Global Scale Modeller

This is my second entry here as I said in the F-14 thread I'm doing this elsewhere on a 6 month timeline, so this will get priority over the Tomcat, I thought I'd share it here too for a bit of interest, I hope.

This is a very nice looking kit. I loved the Stuka when I was a kid. Built a nice 1:48 back then and it loomed (slightly) larger over my 1:72 Lancaster. 40 years later I'm playing with them again.

The only thing I wasn't so keen on back then was the fixed landing gear it has. Just didn't look right. I'm hoping the skis will show a new face for this beauty, well for me anyway.

Watching a doco tonight on youtube, Stuka Ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions claiming a total of 2,000 targets destroyed; including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, 70 landing craft, nine aircraft, four armoured trains, several bridges, a destroyer, two cruisers, and the Soviet Battleship Marat. (from Wiki) He is the most highly decorated German serviceman of the war.
They reined terror wherever they went because of their accuracy, and the Jericho Trumpet screaming as it dived.

I'm going to build this in the yellow tipped version on the other side of the callout sheet in the photo. lol

Anyway, here's the pics.





A ton of sprues.








A nicely detailed engine.


Still get the original landing gear, may have a use for them.


Weapons baby, nice one Trumpeter.




Trying to speed things up here, there's a lot of plastic here.










Nice packaging and a bit of PE, there's a fair bit more coming.


Canopy looks sweet, a couple of cobwebs in a side window, may clean up.


A few detail shots.







I do have a load of AM gear coming in the next couple of days and have these guys to add to the final build as well.


Nice detail

I have canned the idea of a static display (at this stage) and am now going in-flight. So those pilots may not be used yet unless I have to chop them into the cockpit. I'll be looking for in-cockpit pilots so if anyone knows of any available let me know thanks I'd appreciate it.
I've started on the bombs and a bit of the undercarriage while I wait for the PE to arrive, which has arrived now so I'll post all the goodies going into this build. Then I will get building!

A little done so far, it will move along quicker now everything is here.


The exterior PE set, the kit fret is the one above. Eduard's looks much nicer.


Self-explanatory.


Cut masks, vital (for me anyway) for a WWII Bomber build.


3 frets of interior PE. Very cool.


The resin, with nicely hollowed exhausts.



I also got the AK Interactive early Luftwaffe paint set. As well as a couple of Ammo washes. I also received a pot of RLM04 yellow, so I should be good to go.

Thanks Rube I hope so.
Ok end of day one of this build, beer and pizza beckons, I did want to have the engine parts primed but that will have to wait until tomorrow. They'll be primed in Alclad black primer ready for matalising paints. The firewall will be too as I'm going to play around with chipping a bit on that.
I have no idea how much of this will be seen on the finished build but it will be seen here and elsewhere during the build so it gets the treatment.

Just a few pics.

This is the engine in subs. It's my first build with Trumpeter and a big tick for a lack of seamline. Only had a couple of parts with a very minor one. The engine sprue was virtually non-existent. Bravo.


Takes a while to clean some of these parts up, despite the lack of seamline, although the engine mounting braces did have the small one. 8 tabs to cleanup on this part alone. Two of them were ejector pin tabs so we are free of them on the part. It's pretty much across the board, I've noticed compared to other makes. They are tidy now and will look great painted up.


First piece of PE installed. Took place of a big single plastic piece going across. I assume this is more accurate then?


A picture of the firewall ready for painting. It's just missing the fuel pump which is going to end up black so I left it off.


Parts washed in soapy water ready for priming, they can dry overnight while I go drink and be merry.


Thanks for looking.

Tangles wrote: Parts washed in soapy water ready for priming, they can dry overnight while I go drink and be merry.

Always an important part of modeling!

Lol you bet it is Jedi.
Ok I'm trying to get some bench time for this. Real life is getting in the way a bit. I've put together the "blowmobiles" and radiator so I'm ready to do some paintwork next. Although I might knock up the cockpit first and paint it all in one hit.

