Stuka 1:32 (Revell)

[silverburn]

Ok, a total impulse buy...

For some bizzare reason, I took a liking to a desert Stuka (1/32, naturely) on the way back from the hospital today; I figured I needed something to amuse myself in the weeks of holiday (with a new baby??? ) I have coming up. There are plenty more ideal candidates I'm after too - eg: Swordfish 1/32,

Eurofighter 1/32, mosquito 1/32, tornado 1/32, spitfire 1/32 (Tamiya version), Vulcan 1/48, Sea king 1/35 etc etc.

So why a stuka? I seriously don't know...was passing the shop, and just thought - "I'll have that". That and wanting to do a desert scheme, eg:

Anyway, lets begin....with the box!

..and 2hrs later, the easy bits, glued, sanded and smoothed. Which was hardly anything - it's going together far too well....

Just noticed I'm out of gloss and primer, so no body work coming soon. Will get started on the pit & pilots though...which look pretty detailed in my eyes!

Edited December 15, 2009 by silverburn

[daft_biker]

A false alarm today then? I dropped you an email to let you know I'd signed up but got your OOF.

Look forward to seeing this one done....have been impressed with the other ones you've done. I'm going to have to hide my poor attempts at planes if you come round for a cycle

Cheers,

Andy

[Andy K]

Quote" - it's going together far too well...."

Have fun installing the cockpit, seeing that you've glued the fuselage halves together already.

[silverburn]

Quote" - it's going together far too well...."

Have fun installing the cockpit, seeing that you've glued the fuselage halves together already.

Ahah, a mere dry-fit for now (thus the elastic bands in shot), so nothing to worry about there my good man... I've been doing some drilling though (wings and fuselage) - a surprising amount required actually for this model?

What I will need to worry about is the rear gunner; I'm supposed to only glue the arms on once he and the gun are in-situ!

...so for the guys who have built these before...what "gotchas" should I look out for?

[Andy K]

LOL! Ok shut up Andy Right then a couple of things to watch out for are (from memory);

Poor fit of the radiator under the engine cowling, which ever way you stick it on will leave a step one side or the other.

The outer wing tips I would advise gluing them to the upper and lower wings seperately and not stick them together then fit to the wing.(if you see what I mean)

A bit of a poor fit of the compass housing on the upper rear fuselage (that bit behind the rear canopy).

The sliding section of the front canopy will not sit over the centre section if you want the canopy open, plus the canopy rail is wrong anyway.

The propeller blades should be of the paddle type (Fw109D style) and not the earlier ones in the kit.

The upper wing inserts I found to be a poor fit and will need packing out until level with the wing surface.

And..erm....that's all I can think of for now. By the way this is the Hasegawa kit in a Revell box and it was the tank-busting Ju87G that I built. Here's one I made earlier;

So I do know what I'm on about LOL

[avro683]

That's interesting, Andy. I got the Hasegawa boxing of that kit and encountered none of the problems you have had. Pure luck on my part I suspect.

Tony

[Andy K]

I have heard this before so it might be just me....D'oh!

It's not THAT bad a kit, just a few niggling issues that I thought were a bit much in a £35 kit.

[silverburn]

The outer wing tips I would advise gluing them to the upper and lower wings seperately and not stick them together then fit to the wing.(if you see what I mean)

I know what you mean...I've already got the putty booked to fixed that particular wee issue (I'd already glued these on before you told me). Thankfully the topsides are ok, and I only have to fill the gap on the less noticeable underside.

Pure gold info though - grats!

Edited December 2, 2009 by silverburn

[silverburn]

Another 2 hours on this.

Pit painted and in. It's completely OOB, but the colour scheme had some "poetic licence" applied...

Weathering/dirty-ing not showing up as well in photo, but it's definitely there - I'm happy with the results, because I've been prone to doing too much on my earlier ones.

Wings attached to fuselage A really nice gap-free fit on this - kit's been a good 'un, so far. Only some minimal sanding required on the fuselage belly to correct some tiny "warp" effect on the join (one side a tiny fraction above the other), and at the very front, where it doesn't line up either. But these are really tiny tidies that shouldn't take more than an hour

Also in scene - a colour sample of the sand, and the small bombs. big Bomb done in Anthracite and still drying out of picture.

Next question...as this is a desert config, how should I weather it? With black Promodeller or soot? I'm maybe thinking of a bit of rust/soot for the obvious bits, but what to do on the general paintwork?

Edited December 3, 2009 by silverburn

[crookedmouth]

Deserts being hot dry places, my guess would be fading and chipping, but not much dirt. I would have thought that the aircraft would retain the majority of sand & dust in the cockpit?

[coolhand]

Hi

Nice build so far.

What is the colour you have used for the pit?

[silverburn]

Hi

Nice build so far.

What is the colour you have used for the pit?

Thanks! There's gotta be a big problem brewing, since I've not really hit any real problems yet.

I went for Montana gold's Steel Grey, and a number of Revell's (black, aluminium etc) for instruments etc. I also went for the OOB instrument decals, which worked quite well - some shrivelled a bit, but as long there's not too much air underneath, they usually go on ok.

