Ju 87 Stuka GB

Teddz, that probably more that what would usually be allowed for a started kit, but seeing as you have just joined the forum, I think it would be harsh to turn it away, so welcome aboard.

I have not come across this boxing of the D-5 before. What marking options come with that.

Your now added to the roster alongside Shooters 24th B kit.

thanks :)

markings for the following

Stab. I./SG5 Jan 1944 & Stab. III./SG1 Winter 1943-1944

I'll be marking it up for the Stab.I./SG5 since it's the nicer of the two.

Interesting. I was thinking about getting the other D-5, but this could be a nice option.

And I almost forget, welcome to your first GB.

From now on, escape is impossible.

Teddz, welcome aboard. Is that the 1/48 Hasegawa kit? or 1/32?

Thunderbolt- Thats a really nice looking cockpit. The darker wash came out perfect. I find it hard to weather a cockpit painted in RLM 02. Its just so light a color.

1/32... I find WW2 aircraft are just better at 1/32 scale. 1/48 is too small.

Teddz

1/32... I find WW2 aircraft are just better at 1/32 scale. 1/48 is too small.

So 1/72nd is a definite no no then

1/72 only if it's a bomber and even then it's on the small side. I have 2 aircraft at that scale... an Avro Lancaster and a B-17. They're ok, but small.

I have a 1:48 F-4U corsair that's pretty good on detail, but it's so small... It gets lost next to the 1:32 models.

There's also a 1/32 P-47D and a 1/8 P-47 Razorback that are awaiting building and detailing. I just find the detailing on larger scale aircraft easier.

Zvezda -- nice looking Italeri! I see the artwork features bombs on all five stations -- was this correct? I thought I read somewhere that it would be the heavy bomb on the centreline station or the lighter ones on the wing racks, but not both...

Teddz, welcome aboard, and like Bish says, once into group builds it's tough to get out!

Nathan T -- thanks, it was Flory Dark Dirt brushed over the 02, and I added some brown oil wash in a few places.

It's early morning in Aus and I'll be pressing on with the Stuka today.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Teddz, welcome to your first GB!

Svezda, I'm back to drooling a little again, this time about your pre-shade work. Sweet.

Mike, that office is looking grand, mate.

Thanks, Greg! It's not so dressy compared to come in this GB, but may be my most detailed pit yet.

Well, the pit is complete today, I added the harness from etch, and mounted the sidewalls. Here she is at that point:

I then closed up the fuselage and dressed the joints. I mounted the instrument panel to the coaming and added it, and my target for tomorrow is to add the small part under the front end of the fuselage, dress the joints and tackle the landing light scratch work on the wing. I thought it best to do that before joining the major subassemblies. After that, I should quickly have main construction complete.

M/TB379

Mike: That's a nice question, that got me thinking of several parameters .

The kit supplies one 500 kg (1.100 pound) and four 50kg (110 pound) bombs.

As the B-2 had a maximum bomb load capacity of 2.205 pounds, theoretically it could carry the full set of five bombs. The configuration, I suppose, eventually depended on the required range of the mission .

A typical range/bomb load combination was 370 miles / 1.000 lbs bomb load (see pages from Squadron's book, below).

I cannot find any data of what the range would be for a full bomb load of 1.540 lbs. Let us make a rather pessimistic approach and assume it drops to half, approx 180 miles.

And now let's go to the comments of...

Bish: From what I have understood during research, Argos was certainly occupied and used by Sturzkampfgeschwader's from late April 1941.

As the attack on Crete was building up, Fliegerkorps VIII moved Stukas to hastily prepared airstrips in Molaoi and in Milos island, southwest and to the big Italian airfield on the island of Karpathos,southeast. The location confusion gets even worst!!!

For the plane I want to build of III Gruppe / StG.77, the only clear source I have found is this link:  http://www.ww2.dk/air/attack/stg77.htm , claiming that the Gruppe was stationed in Argos for May and early June 1941 (period of the battle).  I cannot verify the full validity of this.

