I think I'm still in a rut from the long hours and days. A sort of writer's block has set in–it isn't that I don't know what I want to write, it is just that when I get to actually doing it, I am not satisfied with the results. So, I'll continue to write drafts and tweak them.
In the meantime, here's an article I wrote soon after I relocated to SC in 2001. Apologies for the quality of the photos, they were taken with equipment from that vintage, and technology has increased a hundred-fold in that time.
Condor Legion Stuka: Building Special Hobby’s 1/48 Ju-87A
Mention the word “Stuka” to the casual student of World War II, and they’ll probably know that you are referring to the Ju-87 dive bomber. Many people do not realize that the Ju-87 received its baptism of fire in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and many more do not realize that the aircraft was nearing obsolescence by the outbreak of the Second World War.
The work on what would become the Ju-87 was started in late 1933. Under the leadership of Dipl. Ing. Hermann Pohlmann, what emerged from the drawing boards was a twin-tailed, gull-winged aircraft with a fixed, spatted landing gear. A wooden mock-up was ready for RLM inspection in late 1934, and the Ju-87V-1 prototype took to the air in September 1935. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, the V-1 displayed relatively good flight characteristics, the exception being an engine overheating problem. An enlarged chin radiator was fitted, and flight testing continued until January 1936, when the aircraft crashed. The cause was soon traced to the lack of an underwing dive brake, and additional studies cast suspicion on the twin-tailed arrangement.
The Ju-87V-2 emerged with a redesigned tail section and a Jumo 210 powerplant. The flight testing continued through the Ju-87V-4 airframe–it was the V-4 that introduced underwing dive brakes and an automatic pull-out system that would recover the aircraft in the event the pilot blacked out during the bomb run. From the V-4, the cowling was redesigned, the tail surfaces squared off, and a more powerful version of the Jumo 210 installed. It was the resulting airframe that went into production as the Ju-87A.
After the factory flight testing was concluded, three Ju-87A-1 airframes were delivered to Kampfgruppe K.88 of the Legion Condor in Spain. Seeing combat for the first time in February 1938, the aircraft went on to acquit itself well in the skies over Spain. Combat aircrews were rotated frequently so as to gain as much experience as was possible. The legend of the Stuka was being born.
Special Hobby’s kit was one that was much anticipated, and what you get is quite impressive. The plastic parts are nicely molded with little flash. The surface details are quite nice–perhaps a bit too restrained, as even a light sanding erases some panel lines. Of course, it is probably more desirable to have to rescribe lost detail than it is to fill trenches . . .
The resin parts are well cast, with no molding flash at all. A curious addition is a set of resin wheels–the plastic parts for the wheel spats have wheels and tires molded on them, and the instructions make no mention of the resin wheels. I was quite happy to have them, as they do look more realistic than the “half-wheels” molded into the spats do. However, why, after providing such well done resin parts, does the builder have to do so much scratchbuilding in the cockpit? More anon . . .
The decals were well printed and in register. They allow the builder to model a machine from St.G 163 in Spain or an aircraft from Schlachtgeschwader 102 during the winter of 1943/1944. Since I have an interest in the machines of the Spanish Civil War, you can guess which option I chose . . .
When I start a limited-run kit like this, I usually begin by cutting the major parts from the sprue and taping the majority of the airframe parts together to see how everything fits. I used a #13 saw blade in my hobby knife handle–this is especially useful in limited run kits where the sprue tends to be rather beefy. A hobby knife can be used, but there are some places where this is somewhat akin to cutting down every tree in the forest with a herring . . .
The first thing I noticed was the thickness of the trailing edges of the wings. Easily remedied, I simply laid the parts flat on a sheet of sandpaper and rubbed them down slowly, a la a vac-form kit. Work slowly. You will be rewarded for your patience. I also rubbed the fuselage halves down slightly to get a good mating surface to the fuselage halves. Test-fit the wing and fuselage together–I found a slight mismatch at the wing root stub on the fuselage that I dealt with by doing a bit of light sanding. The horizontal stabs looked quite nice, and after truing up the root and tip ends to get as tight a fit as possible, I set them aside for later. Test-fit and sand, test-fit and sand some more . . .
