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

[Spookytooth]

Nice work Giorgio , all looking quite swish there.

Nice battle with the canopy, we live and learn on those types of happenings.

 

Stay safe.

 

Simon.

[Brandy]

Very impressive Giorgio, especially the engine assembly. I just bought another reference book for my Airfix biggie when the time comes!

 

Ian

[Cookenbacher]

Wow, that engine looks real Giorgio.

[corsaircorp]

Great job Mr G !!

You bring it to life !! Congrats !!

CC

[hendie]

On 1/31/2021 at 3:37 PM, giemme said:

Those two alu tape straps need tidying up, but there's still a lot more to do with it anyway.

 

Shabby I calls it Giorgio. I expect better from the likes of you.   

 

Nice canopy adjustment. It's always a bit worrying when you have to spread 'em

 

As for the engine - that's up there with the best of them.  Great job, and it even fits. How cool is that?

 

 

[rob85]

That engines a little masterpiece! Really nice crisp work G, love it.

 

Rob

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Giorgio, impressive--for whatever reason, the most jaw dropping part for me was the wire harness--that said, everything is the standard spectacular!  Best, Erwin

[woody37]

Just stumbled across this, lovely progress and detailing, in for the rest of the ride

 

[giemme]

On 07/02/2021 at 22:05, The Spadgent said:

Well that’s looking pretty darn swish. 👌

 

Johnny

On 07/02/2021 at 22:57, fubar57 said:

Yes....darn swish......off to Google swish and pray it isn't something bad......................................................................................................

Ok, swish it is then - thanks guys!  

 

On 08/02/2021 at 11:13, CedB said:

Stunning Giorgio, just stunning!  

Cheers Ced, thank you!

 

On 08/02/2021 at 11:47, bbudde said:

Hi G., great update and great work. Looks very nice so far.

Cheers

Thanks Ben, glad you like it!

 

On 08/02/2021 at 13:13, Spookytooth said:

Nice work Giorgio , all looking quite swish there.

Nice battle with the canopy, we live and learn on those types of happenings.

 

Stay safe.

 

Simon.

Thanks Simon  The canopy thing was avoidable with a bit of fore-thinking, I sure learned for the next time   

 

On 08/02/2021 at 14:02, Brandy said:

Very impressive Giorgio, especially the engine assembly. I just bought another reference book for my Airfix biggie when the time comes!

 

Ian

Thanks Ian  If you decide to expose the engine on your Airfix Stuka, you can go wild with details at that scale!    

 

On 08/02/2021 at 18:41, Cookenbacher said:

Wow, that engine looks real Giorgio.

Cheers Cookie, thank you!   Shall we try and ignite?     

 

On 08/02/2021 at 23:42, corsaircorp said:

Great job Mr G !!

You bring it to life !! Congrats !!

CC

Thanks you, CC!   That rocket fuel of yours must have contributed to it  

 

On 09/02/2021 at 00:47, hendie said:

 

Shabby I calls it Giorgio. I expect better from the likes of you.   

 

Nice canopy adjustment. It's always a bit worrying when you have to spread 'em

 

As for the engine - that's up there with the best of them.  Great job, and it even fits. How cool is that?

 

 

Pretty cool, is it?  Thanks Alan, much appreciated

 

16 hours ago, rob85 said:

That engines a little masterpiece! Really nice crisp work G, love it.

 

Rob

Thanks Rob!  

 

15 hours ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Giorgio, impressive--for whatever reason, the most jaw dropping part for me was the wire harness--that said, everything is the standard spectacular!  Best, Erwin

Cheers Erwin, glad you like it

 

14 hours ago, woody37 said:

Just stumbled across this, lovely progress and detailing, in for the rest of the ride

 

Welcome on board, then!

 

No progress to report today, very busy week. I guess I'll have to wait for the WE to have some bench time.  

 

Ciao

[perdu]

Waiting's fine.

 

As if I can talk.

 

It is a fabulous Stuka (and once I swore I'd never say that) G, tremendous.

[keefr22]

Very late catching up with your update G, but glad I finally did as it all looks really swish (wait, did someone already say that - well I fully agree!  ) 

 

K

[giemme]

On 10/02/2021 at 10:40, perdu said:

It is a fabulous Stuka (and once I swore I'd never say that) G, tremendous.

Glad I made you change your mind, Bill   It is an ugly aircraft, actually, but with some appeal in it  Thanks for the praise

 

On 10/02/2021 at 22:38, keefr22 said:

Very late catching up with your update G, but glad I finally did as it all looks really swish (wait, did someone already say that - well I fully agree!  ) 

 

K

Ok, swish it is then, Keith   Thank you

 

Where were we? Ah yes, prepping tasks before priming. First off, I glued in the tail planes supporting struts

 

 

My original intention was to add them after the paint stage and save some tricky masking, but as you can see the fuselage joins are less than ideal and would potentially lead to a messy remedial job. So now I just need to tidy them up and when the painting time come, think of some creative masking...    