Argos lies 270 km (168 miles) from the closest target, Chania - Suda Port vincinity (see map), which is marginal but within the full-loaded range estimated above.

So there is a great possibility that III/StG.77 planes took off from base, fully loaded with 1+4 bombs, in order to hit targets during the Battle of Crete.

That's how I am going to depict the machine. Basically I would so, even if it was way off range, because I like those hanging bombs very much .

The last photo, of a StG.2 machine (they probably operated from Molaoi, much closer to target) clearly shows both 500kg and 50kg bombs waiting to be loaded.

Enough with my techno-operational rumbling.

Cheers

Zvezda -- that's a nice b it of technical deduction! Well, inside the range for full bombload... It turns out the markings in mine are for a Stab III/StG. 77 bird, so they'd be flying the same attack route. Hmm, maybe a full load is warranted! Now to work out the colour for them...

Cheers, M/TB379

With my calculations, let's hope we don't swim our way back

A good deduction indeed. Its highly possible that the HQ remains at Argos while aircraft operated from closer airfields as needed. The problem with operating from these Island airfields is that the Germans would have had to get supplies, namely bombs and fuel, out there, at a time when all the transports were needed for mercury itself. While the closer airfields would seem logical, shorter flying time and quicker turn around of aircraft, the problems it caused may well have cancelled those out. One likely possibility could be that the closer airfields were used as emergency landing strips for damaged aircraft. Argos seems by far the most sensible option.

Now she's looking like a Stuka!

I went ahead and got the wings and stabilizers glued on using testor tube glue and good ol' super glue, I wound up snapping off the tail wheel in the process but it's a clean break and a easy fix. I do have a few gaps which will need to be filled but it's slowly coming together.

I set the engine in the mounts to check the fit and it looks like I may have some issues with the upper cowling but I will most likely have all the cowlings off to showcase the engine.

One thing for sure, she's a big girl!

Scott

Archangel Shooter

Now she's looking like a Stuka!

Not just a Stuka,  a really BIG Stuka, Scott!

I was kinda hoping you'd leave to engine cowling(s) off or opened or removable (whatever works) to show off that great detail!

Yo Scott, I have a question (an imposition, really).

Do you happen to have a shot including the rudder pedals of your big bird?

Reason I ask is I'm a bit put off at how they install on my kit. They appear unrealistically close to the IP, extending straight down from the back side of it. Thinking of making a stand off for them, but that's another story. Just curious how they look in relationship to the IP on your big bird.

I have no idea why I am obsessing over this so. Nobody will ever see them on my 1/48th kit anyway.

And speaking of rudder pedals on Stukas, anyone happen to know if the floor window box thingie is actually supposed to be in between the rudder pedals? I've looked for pics, no joy.

Sorry about the 3 posts in a row, guys.

Awesome, Angel! I once heard it called the best model kit ever produced, that would be in the late 70s. It sure looks good!

The window thing has me puzzled too!

Scratching the landing light today...

M/TB379

Greg

Do you happen to have a shot including the rudder pedals of your big bird?

HI Greg!

Here's a couple of pics that I found off the internet which I used as an reference aid. It also gives a view of the boxed  window on the floor, it is positioned just fwd and under the rudder pedals.

Hope the pics help. With the Airfix bird in this scale I can really get stuck wanting to add so much to it I find myself getting burned out but this kit, though old for it's time is still a pretty good one even for some of the sink holes and fit issues. I can recommend the kit  just because it is so easy to add details to enhance her which most of it will not be lost from view when done.

I'm trying to figure out that L/H fuselage window too. It's the panel area for the first aid kit but the kit part represents it as a glass panel???? Unless I find something to the contrary, I will paint it over.

Scott

Now that is one sweet looking Stuka Shooter, she is coming along wonderfully.

Greg, on most kits I have seen, the window is replicated by engrave lines usually just being the engine cowling.