The resin cockpit sidewalls and floor are quite nice. I removed the pour stubs from the sidewalls by scoring repeatedly with a new #11 blade, then gently snapping the stub off. A few swipes with a sanding stick, and that is done. Rather than building up the cockpit as a tub (follow the instructions? Hah!), I decided to epoxy the sidewalls to the insides of the fuselage halves and fit the floor from below once the fuselage was together. This actually worked out quite well, as I was able to get the sidewalls lined up with the cockpit sill and get the floor to fit tightly with little fuss. I did have to remove a bit of the pour stub from the floor underside so the wing would fit properly. I use a #13 blade for this as well. It works quite nicely. Once the cockpit parts were cleaned up and test-fitted, I went about the process of scratchbuilding the parts that Special Hobby didn’t provide. These include the roll-over structure behind the pilot, the rear gun elevation gear, and the pilot’s crash pad at the instrument panel. Consulting references, I noted that what Special Hobby shows you and what the actual roll-over structure looked like were two very different things. The actual structure consists of a roll bar and several vertical bars, looking somewhat like a prison cell door! I replicated this by first cutting the roll bar from .060" styrene card, attaching this to a suitably modified (by cutting the upper works off) Hasegawa Stuka bulkhead, then adding the vertical bars using stretched sprue. I also used stretched sprue for the gun elevation gear, using the plans as a reference. I couldn’t get a really good photo of the actual assembly, and from the few photos that I did have, it appears that the kit plans are as close as I was going to get. I did remember to build the elevation gear in such a manner as to allow me the luxury of installing the cockpit floor from underneath without having to fish various parts in through the cockpit opening.
As for the painting instructions, I found through research that Special Hobby’s call for a mix of RLM 02 and RLM 66 wasn’t correct. Instead, the cockpit was completely painted in RLM 02, including the instrument panel. I like to use acrylic paints, so I mixed up some PollyScale RLM 02 and sprayed away–I also sprayed the area around the radiator. Don’t forget the rudder pedals! After the paint had dried, I weathered the cockpit slightly with a dusting of pastels and a dark wash. For the wash, I used a bit of Burnt Sienna oil paint over a coat of Future. The Future acts as a barrier between the PollyScale acrylic and the linseed oil of the oil paint. When the wash was dry, I overcoated with clear flat (I like PollyScale’s, but Gunze Sanyo’s works well, too) and then applied the pastels. I picked out some of the details with paint, and highlighted some areas that would see some wear with a Prismacolor silver pencil. If you haven’t tried this, it is easy–simply graze the raised detail with the pencil, and apply a sealer coat of clear gloss of flat. The pencil affords great control over where the chipping will be located. The instrument bezels were picked out in PollyScale’s RLM 66 (a nice scale black shade) and when dry, a drop of Future was placed in each instrument face to simulate a glass lens. The machine gun was first painted with flat black and when the black was dry, I used the polishing cloth that comes with the SnJ Spray Metal kits to apply the metallic highlights. If you don’t have an SnJ kit, get a small square of flannel and some artists’ aluminum powder. Dip the flannel into the powder and rub the flannel on a sheet of paper until it leaves a black smudge. Then use the flannel to rub down the part–enough powder remains on the cloth to impart a dull metallic luster to the weapon. Neat trick, huh? You can also use the same trick to highlight cooling fin detail on a radial engine, but that’s another story for another time . . .
With the major parts cleaned up and the cockpit nearly complete, I turned my attention to the wheel spats. As molded, they have half-wheels molded integrally to the spats. This may be cheap to do, but it is most unrealistic. Seeing as the kit provides resin wheels / tires, I went the extra mile and removed the molded in ones. Cut them off with a sprue nipper, then using a knife, files, and sandpaper, work on the inside of the spats until the resin items will fit properly inside. It took a lot of sanding and test-fitting, but the end result was more than worth it. I added a sheet plastic shelf inside so the wheels would have something positive to locate to, but if you are industrious, you could build up gear struts and actually remove the lower part of the spats, as this area tended to collect mud and was often removed in service. I chickened out and left well enough alone. I assembled the spats (I left the resin wheels off until later–what, d’ya think I’d go to all that work just to have to carefully paint the wheels after they’ve been installed?) And set them aside to dry.
Before we begin assembly, a word on glues and cements. I am old-fashioned and like to use good old solvent cement for most of my building. I like Ambroid’s ProWeld, but Tenax is also good. When I do need an alternate, I’ll use Bob Smith Industries’ super glues and epoxies. I also like to use white (PVA) glue for a lot of chores as well–for that, I find Pacer Technologies’ Formula 560 Canopy glue is good, but good old-fashioned Elmer’s works too . . .
Now came the time to begin some assembly. First, though, you’ll want to paint the resin radiator–I used the flat black and SnJ cloth trick here, then test-fit the resin radiator into the fuselage halves. You may have to sand a bit to eliminate gaps–any small gaps can be dealt with quite easily with a bit of white (PVA) glue. I’m telling you this so you won’t forget to install the radiator–it doesn’t quite want to go in there after the fuselage is closed up, so do it now!
