Hasegawa's 1/48 scale
Junkers Ju 87 D-5 Stuka

by Chris Wauchop

images by Brett Green

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Ju 87 D-5 Stuka is available online from Squadron.com

Background

The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka entered the Second World War with a fearsome reputation as a "terror bomber". Its brutally angular lines, screaming dive and pinpoint precision bombing made the Stuka a terrifying icon of the early Blitzkrieg campaigns.

During the Battle of Britain, however, unescorted Stukas on long-range bombing missions were shot down almost at will by Spitfires and Hurricanes. The reputation of the Stuka was severely damaged.

Nevertheless, the Stuka continued to be used effectively in other theatres and roles until the last days of the war – troop support in North Africa, night bomber in Italy, and tank killer on the Eastern Front.

The most successful Stuka pilot was Hans-Ulrich Rudel. Rudel had already completed 1,000 Stuka missions before developing the tactics for "Panzerjagdkommando Weiss", the embryonic tank-killer Stuka unit.

Despite being shot down on at a number of occasions and sustaining frequent injuries (including the loss of a leg), Rudel’s tally included a total of 519 tanks and one Soviet battleship. He ended the war as Germany’s most decorated pilot and the sole recipient of Germany's highest military honour - the "Golden Oak Leaf with Sword and Diamonds to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross."

This model represents Rudel's D-5 Stuka when he was Kommandeur of III./SG2 in Russia during 1944.

Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Ju 87 D-5 Stuka in the box

Hasegawa’s 1/48 scale Ju 87 D-5 Stuka kit shares the fuselage and wheel sprues with the earlier Ju 87B kits, but little else.

The lines of the aircraft are well captured. The very prominent glasshouse canopy is impressively clear and thin.

The surface of the kit is detailed with crisply engraved panel lines although photos of the real thing show that this was a lumpy, rough aircraft – lots of overlapping and raised panels.

Cockpit detail is adequate, but does not fully represent a number of key features of the later Stuka.

The wings are slightly disappointing in a number of respects. The ailerons and flaps on the real aircraft were attached to the wing with a series of hinged mounts. Hasegawa have represented these complex mounts with solid slabs of styrene - the ailerons/flaps are moulded as part of the lower wing. Although this simplifies construction and provides the strongest possible engineering, it looks far from realistic.

The wing tips seem to have been added as an afterthought. There is a noticeable step that requires sanding, filling and rescribing.

Overall, though, this is an excellent kit that represents the later variant of the Stuka well.

This is Hasegawa's 1/48 scale kit number JT53, Junkers Ju 87 D-5 Stuka.

Basic construction was straightforward, but the instructions for opening the locating holes for the bomb racks to the wings do not correspond to pins on the bomb racks. Also note that only the port side foot step should be used for this variant.

A number of additions and modifications were made.

In the cockpit, the rudder bar and pedals were added from the spares box. Harness straps were scratch built using lead foil with buckles from fine wire. The pilot's headrest was cut from plastic card. Plastic card was also used to make the prominent rear gun armour, which was not provided in the kit.

The following additions were made to the exterior:

• The exterior Zwilling ring gun sights were sourced from Verlinden German Gunsights set no. 1270.

• Foot tread strips on the wing roots were cut from plastic strip.

• The door on the supercharger intake was added from plastic card.

• A leading edge landing light was added.

• Exhaust stacks were hollowed out using a motor tool.

• Gun barrels and the pitot tube were hollowed with the tip of a hobby knife.

• Trim tab, flap and aileron actuators were added using fine brass wire.

• Long impact fuses on the 250kg bombs were added using dress making pinswith the heads filed flat.

• Bomb fin braces were added from spare photo-etched fret.

• Main wheels were sanded smooth, removing the radial tread, and flat spotted.

• Scoops and engine bearer bulges were hollowed.

• Detail inside the bulges was added using spare bits of plastic shaped to fit.

• Spinner cap had a row of rivets added using a pin.

• Invisible mending thread was used for the main antenna wire.

The model was painted using the metal bodied Testor Aztek airbrush fitted with the fine tan-coloured tip.

The interior of the model was painted Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey to represent RLM 66.

Lower surfaces were painted using Gunze Sangyo H67 Light Blue 65, with upper surfaces are Gunze Sangyo H64 Dark Green and H65 Black Green 70.

Panel lines and various dirty patches on the fuselage using were emphasized using the thin Tamiya Red Brown / Flat Black mix thinned around 80% with alcohol.

Kit decals were used with the aid of Gunze's Mr Mark Setter and Mr Mark Softer. The white outline swastika had to be sourced from an old Trimaster decal sheet as the black and white style supplied with the kit seemed to be incorrect.

The final finish was a coat of Polly Scale Acrylic Flat.

The model was photographed in HyperScale's studio using a Nikon D70 digital SLR. Illumination was via two studio flash units - one Bowens 250 and a generic 100 flash - on stands and illuminating from a high 45º angle from each side of the front of the photography table.

The camera was fitted with a Micro Nikkor 60mm lens.

ISO was set to 250, and the manual shooting settings were 1/100 of a second at f.29. The high aperture ensures good depth of field.

The model was placed on a base of plain white cardboard.

All of the images were optimized (brightness and contrast) in Photoshop CS, resized to 700 pixels in width and saved as 75 dpi .jpg files using Photoshop's "Save for the Web" option.

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model by Chris Wauchop
Text Copyright © 2007 by Chris Wauchop and Brett Green 
Images Copyright © 2007 by Brett Green 
Page Created 01 August, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

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