1:48 Ju 87B

A Stuka with fixed landing gear

The B version is the best known form of the dive bomber: the cranked wing, massive fairings over the fixed landing gear and the ram-air driven siren that turned an attack into a psychological weapon. The cockpit is formed by a long greenhouse for two men, divided into a great number of small facets, and it is precisely that which decides how the model finally looks. Hand-cut strips are enough here only for somebody with a great deal of patience.

Plan the whole job in one go

Three sets of insignia and extensive glazing mean that masking will take a longer continuous stretch of time. It pays to prepare a sharp blade, fine tweezers, a wooden toothpick for pressing down and a degreased surface in advance, because interrupted work is hard to pick up again: a film lifted halfway will not seat accurately a second time. The inner pieces come first, then the outside and the insignia last.

Box contents

Enclosed are glazing masks for both sides and three sets of national insignia masks, which is an above-average number even within this range. The film is self-adhesive and cut; paints and plastic parts are not included.

After lifting off

Check the frames against the light. Small bleeding is put right with a sharp point and a drop of paint before the gloss intermediate coat comes along. Only above that does it make sense to set about the marks of service. On a dive bomber the dirt collects above all around the landing gear fairings and under the nose, where oil ran down, that is in places no piece from this sheet reaches. The work therefore does not overlap and the two phases follow one another with no waiting.