The first thing I did was to temporarily tack-glue the horizontal stabs to their root stubs. I drilled through the fuselage from the inside until I had drilled into the stabs. I later added wire pins to help reinforce the stab-to fuselage joints–it is easier to do the drilling now, though. Since you have already trued up the mating edges, the fuselage halves should go together quite nicely–if you want to make some alignment tabs, by all means do so. I didn’t, and had no problems with the assembly. I did add some .060" styrene card ribs for the wing roots, though–anything that will help align the wing halves at this point will be a tremendous time saver later. Since the wing roots are hollow, you won’t be able to use the wire pin trick here, so the styrene ribs help to reinforce the joint. The fuselage went together with no problems, and I needed only a small amount of filler to even up the seam. I tend to use Gunze’s Mr. Surfacer 500 more and more for filling small seams–I like the fact that you can apply it, let it dry a bit, then wipe the excess off with a cloth and some Isopropyl alcohol. Sure beats sanding seams . . .
Next, add the cockpit floor. Carefully install it from below–the sidewalls should rest on top of the floor part, so be warned. I had to use a length of rod to carefully ease the sidewalls into position. Once the floor is in place, finish adding the stretched sprue details that you need to add.
Fit the outer wing panel halves, adjusting and sanding where necessary to get a decent fit. Once they look good, glue them together. Now comes the fun part–offer up the lower wing center section to the fuselage. Once you are convinced that it fits well, glue it in place. Allow the glue to set, then fit the outer wing panels to the stub. I had several problem areas–the area around the stubs for the spats had huge gaps, and one side of the center section was flat where the other was curved. I started by attaching the wing leading edges–I had to add some strip to pack out one side to the proper thickness. When the leading edges were cured, I applied cement to the wing roots and let that cure. Once all that was cured, I persuaded the trailing edges to line up, tack glued with super glue, then cemented the joint with liquid cement. Once the wings had set, I added the wheel spats, taking care to ensure that the model sat level.
There were a few gaps that needed attention–if I could get away with just some Mr. Surfacer, I did. Otherwise, I used Milliput for large gaps and Squadron’s White putty for the smaller gaps. Once the putties had dried, I sanded everything to shape. I re-scribed the panel lines that were lost in the sanding process using a sewing needle chucked into a hobby knife handle–I find that I have better control with this scriber than any of the “wonder tools” marketed, and if I break the tip it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, just get a new needle. I used Dymo brand plastic label tape as a straightedge. Since it is self-adhesive, I find I don’t often have to go back and fix that many scribing mistakes. Just stick it to the model, and carefully re-scribe the missing detail.
So, you now have a Stuka with a wing, but no horizontal stabs. That part is easy–I superglued short lengths of brass wire into the holes I drilled into the stabs to act as locating pins and tack-glued the stabs in place with ProWeld. Once I was sure that everything was lined up properly, I added a wee bit more ProWeld to the joint and left everything alone overnight to completely set. After I attended to the root seams, I added the end plates to the stabs. They fit fairly well, and a light sanding took care of any mismatches. Let’s tackle that canopy next–don’t run and hide! It isn’t as difficult as some make it out to be!
Vacuum-formed canopies tend to strike fear into the hearts of otherwise brave and robust men. I have tried a few techniques through the years, and I have found the following method works best for me. First, if the canopy is a bit on the flimsy side, pack it with Play-Doh or modeling clay and pop it into the freezer for a few minutes. The clay helps keep the canopy rigid while cutting it from the backing sheet. If the canopy is a bit more robust, skip this step. Next, use some masking tape to set the outline of the canopy. Check your model and references carefully–you can adjust the tape as needed. Now, using a brand new (and I mean brand-spanking new!) #11 blade, lightly score the outline of the canopy. Check to make sure all is in order–a light score line won’t matter much, but once you start to actually cut the part out it will! Continue to lightly score around the canopy. If your canopy separates from the backing sheet after 20 runs with the knife blade, you’ve done it properly. Don’t rush this step–if you do, you will be doing two things: courting disaster and trying to find a spare canopy.
Canopy preparation doesn’t stop there–now, test fit it to the fuselage. Use your sanding sticks to refine the shape of the canopy until it fits properly. It took perhaps an hour to get the canopy on the model cut out and fitted. If you desire, you may dip the canopy in Future (or whatever brand name that acrylic floor finish goes by in your particular location) and set it aside to dry. Once it has cured, attach the canopy to the model–I like the Canopy Glue (or Elmer’s), but if you feel the urge to use super glue, go for it. Once all was secure, I masked the canopy–I like Parafilm M simply because I can leave it on the canopy for a while with no worry of leaving adhesive residue. Cleaning that up can be a pain in the arse, especially when you use acrylics . . .
I cleaned up the rest of the parts–dive brakes, bracing struts, flaps, flap hinges, and the like. The small resin scoops and gun port were attached to the model with diluted white glue, while the rest of the parts were left off the model until after paint. I left the exhaust stubs on the pour sprue. I managed to break one of the dive brakes while detaching it from the pour sprue, so I repaired it with a length of plastic strip.
