Time to start 72nd Stuka no 8. My 4th Fujimi build and second of their D’s. Made a start on the Stuka last weekend, this is the kit, i am doing the subject on the box art, S7+AA.
The instructions say it a D-1, but the photo’s clearly show the thicker armoured pilots windscreen of a D-3.
I’m useing an Eduard PE set along with a few other AM parts. The Aires resin pit designed for the Academy kit will fit in this, as i found out when i built a D-5, but as i had the Eduard set anyway, figured i would use it. The PE set is missing some detail thats in the resin one, but i’ll use some parts from the spares box to fill it out.
I got the PE parts fitted painted and dry brushed. Also drilled out the hole and fitted a quickboost resin compass.
I also got the wings together, cut out the molded landing light and fitted the guns. There are 2 options for the wing guns in the kit. One with exposed barrel tips for the D-1 and another with extended fairing and covered opening for the D-3. But photo’s show that both variants could have either. I am guessing the covered fairings are to stop dirt getting in to the barrels on take off, and the covers do seem to be fited more often to aircraft in dusty enviroments, such as the desert. The photo’s of the aircrfat i am doing are not that clear, but it does look more like the covered option so thats what i fitted.
Despite their age, they are nice kits, little lacking on detail and they are a touch on the large size. Its a pity Academy didn’t make the most of their Ju 87G molds and produce some D’s, but i have no issue with the Fujimi that can’t be over come.
I think these Fujimi kits were definitely ahead of their time. I think in the mid 80s most manufacturers were still fumbling with raised panel lines. I have their 1/48 Bf 110 and the cockpit is a little sparse but the exterior is beautiful and crisp. I know you’ll make this one look fantastic!
Thanks Chad, and i do agree. And while they may now have been surpassed by Academy and more recently Airfix, i certainly would not turn one down and as there are still a few more variants i need to get, i’ll be looking out for more of their kits or the Hobby2000 re-box.
Got most of the major parts fitted to the Stuka including fitting a quickboost compass and getting the wings on once the fuselage was together. No major fit issues as i expected.
Then got the canopy on and all the sub assemblies ready. As you can see i am leaving the undercarrage off. I’ve also learnt my lesson when it comes to adding actuators and airelon balances to soon, have had to scratch more of those than i care to remember, so i am painting them seperatly.
It got a primer coat yesterday followed by the undersides being painted, so will be able to mask off in a day or so.
And i just saw on Scalemates this morning that Special Hobby are re-boxing the lovely Academy G-2 into 2 seperate issues, a D-5 and a D-5N/D-8. Thats great news, hopfully they will do the same with the G-1 to produce a new D-1/D-3.
I started masking for the sand before i remembered to get some pics.
I then added the desert camo. Some profiles and the kit instructions have the sand right along the side. But photo’s don’t bear this out. My main referance, Classic Colours Luftwaffe Colours Stua Vol 2, has 3 decent pics of the left side along with a nice profile based on careful study of the photo’s. This only shows RLM 79 in 2 patches under the canopy. These patches seem to match the areas where extra armour was fitted to the D-3. But many aircraft, includeing this one, don’t have this armour. I am woundering if the ground crews may have removed it and patched it up with the 79. The kit instructions don’t match what little can be seen of the top of the left wing. So i went with a combination of the photo’s, instructions and guess work. There is no top down image of the tail, but there does seem to be any 79 there so i left that. The photo’s do show the 79 is well worn on the wing. So i replicated that (first time doing weathering like this on an aircraft) by dry brushing the enamel paints and then useing 502 oil paint, there German Orchre is quite a close match. I’m quite pleased with how its looking. I also added the white tail band.
I’m going to leave the oils to dry for anotehr couple of days then polish some rough areas and seal before adding the decals.
Actually i rather enjoyed it. This is my first desert Stuka so will make a nice change from the Euro schemes. I will use a coat of Alclad aqua gloss to deal the decals, but i use Xtracolour paint which is gloss so have not gloss coated it yet.
Looks great so far Bish! Thanks for sharing your lessons learned. Good point on holding off on the actuators and balances until later in the build. I have not built a Fujimi kit before but have a 1/48 Airfix Stuka in the stash. The last Ju-87 I built was probably over 40 years ago. I’m thinking about the desert scheme also. Looking forward to the finish.
I got the Stuka wrapped up this week. After some light weathering with Flory wash and exhaust staining it got the mat coat. I am very pleased with how the worn look to the sand paint came out. The instructions said to paint the spinner sand but of course it should be blue. And i used some AM decals for the wheel spats as the kit ones were white, and of course they should also be blue. The bomb load are Kora resin bombs. I was inspired by a photo of a banking D-5 on the Russian from from one of my books. It had this bomb load, SC250’s with fuze extender’s and the bombs were a mix of green and blue. I had to paint the white on the antenna mast as there are no decals for this.
And then onto its base with 4 figures and a Kubel.
