Airfix 1:24 Scale 1940 Ju 87 B

[Pauls9cb]

 

Fascinated by the struggles over southern Britain and the Channel during the summer of 1940, like many so afflicted, I've done my share of Bf 109s and 110s and will doubtless try a few more as time permits. So I was quite intrigued when an old school chum was clearing out his mother's house after her death when he asked me to look at some kits his brother had stashed but never finished. A crumpled Airfix box revealed the barely-started elements of their 1:24 scale Stuka and, despite the kit's age and probable list of missing bits, I thought I'd get round to it one of these days. Eventually, the fragile box was just in the way in my study so I decided to see what I could do to finish what my friend's brother had started.

I decided after some research to base the model on one of those operated by StukaGeschwader 1 (StG 1) in one form or another throughout the German push west into Belgium, France Holland and France, following this with attacks on the Channel convoys at the start of the BoB in July 1940. I've based the model on a Stuka from II Gruppe StG 1 which was commanded by Hauptmann Anton Keil who gained an enviable reputation as a talented exponent of the Luftwaffe's form of aerial artillery. I hadn't seen any models based on the 6th Staffel / StG 1 so thought this would be a novel subject, particularly since their extensive use throughout the German push west would have probably meant that most of the aircraft that were still on the unit's strength would have been heavily beat up from continuous sorties and regular moves from one airfield to another, offering plenty of scope for me to experiment a bit with heavy weathering.  I probably ended up going a bit far but I guess that always a risk.

The RLM 70/71 splinter camouflage on Stukas, most bombers and many Bf 110s of the early 1940 period always leaves me a bit disatisfied using the vaious straight mixes available since all that research to ensure accuracy the patterns are representative in what would have been factory-applied to all new aircraft gets a bit lost. The differential between each of the 2 greens is quite often difficult to discern, as it probably was when the a/c were delivered from the factory. I decided that my "used and abused" theory with this Stuka gave me plenty of scope to tinker with the shades in an attempt to produce something that reflected the fading that was probably the case with many Luftwaffe a/c that followed the push west, moving from one field to another, rarely under cover and always exposed to the elements. It probably produced a base colour that some would judge too light, but it's a matter of personal judgement.

I decided that all those areas that would be subject to a bit of wear from crew/mechanics access should be sprayed with flat aluminium after the Halfords grey undercoat. The plan was to abrade  the 70/71 topcoat once almost complete to try to replicate the wear around the cockpit frames, inner wing areas and other selected bits (e.g wheel spats, access panels) where maintenance and use under time pressure would abrade the top surface. As well as oil and exhaust staining, I'd seen several B&W pics that showed the ground crew occasionally weren't to careful when filling the fuel tanks in the inner wing sections. Tamiya clear yellow and orange produced something that didn't look too far from what this might have produced.

 

   

 

The crumpled box that I inherited inevitably had a few bits missing, amongst them the Revi gunsight as well as various element of the Bordfunker's bin  and framework for the empty MG 17 ammo cans. The ammo bin and frame wasn't too tricky but the Revi sight in the right scale was a bit more tricky. After much swearing, false starts and continual reference to the pictures I found on the magic screen of a big scale model of a Revi 12C that some much more accomplished modeller had made, I had something that seemed to fill that screaming gap quite adequately. Much better I thought than the similar items that come in the Airfix boxes of other Luftwaffe aircraft. Iit's difficult to see much of the Revi sight in the model pics but I'm sure it's omission would have seemed pretty obvious and I got some satisfaction from having corrected it. 

I spent some time painting the 6/StG 1 unit emblem in a larger scale and then reduced it to what seemed to me 1:24 scale to make the injet decals. I've since seen the same emblem on other kits but with a pale blue background. My reference was from Peter Smith's Luftwaffe Colours book on the early Stukas where the background colours looks too pale on the B&W pics to be blue, so I opted for the white background.

 

      

 

Having completed the whole project with various etched and home-made fiddly bits, I came again to the problem of what to do with the finished model which dwarfed the 1:48 scale collection that I do have on a shelf in the study. I ended up asking Andy, my school chum whose late brother bought and started the kit a bit ,whether it might be an evocative memory of his brother. He was very happy to inherit it and more recently told me he has passed the model on to his brother's grandson, even more appropriate. He looks suitably amused but I'm not sure how long all the delicate bits are going to last.

