Ju-87G-1/2 Stuka 1/35 Border

[M1Carbine]

Dave - my brother. I don't how the hell I missed this one but HOLY CRAP! Absolutely beautiful and both recoveries were amazing….well done! I have this kit as well so im tuned in. One thing I did notice this kit and the ME have no color call outs. Ill be picking your brain for that.

-Bob

[Green KreationZ]

Cockpit looks great. I’m excited to see the paint go on!

[thug626]

Jan 14, 2024 22:13:20 GMT -5 M1Carbine said:

Dave - my brother. I don't how the hell I missed this one but HOLY CRAP! Absolutely beautiful and both recoveries were amazing….well done! I have this kit as well so im tuned in. One thing I did notice this kit and the ME have no color call outs. Ill be picking your brain for that.

-Bob

Brother! Ya didn't miss it! You've been battling a hydra with your build by the sounds of it. Thank you kindly!
So, this kit......
The molding of this bird is amazing. I am curious to see what Eduard does with their 1/48 Stuka that's in the works.
Anywho, there are a couple issues with this kit. First, you nailed it with the color call outs. The call outs they have are for exterior colors only.
There's a couple issues with parts call outs, and how they match up with the G1 vs G2 variant. There is no delineation between the two. Examples are standard wing tips vs extended. Wing machine gun housings (which are capped off). Side fuselage appliqué armor. There are multiple canopy options. Which is which? Be prepared to peruse your resources for multiple stages.
The decals are relatively few. The national markings are straight forward, but there is little to no mention of the stencil decals. There is a silhouette of a tank that I believe Rüdel had on what was, I believe, a G1 variant. Its on the decal sheet, but no reference to it.
There are a couple of parts that are listed twice (eg the mounting hardware for the BK 18 guns). They are handed. One will NOT work for the opposite side.
All of that being said, it is a good kit. The fuselage halves mate up perfectly. This was much appreciated on the lower rear fuselage. Raised rivets abound. Careful gluing and some light gentle scraping, and the seam is gone. Rivets spared. It's not A Tami Shake-n-Bake kit, but you can end up with a might impressive looking Stuka. It has a rather impressive engine that is hidden. If one were to open up the cowl, it would be visually stunning. I think the opening would take some work, and honestly, I was chomping at the bit for the 190 GB. Plus I may throw my hat into the ring for the Large GB.

Cheers
Dave

P.S. The shoulder straps for the harness are included in the PE sheet. Honestly, they're laughable. Especially considering the level of detail in the rest of the kit. If you want a harness set that is amazing and will be very visible, given the greenhouse canopy, go with HGW You can order them direct from hgwmodels.cz/en/. Also, www.mmodelstore.com carries their product.

[handiabled]

Excellent job with the seats and harnesses! I'm looking forward to seeing you put some color on this!

[Medicman71]

Wow! The seats look awesome!

[thug626]

Jan 14, 2024 23:47:46 GMT -5 Green KreationZ said:

Cockpit looks great. I’m excited to see the paint go on!

Thank you! I had started to the painting process then it dawned on me that Border's color call out for the splinter scheme is reversed. I had needed to figure out how to carefully strip the paint when we had a substantial ice storm hit. We lost power for a couple of days. We had it far better than most. I'll have a go at it today.

[thug626]

Jan 15, 2024 9:28:20 GMT -5 handiabled said:

Excellent job with the seats and harnesses! I'm looking forward to seeing you put some color on this!

Thank you! I am looking to getting color on this beastie as well. I will need to backtrack and correct the mistakes made from the reversed color call out.

[thug626]

Jan 15, 2024 11:04:49 GMT -5 Medicman71 said:

Wow! The seats look awesome!

Thank you!

[thug626]

The camo has been fixed. The color call out was transposed.






Visually, the HGW harnesses paid off.





Cheers
Dave

[Green KreationZ]

Man that cockpit through the glass is awesome.

[thug626]

Jan 31, 2024 20:57:07 GMT -5 Green KreationZ said:

Man that cockpit through the glass is awesome.

Thank you!
That view is way better than I had anticipated

[lyle]

[buddho]

Wow, what a cockpit! 🤓

[handiabled]

The detail work in your cockpit shows wonderful under the canopy! Great work on the splinter camo

[reserve]

Fine work sir this one sure grabs the eye

[Tojo72]

That huge canopy shows off your details nicely,and the canopy masking is sharp.

[thug626]

Jan 31, 2024 21:12:17 GMT -5 lyle said:

Thank you kindly!

[thug626]

Jan 31, 2024 21:29:44 GMT -5 buddho said:

Wow, what a cockpit! 🤓

Thank you kindly! I always like removing the canopy masking. It's kind of like Christmas in a way. Especially with the clear parts on this kit. They required no treatment to get them that way.

