Building a Kanonen Vogel: Hasegawa Ju 87-G

[Ferrata]

Having a bit of a battle with the wings now. I knew the wing tips would be a problem from previous people's builds and these are no better, too thick and just a poor joint.

What I also found was the outer sections of both wings were warped with a downward curve and neither side would fit to the inner section properly, with gaps in the vertical and horizontal plane. Anyway, after some serious filing and test fitting and scrap plastic and test fitting and spacers inside the wing I've managed to get it as good as I can.

Now its time to get the filler out and start sanding, happy days!

On a positive note, with a little touching-up the tread will have been eliminated from the wheels and I can get them painted again.

That's all for now, happy modelling.

 

 

[Ferrata]

Been a little while since my last update but work has been progressing on the wings; filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, you get the picture! Then finally re-scribing but I think we are finally there. 

As you can see, it's quite a big wingspan so best to sort out all the joints before attaching to the fuselage. I also had a thought, since the G2 had all the bomb equipment such as dive brakes and wing mounted racks removed it would be likely that the centre line bomb rack would also be omitted? After looking through quite a few books and internet I found two pictures of a G2 from the right angle showing a smooth underside and no trace of the bomb rack so I also removed and covered the moulded on details that Hasegawa provide for this centre line. 

Since I was in a filling and sanding frenzy I might as well take care of the seams on the fuselage as well.

It's not all been hard work, the engine section and wheels are now ready and in primer.

Propeller as well. The new resin blades are a big improvement over the kit ones both in size and shape!

So that's progress so far, next step will be to get the wings and tail on this week and it will start to look like a Stuka at last!

 

One final thing, there was a video posted on YouTube recently with a walkround of the machine preserved at Hendon. The presenter noted that the L -shaped footstep on the fuselage aft of the wing provided for access was only fitted on the starboard side. Normally there is one on both sides. I remember asking the Curator about this during my visit years ago and he thought it had been removed at some time after capture and in storage. However this got me wondering. Looking at pictures of this area on the Hendon example shows no sign of removal or repair. A search through pictures in my book collection also was not conclusive. Most photos are of the starboard side, not port however I did find some of D5s and G2s where the port access step may not have been present - the quality of the photo was never good enough to be sure. Can anyone add to this possible mystery???

 

Happy modelling.

[Sturmovik]

One thing you may want to check is the fit of the left side horizontal stabilizer (it's left when looking at the aircraft from the rudder to the nose from above). Mine ended up with an anhedral instead of being straight.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Sturmovik

[Ferrata]

19 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

One thing you may want to check is the fit of the left side horizontal stabilizer (it's left when looking at the aircraft from the rudder to the nose from above). Mine ended up with an anhedral instead of being straight.

Thanks for the tip. I must be lucky, mine went on nice and level.

[Ferrata]

At last! The wings are finally finished and I can move on to something else. For a change of pace I thought I would do a bit of painting. So, starting with the Prop' I got this primed in black before adding highlights in white. Then on went the RLM 70 Black Green with the front half of the spinner in white. I finally decided on T6+NU of 10./SG 2 from the EagleCals sheet which has a black and white spiral on the front half of the spinner. I will try the decal for this but I can always paint it if that doesn't work. The main reason I went for this scheme was to have something different from the usual Rudel machine which seems to be the most common decal option.

I then went on to the undercarriage and wheels. At this point the spats have still to be weathered but the wheels have been dirtied up using a combination of dry brushing and pastel chalk. Once these are done I will add the brake lines and flat bottoms to the tyres. 

To save myself some masking round the oil cooler I decided to paint the RLM 65 on the underside of the nose before gluing in the oil cooler. Now if I need to do any more masking here I can just shove in a piece of sponge to protect the cooler. 

 

All this fun has to come at a price and this was the tail struts and flaps etc. All of these had lots of ejector pin marks which had to be sorted so out with the filler and back to the sanding.

There are still a few other parts with ejector pin marks, such as the antenna mast, to take care of but they can wait for now. To be honest I thought Hasegawa would have been better for this kind of thing but maybe I'm just unlucky with this one. 

 

Still, It's now starting to look like a Stuka and a big one at that!

Thanks for looking in and happy modelling.