Scott, those reference pics are AWESOME! Thanks, Man! Wow, those Luftwaffe pilots didn't have much foot room. Lots of junk to maneuver past just to get the toesies in the stirrups.

The rudders are further aft (or nearer to directly under the IP face) than I would have thought possible. But the pics don't lie. I also notice the rudders are spaced quite a bit more apart than my kit pedals. I had suspected that.

That's the best pic of the floor window I've seen. My Eduard PE assy sits too high, and I had suspected that too. Hmmm, do I have it in me to carve a hole in the floor of my otherwise complete cockpit? Thinking not at the moment. :)

Wish could help you with the LH fuselage window. Not quite sure what you are referring to.

Thanks again!

Bish, thanks for your input. It isn't depicted at all on my stock Italeri. I had to do some digging to figure out what the PE part was depicting. At least I learned something. :)

Bish, yet, despite all  those difficulties, the Germans managed to construct, set up and fully equip/supply the southern airfield at Molaoi before the start of the attack. Me-109's and Ju-87's operated from there hammering Crete. Testimonies reveal that the airfield was a hive of activity during the battle.

The photos below are from that airfield during the battle (mostly Me-109's shown). In the first picture one can spot a Stuka taking off.

I remember that, according to his own book,  H.U Rudel was also assigned to Molaoi for the battle, at the beginning of his combat career.

These are some nice ideas for dioramas by the way, with Stukas and Me-109's and maybe a captured British vehicle carrying bombs and fuel...

Not a lot of action on the Stuka today, I filed back the landing light bay and plated it with .010" plasticard, that was it... Landing light to fabricate tomorrow, then add the clear part. (Apologies, not a great photo.)

M/TB379

That's a cool idea for a landing light. I added one as well. I just couldn't stand a lens over an empty hole.

Scott, I was wondering the color used on the prop. It looks like something other than flat black. Almost a greenish hue. Either way it looks great as do all the other bits. Great job!

Zvezda1980

Bish, yet, despite all  those difficulties, the Germans managed to construct, set up and fully equip/supply the southern airfield at Molaoi before the start of the attack. Me-109's and Ju-87's operated from there hammering Crete. Testimonies reveal that the airfield was a hive of activity during the battle.

The photos below are from that airfield during the battle (mostly Me-109's shown). In the first picture one can spot a Stuka taking off.

I remember that, according to his own book,  H.U Rudel was also assigned to Molaoi for the battle, at the beginning of his combat career.

These are some nice ideas for dioramas by the way, with Stukas and Me-109's and maybe a captured British vehicle carrying bombs and fuel...

Molaoi would have defiantly been an option. In my last post, I was mainly referring to the island airfield just off Crete, I can't recall its name now. No doubt the Germans were moving lots of supplies forward throughout the invasion of Greece and the Germans had a god 3 weeks to build up supplies prior to Mercury. I like your idea for a dio, I imagine there would have been plenty of captured equipment to use.

mikeymize

Scott, I was wondering the color used on the prop. It looks like something other than flat black. Almost a greenish hue. Either way it looks great as do all the other bits. Great job!

Mikey.. for the prop blade color I used Model Master Acrylic #4780   Schwarzgrun (Black Green) RLM 70   I have read that is the color of choice by Luftwaffe modelers to do the props in.

Greg...if you take a look at the latest pic I posted, you will see the window panel just aft of the gunner area 2/3rd up the fuselage. I know the panel is access to the First Aid kit but I though it was metal, Airfix is depicting it as glass.

Hi guys, progress today has seen the landing light fabricated. Here's the assembly with the light lens added (it's made from a dome-ended piece of sprue, cut off flush to create a hemisphere, and everything filed down to fit):

The bay was painted RLM 02, the light chrome silver and finished with a drop of Future, not that it shows here:

Thanks to my sister for the macro close-ups!

Now, attach the transparency, and press on with construction.

M/TB379