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Junkers Ju-87 B2 STUKA in Italian service - The "Picchiatello"


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finito1

 

Hello everybody, here's my latest off the bench, Italeri's 1/48 Stuka in the markings of 239a Squadriglia of the Regia Aeronautica.

A quick summary:

 

KIT: Italeri 1/48 Junkers Ju-87 B2-R2, No. 2769

AIRFRAME: Junkers JU-87 B2, M.M. 7085, Captain Giuseppe Cenni's mount

PAINTS: the camouflage was airbrushed using Tamiya (my own mix) for the underside RLM65, again Tamiya XF27 Black Green for RLM70, Lifecolor Dark Green for RLM71. Two different versions of home brewed RLM02 for the interiors, one using Lifecolor paints (more of a grey hue, I used it to paint the cockpit and canopy frames) and one with Tamiya (green hue, used for the firewall, wheel spats interior and engine bearers). Decanted Tamiya Gloss Aluminium, Model Master Metallizers and Molotow Chrome pen for the metallics. Other assorted Lifecolor, Italeri and Tamiya acrylics for detail painting

MARKINGS: I cut my own masks with my Silhouette Curio and airbrushed the underwings Fasci and the tail Savoia Cross; the fuselage white band was masked using regular masking tape. The Italian Stukas were all German former machines, so the German insignia were painted over with Italian paint patches (Verde Oliva Scuro for the upper wing crosses and the tail swastikas, Grigio Azzurro Chiaro for the underwing crosses); I airbrushed these over-painted areas using a mix of Oramask home made masks and blue tack masks. All the rest are the kit decals

WEATHERING: assorted tempera and oil washes; very thinned Tamiya Flat Black for the exhaust fumes. Oil dotting in some selected areas. Lifecolor Sand Yellow for the wing walkways and wheel and spats dirtying up, applied with a sponge

AFTERMARKETS: None. The kit actually sports a PE fret with parts for the IP and cockpit, plus the tail planes mass balances and the wing walkways.

SCRATCH BUILDING/IMPROVEMENTS: quite a list, sorry....feel free to skip it and go straight to the pics....

- Pilot's seat, from scratch; the kit part is for later versions (D onward), so I put together a new one vacforming the main part and adding the structure from a paper clip, some Curio-cut stock card and various brass pipes

- Gunner's seat structure: I replaced the square plastic chunk molded on the cockpit floor with a scratch built structure form styrene sheet and brass rods. Again, the plastic bits were cut with my Curio

- Pilot's aiming window: Italeri didn't think of providing one, so I completely scratch built it from styrene sheet and acetate

- A few more improvements in the cockpit area: the gunsight reflector was replaced with acetate. The rudder pedals supplied with the kit are, again, for later versions, so I replaced them with a scratch built version, using styrene sheet and brass sheet. The gunner seat adjustment pedal was also added.

- Inside the windshield, I added the handle bars from brass pipe and the rear view mirror, made with brass sheet

- Since I intended to build the kit with an exposed engine, I completely scratch built the firewall, discarding the kit part; the firewall itself was cut form 0.3mm styrene with My Curio; all the piping, cabling and valves were scratch built form brass pipes, sprue bits and copper wires. Brass sheet for the lower panel

- The engine itself received quite some additions, in terms of pipe and cables (using various steel rods, copper wires and solder) and of structure: the cowlings frames were scratch built from styrene sheet, again cut with my Curio, adding various bits from brass pipes (such as the radiator flaps actuators) and sheet

- I scratch built the two hatches right in front of the windshield, using 0.1mm brass sheet

- Having the engine completely exposed, I had to scratch build the supercharger intake, using mostly milliput

- The engine cowling were modified too, removing the parts that were molded only for kit assembly purposes, notably right aft of the spinner

- There were a few shape issues with the kit that I had to fix (as much as possible): the propeller blade shapes (simply by filing/sanding them to the correct shape); the fin and rudder, reshaped adding plastic card strips and sanding them to shape; the tail planes cord, too narrow, again fixed adding plastic card strips. I also re-positioned all the elevators hinges, because they were moulded in an incorrect position.

