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Airfix 1/24 Ju 87 Stuka


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Thanks!

Its funny, when I look at some of the builds that are coming along, I am always impressed by the clean and crisp ones. Clean lines, smooth finish, and every part just perfect, better than a museum or restoration could put out... then I almost laugh at myself as all of my birds are dirty, beaten, and used like a two bit... well, you get the point.

I find it interesting seeing pictures of the Stuka during the war next to other aircraft. In the African campaign it wasn't so bad, but on the Western front and even more so on the Easter front, no matter what was going on, unless it was a brand new replacement, the Stuka's always looked beaten and dirty. Understandably so, I mean, 3-5 flights a day, short range, attacking ground targets, grass fields, sometimes depending on the advance or withdrawl they would be on very primative fields. Engine swaps done right where they parked. Spilled fluids, dirt and grime building up everywhere it could... and yet, all other aircraft I've ever seen them next to are so very much cleaner. The Jumo 211 alone was a dirty engine which I don't think helped the matter any. But it is fun.

Thanks again!

Mark.

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Going through the layouts of the Radiator, it's not as easy as I thought to find out how the ones on the B-1 were "shallower" than those on the B-2. Looking at pictures from Stukas with engine panels on, sure, it's quite obvious, but with the panels off, aside from the propeller, you can't really tell by looking at it. Both had the same shape, near same size mounting points. I'm just curious to figure out how to change it back to the B-1 (Jumo 211A-1) and do it right.

Aside from that, work is simple. There's not much left really - aside from the radiator, the rear panel mounting frame needs to be redone to have the panel mounting screw holes put in, and a couple reinforcing brackets run from it to the back of the radiator. As 5136 didn't have any cowel flaps, there is no linkage to make either - no problem there! The propeller hub needs a bit of work on it too along with the propellers being narrowed down from the wide wooden blades to the thin metal ones, but I'm not loosing any sleep over that yet. The prop is going to be put on about the same time as the radio antenna - the very last thing.

Aside from that, I've got all the groundwork layed out for what I'm going to be adding to the firewall. Looking at it now, I may build up the firewall and paint it before I go onto painting the rest of the aircraft. Doing that and masking off the front end I think is a safer bet, as that area is going to be painted with enamels, vs. the rest in acrylics. I'd hate to peel off the front edges if I'm going to mask off the acrylics to paint the firewall like I initially intended.

Mounting the engine will also be a straight forward process. Reason why there is still one engine mount on the LH fuselage half and not on the right should make sense after this:

1. Mock up the completed engine on the LH engine mount, ensuring it's good and level and sits where it is supposed to sit.,

2. Connect all additional plumbing and wires from the firewall to the engine on the RH side,

3. Glue the completed RH engine mount to the engine and fuselage.

4. Remove LH engine mount

5. Connect all additional plumbing and wires from the firewall to the engine on the LH side,

6. Glue in the now completed LH engine mount to from the engine to the fuselage.

This way, all the wires and lines will have their proper lenghts and positions, and the engine will be sitting nice and level where it's supposed to be. It's a bloody rats nest of wires and cables that need to go in, so moving from RH side across to the LH side behind the engine seems to be the best way of doing things.

Ahhh, my rant is now finished. If you've read up to this point, I thank you. And if I deviate from this plan at all, please, someone come over and beat me with an over cooked wet noodle.

Happy Modeling!

Mark.

Edited by Kostucha
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Ahhh, my rant is now finished. If you've read up to this point, I thank you. And if I deviate from this plan at all, please, someone come over and beat me with an over cooked wet noodle.

Happy Modeling!

Mark.

Ouch, nasty :woo:

Guess we´ll have to keep you on the straight and narrow then :P

Cheers!

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Janne,

I deviate far too much I think... though after dinner, the house is going to be quiet and I'll have the night to build, build, build away...

focus, need to stay focused... its the old infantry in me good Sir... pluggin away, enjoying the area I'm working progress is being made and I think this is going really we- hey... look... a shiny thing! What is that?! Lets go work on that... then that's going well, and I'm making good progress on that and I'm - Ohhhh... something else is shiny...

viscous circle.

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David, that is so true!

Well, here we have the first of hopefully a few updates tonight. I started working on that piece I was talking about - that the rear of the panels and the front of the bottom rear one (forward of the bomb rack) would mount onto. Here's what I started with:

1-26.jpg

Not much there, and it was missing a bit... so, using about a dozen reference pictures, construction started. Here's the next part with the second lip added (this is what the forward part of that bottom panel bolts onto):

2-24.jpg

I didn't flush out the holes, in a couple pictures that showed the screw/bolt holes, they were in pretty rough shape, so figured, why not leave it looking rough. After that, it was adding a couple locking arms (the handle looking things), each side had one in the front that looks like a handle, and then one in the rear that, well, looked odd, but they're there now:

3-23.jpg

And another view:

4-20.jpg

Surprisingly, it went onto the engine without issue...

