"Picchiatello", the Italian Stuka - Ju 87 B-2

[giemme]

On 23/11/2020 at 00:22, CedB said:

Marvellous attention to detail Giorgio, as usual!  

Thank you, Ced  Although sometimes I feel it like a curse... 😕

 

On 23/11/2020 at 09:27, keefr22 said:

All coming along really nicely Giorgio!

 

Keith

On 23/11/2020 at 11:03, perdu said:

Nice

 

Very nice glooping and drilling and sawing and

 

Well simply put, nice

Thank you both, Keith and Bill   Trying to practice some of the @perdu magic there, you know?

 

 

On 23/11/2020 at 12:30, Brandy said:

Your usual attention to detail, and another stunner on its way!

 

Ian

Thanks Ian  See my comment above as regards attention to detail....

 

On 23/11/2020 at 13:35, corsaircorp said:

Stunning work Giorgio !! 

as ever really great paint job !!

Very good rectification too !!

I'll keep it in mind for the day I'll start mines...

Keep carry on that really good job !!

And have a Mc Chouffe cosy at home !!

Sincerely.

CC

Cheers C, thank you!  No McChouffe at the moment, I ran out of it, but I'll make do with a Blanche de Namur  

 

19 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

I just wanted to say ‘ lovely cockpit ‘ but you seem to have come a long way since then. We’ve had some beautiful weather recently so I’ve been spending most of my time outdoors doing manly thinks like chopping logs and repairing fences and haven’t paid as much attention as I should to the important things.

 

Stay safe.

 

John

No problem, thank you John  

 

7 hours ago, rob85 said:

Nice work master surgeon Giemme, your showing that fin who’s boss and giving it a full reconstruction.

 

the cockpit is just gorgeous, really nice, clean detailed work.

 

Rob

Thanks Rob  Still a few things to do on both fin and rudder, but I'm almost there.

 

No work done during the week, maybe I'll manage something tonight, maybe tomorrow. In any case, I'll post some progress during the WE  

 

Stay safe everybody!

 

Ciao

[Massimo]

Very good progress on that rudder, .

The cockpit is a gem!!!

Picchiatello is  really promising Giorgio!!

[giemme]

On 26/11/2020 at 18:25, Massimo said:

Very good progress on that rudder, .

The cockpit is a gem!!!

Picchiatello is  really promising Giorgio!!

Grazie Massimo!   More work done in the fin and rudder, see below.

 

First, though, some weather talk: this was last Monday sunset

 

 

Getting colder around here, but still bright  

 

And now for some progress: plasticard shims added to the fin and rudder, and sanded to shape

 

 

 

 

The hinge points on the rudder were re-instated using a razor saw.

 

The back side of the fin should be concave, so I carved it to shape using the following tools (hand held)

 

I then marked the positions for the rudder hinges, carved a reference line per each of them and glued some plasticard bits in place

 

I test fitted the rudder against them and, after reworking

 

At this point, I decided to check if the rudder would look like a complete mess also under a primer coat; since I wanted to do a quick check, I used Tamiya Neutral Grey rather then a regular primer, and it showed some areas to be taken care of ...

 

 

 

I did sand back the offending areas, broke the mass balance off in the process   , glued it back and left to set before doing anything else on that (still setting as I'm typing this).

 

Next, I wanted to glue the windshield in; here are all the transparencies, after a bath in Aqua Gloss

 

 

 

Quite some distortion, as you can see... Anyway, I summoned up some masking mojo, and using Oramask cutouts and a Swann Morton #15 blade

 

(oh, the joys of macro pics... ) The framing isn't really well defined on the kit parts, so I had quite a hard time in cutting the masks to shape - I feel I'll have to do a lot of brush touch ups when the time comes..  Speaking of framing, one distinctive feature on the Stuka is the two handles inside the windshield, on the top part; I bent some steel rod around some pliers, drilled receiving holes inside the windshield and glued them in with Formula 560

 

I then brush painted RLM02 on them and on the rear framing

 

and glued the whole thing in place with TeT

 

I was left with some gap and a good amount of fairing in to do ...