 

Then I decided to test fit the main gears: wheel halves glued with TeT

 

 

While the struts/fairing are just held together with some blue tack: they are quite a snug fit under the wings

 

although not completely accurate: there should be some sort of fairing that ends flat with the wing surface, rather than this gap (plenty of wartime pics for this detail)

 

I'll have to figure out something suitable for the task, but these anyway are staying off for the moment and will be painted separately. Incidentally, you may have noticed I removed the sirens from the strut fairings, as the Italian Stuka pilots didn't like them at all an removed them on all their airframes.

 

This pic from the front shows some tilt on the struts, which I'm pretty sure it's incorrect; I will not attempt any corrections yet, as I first need to glue their halves together, which BTW requires to fit the wheels in at the same time - so I'll have to paint the wheels and the legs interior before assembling them.

 

More preparation job: I pinned the two IFF antennae (I think...), as the kit supplies them as butt joint pieces but I really don't care for that

 

 

There's another belly antenna, whose mounting hole had already been drilled out as per instructions, but upon test fitting it, it turned out to be way too big

 

So I filled it in with an Evergreen rod

 

and drilled a smaller hole

The sort of halo around the base of the antenna is actually solidified CA glue after polishing, as I had to use some to fill in the big hole, in addition to the plastic rod.

 

I guess the last thing before masking and spraying some primer was to check the fit of the pitot tube

 

here's the kit part in its entirety 

 

Not that fancy, really; so I decided to keep only the back end, and replace the actual pipe with some prescription needle and a very thin brass pipe

 

The plastic back end was glued into the wing with TeT, while the metallic pipe will only be added at the end of the build

 

There's actually one more thing I need to do, or better figure out, before priming: wingtip lights. Italeri didn't provide any, and the wingtip is molded with a completely rounded profile, seem from the top; the actual airplane has a small flat spot where the light sits. I'm thinking of stealing an idea I saw here on BM, probably on one of @hendie's builds, of reproducing them with a drop of PVA glue posed on a flat surface shaped accordingly to the actual lights. This is anyway something I intend to do separately, so I'll just need to sand a small flat spot on the wing tips, and carry on with the priming. Not now, though, because my garage/spray both is freezing 🥶, so I'll wait for a milder weather

 

That's it for the WE, all comments welcome

 

Ciao

[keefr22]

More neat and tidy work G, good stuff!

 

K

[bbudde]

Seconded G.

[The Spadgent]

12 hours ago, giemme said:

probably on one of @hendie's builds, of reproducing them with a drop of PVA glue posed on a flat surface shaped accordingly to the actual lights.

Sorry to cause a stir with the “swish” comment it’s something my mother says. She is 80 now so it’s an old fashioned term but very accurate in this case. 👌

I think you did see that on a hendie build  but I’m not sure if standard PVA works. I know super glue doesn’t. Maybe Krystal clear or similar is a better option?

Ruddy smart progress by the way. By the way where do you get the needles and metal strips from? And how do you cut them without distorting the ends? 
 

Johnny.

[giemme]

14 hours ago, keefr22 said:

More neat and tidy work G, good stuff!

 

K

13 hours ago, bbudde said:

Seconded G.

Cheers Keith and Benedikt, thank you!

 

1 hour ago, The Spadgent said:

Sorry to cause a stir with the “swish” comment it’s something my mother says. She is 80 now so it’s an old fashioned term but very accurate in this case. 👌

I think you did see that on a hendie build  but I’m not sure if standard PVA works. I know super glue doesn’t. Maybe Krystal clear or similar is a better option?

Ruddy smart progress by the way. By the way where do you get the needles and metal strips from? And how do you cut them without distorting the ends? 
 

Johnny.

No need to apologize at all, Johnny   And thanks for the comment

 

I've used PVA to reproduce the water effect previously, I think it's worth a try; also, I recently tried reproducing some glazing with Formula560, Gator's Grip and another canopy glue I have sitting around on my bench, so I can perform multiple attempts.

Ideally, though, I'd rather use some pre-colored plastic and shape it up accordingly, much like @CedB little plastic swords, but I don't think I have anything like that.

 

As for the needles: as I said, they are prescription needles, so I bought them in a Pharmacy   I cut them with hobby pliers, the kind with wire cutter in them, but since it smashes the cut end, I then sand it away with a Dremel sanding disc, remove enough material to restore the circular shape (and see the hole in it!). 

Metal strips: if you refer to the brass ones, they come from a roll, 0.1mm thickness, I can't remember how many meters in length (bought from a local hardware supplier). I cut them with small straight scissors, and again use sanding tools (Dremel or hand-held) to refine them. They do distort when you cut them, but it's easy enough to flatten them back. HTH

 

Ciao

[keefr22]

3 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Sorry to cause a stir with the “swish” comment

 

I thought it was entirely apt - hence why I nicked it....!!

 

Always difficult to think of something new to use to compliment Giorgio on his excellent work!

 

Keith

[Brandy]

Those tyres look very odd. I'd get rid of the strange bulge at the bottom if it were mine. Otherwise looking good!

