Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3.

[Bish]

Satrted this one at the start of the year along side the Harrier. This is 72nd Stuka no 8. My 4th Fujimi build and second of their D's.  This is the kit, i am doing the subject on the box art, S7+AA.

 

 

The instructions say it a D-1, but the photo's clearly show the thicker armoured pilots windscreen of a D-3.

I'm useing an Eduard PE set along with a few other AM parts. The Aires resin pit designed for the Academy kit will fit in this, as i found out when i built a D-5, but as i had the Eduard set anyway, figured i would use it. The PE set is missing some detail thats in the resin one, but i'll use some parts from the spares box to fill it out.

I got the PE parts fitted painted and dry brushed. Also drilled out the hole and fitted a quickboost resin compass.

 

 

 

 

I also got the wings together, cut out the molded landing light and fitted the guns. There are 2 options for the wing guns in the kit. One with exposed barrel tips for the D-1 and another with extended fairing and covered opening for the D-3. But photo's show that both variants could have either. I am guessing the covered fairings are to stop dirt getting in to the barrels on take off, and the covers do seem to be fited more often to aircraft in dusty enviroments, such as the desert. The photo's of the aircrfat i am doing are not that clear, but it does look more like the covered option so thats what i fitted.

 

 

Got most of the major parts fitted to the Stuka including fitting a quickboost  compass and getting the wings on once the fuselage was together. No major fit issues as i expected.

 

 

 

 

Then got the canopy on and all the sub assemblies ready. As you can see i am leaving the undercarrage off. I've also learnt my lesson when it comes to adding actuators and airelon balances to soon, have had to scratch more of those than i care to remember, so i am painting them seperatly.

 

 

 

It got a primer coat yesterday followed by the undersides being painted, so will be able to mask off in a day or so.

[Shalako]

4 hours ago, Bish said:

 

Really beautiful work mate and you have emphasised those details so well.

 

👍

[Bish]

Thank you. I do try and put that little extra effort in when it comes to Stuka's.

[Ferrata]

Nice work on my favourite aircraft. I’ll pull up a seat if I may.🙂

[Bish]

I got the Stuka painted with the European scheme.

 

 

I started masking for the sand before i remembered to get some pics.

 

 

 

I then added the desert camo. Some profiles and the kit instructions have the sand right along the side. But photo's don't bear this out. My main referance, Classic Colours Luftwaffe Colours Stua Vol 2, has 3 decent pics of the left side along with a nice profile based on careful study of the photo's. This only shows RLM 79 in 2 patches under the canopy. These patches seem to match the areas where extra armour was fitted to the D-3. But many aircraft, includeing this one, don't have this armour. I am woundering if the ground crews may have removed it and patched it up with the 79. The kit instructions don't match what little can be seen of the top of the left wing. So i went with a combination of the photo's, instructions and guess work. There is no top down image of the tail, but there does seem to be any 79 there so i left that. The photo's do show the 79 is well worn on the wing. So i replicated that (first time doing weathering like this on an aircraft) by dry brushing the enamel paints and then useing 502 oil paint, there German Orchre is quite a close match. I'm quite pleased with how its looking. I also added the white tail band.

 

 

 

I left this for a couple of days then polished some rough areas and seal before adding the decals.

 

I got the Stuka wrapped up this week. After some light weathering with Flory wash and exhaust staining it got the mat coat. I am very pleased with how the worn look to the sand paint came out. The instructions said to paint the spinner sand but of course it should be blue. And i used some AM decals for the wheel spats as the kit ones were white, and of course they should also be blue. The bomb load are Kora resin bombs. I was inspired by a photo of a banking D-5 on the Russian from from one of my books. It had this bomb load, SC250's with fuze extender's and the bombs were a mix of green and blue. I had to paint the white on the antenna mast as there are no decals for this.

 

 

 

 

 

And then onto its base with 4 figures and a Kubel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking. All comments welcome.