[thug626]

Feb 1, 2024 3:18:21 GMT -5 handiabled said:

The detail work in your cockpit shows wonderful under the canopy! Great work on the splinter camo

Thank you kindly! It's been a long while since I've painted a splinter camo scheme. Most of the kits I've built have been late war, soft edge. Those I free hand airbrush.

[thug626]

Feb 1, 2024 5:54:25 GMT -5 reserve said:

Fine work sir this one sure grabs the eye

Thank you kindly! The size alone on this beastie will grab attention.

[thug626]

Feb 1, 2024 8:53:25 GMT -5 Tojo72 said:

That huge canopy shows off your details nicely,and the canopy masking is sharp.

Thank you kindly! There were only two small spots where the paint lifted off of the canopy. Easy fix! I like those!
Today, I'll paint the yellow V that wraps around the leading edge on the left wing. Then, it'll be time to start on the decals. Still trying to figure out where some of them go. The national markings are easy, a few of the stencil decals, not so much.

[thug626]

I got the yellow wing marking completed. It turns out, I am going to have to fudge the placement of the upper balkenkreuz decals. How it's shown in the instructions is not how it works on the kit.




The pitot tube. Ah yes, the pitot tube. That part my hind brain was saying, "Leave it off until the end". I chose not to listen, and now the kit sports a stainless steel hypodermic tube and wire for a pitot tube.



I decided to have a go with the decals. Never having worked with Border decals before, I opted to place the balkenkreuz on the underside of the wing first. They are very thin, so I figured they would, hopefully, settle down nicely into and over the details. I was worried they might be on the brittle side. That fear was not unfounded.
It broke. Now knowing what to expect, the second one went much better, but getting trapped setting fluid out from under is tricky. I figure, if I go slow with the remaining decals, I should be ok. Fingers crossed.

The first picture is the first decal laid down. You can see the chunk of decal on the left side that broke loose.  I've since pulled the small portion off.  With some careful masking and airbrush work, it can be fixed. The fluid on the decal is Walthers Solvaset.  It turns out the decals respond nicely to it.  Fortunately, I don't have compound curves to have to get these decals to settle into.



This picture shows both balkenkreuz applied. The second decal faired better. I opted to apply this one last, due to the potential of a paint repair being needed. I did not want to have to redo the yellow wing marking over again.



Cheers

Dave

[kyledehart5]

Excellent work on the yellow!! And it looks like the decals look really nice too. Great work.

[handiabled]

I hate when decals won't cooperate. Out of curiosity what is thrown off with the placement of the upper balkenkreuz?

[thug626]

Feb 1, 2024 22:52:27 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Excellent work on the yellow!! And it looks like the decals look really nice too. Great work.

Thank you! After seeing the decals after sitting overnight, they pulled right down tight with the Solvaset.

[thug626]

Feb 2, 2024 2:50:25 GMT -5 handiabled said:

I hate when decals won't cooperate. Out of curiosity what is thrown off with the placement of the upper balkenkreuz?

The decals certainly have their own personality disorder. As to the placement of the upper balkenkreuz...

The yellow V wraps around to the underside of the wing. In doing so it does not overlap the yellow wing portions on the underside, also I was trying to preserve the angle and width of the yellow V. So, to pull off what I thought was going to be and easy paint job turned into spending a fair bit of time placing the V with tape then masking it out. I need to get this layout done in conjunction with the placement of the balkenkreuz, so that the balkenkreuz on the right wing would be symmetrical in its placement. In conclusion, projects beget projects.

[deafpanzer]

Catching up after being away for two weeks! Totally killer work and I love it how much we can see inside the cockpit to show off your amazing work!!!

[406 Silverado]

Your paint and detail work are definitely at a premium here Dave. That does indeed suck about the decal breaking on you and I've had that happen a number of times. Fortunately I've always been lucky enough to fix it without a major paint ordeal taking place like you here. This is looking VERY well and you're right about those seat belt harnesses......a FO SHO payoff!!

[thug626]

Feb 2, 2024 11:58:08 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Catching up after being away for two weeks! Totally killer work and I love it how much we can see inside the cockpit to show off your amazing work!!!

Thank you Andy! It's funny, but painting that yellow V turned into a production. A great kit, but watch out with the color profiles when painting and markings. I just realized last night that they have the decals for the control locks situated on the leading edge. Weird!

[thug626]

Feb 2, 2024 12:00:07 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Your paint and detail work are definitely at a premium here Dave. That does indeed suck about the decal breaking on you and I've had that happen a number of times. Fortunately I've always been lucky enough to fix it without a major paint ordeal taking place like you here. This is looking VERY well and you're right about those seat belt harnesses......a FO SHO payoff!!

Thank you kindly Joe! At least the decal did not detonate upon hitting the water, or worse yet, upon placement. Nothing some careful masking and an airbrush can't fix. Had I known about the HGW harnesses in time, I would have ordered a set for the Ta-152 in the GB. Speaking of which, once I get this big beastie across the finish line, I can get back to the GB.Still wondering what I should build for the BIG GB.