1/48 Hasegawa Ju-87 B-2 "Stuka" (FINISHED)...

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Hello all, I decided to shelve my Dauntless temporarily and switch gears to perhaps the first legitimate terror weapon, the Ju-87 Stuka. Its one of those subjects I’ve always wanted to build, particularly a Battle of Britain version complete with the “Jericho Trumpet”. It may have been no match for them Spits and the Canes, but it sure looked (and sounded) menacing. Bish’s Stuka Group Build prompted my enthusiasm about this subject and I found one on E-bay reasonably priced. So here I go. I figured not everyone followed the Group builds (guilty [whstl]), so I would post a WIP thread here as well.

For this project I procured a Quickboost seat(s). I may still add wheels and guns…we’ll see. I procured Superscale sheet (#48-0833) which has two B-1s and a B-2 from the summer and fall of 1940. On a side note, I’m curious as to why most Stuka decal sheets represent B-2s from the Russian front? Was the B-2 not used over England in 1940? If not, Perhaps I’l back date the kit. My research said the main difference is the exhausts and the radiator flaps under the chin. I also read that “late B-1” Stukas had the exhausts upgraded to the B-2 versions? Any help here would be great for I am not Stuka expert. Understand that “close enough” is good enough for me, so I’m not too worried about a panel line here or vent there…

I thought the cockpit on the kit was okay…not great, but okay. I’ve seen much worse. Lately I’ve been on a trend of using out of the box 'pits that are hard to see, perhaps to save time, dough and energy. The Dauntless, which is similar in design, proved this to me. I wsn’t gonna spend more than I paid for the kit on an Aires cockpit (I just called you out Aires…lower those prices…100 bones for a P-51 detail set is just silly…I’ll stick with True Details and Ultracast…end of tangent rant[:@]). Besides,careful painting could go along way right? I figured with this guy I would just replace the seat and be done with it. Its the main focal point of the cockpit anyways. There is a kit supplied decal for the instrument panel. I decided I would use that too. Here I laid out all of the cockpit pieces before I dove in…

I got alot of positive feedback on my step-by-step cockpit detailing on my recent Dauntless WIP thread. I figured I would do the same again, except with a German cockpit this time.

I started by spraying everything XF-1 Flat Black. This allows for shadowing when the interior color is added. My research showed that German 'pits were RLM 02 during the Battle of Britain then changed to RLM 66 sometime in 1941. I used Gunze Aqueous RLM 02 thinned with X-20 for this.

Then its detail painting time. My method involves Tamiya paints dipped into 91% Isoprophyl. The alcohol makes it dry very fast and prevents streaking. Here I painted the boxes and such XF-69 NATO Black.

Here you can see that the Quickboost seat(s) are very nice. I painted the seatbelts XF-57 Buff and the hardware with Floquil Bright Silver on a fine brush. Sometimes I use a silver Sharpie for the silver.

Here’s the 'pit is drybrushed with Floquil Bright Silver (Enamel) detail painted, to include some knobs and switches picked out in red,yellow, and blue. It now gets a coat of Testor’s Gloss Coat for a wash barrier.

Once dry, perhaps an hour or so, it gets a Detailer wash. I use a brown and black mixed. I think this stuff is the best thing since sliced bread. Just slop it on…wait a couple of minutes…then rinse it off with water to your liking.

After the wash has been removed. You can scrub off as much as you want. To my eye, this is about right. As a side note, I lost the gun sight and dash handle bar thingy somehow, so the replacement sight is from a Hasegawa Bf 109 and the bar thingy was scratch built from styrene (see lower right below)

Sealed with a Testors dull coat thusly…

…and after a light post shading, we are finished. The instrument panel is the kit decal soaked in Micro Sol. After the dull coat, I added a drop of epoxy to simulate the glass lenses

The nice part of out of the box 'pits…the fuselage usually closes without a fuss. Here’s a test fit.

…and there’s my Luftwaffe cockpits in a nut shell.

More to come soon.