[Holzhamer]

Good and solid progress thus far. I like your building thinking & method plus your build journal is very comprehensive.

As for your your L shape foot step observation, I tend to agree with you since many, if not the majority, of the photos I have in a couple of books devoted to the D/G versions of the Stuka seem to have it only on the starboard side, even considering that many are not cristal clear shots obviously. Thanks for bringing this up, it was a detail which I was oblivious to

[Ferrata]

21 hours ago, Holzhamer said:

Good and solid progress thus far. I like your building thinking & method plus your build journal is very comprehensive.

As for your your L shape foot step observation, I tend to agree with you since many, if not the majority, of the photos I have in a couple of books devoted to the D/G versions of the Stuka seem to have it only on the starboard side, even considering that many are not cristal clear shots obviously. Thanks for bringing this up, it was a detail which I was oblivious to

Hi Holzhamer,

Thanks for your comments. I’m glad you think the same about the step, it would be great to have a definitive answer on this but I can’t see that happening. I think I will do a bit more research on this before I decide what to do with this on my build.

[Ferrata]

Back onto some smaller things this week. The rear gun was treated to a pair of brass barrels and pe handles, I also drilled a hole for the trigger. I have to admit it looks lovely and it will be a bit of a shame to paint it. 

The under-wing radiators were also finished off and readied for paint.

a coat of Vallejo black primer was sprayed on followed by RLM 65 on the inside of the radiator housings, including the wings, and Tamiya Matt black for the MG 81.

If you’re wondering why paint the RLM 65 at this stage I’m using the same logic as before with the oil cooler. The radiators should be easier to mask with sponge when doing the camouflage later. The radiators are aluminium with a wash of matt black mixed with water and Kleer. It looks a lot better than it does from this angle.

 

I’ll  post some more pictures later but until then thanks for looking and happy modelling.

[Ferrata]

As promised, some more pictures. This time the finished MG81Z weathered with powdered graphite.

 

The BK37s have also had a coat or two of paint and are now ready for a coat of gloss and some weathering but I think I will leave the weathering until the rest of the airframe is painted to make sure it is all consistent. 

The tail wheel strut has been assembled and painted too.

I wanted to add a bit of life here so I cut off the lower part and repositioned it so it was no longer in the dead ahead position. To keep the strength I had to drill out both parts and insert a small length of alu tube. 
Finally, the rudder and elevators, which I cut off earlier, were glued on in their new positions and the df antenna painted in its circular recess.

Going to start masking the canopy next but I’m quite pleased with progress so far. The canopy may be a bit of a challenge as Hasegawa obviously did not intend for the pilot’s section to be posed open as it fits snug with the front and centre sections. The plan here will be to use some hot water to bend it and make it a little wider, hopefully without cracking it, and thin down the centre section a little too. I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any other ideas?

 

Thanks for looking and happy modelling.

[Ferrata]

Didn’t think it had been so long since my last update but things have been progressing, all be it with lots of small things. I also managed a weekend away in the mountains so am back to the bench refreshed!

Model wise the canopy has been the big focus. After some careful heating and bending the pilot’s section now fits over the centre section. What a relief it was not to crack the brittle plastic doing that! That left me free to start with the masking so out with the Tamiya tape, steel rule, dividers and a sharp blade for one of my favourite jobs, not.

Masking this lot took four hours in total. As you probably know some of the frames are on the inside so you have to mask and paint inside and out. I also made up the gunner’s seat belts and some PE framing for inside the canopy centre section. Then the frame and canopy insides got a couple of coats of RLM 66 and a bit of light chipping.

Here is the frame in place with the antenna cable added. 

and the front section with grab handles and mirror in place.

Finally all in place and almost ready for primer!

One last little job was to add the impression of weight to the wheels. For this I cut a small amount off the “bottom” of all three tyres, the trick being to get them even. I think they came out rather well if I do say so. 

That’s it for tonight. Thanks for looking and happy modelling.

 

[Ferrata]

Good evening all. It’s been a busy weekend in the Stuka workshop. The wing control surfaces are now on giving the Stuka its distinctive wing shape. Rather than leave the flaps in the neutral position I wanted to lower them. This involved cutting out the mounting brackets, gluing them to the wing then mounting the flap in its new position.

