need to get myself a circle template this week before I get to the wheels of my next armour build, but nice to know it will have other use's.

Thanks, Bish and Greg.  Appreciate it.  I'm relieved to have this part of the project done.  It was a real bottleneck to progress.

Being as I assume your new circle template is plastic, did you have any trouble keeping the blade from cutting into same during the cuts?

Actually, I did, Greg.  As much as possible, I tried to keep the blade angled away from the inside of the circle cut-out to minimize shaving the circle hole bigger or peeling off little bits of plastic.  That way, only the very tip of the point comes into much contact with the plastic template.  Sometimes I had to back off and try again.  I found it helps to make only a light cut--which meant using a new (i.e., very sharp) blade.

On reflection, I think I'll try taping the template down, to hold it in place on top of the masking tape.  For this first attempt I just used finger pressure--which (I found) can lead to slippage.

It's like most of the stuff we do around here--practice, practice.  So I guess I'll be practicing a lot with it.

Thanks again for the comments.