Ju 87 B-2 Stuka Helmut Bode

Steffen Arndt
So here we have another hangar queen which I chose now as it is really far in construction and only need some persuasion to be finished.
The kit itself is a mixed bag, some details are good others not so. The cockpit sits a few mm more to the front when compared to the Hasegawa kit but I have no idea if that is right or wrong.

I did not like the sit of the rudder controls this I glued them below the mounting points (see instrument panel from the back side).

Steffen Arndt
Next is the pit with some more pieces attached. It is quite nice oob... I had to rely on artificial lighting for many pix thus some colours may come out strange from time to time.

The IP is how it looks oob when painted. it consists of some plastic parts, some PE and two decals.

Steffen Arndt
The fit of this kit is not stellar but not too bad either. I filled a bit on the fire wall (though I plan to close the cowl as the detail on the inside of the panels is bad and I do not want to buy the Goffy stuff. In pic 5 you see that I had to grind a bit on the sun screen to make the canopy fit (more or less), but it sat a bit angled thus this was probably my own fault.

Steffen Arndt
Next I played a bit with the engine (though I will close it up). Some rubber piping is included but you have to cut it to length. Not sure the covers will fit to the fuselage, but I'd break everything off to make it fit. In the last picture you see that I had to fill a bit on the windshield the white stuff on the window and fuselage is just a bit of residue no scratches.

The "trousers" are not sided so you have to fiddle a bit to make them look right --- no big deal though, I just put them on straight down. I cut slots in the wheels mounts so I can paint them separately. I thought about leaving them off until after painting, but I rather mask them than to repair glue marks in the paint job.

Steffen Arndt
Fitting the engine first was of course not very clever, but as this is kind of a review build I wanted to show the engine in situ before closing it up. Thus some fiddling, trimming, brute force etc. was necessary (swearing is also very popular in my model room).

Next thing I did not understand is how the PE at the elevators should work, I was sticking to the instructions there but still could not make it out yet .. I installed it as I thought it should be.

pic9 is a photo of the actual state (the struts on the elevators are just clipped in for the correct position of the elevator)

Steffen Arndt
Some more progress... final things fitted in the cockpit and middle (fixed) canopy added. I also added the tail wheel and this is pretty nice and gives the whole thing a better look. The main wheels can still move and thus are not flat on the ground - BTW I sanded the bulges away as I do not like this "True detail style" flat tires...

Steffen Arndt
then disaster struck: I just wanted to mask the canopies, when I noticed the sliding hood of the pilot is a short shot. Dang it is even visible on my First Look photos on ipmsdeutschland.de, but I did not notice it until now when I scratched my head why the darn thing refuses to fit .... doh

Steffen Arndt
Still I went on and masked the intact parts. And i also attached the short shot canopy for painting the first two colours. I started even masking, but lost motivation.

Steffen Arndt
and then I sat it aside .. for a looong time (see the dust on the final picture?)

Steffen Arndt
So when i was nearing the completion of the Toryu I thought about this kit as it is really far progressed I still need to finish masking the camo but then it should be manageable in a few weeks. I will use most decals from the kit for my F1 + AC I only need to source a proper C (or I will rework the D to match it)

Sadly Bode's AC only has the standard camo. I really like the yellow theatre markings for the Balkan Campaign. I bought Squadrons canopy for the old Airfix Ju 87B/R kit for a replacement pilots hood...

Steffen Arndt
After washing the model some more hours of masking fu and it is ready for a little more paint. First need to wait for the maskol to dry as i had to re-arrach the rear sliding hood

Steffen Arndt
So the proof is in the pudding .. de-masking the kit went more or less well. I had some paint chipping and the PE parts and the lower side. I already repaired most of it for the picture. The RLM65 is from Jens Popp (JPS) which is a very nice bright color but does not stick very well. I guess the upper RLM71 was also from that range but I did the repair with Gunze, which looks o.k. Today I sprayed Gunze RLM70. The contrast is pretty strong but will be toned down with weathering and flat coat...

I had hoped to come out with out the ailerons breaking, but it was unavoidable in the end as the masking tape proved to be a bit stickier than the freshly applied tape

Steffen Arndt
I have just reattached the control surfaces ... still more damage to these parts is likely

Steffen Arndt
I airbrushed and attached the rudder and gave the whole model a gloss coat with Tamiya Clear acrylic

Steffen Arndt
I started to apply the decals from the kit .. these were printed by Cartograf but are flat coated. Nonetheless they work flawlessly. I modified the D to a C to get Bode's Stuka from the french campaign.

Steffen Arndt
I assembled ans painted the Quickboost propeller. I had to make a new propeller mount from interlocking brass tubes (Albion Alloys) as I broke the plastic one

Steffen Arndt
After applying the final decals yesterday I gave the whole model another gloss coat this morning. Now I have applied a sludge wash on tzhe whole model. For better visibility I photographed the underside of the model