Just a few pics, I'll explain as I go:

Some sort of cooler, I had to use the kit PE for this as Eduard didn't have the parts on their frets.


The radiator parts and PE to be used. Parts from both the kit and Eduard PE were used.


The radiator cooling fins after folding (the fins had to be bent 90°, no biggie).


I'm using thin CA and Delta hobby's ultra fine glue tips, they are excellent for fine dropping CA glue.


The back of the finished (construction) radiator.


The front.


Thanks for looking.

Hi again all, I have done a fair bit on the bench, it just doesn't look much yet, trust me I am putting in solid hours on this, all construction so far. I was going to paint the engine parts and a few other bits but decided to move on to the cockpit first. And it's slowed the progress a bit. I have taken a number of pics so I better get them up so we don't end up with a War and Peace. lol

An update on the kit. I like it, would recommend it so far. I am, however, getting quite a bit of light flash. I think it might be because Trumpeter make sure every piece gets its full allotment of plastic, I don't think its because of poor quality moulds. It still has to be tidied up regardless.

Now to the PE. Started with some fiddly stuff which was (and always is) a bit of a challenge but I think it went ok, the small amount on the sidewall you can see on the photo was a couple of intense hours modeling that's for sure.
I'm loving putting the bigger subs together though, that's coming along nicely. Eduard's instructions are the usual cryptic mess. I have one piece that makes no sense where it says it's supposed to go.
But I think it's going to look pretty wicked when it's done. One thing I love about the Stuka is the open cockpit, so there will be lots to see hopefully.
Ok, enough crap on. Pics.

The cockpit sidewalls with some mods done for the PE to come,


A few pics of the radios? I think, anyway, I'm trying to show the PE against the kit parts. It's a bit hard without the final build for reference, I'll get there.


That part has 4 grab handles, 2 on each side of those, they look pretty cool but I couldn't really capture them. Maybe after paint.


This is sort of part of what the PE above replaces. Which also becomes part of the pilots seat. A bit hard to make sense of it here, but it will once it's all built up.


These are the kit parts.


These are the PE, with dials and needles installed. Look pretty cool. I know, it looks cooler altogether, just logging the progress. lol


The pilots seat getting the bending. It doesn't look right because those lines are supposed to be on the bottom, as a guide for the seat brackets, if I'd done it the other way the rivets on the outside of the seat, would've been on the inside. So fix that up can you Eduard? Cheers.


Is this pic, obviously we're comparing kit to PE, but have a look at the flash on the plastic seat. It's been a little bit like that.


The seat and base.


Altogether, a few shots showing the work involved. That was pretty much todays effort.


And I'll clear that glue up (now that I've seen it. lol)






And this is all I've done on the side panels, it looks like a miniscule amount of work but those six shiny things you can see are switches, so they have a double toggle switch on each one. They're pretty tiny I have to say. lol


And here's where I'm at with everything else. The "blowmobiles" and landing gear supports and splats are ready, the propeller, and all the engine parts. I think that will be a fair paint session with the cockpit pieces as well. lol


Thanks for looking, sorry for the long post, I'm hoping I get the "boring middle" out of the way in one post! lol
Comments always welcome.

The last of the pre-paint cockpit PE now sorted. Loads to go on still after paint.

A few more pics just to show a bit of progress. It doesn't look like much but there's a few hours work involved. A big chunk of that was spent scratching my head trying to work out Eduards instructions.

I used a sponge sanding stick and various sized round things to roll the various pieces of PE that needed rolling. Worked for me. Here's a cylinder, use enough pressure it will roll right up for you nice and tidy. Cheaper than one of those fancy PE rolling tools.




The gun got the same treatment.




The main cockpit pieces are ready for cleanup, then some paint. Can't wait to get on the AB tomorrow.






A quick dry fit just to get perspective and make sure everything fits ok.


Thanks for looking.