 

 

I filled the gaps with sprue gloop and left it to set properly before I attempt any sanding. Meanwhile, I started working on the wings (and I'm only two months into the build, what is happening to me??  ). Some holes needed to be drilled, and an insert had to be added in the fuselage part moulded with the bottom wing

 

 

 

I then brushed some Gator's grip on the inner mating surfaces of the trailing edges and used TeT to glue the rest and seal everything in

 

Again, some sprue gloop was added to take care of the most evident gaps on the leading edge. Once cured, I will post some pics detailing the fit... let's say that it's Italeri typical...

That's it for the WE, all comments welcome

 

Ciao

 

[hendie]

Italeri. Gotta luv 'em.

 

Well, no you don't actually. They need a good collective slap with a wet kipper.

 

Nice work on the windscreen G

[keefr22]

Some more good progress G - and what a gorgeous sunset pic that is!

 

K

[CedB]

Wow, that windscreen fit

Great work on the rudder G - she'll be tamed soon, no doubt!

[The Spadgent]

Lovely sky dear sir. As for the progress. 👍👏👏👏👏👏👌 The work on the tail is amazing and those little handles are masterful. 
 

Johnny

[perdu]

Dare I say it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, nothing about ItacrIeri!

 

😵

 

Nicely handled Giorgio, very nice indeed.

 

Oramask, should really be looking into that.🤔

[Spookytooth]

Very nicely handled G (pun intended )

 

The back end looks sorted too.

 

Keep up the good work sir.

 

Simon.

[rob85]

This is some speedy progress! And you still cramming in your normal detail, are you still seeing you family or just drinking red bull before you start??

 

Rob

[Massimo]

Great work on that rudder!!!

those handles on the windscreen are a gem.

Well done Giorgio!!!

[giemme]

On 29/11/2020 at 23:34, hendie said:

Italeri. Gotta luv 'em.

 

Well, no you don't actually. They need a good collective slap with a wet kipper.

 

Nice work on the windscreen G

I tend to agree with you, Alan  Thanks for the praise

 

On 29/11/2020 at 23:48, keefr22 said:

Some more good progress G - and what a gorgeous sunset pic that is!

 

K

Cheers Keith, thank you   As for the sunset pic, only a week later we had this

 

 

🥶 Raining now, but still snowing hard up on the mountains - and of course skiing is forbidden due to the COVID situation....

 

On 30/11/2020 at 00:37, CedB said:

Wow, that windscreen fit

Great work on the rudder G - she'll be tamed soon, no doubt!

Thanks Ced, windscreen sorted, see below

 

On 30/11/2020 at 01:08, The Spadgent said:

Lovely sky dear sir. As for the progress. 👍👏👏👏👏👏👌 The work on the tail is amazing and those little handles are masterful. 
 

Johnny

Thank you Johnny

 

On 30/11/2020 at 11:50, perdu said:

Dare I say it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, nothing about ItacrIeri!

 

😵

 

Nicely handled Giorgio, very nice indeed.

 

Oramask, should really be looking into that.🤔

 You're familiar with Italeri yourself, so... Oramask is really great stuff, especially to be used with a cutter like the Silhouette range, but also good for hand cut masks  

 

On 01/12/2020 at 17:54, Spookytooth said:

Very nicely handled G (pun intended )

 

The back end looks sorted too.

 

Keep up the good work sir.

 

Simon.

  Thanks Simon, see below for some progress

 

On 01/12/2020 at 21:53, rob85 said:

This is some speedy progress! And you still cramming in your normal detail, are you still seeing you family or just drinking red bull before you start??

 

Rob

  I don't know Rob, in fact all I'm doing is managing some modelling during the week, at night  

 

On 01/12/2020 at 22:48, Massimo said:

Great work on that rudder!!!

those handles on the windscreen are a gem.

Well done Giorgio!!!

Grazie Massimo, much appreciated

 

OK, mailbox sorted, now for some progress; I promised a recap about the wing fit issues, and here we go: leading edge

 

 

Starboard wingtip shows quite a big difference in top and bottom wing profile ... 