 

 

 

 

[Gerrardandrews]

Brilliant looking model, and the grandson looks very happy 😊

[stevej60]

That look's superb,great story leading to it's coming together too

[Hamiltonian]

Lovely job!

I had one of these dangling from the ceiling above my bed when I was a kid - except I'd finished it in blotchy bright yellow and dark green, for reasons that now escape me. It was, in retrospect, a horrible looking object.

[Pauls9cb]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Much appreciated. I think Hamiltonian must have covered his old model in some form of desert camo. Thing is, back in those days, the target was getting the model finished, and the desire to research the reality of WW2 models tended to be a bit limited, never mind all those glue spills and other things like that. Us more mature children have the patience perhaps to do the research and pace ourselves on the build. More ready for inspection posts en route soon.

[invidia]

thats a great looking model. and a great story to go with it. as a kid i never had a 1/24 airfix plane, no reason just never had one. i did have a monogram B36 flying from my ceiling!!!

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Hamiltonian said:

Lovely job!

I had one of these dangling from the ceiling above my bed when I was a kid - except I'd finished it in blotchy bright yellow and dark green, for reasons that now escape me. It was, in retrospect, a horrible looking object.

 

Desert Stukas arrived in European 70/71 camo,  and were field modified

 

and  it was an Airfix markings option at one point

 

not sure when that came into 

 

 

oddly enough some Ju 87 were painted in Desert colours, 78/79,  and then got sent to Finland, where they got a coat of green, but the masked out stencils show as bright patches, but still with mid blue 78 undersides.

 

My pick for a great Ju 87 scheme is  the Hungarian 3 tone uppers, pre war in Russia they had wing and tail chevrons

 

 

 

 

there's lot of variety in profiles,  but this was similar to  the pre-war Luftwaffe 61/62/63 scheme

 

here's a 109F in  this scheme

 

I digress, lovely job on Ju 87, when it first came out in 1976 the uppers were shown as overall dark green (Airfix M17 )

 

I  still have the broken remains of mine from then as well....

cheers

T

 

PS Paul

I assume 'East Dean' is one  near Eastbourne, (a google only shows that  one),  you may wish to attend a one of the model clubs that meet in Southwick community centre

IPMS Mid Sussex

next meeting Thu 1st June

http://ipmsmidsussex.org.uk/where-to-find-us

 

I'm usually there, (have a look at my profile  for a photo, or message  me)  and one chap I mentioned this too  (loft-full) came along and said hello and  now is a regular member, and there are a few other members here who attend,  well worth coming  along...  nothing as useful as seeing a build and being able to ask the builder how a certain effect  or modification was carried out.

Or just a chance to meet some like minded folks.

 

There is also South Downs Model Club

http://southdownsmodelgroup.org.uk/

 

There is also the this

http://www.hailsham-district-scale-model-club.org/

 

I've not been (don't drive) but there is a member here who organises part of it,  name escapes at the mo.

 

Edited May 27, 2017 by Troy Smith
add details and links

[Head in the clouds.]

Blimey. this model takes me back to my yoof and I will tell you now it looked nothing like yours, in fact it was not even painted. A wonderful job sir.

[Pauls9cb]

Hi Troy,

You're spot on with the location although there's another one in West Sussex northish from Chichester. My comment about the desert camo was really driven by the multitude of b&w and colour pics of 109 trops in the western desert and me assuming (bottom out of u and me) that the Stukas supporting the Afrika Corps probable followed a similar scheme. Difficult to think they all kept the European schemes there and I've seen pics of some overpsrayed in a sand colour overall on the top surfaces while others had the sand colour sprayed with the RLM 70 was left in large blotches. I guess you take your pick if you're trying to replicate something specific but the European scheme covers most options.

I'm not particularly club-oriented although went to the Eastbourne Club a few times some years back. One of the chaps who runs the Hailsham Club is regularly in situ in Train Times in Eastbourne. The Britmodeller site is the first one I've tentatively had a go on and I'll probably add more posts to the "ready for inspection" section. I have a shelf full of BoB models from when I was tempted back to the hobby while writing a book about the BoB casualties around Eastbourne over the summer of 1940.

Cheers

Paul

[Pauls9cb]

Hi again Troy,

I was digging through the bits in my study and came across the Airfix instruction booklet for the 1:24 scale Ju 87 which I'm guessing was the one they released back in the mid-70s. Guess what was the colour scheme they showed for the tropical version that was an option in the kit.

 

 

I knew I'd seen it somewhere!

Paul