Italian Stuka - From the Hasegawa kit in 1:32.

[al49]

Hi everybody,
while I'm going on with the Fiat Cr 32, I also started a new project: a Ju 87-D3 with Italian colors.

This choice is a bit unusual, because the aircraft I decided to replicate bear witness of a very difficult time for the Regia Aeronautica.

As better specified in this profile

this machine was based in Capua in August 1943, so a bit more then a month after the fall of Fascism and few days before the armistice with the Allies.
So there were no more Fascist roundels on wings and not yet the WW1 three-color roundels, that will be re-introduced by Co-belligerent airforce.
Only the Savoy white cross on the rudder was there to state it was an Italian aircraft.

Having said so, here following are the first pictures:

The various parts of cockpit to be finished and assembled:

The rudder after separation from the fin

wings assembled with gap on lower side filled with a plasticard strip and some putty

tail planes after the hard job to separate control surfaces

my first attempt to make a new landing light:

and finally patches covering holes on landing gear fairing

Some more to follow soon
Alberto

 

[Lucky13]

Outstanding work Alberto!

 

[Wayne Little]

Looking forward to this one Alberto!

 

[Airframes]

Great work so far Alberto, looking forward to more.

 

[al49]

Many thanks for all nice comments!

I have a question about the landing light.
I did it starting from a piece of sprue etc. but the output isn't the one I wanted and I believe it's due to the difficulty to glue in place the little piece of aluminum foil.
Cyanoacrylate doesn't work and eventually I manged with contact glue, that's not the ideal, do you have any suggestion on how to glue aluminium to plastic?
Many thanks in advance.
Alberto

 

[Airframes]

I've used normal superglue in the past Alberto, and have also used a drop of PVA. Lately I've been using a chrome silver 'paint pen' for the reflectors, and making the lens from Micro 'Kristal Klear'.

 

[Crimea_River]

If the foil isn't sticking using CA, just rough the contact surface up a but with some sandpaper.

 

[al49]

I would like to get some support from the experts, if possible.

Step seven of the instruction shows that on D5 were installed extra armour to protect the cockpit, but I'm doing a D3 and I was unable, so far, to find out if the armour was present or not.

Does anybody have this information?
Many thanks in advance
Alberto

 

[Crimea_River]

According to my sources, the D-3 was the first specialized ground attack version and carried the added armour at the cockpit, engine and radiators.

 

[Airframes]

I agree there, but check your reference photos Alberto, and also check in what role the aircraft was employed. The profile doesn't show the plates, and they don't seem to be there in the photograph, although it's hard to tell. The armour was normally associated with the cannon-armed, ground attack aircraft, as Andy mentioned, but was probably omitted if used in the normal bomber/dive-bomber role.

 

[al49]

Thanks for all answers.
I will investigate more, but as far as I read so far these were aircraft already used by Luftwaffe just handled to Regia Aeronautica as they were so, very likely, they were built for ground attack.
Even if Italy used D3 mostly on the antishipping role.
Alberto

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool!

 

[al49]

Hi,
I'm back with some pictures.

First the landing light, may be not yet perfect but I like it

then some progress on the cockpit

still not complete but, I think I'm on the right track.

And finally the main wing after filling the seems between central and outer parts.

Cheers
Alberto

 

[Airframes]

Looks great Alberto, and the landing lamp turned out extremely well. Don't forget the lamp cover (the one forming part of the wing leading edge) would be yellow-tinted, which can be done after the model is painted and the masks removed from the covers.

 

[Lucky13]

Fantasic Alberto!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

That's looking like the real thing Alberto! Stupendous work sir!

 

[Crimea_River]

Excellent work Alberto!

 

[Wurger]

 

[al49]

Hi,
some more steps forward.

I completed the fit of the cockpit inside the fuselage.

I must say that this wasn't so easy because the Aires kit was a bit too wide and there were a few errors: one for all the MG pillar was 5 mm too high.
I also assembled most of the parts plus some sub-assemblies like the nose, the wheels and the propeller.
The latter were then attached with tape, just to take the pictures.

I decided to add the armour plate, using a thin plasticard pieces instead of kit parts that seemed to me to be too thick and just positioned the night exhausts.

Under wings, I decided to replace the plastic rod of aileron/flap actuators with smaller and stronger metal rods.

Last but not least, I added little actuation horns to the rudder.

Next will be the painting section, but I must wait for the canopy I ordered to Jerry Rutman (not yet received ...)

I also have a question for Luftwaffe experts: I did something wrong with main landing wheel and, before trying the repair them, I bought the Aires kit. But this kit is for "G" version while I'm building a "D" and I suspect this is the reason why these wheels are 1 mm smaller, both in diameter and in thickness, could someone confirm that "G" wheel were smaller in reality? I was unable to find this info in my books.

Many thanks in advance.
Alberto

 

[Airframes]

Very nice work Alberto. Sorry, can't help with the wheel dimensions. Don't forget to allow for the cockpit side armour when you fir the canopy - the pilot's sliding hood had a notch to fit over the armour plate.