5-15.jpg

And another view from underneath:

6-15.jpg

Those two bolts at the bottom I put in turned out better than expected, I really like the look of them (holds the front part of the bracket together with the rear part. Now there are a couple support arms that go from it to the radiator, but I'll wait out on those until the radiator is built and mounted. I've found out the difference in the two rads - the both have the same shape and curvature, but you have to remove a small amount along the flat lines on the side... rather than explaining, I'll just show the pictures when I get to it.

Next step is this one piece that for the life of me I cant get to fit around the engine right, and sit where it's supposed to. So, I said "forget it" and am going to make a new one:

7-8.jpg

More soon!

Happy modeling!

Mark.

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Oh, this is definitely an enjoyable night. Work continued with the fitment problems and trying to figure them out. Finally got a "Bingo!" Problem with the part, even if it did fit, is that it runs above the engine mount. It's not supposed to - the pipe goes underneath, and threads itself between the air filter 'cone' for the 'charger and the engine mount post, then goes under and feeds itself out and almost overtop the very front of the engine mount:

1-27.jpg

So, with the solder, I got the right shape and worked it around the same path:

2-25.jpg

And a shot without the engine mount arm:

3-24.jpg

Taking the metal tape - wow this stuff is great for almost everything - I cut thin 1/4 inch x 3/4 inch strips, and wrapped them around the pipe in the "common" right area's (different pictures showed different spots for these rubber sleeves, so I just went with what was the most common in my reference pictures for the B-1's with the Jumo 211A-1's):

4-21.jpg

After they were painted a rubber black (flat black with pastel chalk mixed into it), I took thin solder wire, squished it flat, and using 3/4 inch strips I wrapped them around, clamped them, and gave a dab of super glue:

5-16.jpg

Once dry, I used the cutters and cut off the excess, leaving about a 1mm lip (simulating the 'lip' that any rad clamp would have):

6-16.jpg

After it was glued onto the engine in the right spot both front and back, I took some of the same thick solder, and bent it over, cutting the bend, and using thick super glue I dabbed it onto the right area of the main line. This little dab of thick glue gives an almost "welded on" look to that small section of pipe:

7-9.jpg

And the final shot with the engine mount arm back overtop of it... happily as tight of a space as it may be, no fitment issues:

8-9.jpg

Alright, onto the last piece I want to do tonight - the prop hub face plate! Another update soon!

Happy modeling,

Mark.

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And tonights final update - wow, got everything done I wanted to... no beatings with an overcooked wet noodle... yet. Anywho, going to the propeller face plate... I don't know if that's what it's called, I think I've given it 4 different names already, but here's the piece I'm talking about:

Front face:

A-1.jpg

Back face:

B-1.jpg

All those double tabs had to go - in that picture two were already cut off. But in looking at the plate, and trying to find a good one that shows the front face, the only good one I found was this one:

C-1.jpg

So, with that, I started to enlarge the ports to proportion (width of the plate from the center opening to the edge). As well, I gave the rounded edges on the front face plate as you can see it had on the picture. Up on the top sides there are two small plates attached to this piece as well. Without any holes in it, it wasn't a point to screw the panels down, but it may have served as a support to prevent the front of the engine panels from collapsing inward under the air pressure in a dive... maybe? Anyway, they were added as well:

After painting, before the chalks:

E-1.jpg

After the chalks were applied with a dullcoat:

F.jpg

At this point the plate was mounted, and a couple of small details added to the back of it. I'm still scratching my head as to what this part may have been for, but bottom line, it was there, so, using nothing but solder and some black paint and chipping it off, here's what I got:

G.jpg

Close up:

H.jpg

And finally, the engine with everything that was done to it tonight:

I.jpg

Only thing left on the engine now aside from plumbing is cutting the rad down or just making a new one. So things are progressing very well. As for the body, a thin layer of filler was applied again, and I'll let it dry overnight before I touch it tomorrow. Until next time, thanks for following along with tonights modeling adventures. Let me know what you guys (and gals?) think!

Happy Modeling,

Mark.

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Hey looking cool, you say you have two of these things whats the other one going to look like ,is it going to have the same treatment or are you going to leave her as standard.Anyhow this ones comming along great,where did you get the engine ident plates from or are they just made up by yourself either way they add to the effect of realism.

Clive.

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WOW!

Another Luftwaffe progress build that I have missed! Outstanding work! I really like your willingness and ability to super detail in this scale!

Chris

PS. Great tip on how to make rubber inserts in the engine breather pipes! I'm going to commandeer that one, giving you full credit, of course.

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Hey looking cool, you say you have two of these things whats the other one going to look like ,is it going to have the same treatment or are you going to leave her as standard.Anyhow this ones comming along great,where did you get the engine ident plates from or are they just made up by yourself either way they add to the effect of realism.

Clive.