- Other improvements included: the main wheels spats, reshaped with wine bottle cap foil; drilling the exhaust stacks ends; canvas protection for the tail wheel strut, scratch built out of masking tape; main wheel tyres bulges sanded back, because they were oddly shaped; pitot pipe replaced with as syringe needle and brass pipe; rudder cable, scartch built form 0.6mm solder; elevators actuating arms, from brass pipe; antenna wire, using one of my daughter's hair

- Finally, the wingtip light were completely missing, and I scratch built them from stretched clear sprue, sanded to shape and polished

 

A huge thank you to everybody who followed the build and provided help, tips, reference documentation (in that regard, I recall @Giorgio N and John @Biggles87 right off the top of my head, but I'm sure I forgot someone else - apologies for that) and companionship

 

:phew:  On with the pics, now:

 

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Cockpit details

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A few more for the cockpit, from the WIP thread

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cockpit24

 

 

Last pic, here with what was Cenni's last mount (supposedly), the Reggiane RE2002 Ariete - please ignore the base, it's a lame attempt done many years ago, and on top of that, it was built for a 1/32 model

finito27

 

All comments welcome

 

Ciao

Edited by giemme
Fixed the RE2002 name - thanks @zigomar
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On 17/04/2021 at 23:30, BerndM said:

Smashing work. Museum quality !:clap2::thumbsup:

Thank you Bernd! :thumbsup:  Long time! I hope all is well with you :) 

 

On 17/04/2021 at 23:43, keefr22 said:

Beautiful model of a pig ugly aeroplane - top, top work G! Really enjoyed watching it all come together in your excellent build thread and looking forward to the next one!

 

Cheers Keith, glad you like it :thumbsup:

 

On 18/04/2021 at 00:09, RMCS said:

Superb 

Thank you! :thumbsup:

 

On 18/04/2021 at 02:35, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

:worthy: Im not worthy to view your work ! JK that is some excellent and beautiful work. :thumbsup:

You are way too kind, Dennis - much appreciated :thumbsup:

 

On 18/04/2021 at 03:08, Navy Bird said:

Very nicely done indeed Giorgio. Outstanding work.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Thank you Bill, I'm glad you like it! :thumbsup:

 

22 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Outstanding result, and fantastic attention to detail. 

 

Well done indeed 👍

 

 Cheers Greg

Cheers Greg, thank you :thumbsup:

 

21 hours ago, CedB said:

Immaculate, another stunner Giorgio :) 

Thank you Ced! :thumbsup: Although I'm not sure I would call immaculate, I wanted it to look quite dirty..... :D

 

12 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

You are truly one of the most gifted modellers out there Giorgio, you made a Stuka look good!

Amazing details, amazing finish my friend.

You are way too kind too, Cookie - I'm really glad you like it! :thumbsup:

 

12 hours ago, Val_Ukraine said:

Fantastic job, amazing detailing! :wow::speak_cool:

Cheers Val, thank you :thumbsup:

 

11 hours ago, Zigomar said:

Molto bello ma il Re 2002 e Il Ariete, non il Saggitario! Complimenti!

Grazie Zigomar! :thumbsup: And you are of course right, "Sagittario" is the name for the Reggiane RE2005. What was I thinking? :banghead: I fixed it in the original post, thank you!

 

10 hours ago, djos said:

Superb modelling!

Details, paintwork, weathering......simply great

Regards Djordje

Thank you D! :thumbsup:

 

10 hours ago, bbudde said:

As all above Giorgio. Well done as usual.

Cheers

Cheers Ben, gald you like it :thumbsup:

 

6 hours ago, Wulfman said:

Superb modelling, truly great work !

 

Wulfman

Thank you Wulfman :thumbsup:

 

Ciao

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I have said it before so...

 

I wont.

 

fabulous modelling Giorgio, a perfect example of all I just can never do

 

Admiration overload 

 

Skills overload too

 

Just astonishing model making G, thanks for the journey pal.

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On 19/04/2021 at 10:15, Mig88 said:

Wow!! That's awesome! Fantastic work there :thumbsup:!

 

Miguel

Thanks Miguel :thumbsup: 

 

On 19/04/2021 at 10:52, Giorgio N said:

Wow, fantastic model, really impressive ! Another masterpiece from you, I missed a few posts in the WIP so now I sure have to go and check them all, Well done !

Grazie Giorgio, much appreciated :thumbsup: And thank you again for providing reference material about the Italian Stukas :thumbsup2:

 

20 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Superb and outstanding job Mr G !!

Congratulations !!

Another museum quality kit !!

:partytime:

Sincerely.

CC

Cheers CC, glad you like it! :thumbsup:

 

20 hours ago, perdu said:

I have said it before so...

 

I wont.

 

fabulous modelling Giorgio, a perfect example of all I just can never do

 

Admiration overload 

 

Skills overload too

 

Just astonishing model making G, thanks for the journey pal.

Thank you Bill, also for the companionship during the ride :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

Ciao

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On 20/04/2021 at 15:22, Parabat said:

Incredible detail and great photography, that's excellent.

Thanks Parabat! :thumbsup:  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the pictures, considered that I took them with my phone camera :) 

 

22 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Another great build to add to the collection Giorgio.

 

Looking forward to another Rhino????

 

 

Simon.

Cheers Simon, thank you - much appreciated :thumbsup: Another Rhino in sight, yes.... or maybe more? :whistle:  :D 


Ciao

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