Ju-87G2

Dry fit here. Still some bits to add like stick, seat and some levers. Nicely detailed kit, but the Quinta decals are doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.

Disassembled. Qunita decals look really good, even if the small ones are fiddly to apply.

Making progress. The wing spars are nice and stout and are a real help in setting the angle of the gull wing. Just guessing on the colors of the RDF antenna behind the gunner seat, but it adds a splash of color.

Didn't really realize how big this beast was in 1/32 until I test fit the wings. Really like the engineering of this kit. Fit overall has been pretty good so far. The inner wing panels won't need much attention and only a little bit of a gap where the outer wings join them. A few sink marks need attention and the main fuselage halves have a bit of a seam but nothing major.

Basic construction done, it's huge. Fit was only so-so. The plastic is quite soft and the large pieces had warped somewhat so they required some wrestling.

The dive flaps are a weak point. Replaced the plastic actuators with brass rod since they were so weak and a little out of scale. The inner flap rod was not replaced since it and a tiny tab are the only thing holding it on. It's going to be tough not to break them off during painting.

The cannon pods are little models in and of themselves. Here's one with the doodle coat finished. Undercoat with red primer and some hairspray for chipping.

More doodle coat.

Well, the chipping didn't go well, chipped right down to bare plastic. I suppose I should have used Mr. Surfacer under the red primer. Just took the loss and repainted and added minor weathering, more to follow. The RLM70 or RLM71 will be added to the top front during main painting.

Main construction finished. Mr. Surfacer, LP-11 with a matt coat to hopefully keep "chip-through" to a minimum and some good old Suave hairspray with some preshading, now on to the undercoat.

I still can't get over how big this bird is. That's an A-20 fuselage in 1/48 back there for comparison (which would be farther along if the Eduard PE wasn't driving me crazy).

Doodle coat finished, that took a while.

Going to add some lighter spots with a splatter template before doing the blend coat.

Main painting done. Pretty pleased with how the variation of the undercoat shows through.

Chipping started portside. Will tone down the recognition markings a bit with some post shading and oils.

Little more detail on the chipping. It's a slow process but you can get some really nice effects. A dark wash and some oils should make it stand out more.

Decals on and flat coated. The decals were fairly old and cracked some. The nose spiral had to be masked and painted as the decal just disintegrated. Actually for the best as it allowed for some chipping to match the rest of the machine.

Underside, basic RLM65. Also ended up painting the yellow/RLM04 wing ID bands.

Learned my lesson and went light on the blend coat so all the work on the doodle coat came through. Closing in on the finish line, finally. Just some oil work, exhausts, rigging and wheels yet to be finished.

Cannon pods (sans barrels) added, wheels installed and finally the prop. Light touch with the oils and we're almost done. Balance weights broken off port wing of course, still need to reattach those but waiting until almost the end.

Prop looks decent. No chipping because I understand they were some sort of laminate? At least the painted nose spiral looks the part.

Pods were chipped a bit. I think they were made in a different factory, so the chipping shows red oxide primer, not silver/aluminum.

Starboard pod detail. Still need to add some exhaust streaks and pigments.

Pretty pleased how the the camo and chipping came out. 👍

Rigging, pitot tube, some dust pigment and another light flat coat to seal everything and it should be done, except for the 37mm barrels of course.

Calling this one complete.

The Stuka is distinctive but the cannon pods just make it look even cooler. 👍

Turned out to be a little more work than anticipated, but pleased overall with how it came out.

Kommentare

51 12 January, 22:24

CaptGPF
Love the cockpit details - is it safe to assume this will be done with the canopy open?

3 February, 17:08

John
Hi Capt, thanks for the comments and likes. 👍

I would dearly like to keep the canopy open but it may not be possible. For whatever reason, Hasegawa designed it to be closed only, at least the front canopy. I could fabricate some rails no problem, but the issue is that the main canopy is too narrow to fit over the fixed section right behind it. I saw a build where they managed it, but it spread the canopy so much that stress cracks appeared in the plastic! I will probably just end up not gluing it so that it can at least be removed to show all the Quinta detail. At least it fits very well closed with no gaps.

3 February, 17:37