 

Ian

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Giorgio, great catching up with this build--quick question for you--on the IFF antennas how do you set up the rods which go into the fuselage--is it a simple butt joint with the antenna or do you drill on that part too? Hope the question makes sense--best, Erwin

[giemme]

12 minutes ago, Brandy said:

Those tyres look very odd. I'd get rid of the strange bulge at the bottom if it were mine. Otherwise looking good!

 

Ian

I see what you mean, Ian, but the overall effect is quite different, once in place inside their fairings. I will anyway check once more and see if they need de-bulging a bit  

 

10 minutes ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Giorgio, great catching up with this build--quick question for you--on the IFF antennas how do you set up the rods which go into the fuselage--is it a simple butt joint with the antenna or do you drill on that part too? Hope the question makes sense--best, Erwin

Thanks Erwin  I did drill the antennae bases too, just enough to fit the brass rod with a smear of CA glue. HTH

 

Ciao

[hendie]

22 hours ago, giemme said:

Not that fancy, really; so I decided to keep only the back end, and replace the actual pipe with some prescription needle and a very thin brass pipe

 

wise choice G.  I had a sharp intake of breath when I saw you stick the plastic part in there.

 

I agree with Ian - that bulge on the bottom of the tires (do tires have a bottom?) looks weird and unnatural.

 

 

 

[Marklo]

9 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

And how do you cut them without distorting the ends? 

If you take a new scalpel blade and roll the tube as you lightly bear down on it with the blade you can cut it without distorting it.

 

Very impressed with the Stuka build, looking forward to the Camo going on.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Marklo

[Spookytooth]

A nice and steady job done there G.

Those little bits added.

 

Stay safe.

 

Simon.

[TheBaron]

Good call on pinning those antennae Giorgio.

[giemme]

On 15/02/2021 at 20:09, hendie said:

 

wise choice G.  I had a sharp intake of breath when I saw you stick the plastic part in there.

 

I agree with Ian - that bulge on the bottom of the tires (do tires have a bottom?) looks weird and unnatural.

 

 

 

Fear not, Alan: replacing the pitot is a sort of rule for me, I've yet to find an injected plastic pitot that looks convincing  You and Ian do have a point about the tires, see below...

 

On 15/02/2021 at 20:18, Marklo said:

If you take a new scalpel blade and roll the tube as you lightly bear down on it with the blade you can cut it without distorting it.

 

Very impressed with the Stuka build, looking forward to the Camo going on.

I do the same with brass or palstic pipes, but the syringe needle is stainless steel and the blade kept slipping, so it was hard to get a clean cut. Thanks for the praise

 

On 15/02/2021 at 20:54, Spookytooth said:

A nice and steady job done there G.

Those little bits added.

 

Stay safe.

 

Simon.

Cheers Simon, glad you like it!

 

On 15/02/2021 at 21:45, TheBaron said:

Good call on pinning those antennae Giorgio.

Thanks Tony, I try to avoid butt joints whenever I can. Still, in this build I'll have to resort to some, because the mass balances for the ailerons and flaps are way to small to be pinned. 

 

Alright, here's WE progress report; I changed my mind twice since last update (on two different subject, actually); first off, I did a dry fit of the wheel with its faring, and although mitigated, the bugle effect is too much "in your face", so Ian @Brandy and Alan @hendie do have a point here

 

So I removed the bulges with the usual tools: flat file, ETS, nail sanding stick... Here's left done and right undone

 

and both completed

 

The second subject on which I changed my mind is the gear struts/fairings; I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to leave them off till the end of the build, but something was bothering me. I remembered to have seen a nice closeup of a Picchiatello showing an interesting marking, this one:

 

(The pic comes from https://www.asisbiz.com/ ) As you can see, the top part of the fairing is quite different form the kit rendition, and it's faired in with the wing

 

 

So I decided to glue them in place (keeping them straight, BTW)

 

and reproduce the top part with alu foil (from wine bottles: very flexible, but rigid enough to hold the shape)

 

Since thickness wasn't an issue, to glue it in place I used some simple double sided adhesive tape.

 

The joins in the back were filled in with my usual CA+flour mix, and sanded to shape accordingly

 

Then PPP to fill the gaps and reproduce the top fairing

 

Here it is after smoothing it out with damp cotton buds

 

 

Not exactly like the real thing, but a good approximation, I think.

 

Time for some primer  Here's the main AC all masked and prepped

 

 

Along with a few other bits

 

 

And there she is, still drying

 

I primed the model with my usual mix of Vallejo Grey Primer and Future; for some reason, the mix wasn't initially thin enough, so I had some clogging, to try and sort it I over-thinned the mix and got a floody coat, then finally I was able to spray a final coat with proper thinning. I didn't insist too much around the cockpit area because I didn't want to have a too thick of a coat on the transparencies. This resulted in the brass panels right in front of the windshield being still quite bare; but I have a plan for that, just wait and see

 

That's it for the WE, all comments welcome

 

Ciao