Joe

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lawdog114,

Excellent WIP’s and explanation on your techniques!

The cockpit looks great, I agree isopropyl alcohol is the best thinner for acrylic paints. It encourages you to work fast with the quick dry time.

Although the Ju 87 Stuka is excellent the volume of posts makes scrolling through for tips & techniques a daunting endeavor.

Thanks for posting, looking forward to the rest of your build!

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Thanks a lot. I’m glad someone gets use out of them…

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I suspect you’d be hard pressed to find someone who did NOT find them useful. Tips aside, I can tell that quite a bit of thought goes into each photo. Clean background, well centered subject, product placement in the background and the tool used in that particular segment included in the photo… It’s all very well done and informative.

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Great start on the Stuka, Joe!!

Steve

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Thanks folks. CN, that’s nice to hear… Thank you

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You are building many of the kits I have in my stash. It would seem we have similar tastes. I’ll let you build them first and then I’ll have a step by step to follow on mine. All I can do is attempt what you already do well.

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Agreed Brandon. It’s nice to have you along for the ride. Thanks for the kind words too.

Joe

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Glad to see you doing this as a WiP as well. Really nice work on the pit and a nice little tut as well.

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More questions… but these should be easy to answer (I hope). First off, how do you know what angles/sides to spray the base color at to get the shadows to look right (or what angles do you find yourself painting the most)? Second, when you cut the Tamiya paint with IPA, do you dip your brush in the paint first and then the IPA last? Probably some very amateur questions but… that’s what I am [:$]

Oh yeah! I’m still watching your threads and praying some day I’ll build a model to the same standards… keep the great work coming

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There’s no amateur questions, thats what the forum is for. We were all amateurs at one time. It’s just a matter of finding techniques that work for you. I dont really have an angle. I just sort of shade it in until ill looks right. If I were to say angle, it would be downward I guess. Yes, I just dip in the alcohol and paint with the brush on the pallet until I’m happy with the consistency.

…and thank you for the kind words.

Joe

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Remember this WIP?..lol. I’m finally in for an update. I’ve been chuggin’ away at this turkey. A litte here and there. This time of year bench time is scarce…couple hours here…couple hours there. Anyways. First, I didn’t like the black hole of a landing light, so I decided to fabricate one. I blanked off the hole with styrene and painted it black. I sliced off a piece of sprue to simulate the lens and then drilled out the center to simulate a bulb in there. I painted the “lens” silver and put 5 minute epoxy on it to make it shiny like glass. (I got this idea from someone in the Stuka GB so I shant take credit…[:$]

That looks like a light yeah?

Here I test fitted everything. It looks like the Hasegawa wing root gaps will be on coffee break for this build, however, that engine attachment will be hurtful. Here I attached it temporarily with Blue Tac…

I started with the wing to fuselage attachment. Here is how I do my wing root issues. It also solves gap issues…works just about everytime. Pull the wings to the root with a strip of masking tape THEN Tenax the seam. Dont do it before or the clamping pressure will cause it to ooze out making your life difficult. Leave it to dry.

As I expected, I had a gap where the engine piece attached to the fuselage (the diagonal panel line). Unless the real thing was supposed to look this way, which is certainly possible, this area needed work. I filled the gap with styrene rod and sanded it smooth. I them rescribed the lines back in with a sewing needle in a pin vice. What a PITA this was. Its not perfect but it looks much better than before. For future builds, Does anyone know if this area has a gap on the real thing? Everything else fit great. I built the spats and dryfitted them. These fit great. It was at this time I saw the “hood scoop” on the upper nose looked deformed on the port side…I panicked. Then I realized it was supposed to look like that. [8-)]

I pre-shaded the panel lines in XF-1 Flat Black. As I said, the spats are just dryfitted. I’m going to paint them first and add them later. I think it will be easier to fit the wheels in. I still may go with resin wheels. I’ll have to see how the kit wheels look built up and painted first. Note the Jericho Trumpet. It was going on there whether my subject had one or not…

I then started on the lower surface RLM 65. This is half XF-23 Light Blue and half XF-2 Flat White. The paint was then lightened with more XF-2 and I streaked the lower surfaces.