It look absolutely amazing I know how PE can drive you insane but it looks fantastic, excellent work

Wow, only this far and allready looking great

Nice to see one off my favorite planes being build here, and on skids to. Can't remember seeing one build before.
looks like a nice kit.

Good luck with the rest off the build.

Terrific work Simon . I would have gone nuts by now with all that PE but it certainly adds another dimension,well done. Look forward to seeing this progress.

That's looking incredibly good so far! Acres of PE but your making it look easy

Great work with the cockpit PE Simon! Can't wait to see that pit after it has been painted and weathered! Gonna look great!

Drooling while i read. One of the coolest planes ever and loving the detail 1/32 brings.
All that PE would drive me insane.
Looking forward to your updates.
Regards
Sergio

Wow thanks everyone! It's nice to wake up and read so many kind comments, it certainly will inspire me to keep up the pace! Cheers.
This project is part of a GB on my "home site" so I have skipped something here, for no particular reason, that has raised some interest over there, so I'll share it with you guys who may struggle with this.

Rolling PE. Whether it be just a slight bend or a complete cylinder, can be a test. I don't have a rolling jig, I think they're too expensive for what they do (the folding jig was pricey enough, but I think they're invaluable). So I gave it some thought and came up with this method. Apologies if someone else has patented it already, or if it's old news. I'm new back in the game and haven't come across this anywhere.

Basically, this is how I roll my PE. A hard, round thing. Drill bits are perfect because they come in different sizes obviously, and they are hard (no flex whatsoever, that's important). And a sponge sanding stick. Place the piece on the sanding stick and roll it back and forth like you do pastry with a rolling pin. You can give it a bit and it will respond and curl up tighter. Eventually, as happened with the part in the first pic, I rolled it until it closed up nicely.

Second pic, you can see a macro of the result. Apologies for the slight misalignment on the base, to be honest I didn't think anyone was going to see it anyway. lol It's only out a fraction of a mm but stands out like dogs you-know-whats when you crop a macro shot. lol

What I used.


How it turned out. Note the top circumference looks machine rolled. Very happy it turned out as there's no way I could achieve this finish manually.
I hope this helps any of you out there that don't every tool that opens and shuts at their disposal. lol

peppie wrote:Wow, only this far and allready looking great

Nice to see one off my favorite planes being build here, and on skids to. Can't remember seeing one build before.
looks like a nice kit.

Good luck with the rest off the build.

Thanks Pep! Yeah it's one of my favs too. I built one when I was a kid and loved it. Such a great shape, and interestingly the only part of the plane that I wasn't too keen on the look of when I was younger was the spatted, fixed landing gear. When I saw the skid version I went yes! Got to have that. Luckily my daughter selected that one as a xmas gift over the others I'd sent as suggestions. lol

I'm now painting the cockpit so that's going to take a couple more days yet thanks to my choice of weathering technique. I have painted and assembled most of the engine, took a quick pic but it's not staying like that. Pulled some pieces off to do some scratchbuilding. It was missing something.

Progress so far.


This thing will probably go kapow and it will be finished, building that is. Haven't even thought about the main paint job yet. lol

Thanks Rube, was going to paint the cockpit today but it was 40 degrees here and I couldn't get into it.

Did the scratchbuilding for the engine. Not much but it adds to it nicely I think. I haven't decided if I'll keep going, there's probably a few hoses I can attach yet. Might be easier once it's attached to the firewall.





Oh this is my reference shot. The Jumo 211What a gorgeous engine for 1935 or thereabouts.

Sir, your attention to detail is stunning!

Thanks Homer (great name btw), I ran aground slightly today and postponed the painting of the cockpit. Hit close to 40 degrees here and it was that depressing, energy-sapping heat. So I called off proceedings less I drop the ball due to heat frustration. lol
Going to be 41 tomorrow so I don't hold up much hope there either. Valetines day so I better keep the missus happy too.
Thanks for all your comments guys. I'm planning a big one here so I hope I can deliver. For my Daughter more than anything.
I need a funny emoticon ...

