Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part V

At the time of last post not much remained left to do with the Stuka. With paint job done, the entire model was sprayed with gloss varnish in preparation for decals. The decals themselves are of excellent quality and I had no problems with them. However, I was a little disappointed with Airfix not supplying any decals for airbrakes (at least that's what I think they are), which overlap the crosses on lower wing surfaces. This omission had to be remedied with white and black paint and some fiddly paintbrush work - a step that I would have gladly skipped.

Once decals were in place, another coat of gloss coat was airbrushed over entire model with dual purpose of securing/protecting the decals and as preparation for weathering phase. After giving the varnish 24 hours to cure properly, I "went to town" with all new weathering products from AK Interactive that I've gotten at C4 Open. Under assumption that Stukas would be worked hard from field airfields, I wanted its lower surfaces to be rather dirty and abused. AK Interactive's enamel weathering fluids seemed perfect for that - Grime streaks, Fresh mud, Dark mud were all applied randomly and then wiped out with turpentine, leaving smudges in various dark grey and brown shades. Next I gave the pigments a shot - black and dark brown was applied to upper surfaces and then wiped away with a soft brush. I won't claim achieving the most realistic visual effects, but the Stuka now did look like it's been worked hard. Couple of light coats of Testor's Dullcoate sealed my efforts and gave the model a nice, almost flat finish.

After that, the only the cockpit canopy required my attention. This part is absolutely the weakest part of the kit - not only is it thick and lacking detail (circular framing around rear gunner's machine gun is completely missing), it is also blemished by two ejector pin marks on the inside of the canopy. Since we're talking about clear plastic, not much can be done about these. I didn't bother with masking and painted the framing with 000-brush, carefully 'erasing' any mistakes with a toothpick as i went along. A time-consuming process, especially with very thin Lifecolor paints, but the end result is adequate. With paint job in place, the canopy was glued in place, an antenna made of stretched sprue was mounted in place and I was done.

Considering the age of this model, it was a surprisingly smooth and enjojable build. This is third of 'old' Airfix kits that I gave a shot (lumpy Hurricane and very frustrating and aborted Handley Hampden being the other two) and in my humble opinion the only one worth the effort. True, the kit is simple and maybe somewhat crude, but it does make a very pleasing kit when finished.