toadwbg Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) I bought this kit when it was first released a few years back. I recall at the time I had just finished the 1/48 Hasegawa Stuka and liked the plane so much I wanted to do it "bigger and better". When this kit was announced I had to have it and all the aftermarket I could get my hands on! This initial boxing came with a nice pewter figure of Rudel and his dog! I also read the book "Stuka Pilot" by Rudel and decided I had to do his aircraft. Aftermarket: - Montex Maxi Mask MM32046 - Eduard Ju87G Stuka Seat-belts - Eduard Ju87G Color PE interior - Eduard Ju87G Interior - Schatton-Modellbau 1/32 German BK3, 7cm-Ju87G Brass Cannons (These are awesome) - Quickboost Resin Exhausts - Quickboost Resin props References: -Aero Detail 11 - Ju-87 Stuka D-G Edited December 28, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) I started on the cockpit, which is very nice out of the box. The Eduard Color PE is very nice with the Instrument panel, radio faces, levers, and a few other instruments and I would recommend it. I used Future to set/adhere the sandwhich of PE parts for the IP and radios. Worked great. The Other Eduard Interior set with seats and various panels is a BEAR! I would NOT recommend it at all. I tried and failed at the pilots seat. I managed to use the rudder pedal assembly with great difficulty. They do include the dive-bomb "tunnel window" that goes on the floor, which the kit seem s to be missing. I got this installed. The other stuff really doesn't seem any better than the kit's plastic stuff. This set does include ammo belts for the rear gunner which is nice but If I had to do it again I would source the ammo belts some other way and skip this set. I got a lot more satisfaction just scratch-building some wiring along the sidewalls and using the kit parts for the throttle and miscellaneous boxes. I airbrushed the cockpit Tamiya German Grey XF-63 and added a few drops of Future for a semi-gloss effect. The Eduard Color PE matches this very well, it's a little on the blue side but when shadowed in the cockpit you really can't tell the difference. I added a couple of touches of color for the throttle and various knobs or instruments. This photo was a little bright due to the flash: I always wait to put the seats and gun site in until the build is almost complete to prevent any damage. I'll add some weathering and other various bits later in the build before I add the canopy. The cockpit went together with not issues and I sandwiched it in between the fuselage halves. It can be a tight fit but with some big clamps it came out fine. Edited December 23, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) I worked on some sub-assemblies. The Quickboost props dropped into the kit spinner hub with no problem, they are keyed so they go in correctly. The nose section also went together nice and tight. Just a little light sanding and Mr Surfacer was required to make it right. Edited December 28, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) Hasegawa really impressed me with their kit engineering on this one. They have a "box" section that forms the inner wings and makes this kit as strong or stronger than the real thing. Fit again is snug, take your time and dry fit. The wing root will pay-off from extra attention: I added the cowling, armor plates, rear section behind gunner, Air coolers under the wings and completed any surfacing, sanding, & finishing work before diving into the outer wings There just a few areas where I had to break out some superglue for the trickier joints where 3 panels or more come together. These seem to be a problem on any kit. Edited December 23, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) Wings. I worked on each upper wing separately first adding the wing tips and gun access panels than sanding/smoothing them out to be seamless. The kit fit is not bad here but giving it separate attention prior to putting the entire wings together is a lot easier. Watch your instructions, I actually used the wrong wing access panel, but I will fill than re-scribe to make it look the right one. Edited December 23, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 26, 2013 Author Share Posted December 26, 2013 Christmas is over, time for some relaxing modeling. Giving lots of care to this wing joint. Here you can see the part is warped. I added a plastic tab out of scrap here to increase surface area for bonding and a strong joint: I clamped the parts together overnight just to help creep the plastic into shape a little. I also tried "flexing" the wing by bending it in my hands- BAD IDEA. This created some small micro-cracks at the part surface. I'll have to go back and use Mr. Surfacer 100 here. I went ahead and bonded the surfaces and used clamps in the warped areas. You can see the plastic tab here. I went back over and added a bead of super glue all along the joint here I'll let this cure for a couple of hours before adding the lower wing and cleaning it up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rocat Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 (edited) good progress! i'm watching your thread. Edited December 26, 2013 by Rocat Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 Nice work so far toadwbg! Looking forward to this build! Cockpit looks awesome. Merry Christmas! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 27, 2013 Author Share Posted December 27, 2013 (edited) Wings are on. They were just a little bit of a struggle but nothing that I couldn't overcome. Where on the Port side I bonded the upper wing than lower wing to fight the warpage, I went conventional on the Starboard side and bonded the upper & lower halves first than fitted them to the wing root as this side didn't have warpage. Both methods worked well respectively. I used a bit of superglue to fill gaps and strengthen the joint. You are left with a seam at the joint but thanks to Hasegawa's thoughtful engineering, this is a raised fairing area and you can easily fill and sand without removing surrounding detail. I did use some masking tape when putting on some Mr surfacer to make clean-up easier. Here is the underside. Again you can see the raised area that I am filling and sanding. The Landing gear fairings also plug into the lower wing here and have a bit of a gap, so those got filled also with Mr. Surfacer and the excess wiped away with rubbing alcohol. The Landing gear fairings also add more structure and support. Again, excellent engineering by Hasegawa! Edited December 27, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 27, 2013 Author Share Posted December 27, 2013 The wing tips are too thick compared to the primary wing thickness. This is a pretty common problem among every kit I have ever built with panels or wing extensions. Solution is to fit the upper tip to the upper wing and position flush. Fill/surface as needed to remove and puckering at the joint. Now dry-fit the lower half, you will see it is about 0.5mm too thick or so. Cut off the locating pins and sand the mating surfaces until the lower fits flush. Do a little filling/surfacing and it will look seamless once painted: Due to the different methods I attached the main wing, tolerance run-out occurs at the wing tip on that Port side. The bottom wing tip was about 0.25mm longer than the top. No big deal, a little trimming with the hobby knife and sanding stick made this flush. