Airfix 1/24 Ju 87 Stuka

[Isaac]

Tough break Mark, no pun intended. I'll look forward to see what other builds you have coming.

[Aigore]

Stunning, Mark! Simply stunning work! :wacko:

I hope you understand that I may have to kill you for your own good? :blink:

Cheers mate!

[Aigore]

Did I scare you off?

I want more! please?

[Kostucha]

Janne,

She's boxed up until I get replacement parts from Airfix for the damaged canopy from the move. I'll likely reopen the box only after the 190 is finished. You did scare me a bit though. In the mean time, it's the 190 in the DOTR group build, and maybe a couple of really quick small ones on the side.

Thanks!

Mark.

[Blackcollar]

Hi Mark;

Welcome back, how was the move? I'm also waiting for cockpit canopy replacement parts on my JU88, but I still have work I can do in the mean time. I also just found out I'm to be posted to NDHQ this coming summer, bummer. I'll have to take a sabatical from modelling for 2 years.

-Al

[geedubelyer]

Hi Mark,

Apologies for resurrecting this thread in case you're still avoiding the Stuka but I wondered if the replacement parts arrived and whether you had any plans to recommence work on this project?

Cheers,

[Blackcollar]

Welcome back Mark, good to have you back

-Al

[MakingModelsAgain]

Holy moley! I remember I got this kit for Christmas one year when I was a lad. I think I built it in less time than it's taken me to work my way through this thread!

This is a stunning achievement in every sense - a remarkable devotion to detail.

Heck, this thread is better than TV! I can't wait to see the conclusion! You know, to compare it to my own effort of years ago... hehehe...

[whitemice]

Hi could Mark or anyone else post a pic (or link)of the siren housing (with rotors) , particularly a side view, for details i need on a model. Ta.

Mark.

Edited March 14, 2010 by whitemice

[Kostucha]

Hi Mark,

Apologies for resurrecting this thread in case you're still avoiding the Stuka but I wondered if the replacement parts arrived and whether you had any plans to recommence work on this project?

Cheers,

No apologies needed at all!

Still waiting on parts - I've sent another request to Airfix, and will also be betting another set of Montex Masks and going through it all over again. There are definitely plans to recommence work on this Stuka. The moment that I get those parts and masks, I'm going to finish 'er. That is, once whatever model I'd be working on at the time (likely the mossie), will be done first.

I've got a bit of a move coming up in July to either West or East coast, so I'd like to finish her after that (due to the fragile design of such a large wingspan).

Welcome back Mark, good to have you back

-Al

Thanks Al!

Holy moley! I remember I got this kit for Christmas one year when I was a lad. I think I built it in less time than it's taken me to work my way through this thread!

This is a stunning achievement in every sense - a remarkable devotion to detail.

Heck, this thread is better than TV! I can't wait to see the conclusion! You know, to compare it to my own effort of years ago... hehehe...

Thank you very, very much! Soon enough (I'd like to have her done by Christmas). Given everything that's going on, I might even just put whatever project on hold to finish the Stuka.

Hi could Mark or anyone else post a pic (or link)of the siren housing (with rotors) , particularly a side view, for details i need on a model. Ta.

Mark.

I've got the books up in Winnipeg, and I'm in Shilo right now - last minute thing that needed to be dealt with in person. None the less, when I get back, I'll post up the best pictures I've got for the siren. The same pictures I'll be using for a reference. Hope this helps!

Mark.

[geedubelyer]

Hi Mark,

Good to know this project is still alive. Thanks for the heads-up. I'm looking forward to the arrival of the new parts and recommencement of work on this one. :)

:o

[whitemice]

Thank you Mark, Mark.

[Nessus]

Wow, your level of detail is absolutly amazing.

Just bought the Airfix model as an reference for a large scale model.

But now I've seen your work, I guess I'll try to follow your lead.

Or better, run off my feet and try not to fall too far behind....

Thanks for sharing!!!!

[Kostucha]

Thank you Nessus.

As mentioned, I'll be back in Winnipeg in a week, where all my building tools and supplies are - along with all my books. I'll get you those answers as soon as possible, and will post them here, as this way anyone else who has these questions can have the answer too.

This last course is finally done. Finished last Friday. Finally. Only one more to go. I've been kicking myself over the last little bit about having a few large scale kits on the go with no finished product to show. There's this Stuka, the 190, the Mossie waiting to be started, along with the Hurricane that's waiting as well right behind it. The list of kits I want to continue with keep growing - the VFS Thunderbolt, the VFS P-40 (for the challenge of it), Trumps Zero and fixing up the nose problem, the Spit of course... etc., etc., etc... but, with the big move coming up in less than 4 months across country, why risk the big ones? They're all in their boxes, aside from the 190 and the Stuka.

