"Snakes On A Plane"...Luftwaffe Style (Zvezda 1/72 Ju87 'Snap Fit')

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Let me start by saying I am fully aware that current scholarship is pretty sure that St.G 2’s snake designs were rendered with sand-colored patches, not red. In answer to this, I will cite two facts: first, those were the decals I had…and second…I remember being a wide-eyed thirteen-year-old when the Revell 1/32 Stuka was first released back in 1969, with that eye-popping, ‘holy cow’ Jack Leynwood painting of the red and white snake marking on the box…so all these years later, my ‘little kid’ brain is still okay with that! (Besides, I have both 1/48 and 1/32 ‘proper’ decals ‘in the bag,’ to do historically-acurate versions in larger scales in due time.)

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Despite being labeled as a ‘snap fit’ kit, the Zvezda offering is a little gem: petitely-rendered molding, satisfyingly-complete cockpit detail and excellent fit overall. The only semi-shortcoming is the canopy; though thin, beautifully-molded and crystal-clear, it’s all a single-piece, except for the separate, circular ‘fishbowl’ insert at the rear gunner’s position; here the fit is a bit dodgy, and because of the small size and architecture of the two parts, it’s challenging to get a precise fit.

On the plus side, the kit supplies both bombs and optional drop-tanks for the wing pylons, allowing easy modeling of the longer-range Ju87R variant which proved useful in the North African campaign. It didn’t supply an option for the deeper ‘tropical’ air intake on the starboard cowling; I fudged a little ‘extender’ to approximate that feature.

Paints were mixes of Tamiya acrylics for the standard 70/71/65 RLM splinter scheme, and for the early-ish Italian ‘Giallo Mimetico’ overpainting to adapt it to a more desert-suitable camouflage. Decals were from a company I’d never heard of before – ‘Crazy Modelers’ – which I believe I picked up at the old ‘Great Models’ going-out-of-business sale, years back. Quality was excellent, with snakes and national insignia laying down without a hitch; the Zvezda sheet supplied a few useful stencils, and some other lettering was sourced from spares.

A fun build. I heartily recommend the Zvezda kit to all Luftwaffe and Stuka fans.

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That looks spectactular. I’ve always liked that one with the giant snake, but the size of that decal scares me somthing fierce.

BK

Nice job. I need a Stuka in the collection. I do like the big red snake!

Thanks, guys!

Hey, not all that scary, in 1/72 it’s only 4 and a half inches long. [:D]

I agree when it comes to the sand colored snake but red sure does look striking! You did a great job on this one.

Very nice build. [t$t]

Jim [cptn]

Stay Safe.

Thats come out really well, the red does look much nicer. I have a set of AM decals for one of these Struka’s and that has the red as well.

I can’t make out the shape of the air intake, does this kit come with options for that part.

Only thing i will add is that this aircraft was a B-2 and so would not have the drop tanks.

Thanks, Bish.

The kit didn’t have the option for the trop air intake; I reshaped a bit of Evergreen square tubing to approximate that shape.

I found it split about 50/50 among ‘authoritative sources’ whether this particular bird was a B-2 or an -R; since the kit provided the tanks, I rolled the dice and went with the -R. [*-)]

Cheers

Thats a shame, but thanks for the tip.I had not thought of that.

The give away is the syrene mounts. Its not mentioned in any referance material, but from my own research, other than a few of the first R’s produced, they didn’t have them fitted. Which makes sense seeing as the syrenes reduced speed and range.