Fantastic work ! I will be following this one closely

Pete

Cheers Pete.

That's a great looking kit and you're making good work of her so far mate!

Cheers,

Martin

Thanks Martin. I've been away from the bench for a couple of days but have got a bit to catch up on. There's a bit of a pictorial "War and Peace" coming up. Just to catch up on the cockpit saga. All going well, just my impatience now with this coloured PE. I think I'm ready to move on to getting this thing together. But I basically cocked up by gluing pieces down that are going to be a different colour. I was thinking about brush painting it all, but to be honest, my paintbrush collection is a bit sad and neglected, so I decided to mask and spray instead.

I'll bang on more in the pics.


Ok, the various stages of the cockpit. Bits of masks here and there, paint, mask again, next paint. Etc. Basically I painted the RLM02 first, then finished with the RLM66. That's the simplified version. lol

Masking some metal, also under the seat, I left it the original Alclad colour (very close to RLM66) because no-one will ever see it and I didn't want to mask around the chair later. You might see what I mean. lol


The two side panels with RLM02 on and chipping done, it will become clearer later I think.




The floor piece painted RLM02 ready for masking. It will finish RLM66 other than the add-ons. Read the instructions more next time Simon. Save you some work.


Firewall and engine braces painted and chipped.




Ok the masking. As I said I changed tack halfway through the build and made things a little more difficult that they had to be. Nevermind. It didn't take long to mask up and the result in the end was much the same (never be seen really. lol)






The floor painted and chipped and demasked.


And the side panels. These got well tidied up with a brush.




The pit dry fitted after the painting/chipping stage. Still more to do.


This is where I'm at now.

IP done. It had more knobs to do but I CBF'd putting them on. Two was hell enough! I think I have to paint the bombsight yet as well, I'll do research. lol And I will fix that crooked piece now that I have seen it. :/


The side panels, not finished, so I won't bang on about them yet.


The pilots seat now in. Still loads to do there yet too.



Thanks for looking.

superb!

Wow! Again, great to see a master at work!

Thanks fellas, I'm still a long way off mastering this yet I think. lol But appreciate your comments. I'm being pulled away from my workbench by my 1:1 scale Commodore (Holden), trying to replace the starter motor. That too has become a saga. lol
When that's sorted I'll be back on the bench in earnest.

Done some dry-brushing and enamel wash on the cockpit. Still got a little bit of clean up to do, as I see in the photos, but you get the general idea. lol
Anyway, it's getting somewhere where I want it to be.
I have a 21st Century Kits 1:32 Stuka arriving from Ebay in the next couple of days, bought it for some pilots so just waiting for it to arrive and get them sorted and I can put all this together.

The pics:


Tried like mad to find out online what colour those bottles are, no callouts in the instructions so Trumpeter didn't know either obviously. Other builders have painted them blue, I'm assuming for oxygen, although they look suspiciously like fire extinguishers to me. Anyway, they're blue, my plastic pilots aren't going to know the difference.








Terrible day here today, humidity is like a drink of water so I'm taking it easy. Still playing with the radiator but that won't be far off and I can get the nose section together. When I feel like it.

Thanks for looking.

Simon that's looking SENSATIONAL!

Thanks mate, I did notice from the pics that I didn't clean up half of the floor section. lol All sorted now. I did a bit more to the engine/nose section. Hoping the weather will be a little kinder today so I can get into it a bit more.
Also hoping my pilots turn up.

Here's the rest of the pics.
Added some Micro crystal clear to all the gauges.


Engine braces and firewall attached to the engine. Here I'm holding it dry fit. Nice fit it all was too thanks Trumpeter.


All glued together.


Did a dry fit of the cowlings. I still have the radiator to fit on I'm hoping my scratchbuilding won't interfere with the fit. Looking good so far.




Thanks for looking.

Amazing work there Simon, you're doing a fantastic job

HollywoodModelling wrote:That instrument pannel is the nutzs!