 

Some sprue gloop needed here

 

The worst part, though, is the trailing edge: not only it's too thick, but it also has this gap

 

 

To be fair, you can only see the gap at this angle, still it's quite annoying.

For a split second, I thought of cutting out the flaps and ailerons to fix it; then I decided to remain sane (sort of...) and try and fill it with PPP.

First I tackled the leading edge, though; my good friend @Gene K suggested to get a new kind of electrical sander, which I did  

 

 

That's an electrical nail sander/polisher, battery operated, and it comes with three convenient heads, that allows you to do from sand to polish. Ideal to work on long flat seams, so I immediately put it to good use on the wings leading edge. After a few minutes, all I had left to fix were these spots

 

 

The coarser sanding head on that toll is actually perfect to remove plastic excess, like on the wingtip, without overheating the plastic itself

 

I actually used it for the windscreen too, starting from this situation

 

 

and ending here:

 

 

 

 

I sorted the remaining spots on the leading edge too

 

 

 

 

That's it for now, more work during the WE - all comments welcome.

 

Ciao

[hendie]

got a link to that sander Giorgio?  It looks interesting and should have Ced salivating in no time

 

Looks like you did a remarkable job on that canopy/fuselage seam - that would have been painful to have done manually

[Spookytooth]

11 minutes ago, hendie said:

It looks interesting and should have Ced salivating in no time

No doubt it will ....LOL

 

Another too; to add to the collection but I see that it`s worth it G.

 

Nice work on cleaning up bits and pieces.

 

(All that snow and not allowed to go on the piste).

 

Simon.

[giemme]

11 minutes ago, hendie said:

got a link to that sander Giorgio?  It looks interesting and should have Ced salivating in no time

 Here's the link @Gene K sent me

https://tinyurl.com/y2quxeb5

 

I actually bought mine on Amazon - no Walmart here

 

It literally took me a few minutes to sort the windscreen, I don't think I could have done it manually without having then to tidy up a much larger area. Primer will tell if it's good enough or more work is needed, though. 

 

Ciao 

[giemme]

2 minutes ago, Spookytooth said:

Another too; to add to the collection but I see that it`s worth it G.

 

Nice work on cleaning up bits and pieces.

 

(All that snow and not allowed to go on the piste).

 

Simon.

Definitely worth it, Simon - and thanks for the comment  

I hope the skiing season won't be totally cancelled, if nothing else it would be a sign that things are going better with the virus, which is far more important than me skiing, of course...

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Nice work Giorgio, that windscreen fit looks perfect now  

 

I wonder if the 'bad fit' on the trialing edge is supposed to be there so you can sand it to a thinner profile that the molding allows? Not helped by the flaps though.

 

Great progress!

 

 

1 hour ago, hendie said:

got a link to that sander Giorgio?  It looks interesting and should have Ced salivating in no time

 

1 hour ago, Spookytooth said:

No doubt it will ....LOL

 

I already have one chaps so salivation avoided!  

I bought mine in March '17 and have used it a bit, but as it has a strangely shaped top:

 

 

… and vibrates I don't like to leave it lying around…

 

 

 

[Spookytooth]

7 minutes ago, CedB said:

and vibrates I don't like to leave it lying around…

It looks like something you would find in "Ann Summers" LOL

 

Simon.

[CedB]

I'm sure I don't know what you mean Simon

[perdu]

I KNOW I don't!

[Gene K]

5 hours ago, CedB said:

I'm sure I don't know what you mean Simon

 

  

 

I just joined your Trio.

 

Gene K

[corsaircorp]

Great correction Mister G

Ah the joy of Italeri Stuka, I've had almost forgot it...

And still have another italeri Stuka in the stash....

That will be another gem for sure !!