The Mossie, 190, and other kits were brought back this weekend to Shilo, and I've started to box up the Stuka. I want to get this one done, and finish it before I move. Nothing says I can't stick it in the truck with me when I move, and leave the rest of them in boxes, without risk of being damaged, or it they do get damaged, it's only a matter of replacing parts, and not redoing any work... military movers have a great reputation of damaging anything they touch... as I've seen with the move from my old place to the new house, even 4 blocks does a wonder on kits, as is whats happened to the Stuka.

But, I've got 3 months to complete less than 3 months of work. There's more than enough work to be done - and I'm still waiting on a clear parts tree from Airfix. Though that's not the only thing that needs to be done, a majority of the work has already been completed - thankfully. All that's left right now is to begin work on attaching the LH wing, fixing up all the broken parts, and finishing work on the fuselage joints, and rivets that need to be done. That's the main thing right now I suppose.

Resurecting ghosts from the work bench, as it were.

Hopefully once this ones done, I can regain some piece of mind and be able to continue on with one kit at a time and not lose any focus.

I'll have pictures up soon as to what the state of everything is and where I need to continue with things.

Take care all, and happy modeling!

Mark.

[Kostucha]

As mentioned, here are pictures of what things are like after all the issues:

Starting off here is the LH wing. Broken off at the joint between it and the wing root:

And the large split running up the leading edge:

Moving onto the fuselage, some more problems. Here's a quick shot of the upper deck of the fuselage with a big ole crack in it:

Looking into the fuselage, all looks good aside from the missing parts:

The missing parts:

I'm going to try and use an extra canopy piece I had, clean it off, polish it up, and make my own masks to paint the internal and external framing on it, and rebuild the frame inside - or just make a new one altogether, as well as reinstall the wiring that broke off from the original:

The landing gear also took some damage - the hydrolic brake line broke off, as well as some of the spat mounting rings, though I only ended up finding one, as well as the ID/Info plate came off - I did manage to find that:

Luckily though, the engine remained undamaged:

And that's where I'm at right now with starting this Stuka up again... resurecting this one.

Thanks for looking,

Mark.

[Isaac]

Hey Mark! Glad to see you are back at it.

[Kostucha]

Thanks Isaac.

I don't know where I want to being with this one, aside from the obvious crack in the fuselage - then most likely going to start with the wing - get it fixed up, sanded down and smoothed out, get all the other bits and pieces done on it that need to go on, and then reattach it to the wing root. Once that is all done and set, then it'll be a matter of slowly starting to put all the parts on that I need in order to get the fuselage and wings painted.

I'm still going to stick to the same plan as before - getting everything done on the Stuka except for the firewall and forward. Once everything there is done, then and only then I'll continue with getting work done first on the firewall, the plumbing, and then doing the "engine mount swap" manouver. Last thing to go on will hopefully be the reworked propeller blades.

[Patrick_Nevin]

I'm still going to stick to the same plan as before - getting everything done on the Stuka except for the firewall and forward. Once everything there is done, then and only then I'll continue with getting work done first on the firewall, the plumbing, and then doing the "engine mount swap" manouver. Last thing to go on will hopefully be the reworked propeller blades.

Watching avidly, Mark...

[HOLMES]

....Watching Enthusiastically...

[ian lanc]

Really amazing work and makes a good interesting read even though i've looked through

it several times i'm still not bored with it... one bit

ian.

[Blackcollar]

Hi Mark;

Welcome back buddy

-Al

[Kostucha]

Watching avidly, Mark...

I'm hoping that you're not disappointed by what's coming!

....Watching Enthusiastically... :D

Thanks Holmes. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get this one knocked off in a few months, it'll be fun though, as there are still a heck of a lot of alterations to make this a true B-1/UI on the outside, and I'm trying to piece together everything still on the inside... *sigh*... but, it is going to be fun.

Really amazing work and makes a good interesting read even though i've looked through

it several times i'm still not bored with it... one bit :)

ian.

Thank you Ian. Once I'm back where I was - basically once all the repairs are made and I can make forward progress - I'll be trying to give as much information from that point to the end. There's a large number of things I want to touch on, both the way to make a B-2 into a B-1, but explaining the details between the 2 so that if you're making a B-2, this build will still be helpful. As well as things like Montex Masks, how I'll be using them, lining them up. Small things like that. So, it'll be fun.

