Ju 87 Stuka GB

"Scott: That's a nice looking plane so far bud. Can you stick something in the pic like a coffee cup or even your hand so we can see just how big this thing is? I can only imagine at this point."

HI Mustang! Here's a couple of comparison pics using my still un-finished  Monogram 1/48 Stuka.

At 1/24th scale, she's a BIG BIRD! and it's been fun to work with even for being an Airfix kit.

Has for my spinner painting efforts. I first painted it flat white. There was a slight circular indentation around the spinner where the white stripe would start so I used that as a guide for masking. I hit it with the flat red then I masked off the white stripe and painted the forward spinner black. Just needed to do a little touch up here and there with it. I was looking at using the spinner stripes from the FW-190 sheet but it looks like I don't need to.

Still need to hit the bottom with Pledge and wrap up with the decals, then add the lower sub-assemblies. I'm nearly there, starting to see that light at the end of the build.

Impressive!  Nice work!

Geez shooter, large is an understatement. That thing is HUGE! I can just imagine the size of my Bandai 1/24 George.

So glad you posted a size comparison pic. Wow, that IS big!

Nice job on the spinner, mate.

Wow!  That things big enough for an RC model!

I think I can fit her into one of my glass case bookcases below the 1/24th FW-190. Would be great if Airfix were to redo the bird as a Ju-87G, I would certainly jump on that.

A 24th G would certainly be on my to buy list. But I think our best chance of that will be Trumpeter as it would not take much to convert there D kit, when it finally comes out, into a G-1.

WOW Scott, that thing is huge. I think I might need to move house before starting mine. can't wait to get yours added to the front page, she look sweet indeed.

The finish line is getting closer with each little progress I make. The bombs were attached to their hardpoints.

The SC1000 package was given a wash of burnt umber and paynes gray oil paint to dirty it up a bit. The trapeze was painted dark steel. It looks weird painted sky blue as most would have gone with a black or a dark grey but the Luftwaffe directives called out for the blue color as evidenced in that link I found.

For the landing light I used a gemstone from a set I have from Hobby Lobby. They are self stick and come in assorted sizes and colors.

Picked out the one that looks right and secured it with a dab of Aleene's.

With the clear cover on and secured the light looks pretty close to the prototype. The wing gun muzzles were drilled with a miniature drill bit. 

Greta work there PJ. Theres some nice detail in the kit with the clamps for the bomb. Was the target viewing window already open on that kit.

Thanks Bish. Yes the window is opened and the clear part  sort of a triangle is included and masked (with the Eduard mask set) and secured inside the fuselage forward under the pilot seat but can't be seen cause of the angle. I'm very happy with the overall fit of all the parts requiring no filler. The included decals are a whole different story.

Bish

Here is a picture of the instruction sheet showing the installation of the window.

Now that's a useful image. the only 72nd kit I have seen with the window open is the SH kit I built for this GB. And the Fujimi and academy you have to cut it out. In 72nd scale having something like that j26 part would be a waist of time, but in your scale you can see the shape of it from the outside. Might have to consider installing something like that in 32nd and 24th. Thanks for that.

Bish

You really can't see anything either inside the pit or on the underside cause of the steep angle on part J26. Part K-3 is buried inside the fuselage away from sight. At 1/24 may be a bit easier to see.

Outstanding, PJ.  The 1/72 Airfix effort is much less detailed.  No bomb-aiming window. 

The window is easy to see in 1/24, tried to take a pic of it through the cockpit but just can't get the exposure right, comes out too dark even with the flash.

Thanks CM.

I shot the entire plane with clear flat acrylic and then gave it a light colored wash as a fading filter. That North African sun was harsh on the paint so fading and bleaching would be present.

Some staining, chipping  and more weathering is next.

Looks good PJ, good idea about the wash.

Shooter, I will certainly look into that on the 24th kit.

That fading looks exactly right, PJ.  Your skills are showing!!  Really prime work!

And here's some progress I've made in 1/72.

Cut an arc using my bright, shiny-new circle template.  It took a couple of attempts to get thing even close to workable.

Applied it to the spinner which I'd previously painted white, masked the lower portion of the spinner.

Added the red.

Masked that and stuck the thing upside in a mess of ticky-tack on a bottle cap for handing.  Painted that.

And the final result after some re-masking the red, and spraying some white touch up to even things out; followed by some very minor brush touch up.

Enlarged this much, the demarcation lines look a little rough, but from normal viewing distance, in this scale it is not evident.

Should mention that before I sprayed the red and schwarzgruen, I sprayed around the mask with white paint to seal things as much as possible and prevent paint bleeding under the mask.

Very much appreciated learning this technique.  It was new to me, and I'll be practicing with it to refine my skill with it.  

Now that's nice check, defiantly going to have to file that one away for future use.

Ernie, fading would make sense down in that sun. Really looks good!

CMK, holy cow, what a great job. And in 1/72 no less. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and post the step by step. I'm really impressed.

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?

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.

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.

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!). 

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

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....

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.

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

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...

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.