CC

[VT Red Sox Fan]

 Giorgio, great work so far--the cockpit is stunning and will really add to the model with all the glass--really enjoying how you are sorting out the rudder... best, Erwin 

[The Spadgent]

Great work on the canopy. That sander looks useful. 🥳

[giemme]

On 05/12/2020 at 17:01, CedB said:

Nice work Giorgio, that windscreen fit looks perfect now  

 

I wonder if the 'bad fit' on the trialing edge is supposed to be there so you can sand it to a thinner profile that the molding allows? Not helped by the flaps though.

 

Great progress!

Thank you Ced - mostly down to the new vibrating tool      

The bad fit at the trailing edge it's just what it is: bad fit   i tried to mitigate it somewhat, see below...

 

On 06/12/2020 at 01:07, corsaircorp said:

Great correction Mister G

Ah the joy of Italeri Stuka, I've had almost forgot it...

And still have another italeri Stuka in the stash....

That will be another gem for sure !!

CC

Thanks for the vote of confidence, CC    You have another one? You truly are a glutton for punishment...  

 

18 hours ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

 Giorgio, great work so far--the cockpit is stunning and will really add to the model with all the glass--really enjoying how you are sorting out the rudder... best, Erwin 

Cheers Erwin, thank you - glad you like it  

 

13 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Great work on the canopy. That sander looks useful. 🥳

Thank you Johnny   The sander proved very useful, and saw more action, see below.

 

OK, done with the mailbox, on with the update; BTW I'm in the middle of a looong WE because it's bank holiday in Italy tomorrow and we get Monday and Tuesday off, so expect more  

 

Lots of pic to follow - I warned you...    

 

I tried to fix the wings trailing edges by filling it in with PPP: still there, but less evident

 

 

Then a test fit of the bomb racks, to see if there were any holes to be filled in

 

 

The blind holes on both wings had to go, they are for the R version, so I filled them in with CA+flour ... and forgot to take a pic afterwards 

 

There were a few things I wanted to get out of the way before joining the wings to the fuselage; one being the landing light. After assembling the top and bottom part of the wings, some gaps remained

 

 

I filled them in with plasticard cutouts

 

and added some PPP to smooth thing out

 

As you can see, Italeri didn't bother moulding the framing around the light on the bottom side of the wing, so I had to do that

 

then I painted the interior with RLM02 on the sides and a mix of Lifecolor Dark Tan, Red and Yellow for the back plate; the light bulb received a silver coat on its back side

 

Then I glued the clear cover on: talk about bad fit....

 

Actually, bad shape rather than bad fit; out came again the new sander, starting with the coarser grit to reshape the lens

 

Then a smooth-out with the medium grit

 

then a polish

 

and a further polish with a sanding stick

 

I had to go back on some spot that showed scratches, using wet sand paper and re-doing the polishing

 

Then I brushed on some Aqua gloss

 

The clarity isn't bad, but the distortion is just awful; in hindsight, I should have vacformed a replacement for the clear cover. It doesn't look all that bad from the correct distance, I guess I'll have to live with that.

 

Another task to complete before gluing the wing to the fuselage: the kit provides a PE panel for the fuselage, right in front of the windscreen:

 

I glued it in with Gator's Grip and run some PPP on the back part to fill in the gap with the windscreen; now, each side of this panel, there are two hatches on the real aircraft, which sit slightly proud of the fuselage. To replicate them, I used some tape to copy the shape

 

I then stuck it to a 0.1mm brass sheet

 

and then cut out, bent to shape and glued int, first with Gator's Grip and then securing the edges with CA

 

Last thing before mating wings and fuselage: a dry fit of the tail planes

 

which showed that the supporting arms have a fit issue both sides, on the aft arm -  fuselage side

also, the elevators hinges are in the wrong position, so I'll have to correct them

 

With all of that out of the way, I did a dry fit of the wings with the fuselage: it showed a step at the root

 

both sides

 

also, the wing root fairing at the trailing edge wasn't aligned with the wing (again, both sides) so I had to reshape it

 

 

To reduce the step, I inserted some spacers inside the wings, held in place with bkue tack

 

 

Another dry fit: not perfect, but definitely better

 

 

That means less work to do to fix them. Eventually, I committed to gluing

 

 

That's it for now, more tomorrow. All comments welcome

 

Ciao