Thanks Hollywood, I can't take credit for Eduards colour PE. It does look a treat though.

rubegoldberg wrote:this is going to be cool.

Hey Rube, I just subscribed to your Youtube channel and found out it was you. lol
Good luck with the P-51 build mate, that's why I subscribed btw. Sounds like an awesome project will watch closely ... Will. lol

I'm giving you guys an update, just going through some stuff at home that's killing my mojo at the minute. It will subside soon I hope.

Pilots have arrived from a 21st century 1:32 Stuka kit I bought on Ebay. They are fine, my painting isn't, which I can attribute to my mood at the moment somewhat ..

Here they are at varying stages.
How they came in the kit


Moveable parts.


Test for fit, fine!


Some closer detail. They are painting up fine, it's just the painter. lol


One just base coat, one with some layering. Just to see the difference. No wash yet.


Them, still without a wash and much of their faces in another dry fit. Cockpit is getting glued at this point (where I'm at right now).


I'll post this and show the rest next.

Ok, the radiator, I wasn't happy with it so I scratchbuilt it a bit to tidy it up. Turns out it was a complete waste of time but it was good practice.

The varying stages.

How it originally looked. Scrappy.


Cut and glued some 0.5mm plasticard around the tank.




Had a look online at some reference shots, and it looked something like this:




How it finished up:






Doesn't matter, can't see any of it done up. lol

Ok the rest of it and where I'm up to now.

Test fit, test fit, test fit. In all my notes I made when I was ..re-learning the hobby second time around I would write "test fit everything" on the top of every page to remind myself to do it. Sometimes I'd rather not, like this time.

The parts for the nose section.


I was test fitting and realised all that work I did on the radiator did bulk it up a bit and as I was attempting to close all the gaps on the test fit, it "pinged" out of my hands all over the floor.
I still haven't found the rest of the bomb rack.


The rest of the nose, after some modification to the radiator ... again, went together no problem ... oh, except one thing Trumpeter don't point out in the instructions. There's two pieces that go in the top of the nose section that really aren't helpful. You see you're supposed to fit them first, before the nose section is together, but in order to fit them, the nose section has to be together, if you get my drift. I failed to anticipate the illogical and assumed to fit them after the nose was together. I then had to manoeuvre the piece inside the nose, and try and pull it out so it sat flat under the piece. Very hard to explain, Maybe I'll take some pics when I do the other piece.

Anyway, it's together as is the prop.






Just a photo of the cockpit in it's initial gluing stages.




And a test fit of it all together. It will be fine.


Thanks for looking.

rubegoldberg wrote:man, i'm definitely learning that test fit first lesson, even with tamiya.

thanks for subbing me, btw!

No problem mate, your vids are cool!

Tangles wrote:Tried like mad to find out online what colour those bottles are, no callouts in the instructions so Trumpeter didn't know either obviously. Other builders have painted them blue, I'm assuming for oxygen, although they look suspiciously like fire extinguishers to me. Anyway, they're blue, my plastic pilots aren't going to know the difference.

Why? Are your pilots Colour Blind?

This is looking fantastic.
Don't be harsh on yourself. It's way better than I can do

Oh dear I'm late to the party as usual! This is just amazing

I love the Stuka and would have said it was my favourite until I started doing an ME262 - now I'm kinda of thinking I'm wrong again….

One question? I thought the Stukas had a bomb aiming device on the floor by the pilots feet? I can't see that on yours?

Thanks fellas, appreciate the feedback.

CJSomerset wrote:Oh dear I'm late to the party as usual! This is just amazing

I love the Stuka and would have said it was my favourite until I started doing an ME262 - now I'm kinda of thinking I'm wrong again….

One question? I thought the Stukas had a bomb aiming device on the floor by the pilots feet? I can't see that on yours?

Cheers too CJ, yeah you mean the dive window? It's fitted to the inverted wing stub. I may have a pic here somewhere.
Here we go. It has it's mask on for painting later of course.