It was then grimed it up a bit with a post shade. Its XF-69 NATO Black and XF-64 Red Brown heavily diluted with 91 % Isoprophl Alcohol. I keep it pre-mixed in the glass jar pictured. I’ll add more paint or alcohol as needed. I get all panel lines at the control surfaces, around the engine and aft. It just adds another dimension to the otherwise boring blue. It will probably get more in the way of exhaust streaking later.

The middle B-2 (STG 3) is going to be my likely scheme (subject to change of course, especially if something better comes along). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t think Battle of Britain Stukas had fuselage stripes.

That looks like a hard demarcation line on the fuselage, but maybe a soft one from the wing leading edge forward. Eventhough its a drawing, I figure Superscale did some research. Anyways, the rear was taped of and the front got BlueTac. I then used Gunze Aqueous for the RLM 71 thinned with Tamiya X-20. I think Gunze has really nailed the RLM colors.

I then added XF-57 Buff to the paint and make condensation streaks on the wings. The Buff is a good choice for green or brown colors. Its seems a bit much here, but this will be toned down considerably after all of the other steps. This is where I left off.

I hope to tape off the splinters and paint the RLM 70 soon…

Joe

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I’m loving the build. I think I’m going to use this paint technique on my P-51B so I get some good fading and weathering without too much dirt, if you know what I mean. This thing is awesome. I will use some of this when I finally build mine, but I promise not to copy yours. I gotta be different.

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Lawdog, thanks for these WIP posts, I have learned so many great techniques! Keep them coming!

I’m getting anxious to start using many of these techniques, but bench time is hard to come by right now.

Anyways, the Stuka looks amazing, looking forward to following this WIP until it’s finished.

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Thanks folks.

I’m checking in with an update. I’ve been in school all week and among other home improvement things (wife made me paint the living room), modeling time has been limited. I get an hour here and an hour there. I figured I would accumulate some progress before I posted anything. I did manage to get my mits on a Three Guys Replicas sheet that has a bonafide Battle of Britain Stuka on it from STG2, I’m going to build the top subject in lieu of the one on the Super Scale sheet which turned out to be inaccurate.

I left off with the RLM 71 application. I taped off the splintering with Tamiya tape (cheap masking tape as filler) then applied the Gunze RLM 70. I added a smidge of XF-57 Buff and I added condensation streaks in the same manner as with the RLM 71. The decal sheet appears to show the spinner all RLM 70, but most references I’ve seen show that the forward portion of the spinner was yellow on this plane. I taped it off and painted it accordingly.

The frame then got a post shade of my normal diluted concoction, primarily around the guns and engine area.

It was then gloss coated in preparaton for decals. Here I have the spats completed as well. They will get “Yellow H” decals.

After a few mishaps of my own doing (accidentally wrinkled a wing insignia with my pinky) I had no issues. TGR decals are very nice.

I decided to paint the insignia markings on the dive brakes in lieu of the provided decals. I’m happy with the results.

I did procure True Details wheels, Quickboost guns, and Ultracast exhausts for this project. The TD wheels need something to grb the spat, so I used styrene rod to fit into the holes in the spat.

Some sources say the centerline SC 500 was “light blue”. I mixed my own shade. If anyone has better better bomb painted info, I’m all ears.

It shouldn’t be too long now…

Joe

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Sweet Stuka Joe!! Paint and decals look great!

Steve

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Thanks Steve. I hope to get it finished soon,

Joe

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Joe - looking very smart, and great call on painting the cross insignia portion on the dive breaks.

regards,

Jack

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That’s more fine work Joe! Your models are always impressive, no matter where I see them.[;)] I don’t always post because my comments seem redundant, but I guess they’re not really…each of your builds is worthy of superlatives!

Gary

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Thanks Jack and Gary. Gary, your words are always appreciated and welcome.