 

To keep everything in position I had to use little wire pins to connect the individual flaps and stop things moving. The actuator rods were also replaced with wire to give a more scale appearance. 

The kit control rods for the tail were also replaced with stretched sprue for the same reason, hopefully these will survive the painting process!

After adding the “one” access step and a couple of other little detail parts that’s it, ready for paint! Actually, one last bit of scratch building was the pitot tube which was replaced by one made from aluminium tube and a bit of hypodermic needle.

And that’s it for the building stage. The next time I post this should be, hopefully, in primer. 

Thanks for looking and happy modelling.

[Ferrata]

One big painting session later and I have a black stuka! 

I think the Luftwaffe missed a trick here, it does suit black! If you were wondering, the nose was painted separately some weeks ago hence the white pre-shading is already done here. Going to leave it 24 hours to cure now.

 

Thanks for looking and happy modelling.

[Ferrata]

Painting coming along nicely so far. That’s the underside done.

 And now moving on to the upper side starting with RLM71.

Going to need another coat of 71 I think before moving on to masking for the RLM70. I only made the switch to acrylics at the start of the pandemic so I’m still learning. In this case I’m using Vallejo Modelair and thinning with about 60% thinners and a couple of drops on flow improver and it seems to be working well in thin coats. The colours are a bit different in shade to the xtracolour enamels I used to use but a good match to my references. Besides, at this point in the war the quality of paint would not be what it was four years earlier so I can justify a patchy finish in my mind.

 

Thanks for looking and happy modelling.

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Great progress, and it's starting to look the part. It's always good to get paint on, so long as you don't get a 'Doh!' moment.

Not sure if you know, but car screen wash can be used to thin acrylics. Cheaper than the Tamiya thinner too.

[Ferrata]

On 11/28/2021 at 9:16 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Great progress, and it's starting to look the part. It's always good to get paint on, so long as you don't get a 'Doh!' moment.

Not sure if you know, but car screen wash can be used to thin acrylics. Cheaper than the Tamiya thinner too.

Thanks Pete. I’ve not heard of the screen wash hack for Tamiya paint, berry scented paint sounds nice.😀

[Ferrata]

Been a while since my last update, been caught up with life restricting bench-time. Finally got the paint finished and a couple of coats of Tamiya gloss to seal it in ready for decals.

I think I mentioned before that I’m using decals from EagleCals T6+NU as a change from the ubiquitous Rudel machine. The decals went on with no drama, settling down nicely with Micro sol and set. The only exception to this were the double stripes on the rudder. No matter which way round I turned them I could not get them to match the profile. In the end I gave up and sprayed them on. Another couple of gloss coats and we are ready to start weathering.
 

This is where things could go wrong, instead of my usual approach I’m trying Flory washes for the first time. I’ve watched the YouTube videos and had a little practice on a mule so we should be fine but wish me luck!

[Ferrata]

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is enjoying the festive season. In between family time I have managed to complete the weathering and make a start on final assembly. So far this has consisted of installing the guns, rear seat and back rest.

Then cleaning up the framing on the rear canopy section and adding some little details for the gun installation and pull strap. Despite the clear plastic being quite hard and brittle it is also easy to scratch with a wooden cocktail stick but some Klear should take care of that.

I carefully cut out the slot in the top of the front canopy section to accommodate the antenna mast however test fitting shows a small gap between the bottom of the canopy and the canopy rail. I think I’ve done all I can with heating and bending the canopy to get the best fit I can so another solution is required. On the real aircraft a portion of the rubber seal was often cut away to clear the additional external armour plate when fitted. This is how Hasegawa have moulded the canopy and I have installed the extra armour. However, adding a 0.5mm strip to the bottom of the canopy to replace the cut out gets rid of the gap. It’s a bit hard to see in the photos but the extra part is in black primer, not 100% accurate but I can live with it.

 The exhausts are now installed and some light soot stains added with pastels.

 

Hopefully the next post will be the final one but until then thanks for looking and all the best for 2022!

[Ferrata]

Finished! After nearly four months I can call this one done. Thanks to all that followed and commented. I have posted pictures in the RFI section but here are some more to round it off.

Happy modelling and best wishes for 2012.

[Ferrata]

Or 2022 as I should have said!