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 27, 2013 Author Share Posted December 27, 2013 I started on the Cannons buy putting the halves together and fitting up the brass BK3, 7cm brass barrels from Shatton-Modellbau. These things are beautiful and a real step up from the kit parts (which aren't terrible). The taper of the barrel and crispness of the muzzle's flash hider are real contest winners. Highly recommended. Here you can see the brass cannon barrel's next to the kit plastic parts: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 27, 2013 Author Share Posted December 27, 2013 Did I mention I'm on Christmas Holiday for 12 days? Half way thru and enjoying some modeling time, which is why I have so many updates. It's nice to wake up, have a cup of coffee and go down the man cave. Time to set up my bike down here in the cave and watch some movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime also Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 27, 2013 Author Share Posted December 27, 2013 Digging thru the Photobucket account, found a fun pic of me from this summer. Stay Thirsty my friends: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 28, 2013 Author Share Posted December 28, 2013 Did some dry fit-up of the cannons and landing gear. Looking at the flaps- lots of ejector pin marks! Need to fill in most of these: I think I will leave the flaps off until all the painting is done and pain the flaps on the sprue. Looks like they will be fragile on the model. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 28, 2013 Author Share Posted December 28, 2013 Getting ready to paint Not shure if or how much I will prime. I will probably prime the RLM 65 undersides with Tamiya grey primer in a rattle can as I will be using Gunze Acrylic RLM 65 and it goes on very thin. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 I was a little worried about the flaps and installing them post-painting, so I went ahead and added one side tonight and was glad I did. These do not fit well and are delicate. Nothing that can't be overcome but it is a lot easier to deal with it now prior to painting. The biggest problem is that the attachment tabs, 3 per flap, do not line up with the slots on the wing. If you center the tab to the middle slot, the end tabs are just not spaced out long enough- about 0.5mm. The solution is to widen the inside of the slots than glue together. I much prefer parts glued (actually welded) with liquid cement- I use Tamiya Extra Thin. This provides longer working time, is more forgiving, and I think creates a better joint than using superglue for these parts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 (edited) Decided to start some painting tonight. I wanted this Stuka to be highly weathered, more so like an armor model. I'm going to do some pre-shading on the RLM 65 undersides. On the topside 70/71 camo, I plan on using 2 different manufacturers' paint for each color. I tested this on the horizontal stabs today. I started with Gunze RLM 71 Dark Green and basically did some post shading with PollyScale Pullman Green. Both are considered "good" matches for RLM 71 but they are noticeably different. The Gunze RLM 71 being darker and more olive, the Pollysale being greener and greyer. Much like putting your peanut butter into my chocholate, they go together great and give a nice weathered effect! I'm looking forward to adding a nice dark wash to these after I lay down the RLM 70 Black Green. Edited December 29, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 after a good washing of parts in dish-soap than water and drying, I was ready to paint the RLM 65 undersides. I did some pre-shading with very thin Tamiya XF-63 than used Gunze RLM 65 well-thinned and high pressure, about 35psi thru my Iwata Eclipse: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) This is a BIG model. The largest I have done in a long time. Took a long time to paint all the undersides and I think my compressor might have overheated :wacko:/>/> LOVE this color :wub:/>/> The preshading turned out great. After some wash & stain this should turn out nicely. Edited December 31, 2013 by toadwbg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) Looking really good there :D/> The preshade is shining through nicely. I've done a big gawa stuka too....actally a very nice model. Edited December 31, 2013 by Aigore Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shaka HI Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Ha ha cool...you're one tall bastard! Big bike! I can tell, I'm roadie too! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 Ha ha cool...you're one tall bastard! Big bike! I can tell, I'm roadie too! I'm a fat bastard right now, I need to drop 20lbs before I get that bike on the road this spring! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 (edited) Nice paint job so far! Pre-shading is spot on! Can't wait to see the top end. Edited January 1, 2014 by Crazy Snap Captain Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 I laid down the RLM 70/71 as I did on the horizontal stabs test pieces on page 1. I used the paper templates included in Hasegawa's printed instructions, these were a nice addition. I let them sit off the surface 1-3mm or so to with rolled up tape or blue-tak to create a slightly soft-hard edge. I also added the lighter 71 to the 70 to tone it down some. Sprayed this mixture very light to allow some subtle shading. I have to go back and do a few touch-ups and paint some minor parts yet, including the canopies which are always PITA. I have the Montex masks for the canopies I will use. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sharkey Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Looks great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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