Time for paint–I seldom use a purpose-made primer, depending instead on the light underside color to serve that purpose. I began painting by shooting a coat of PollyScale Reefer White on the wingtips (don’t forget the ailerons!) and rudder. Once dry, I masked the white and shot the underside of the model with PollyScale RLM 65–once again, don’t forget the underside of the flaps/ailerons, horizontal stab braces, flap hinges, bomb displacement gear and landing gear braces. I also used this color to prime the seams where I did a lot of sanding. All was in order, so the next color to go on the model was RLM 02 around the canopy area. Since I didn’t go to the trouble of opening the canopy hatches, this is the easy method of painting the “inner frames.” I let these two colors dry overnight. The next day, I masked the lower surfaces of the model. I added the upper surface camouflage with PollyScale RLM 61, 62, and 63. I used drafting tape to create the hard edges of the scheme. When painting the upper surfaces of the flaps, I first painted the wings, then held the flap in position with a pair of tweezers, and extended the line to the flap. I then masked and painted the flap. After all the painting was done, I unmasked the model, did any touch up work, and left it to dry overnight.
The next step was the clear coat. I don’t know why so many folks have trouble using Future as a gloss coat for decals–here’s how I do it. First, thin the Future 50-50 with Isopropyl Alcohol and apply at least one mist coat to the model. I use an Aztek 470 with a white (acrylic) tip at 15psi. Allow the mist coats to set up for a minute or so, then apply a medium wet coat. Let that set up for five minutes, then apply a few wet coats. The Future should be hand slick (dry to the touch) in 15 minutes. The surface won’t be super glossy, but it will be glossy enough for decals. Allow the Future to cure for at least an hour, overnight is better.
I used the kit decals, and having read all the horror stories about Propagteam decals, I was ready for a fight. Actually, the decals went on quite well, I only had to use the spit trick on a few of the more stubborn ones. A little diluted Solvaset snuggled them right down. I usually split the task of applying decals into four sessions–one night for the tops, one for the bottoms, and one each for port and starboard sides. Why? Well, I like to let gravity work for me to help pull the decals down tight. A solvent helps, but I have found that when done this way, some decals don’t need any solvent at all . . .
Once all the decals are applied, make sure to wash off all the residue left from the decal glue and solvent. I use a paper towel that has been moistened with warm water. Now the fun begins . . .
I commenced final assembly by first attaching the bracing struts for the horizontal stabs and gear spats. I used diluted Canopy Glue for this task. The dive brakes and bomb displacement gear came next, again stuck on with the diluted Canopy Glue. The spinner was separated, the blades (painted RLM 70) were added, and the spinner re-assembled. It was attached to the model with a touch of super glue (to tack it in place) followed by more diluted Canopy Glue. The flap hinges were attached in a similar manner. The flaps and ailerons were carefully added–I had to make sure that the parts lined up both mechanically and color-wise. When I was sure things were in the right place, I applied super glue to the hinges, tacked the flaps in place, then applied diluted Canopy Glue. When they had set, I added the balance weights and actuator arms. The tailwheel was added next, and when dry, the tire was painted with Testor’s Aircraft Interior Black. The main wheels were painted at the same time as the inner canopy glazing, and the tires were painted along with the tailwheel tire. The main wheels were glued into the spats, taking care to align them correctly.
The pitot tube was added to the wing and the pitot head was scratchbuilt with some stretched sprue. The dual antennas were added to the canopy. I painted the exhaust stubs with a dark metallic rusty brown, cut them from the pour stubs, and added them to the model. A wise man would have added a strip of styrene to the inside of the fuselage to act as a backer, but nobody ever accused me of being a wise man . . .
I painted the inside of the landing light cutout on the wing, then applied the final coat of clear flat. I kept it light, wanting more of a semi-gloss sheen to the model. Now, I’m normally a weathered, but I kept it to a bare minimum on this model, electing to add faint exhaust streaks and little else. I’m depicting this aircraft as it just arrived in Spain, so it would be relatively new/fresh. Had I wanted to go all out with the weathering, I could have depicted it as it appeared after a few weeks in service–they did tend to get dirty and muddy in Spain very quickly. Perhaps next time I will do an oil wash and fade the paint a bit, add some mud inside the spats . . .
I then added the bracing bar in the radiator and the landing light lens–for the latter, I simply applied a piece of clear, self-adhesive shipping tape. Sure beats cutting and trimming and fitting the kit-supplied vac-form lens.
Finally, I dusted the underside of the spats with some brownish pastel dust, stripped the canopy masks, and called this one done. Seeing as the “big boys” are unlikely to release this variant of the Stuka in 1/48 scale, this is the best game in town. It isn’t a difficult build, it just takes a bit of modeling work to get a decent representation of the early Stuka. I didn’t count the hours I worked on the model, but if I were to estimate, I’d say perhaps 30-40 hours would be close.
Thanks for reading. As always, be good to one another. I bid you Peace.