Hasegawa's 1/32 scale Junkers Ju 87 G-2 Stuka by Leo Stevenson

Hasegawa's 1/32 scale
Junkers Ju 87 G-2 Stuka

by Leo Stevenson

Junkers Ju 87 G-2 Stuka

Airfix's 1/72 scale Hurricane Mk.I is available online from Squadron

Introduction

This is my Ju-87 G-2 Stuka, made using the well-known 1/32 kit by Hasegawa. It represents the aircraft flown by Hans-Ulrich Rudel (1916-1982) in its winter camouflage mode in 1943/4 whilst on the Russian front. There are several photographs of his aircraft that survive, but as far as I know there is only one showing it in this temporary winter scheme. This photo frustratingly only shows the port-side nose and part of the cockpit area, so this model is a speculative representation extrapolated from that. If there are any photos out there that show the rest of this aircraft it would be interesting to see if I am right with my guesswork.

I made this as a three dimensional reference for a painting that I intend to do. As an artist I find that models are often more useful than photographs, whether they’re period photos or photos taken in museums, not least because of the infinite variations of position and perspective that it offers me, but also because of the control I can have over the way it’s lit, etc.

Painting and Markings

These late Stuka’s are visually fascinating. In a strange way they are both ugly and graceful at the same time, being stark and angular but also, from certain angles, elegant and streamlined. On top of this I was attracted by this winter camouflage, which was of course designed to break up the shape when seen from above, but – if my version of it is correct – these random marks also seemed to add a jagged counterpoint to the bizarre shape of this unique warbird.
I’ll be honest with you, this is not the finest model I’ve ever made, I did cut quite a few corners and I also probably made a few mistakes on the way, but this model is a means-to-an-end for my painting, as well as a speculative historical experiment, if that doesn’t sound too pompous (!). Also, having seen the magnificent and subtly made Stuka models made by Chris Wauchop and the esteemed editor of this website I knew that trying to do better than this was going to be an uphill struggle, and I needed to get on with my painting!

That camouflage interested and intrigued me. I have seen other speculative reconstructions of the winter camo’ scheme on this particular aircraft, and all the models I’ve seen looked superficially convincing but when I checked them against the one surviving photograph of Rudel’s winter camouflaged Stuka they looked wrong. It seems fairly clear that the models I’ve seen were painted using an airbrush, whereas the original aircraft quite clearly seems to have had the white splodges applied with large brushes or a mop - they do not seem to have been sprayed.

There is firm photographic and written evidence that mops were used to apply winter camouflage schemes on German aircraft, and I can understand why they did that, it must have been a quick and efficient way of applying the white paint. I don’t know what kind of white paint they used, but my guess is that it was whitewash, i.e. a mixture chalk (or lime or whiting) with some kind of animal glue. If so, this was very clever, because whitewash normally remains water-soluble when dry, but in sub-zero winter weather this wasn’t a problem. As the winter ended, and the rising temperatures turned snow turned to rain, the rain automatically washed off the winter camouflage. Neat.

This model was made in conventional manner, with a few improvements on the basic 1/32 Hasegawa kit, including a complete Aires G-2 cockpit, Mastercaster’s improved propeller blades and exhaust, beautifully made gun barrels are by Master Models, and I used Eduard canopy Ju-87G masks to facilitate the painting.

Thumbnail panels:

I used Xtracrylix paints for the painting of the RLM 70/71/65 scheme, and this was done as the instructions suggested, but most of that was buried under the winter camouflage. A good glossy coat of Alclad II’s Aqua Gloss preceded and followed the application of the decals.

Next, I used artist’s oil paints to simulate the whitewash splodges, and my ‘mop’ was a size 2 sable brush. This was a surprisingly time-consuming business, partly because there is irony in this process because the deliberation needed to make random looking irregular shapes is a delightful mental and practical contradiction. Visually, good camouflage often involves the unexpected juxtapositions of shapes and the avoidance of patterns. I like the kind of mental games involved in this, in mixing the cunning and the casual approach to making random looking marks. I think the Germans did too.

I must say something about the oil paint I used. I used a mixture of about 50/50 pure Lead white (also known as Cremnitz white) with Titanium white. The reason I did this is because the lead white alone isn’t dense enough to cover the green very well without applying it thickly (this is a model, not a painting!) and so the Titanium white added extra density to the colour and this allowed the paint to be applied much more thinly.

The added advantage of this mixture is that the Lead content also acts as a ‘siccative’ – it speeds up the drying of the paint, but this still, nevertheless, means that you’ll have to wait a week or two before doing anything to the model while this paint dries (or technically speaking, hardens). Using Titanium white alone would be a bad idea because that is a very slow drier. In addition to the two whites in my mixture, I also added a very small quantity of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine oil paints, this was just to very slightly darken and grey-down the stark purity of the white mixture and make it look more realistically like whitewash. These paints are commonly available, but if you want pure and unadulterated Cremnitz Lead white then you have to go to a very good manufacturer of the best artist’s oil paints. I always use Michael Harding oil paints (http://www.michaelharding.co.uk/).

Finally, the weathering of the whitewash was achieved by leaving the paint to dry for about a week and then I used Tamiya’s tiny pointed cotton buds moistened with white spirit to rub key areas to achieve the effect of the harsh Russian winter + muddy boots etc. Later, various aqueous mud washes and discreet turpy washes of oil paints got me to where I needed to be.

Now it’s time to use my oil paints for the painting this model was made for. The painting I have in mind is dark and dramatic and wintery….

www.leostevenson.com www.leojubilee.co.uk

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