Ju 87 Stuka GB

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?

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

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,

Nathan T

Ahh gotcha. Thanks Mustang.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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...

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

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!

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...

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

Mike....That's a great paint job on your bird, I hope I can do as well with mine. Started priming it the other day but then I started running into issues with my airbrush and had to stop short. I'm using the MM grey enamel primer and the main colors will be MM acrylics so I'm hoping I won't have an issue with that.

I followed the previous mention links to Montex Masks and Victory Hobbies does have some in stock. Have anyone used the masks for their canopies and would you recommend it? I thought try those or use painters blue tape.

Scott

Archangel Shooter

Mike....That's a great paint job on your bird, I hope I can do as well with mine. Started priming it the other day but then I started running into issues with my airbrush and had to stop short. I'm using the MM grey enamel primer and the main colors will be MM acrylics so I'm hoping I won't have an issue with that.

I followed the previous mention links to Montex Masks and Victory Hobbies does have some in stock. Have anyone used the masks for their canopies and would you recommend it? I thought try those or use painters blue tape.

Scott

Their canopy masks seem to work pretty well. Burnish them down well and handle them little as possible. Don't use blue painter's tape.

Mike, damn, that's not good about the canopy, but I know you can sort it, and its looking great.

Greg, no problem, look forward to seeing it. I hope to get the 144 G kit wrapped up this week.

Nathan: I'm sorry to hear about that landing light giving you trouble. Your Stuka is looking fantastic though!

Mike: That's some mighty fine work on the paint job, weathering and decals! I'm sure you'll get your canopy issues sorted out and I wish you the best of luck with it!

Bish: Thanks a bunch for the extention! I've made some progress on my Stuka, but nothing worth showing. That Aires cockpit really takes a lot of time to paint with all the little details they provide you with. I'm not complaining (it's been a lovely office to paint so far), but I'm simply overwhelmed by the quality of those resin parts...

Good to hear you have made a start. having only use 72nd Aires cockpit sets, I can only guess on the level of detail in the 32nd one, I will be looking forward to some pics and paying close attention.

You better be prepared to wait a little while longer... I want to try using some new weathering techniques and that takes quite some time because I don't want to screw this up

Thanks Nathan, Bish and Clemens. I just located a source for Microscale Trim Film in Aus and placed an order for an A4 sheet of clear.I would have had to order at least $20 worth of stock to order direct from the US, but fortunately I can get what I need for $5, postage included. It may be here before the weekend, if it is I'll take a shot at making up strips for this darned canopy at that point. I the meantime, I'm finishing a Corsair, I just clearcoated over the midnight blue and will be onto decals shortly...

M/TB379

Whee are you building this Corsair at? I'm building one too in the Pacific Carrier GB. A 1/48 Revellogram at that (psst....don't tell anybody) lol. Man you've gotta pull out ALL the stops on getting one of those baby's built halfway decently.

Hi Mustang -- not in a GB, it's the Tamiya Corsair I put together several years ago for the Corsair GB, intending to do an El Salvadorean bird in Aztec markings, but for simplicity I decided on VF-84. I started decals today but for the third or four time this year the kit sheet has gone and failed on me -- they're way too shatter-prone, I can't use them (pity, they're very thing and very white.) Fortunately, I have an Aeromaster sheet for VF-84 in the stash (though not the same individual aircraft) and will change to that one tomorrow, though it doesn't feature backgrounded insignia, and it seems Corsairs used mainly backgrounded stars -- though I used unbackgrounded stars on a bird I did about three years ago and it looked great... If the Aeromasters go on well, I may remove the Tamiya decals already applied, they should come away cleanly enough with solvent and tape...

Oh, I got confirmation that the clear decal film is already in the post, I'm hoping to have it Friday, so I can get back to the Stuka. this evening I'm brush painting cockpit details on a pair of P-51s... You gotta stay at it, that's for sure!

M/TB379