I'll be using Montana Gold's Sand for the main cammo, and their Dust grey for the underside. Weathering & dirtying will be the main challenge - it will make this model & scheme I recon.

As way of a progress update - it's all been sanded/smoothed and primed.

Edited December 7, 2009 by silverburn

[silverburn]

I knew it was going too easy!

Noticed the propeller was going on a bit tight in the dry fit...so tight in fact I managed to shear the stub off! Oh well...nothing some super glue can't fix - I'm not that bothered about it being able to spin, to be honest. The rest is still going together with negligible problems.

Anyway, it's looking more like a stuka now. I may decal it first, then attach all the breakables, which include aerilons this time. Gotta add the desert white strip around the waist first too. Definitely gonna need weathering...

I think it's the "new baby" lack of sleep but I've completely missed a fine gap from belly wheel to 1inch from wings attachment.

[Erwin]

Nice sand color.

[silverburn]

Just a tiny update - white band painted (not quite exact, as per the reference pic above - mine is too wide, and too near the tail...but hey-ho it'll do). Wing bits all added, and a few other bits and bobs, ahead of laquer, glass and decals tomorrow. Might try and fix that gap on the compass panel, and a bit of sand overspray into the rear gunner corner (seen in pic).

Plan for "ageing" is:

- Chips on wing, airbrake panels (I've deployed them - see photo), prop, radiator and wheel leading edges. Will be fine chips to reflect sand blasting. Not sure how to approach though...dry-brushed aluminium maybe?

- proper chips on the walkways, bombs, optional armour panels, wing gun bay panel and handhold slots

- dark wash the radiator faces, undercarriage and bomb bays

- white wash for tyres

- black soot for various exhausts.

- sun fading. No idea how to approach this. Not to worry - I'll trawl the tips section for clues.

Edited December 8, 2009 by silverburn

[bigbadbadge]

Nice work so far and congrats on your new arrival.

All the best

Chris

[ta152h]

For faded paint, try pastels. Good luck! Remember to follow the airflow direction!

[silverburn]

Decals on! Gotta find and order some swastikas for the tailplane, and that'll be them done. Yes, I know i should have 2 letters in white, and I doubt the czech guys were ever in the Med, but hey ho - baby's keeping me too tired to count rivets....

The wing walkway decal strips on the instructions have the decals right over the raised/rivetted ones on the plastic - no way was I laying them down there, so laid them beside. These are now sealed, so I might start the weathering and the glass tomorrow.

Bombs are dry fitted for now.

Edited December 9, 2009 by silverburn

[dahut]

Looks like a piece of Junk-ers to me. Nice and clean, for now...

[Carts]

Great looking Stuka,one thing though,and i only point this out as i did the same thing,i dont think the D-1 had the additional armour plate? i think that was added to the D-5s along with extended wing tips.

[silverburn]

Great looking Stuka,one thing though,and i only point this out as i did the same thing,i dont think the D-1 had the additional armour plate? i think that was added to the D-5s along with extended wing tips.

Good point - I'll be honest I didn't see anything in the instructions for whether which was which...so I stuck them on. I had the drill out anyway for the wings, so thought **** it, I'll do them too.

Thought it has to be said I'm getting more and more into "technical accuracy" as my modelling experience increases (only been doing this a few months), but I'm on automatic pilot for this one...2hrs sleep a day (with the newborn) tend to do that!

[Erwin]

Not trying to start the old discussion again.But are you going to add the swastikas ?

IMO every German model needs them.

[Carts]

Good point - I'll be honest I didn't see anything in the instructions for whether which was which...so I stuck them on. I had the drill out anyway for the wings, so thought **** it, I'll do them too.

Thought it has to be said I'm getting more and more into "technical accuracy" as my modelling experience increases (only been doing this a few months), but I'm on automatic pilot for this one...2hrs sleep a day (with the newborn) tend to do that!

One of the better excuses! :thumbsup:Mine are nearly grown up now(but they can still cause sleepless nights,just for different reasons) i only know because i did the same thing,put the buggers on,then had to take them off and fill the holes.

btw if you need any 1/32nd scale Swastikas i have tons floating about in my spares box.

Edited December 10, 2009 by Carts

[silverburn]

Thanks guys - I already have a set of swastikas on order from netmerchants...I need them for my ju88 too, so I figured it was time I got some!

[silverburn]

Just started the weathering (while waiting for my swastikas), and I've done the easy bits. I've been conscious to make sure nothing is overdone, and hasn't shown up as clearly as I'd like in the following photos.

- A light wash to reflect the dusty environment. Again, the effect is better in real life, than what you see here. Some inconsistencies to tidy up, but on the whole it's ok.

- "Chipped" the leading edges of stuff; very slight, but I've tried to show it in the shots of the wings & airbrakes here:

- Sooted the exhausts. I will be adding a bit more to these; it's a bit weak just now.

Edited December 12, 2009 by silverburn