Hi Mark;

Welcome back buddy

-Al

Al,

Thank you very much! It's good to be getting back into the Stuka.

I'm hoping that it works out well with the canopy pieces that I used as masks for painting the primer - that they don't fog up on me. BUT, if it does work, than I'm not going to need to wait any longer for the Airfix replacements. The first thing I'm going to be doing, is cleaning up the joints between the outter wing and the wing root, drilling in some 'posts' from brass (a tube in the root, and a rod in the outer wing). The space between the two near the landing gear leg will need to be filled in with evergreen, and a hole scribed in without drilling through for the landing gear post (no need to mask it then when I'm painting).

The hope is that the method I'm thinking of will be able to give me enough space between the two main parts to use a combination of thick and thin superglue to join up the two pieces for a good strong joint without worry about cracking later on with the plastic tabs that the kit was engineered with - a real weak point - while at the same time, gluing the split in the outter wing together and fixing that part as well.

In a nutshell, once the wing is on, I'm laughing... easier said than done I suppose.

Thanks for reading, more updates soon!

Mark.

[Eastern]

Hi Mark! Viva la Revival! ;) Glad you turned back again to your stunner.

Amazing pics, it's nice folloving your thread.

Cheers and happy modeling!

Alexander.

[Kostucha]

Hi Mark! Viva la Revival! ;) Glad you turned back again to your stunner.

Amazing pics, it's nice folloving your thread.

Cheers and happy modeling!

Alexander.

:wub:

Thank you very much Alexander!

The support on this site has been great throughout the build of this Stuka - hard to believe that it's been about 9 months now! I'm really glad to be back at the Stuka. She's boxed up, ready for the drive to Winnipeg this weekend, and I went out and picked up a few more tools ready to get going.

I'm going to be using vinyl tape to hopefully cut out the right shape for the masks to duplicate the panel lines inside the canopy pieces that I got with the Montex masks. In this scale, with so much glass, one really needs to make the framing outside AND inside these pieces. Not to take anything away from Montex, but I will be showing a short little how-to on here as to how I'm going to make them. It's a straight forward thing from what I can tell, and with that in mind, why not share something that works right? (Unless someone feels that I shouldn't be).

Aside from that, I'm thinking of how to set up the display base to get the Stuka to sit nice and secure on the base - a piece of glass inside of a wooden base/frame. Unfortunately I didn't think of this sooner and with rotating landing gear that's completed, there's no way to drill through the bottom. The display case though is something I'll worry about more down the road. Right now there's quite a bit to do to get to that point.

All in all though, I'm hoping to have the wing cleaned, setup, glued and drying by Sunday night - we'll see how it goes though. I'll also throw up some pictures of the setup I'll have in the room while on course - sure, priority lies with the course, but the floorspace in my room is going to building and finishing this Stuka.

Thanks again everyone!

Mark.

[Kostucha]

I managed to get myself setup quicker than expected, and once I had a chance, I went right to work on the Stuka. Here are a few quick shots of the work on the wing and what I got done.

Using a mix of medium glue at the ends of the cracks, and thin glue I got the leading edge glued together. Here's a shot before:

And after... well, while drying:

After roughing up the surface of the joints with 100 Grit, and drilling in a couple of rods and tubes (1/3 from the front, and 1/3 from the back), the joints were glued together. The top edge butted up very nicely between the wing root and outer wing half. I was honestly surprised by how well it went together:

A quick shot of the... errr... very technical setup I used to get the wing angled at the right height. Knowing that the LH wing is sitting true, I purched it up nicely on a box of issued sunglasses, ziplock bags and the wing was angled up and held using a Q-tip box from underneath, and two paint bottles from above:

(you can also see how I've transformed my study desk into a hobby desk - but they gave me two, so no concerns there I suppose...

Once the initial glue was dry, I measured again. The LH wing tip measured an even 110mm above the desk, so making sure that the RH wing tip was the same - which it was - I then poured more medium superglue in from underneath. Here's a shot with the unsupported wing, nice and level, and strong as can be:

It may have been a bit premature, but I decided to see if the wing can support the weight of the kit, and sure enough, just inside the removed panel on the outer end of the wing, I held the kit up without any give. She's good to go for the next step - smoothing the joints up, and paneling the RH wing.

Thanks for reading!

More updates soon.

Mark.