Clive,

I think I would lose my mind if I built another one like this - as fun as it is. I've got a 1/24 Fw 190 on the books after this build for the DOTR 2 GB. That build is planned to be similar - all the panels around the engine are going to be removed, as well as the side access panels on the fuselage and vertical stabilizer. Further, the MG panels will be opened, both the inner guns on top of the wing, and the access panel to the outer MG's underneath the wing. The cockpit is going to get the exact same treatment, but I will be using the Eduard seat belts and their gauge faces. I'm also looking forward to using Jerry Rutmans resin seat and wheel wells, and metal landing gear. The Fw 190 will be an A-6 from Sturmstaffel 1, flown by Werner Gerth on 6 March, 1944 when he downed 2 B-17's in 3 minutes.

Thank you for your compliments! With regards to the engine Ident Panel, I ended up using the HobbyDecal A6M Zero dry transfers throughout this build for their nameplates, and that is one of them. It's easy enough to make them I found (the ident panels) using a white decal sheet and my printer. If HobbyDecal, or anyone else, made a dry transfer sheet with a variety of 1/24 ident plates, I would be using those without question. If these Montex masks I have for the Stuka work well, I'll use dry transfers and masks for everything from now on and forget decals from here on in. Here's hoping!

Wow....you just made it even better!!

Lol. Nice work. Keep it up.

David

David, thank you very much. I find myself now just looking at each part one at a time and doing some cross referencing of the part with reference material from both books and the internet, and going at them one at a time trying to better them. Looking back at pictures of the engine from earlier in the thread, it's very easy to see how some parts can very easily look "toyish" in this this scale - I'll do what I can to stop it from looking like that. And, it's an absolute joy to work on this kit, so it goes hand in hand.

WOW!

Another Luftwaffe progress build that I have missed! Outstanding work! I really like your willingness and ability to super detail in this scale!

Chris

PS. Great tip on how to make rubber inserts in the engine breather pipes! I'm going to commandeer that one, giving you full credit, of course.

Chris,

Thank you very much. It hasn't been called "super detailed" yet, and I don't know if I fall into that catagory... what would any kit need to be considered in the catagory of super detailed? Either way, thank you very much!

I'm glad you liked the work on the breather pipes. I wanted to try the tape out to see if it worked, the other option would have been to use heat-shrink. Working with solder and this tape, who knows what the possibilities are... I'll try and take it as far as I can. And yeah, feel free to use the idea good Sir, I'm sure I'm not the first one to do this, but, it's another thing that helps give that desired look I'm trying to get, and I hope it helps someone else out there too.

I also agree with Chris on this one.. Keep at it!! Looks fantastic. Have you tried copper foil? Thinner and better adhesion

-Al

Al good Sir! Thank you. I haven't tried copper foil. Wow, yeah, if it's thinner and better adhesion, I'll definitely be picking some of that up at the LHS next time I go into town. Thank you very much for that tip! How is the foil for painting enamels and acrylics on? Thanks again!

Thank you very much everyone for looking at this thread, your input, insight, and interest are, as always, greatly appreciated!

Happy Modeling,

Mark.

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This has got to be one of the great all-time builds on ARC. Mark, your work is right up there with the very best, and I'm learning something from almost every post you make. Your detailing, painting and weathering is awesome, and I can't wait to see what this build looks like when it's finished. I just wish I could find that metal tape somewhere here in Australia!

Kev

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Janne,

Thank you very, very much! The webcam idea might work... do you like watching paint dry though? But the whiskey is a great idea, you may be onto something!

Kev,

WOW! Thank you very much for your compliments, really appreciated. That really does mean a lot, I think I'm a bit red in the face now. In regards to the metal tape and where I got it, I picked it up at a local hardware store in the furnace and heating duct section - that's what they're meant for. Didn't cost much at all, I think I payed 4 bucks for the whole role. But I'm thinking I'm going to try Al's suggestion of copper foil - if it's thinner and adheres better, then I'm putting the metal tape aside and going with that.

Thanks again everyone!

Mark.

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Tonight I hope to get the radiator done, however there are no promises that I'll even get to start it. As last night I had the house to myself, tonight, the boss is out for a nice long trail ride with others at the barn, and the little poopster and me are contently watching some old Bugs Bunny & Tweetey Show. From building the Stuka, to a great excuse to watch all my favorite cartoons... I've got the life!

I will hopefully get something posted up tonight, but if not, the rad will be done by the weekends end.

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In regards to the metal tape and where I got it, I picked it up at a local hardware store in the furnace and heating duct section - that's what they're meant for. Didn't cost much at all, I think I payed 4 bucks for the whole role.

Yep, I've known about this stuff and how useful it is for a while now, and I've looked everywhere for it, but just can't find it here. Our local hardware situation is dominated by one very large chain (think Walmart of hardware), and if they don't carry something, you can have an awful time finding it. I guess I'll have to go to a dedicated plumbing and gas supplier.

Kev

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