That's the "box" sitting up front there.


For the display I'm hoping to direct light through that to light up the cockpit and pilot. But more on that later (still in planning. )

I've also had a bit of a play, as we do! lol






Hopefully you can hear the "Trumpets of Jericho" going off in the background. lol

Thanks again for your comments.

The pilots are now done so the cockpit won't far off getting the lid on, and into the paint stage. Cool.

Tangles wrote: Hopefully you can hear the "Trumpets of Jericho" going off in the background. lol

I can hear them!!

Who ever thought of making it sound even more menacing is a genius......an evil genius... but still that's so cool

And those pilots look like they are having a cuppa and waiting for you to finish their plane!! Are you sure they don't get up and walk around at night?

CJSomerset wrote:

Tangles wrote: Hopefully you can hear the "Trumpets of Jericho" going off in the background. lol

I can hear them!!

Who ever thought of making it sound even more menacing is a genius......an evil genius... but still that's so cool

That it is CJ, AH recognised the terror the Stuka evoked amongst it's victims and decided to step it up, with a Trumpet. lol That's some sick, twisted shite right there. But it made the Stuka the legend it is today.

CJSomerset wrote:And those pilots look like they are having a cuppa and waiting for you to finish their plane!! Are you sure they don't get up and walk around at night?

Lol yeah when I saw the photo I thought the same. Cheers.

Wow, that looks like a cracking kit from Trumpeter with a ton of details in the cockpit and engine bay. You're doing a fabulous job mate!

Cheers,

Martin

UKguyInUSA wrote:Wow, that looks like a cracking kit from Trumpeter with a ton of details in the cockpit and engine bay. You're doing a fabulous job mate!

Cheers,

Martin

Thanks mate!

Looking good !

I don't even know what to say about your build. It almost makes me want to throw mine in the trash. Fabulous freaking job, just fabulous!

eightfooticeman wrote:I don't even know what to say about your build. It almost makes me want to throw mine in the trash. Fabulous freaking job, just fabulous!

Thanks Hollywood, and I missed your post Mr Iceman, thanks very much mate but please (and I see you've started your Stuka ) don't throw anything in the trash! lol I've only done the easy bit this kit is starting to bite me back a bit now. The fuselage seamline kept letting go after gluing it for sanding. I mean like 9 times, glue, fill, sand, joint opens up, glue, fill sand, joint opens up etc etc. Finally got that sorted before it was wall splatter, anyway, the wings were a terrible fit, huge gaps in the bottom after gluing the tops first but we got there in the end, of sorts. I think I'll explain with pics and words. lol

Oh btw I lost a bit of steam on the Stuka and found this Super Hornet up at my LHS. Had to get it, and build it. lol I think it helped with my mojo on the Stuka too. A quick diversion of the opposite scale ..


Back on topic .....

Pilots and seats in (again), wings glued top only.


Closeup of the pilots but really bad photography sorry guys this thing is big now and hard to hold out and shoot etc etc. lol


Here's the gaps! Check them out! Could drive a bus in them! Anyway, it look a lot of force (1:32's can take a bit of punishment I'll say that much. lol) and patience to get some glue (super and TET) into the joint and closed a bit closer.


Here's where I'm at now, the tailplanes are on, they took some muscle too have to say. lol And the Wings are glued top and bottom. There was really no other way to keep the joint together than masking tape, such a weird angle that reverse gullwing thing. you have to apply force directly onto those landing gear legs to close the gap, if you know what I mean?




Will start on the cockpit tomorrow I think. That's going to be rather epic with all the PE and masking to go into it. installing the gun and everything. Should be interesting.

Thanks for looking. [smile]

Ohhhhh, she's starting to look like a bird now! Will soon be seeing some clothes on her:)

Just caught up with this build. Great thread, really enjoyed reading it. Lovely work so far, keep it up buddy!

Oh, and I'm glad I'm not the only one that 'flys' his models round the cave, lol!