My next subject is a German dive bomber (Sturzkampfflugzeug) and ground-attack aircraft - Junkers Ju 87 Stuka. It first flew in 1935 and made its combat debut during Spanish Civil War (Luftwaffe's Condor Legion) in 1937, then served the Axis forces during World War II.
To accurately deliver ordnance Stuka used concept of dive bombing - diving directly at the target at an steep angle, normally between 45 to 60 degrees or even up to a near vertical dive of 80 degrees with Ju87, releasing bombs at low altitude and abruptly pulling-up after dropping bombs. The tactic dated from an experimental Allied sortie in World War I. It was the subject of considerable exploration in the 1920s by U.S. Naval and Marine Corps fliers, who developed it into a standard tactic to be used against the lightly armored upper decks of warships, though Ju87 Stuka was first aircraft which used it to devastating effect during invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Why Stuka? The are two reasons mainly. First is that I though about modeling one of the German's aircraft and Stuka was one of them, the second is that for the last birthday it so happened that I received Airfix 1:48 Junkers Ju87R-2/B-2 Stuka for the birthday present from my friends at work!
Opening the box you will find 7 grey plastic sprues and one with clear parts (packed with its own bag). Aside of that there is an instruction booklet and decals sheet. If you would like to build the model with the engine cowling off to show the Junkers Jumo engine you can do so straight out from the box, same goes for gun bays which is nice addition.
Plastic looks OK with nicely engraved panel lines. Looking at the plans of the aircraft it contains a lot of rivet lines which are hardly replicated on the plastic moulds. I am not a rivet counter person but a lot of it is missing so I riveting will be probably fist thing I will do with this model.
I checked what aftermarket has to offer and in turns out that there is plenty. I ended up buying the following sets:
Aires 4026 Junkers Ju 87B cockpit set Hasegawa
Aires 4006 Junkers JUMO 211
Eduard FE895 Ju 87B-2/R2 seatbelts STEEL AIRFIX
Eduard 49894 Ju 87B-2/R2 AIRFIX
Eduard 648085 MG 15 gun
Quickboost QB48 841, Ju 87B Stuka exhaust - engine without covers
Quickboost QB48 787, Ju 87B Stuka VS-11 propeller w/tool
Quickboost Ju 87 uncovered wheels II
Quickboost Ju 87 Stuka Machine Gun Drum Magazine
Quickboost Ju 87 B-2 Stuka Pitot Tube
H-Model Decals HMD48043 Stencils (Wet Transfer)
Techmod 48015 German WWII Swastikas
Ju87R-2/B-2 Stuka EXPERT kabuki masks
I decided that I will recreate Late Production Junkers Ju 87R-2 Stuka.
R-2 model is based on B-2 except:
fuel supply system revised to allow the carriage of 300lt drop tank under each outer wing panel
weight of the additional fuel meant that bomb capacity was reduced to just 250kg
Late Production B-2 / R-2 introduced:
additional armour plates added on either side of the lower corner of the rear canopy plus armoured MG 15 mount installed from Ju88
FuG 25 IFF was instilled, with associated flexible rod antenna under aft fuselage
trailing aerial mast was removed from the underside
all seem to have had the Pell G.iV D/F loop in the blister in place of the trailing aerial mast
The exact aircraft I choose to build is Junkers Ju 87R2 Stuka Stab II.StG2 (T6+AC). This Stuka was from the Mediterranean theater in 1941 and was flown by Major Walter Enneccerus, the Knight's Cross holder and eventual Gruppenkommandeur of the II./Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 "Immelmann".
Painting wise it is two-color scheme which was adapted during 1938. This comprises RLM 70 Schwarzgrun (Black Green) and RLM 71 Dunkelgrun (Dark Green) in a splinter-pattern on the upper surfaces and RLM 65 Hellblau on the undersides. Additionally it had white fuselage band, green spinner and white vertical bars applied to the front of both wheel covers.
Stay tuned for build updates!