Wings and tiny bits

Slapping the wing halves together was naturally followed by attaching them in the hull, where they belong. With the tail wing my biggest and most typical problem was getting them level (of course I didn't remember that I could and should have glued the diagonal support pieces in at that time).

Tons of tiny add-ons

There's a load of weird dangly bits in the wings of a Stuka. Especially I was wondering the function of those drop-shaped things, but I guess their names aren't important as long as they get where they ought to be. The long pointy thing on the right wing I assume to be a pitot tube because I couldn't come up with a better guess. The landing gear was assembled before and I glued the tires in their position (this isn't for taxiing aroudn tables or anything *cough*) so I could file them for a standing pose later.

This week's agenda

I almost got to start working on the guns, but didn't quite make it in the end. At the moment they're the only parts missing from the bottom of the plane, I believe. I was thinking if I should paint them and the plane separately because otherwise they block and shadow each other and that only leads into missing spots and messiness. Their attachments I could glue in, though.

Another large question remaining is the cockpit canopy. Open or closed? Right now I am much more interested in the open one, but whichever I end up doing, masking it up is the big issue. It'd be so much easier with a closed one, because the open canopy adds a requirement for protecting the insides as well. Maybe it'd be worth the hassle and effort?

Assembling the airframe

I decided to stick by the potentially debatable choices I made the last time and went on with the show. First I glued the cockpit in the hull and then both hull halves together. Then I slapped the instrument panel (and that thing that goes with it) on its place as well. Last missing piece was that thingie just in front of the gunner's nose.


To simplify my own painting tasks I chose not to attach the propeller in the engine unit yet. I guess it's hardly a surprise that this simple subunit didn't really give problems and after gluing it in its place the setup has started to look more like a plane already.

Gotta hang them guns somewhere

Stuka's instructions pointed next towards the wings so that's what I started on. Apparently the bottom wing piece required some drillig, for the guns I assumed. Pleasantly enough I only got to drill those holes open but I didn't get to clean it up yet. So next I'll do that and work more on the wings.

The arms race goes on and the cockpit gets some decoration

Popping by the toy store

Finally I got around to invest in a new airbrush. Call me mad, if you well, but I got a Badger's Renegade R1V-Velocity. A two-action top-cup thingamagick. It felt pretty nice and sturdy - and it even seemed to accept my existing air hose. Of course I didn't have the time to actually try it out, but what's the hurry anyway?

Fasten the seat belts

Once again I cut a few strips of masking tape to give the pilot and the gunner their seatbelts. All those that go over their laps do seem a bit too wide compared to the last ones I made, those being the shoulder belts for the pilot.  Yeah... Maybe I have to cut those fatties in halves or something to avoid this looking way too ridiculous.

The instrument panel

My approach to the dials was simple: I painted the dial faces black. Originally I had planned to paint some thin white lines to represent various dial needles, but this piece might be a tad small for that... I will be pondering on this before I seal the cockpit, but I doubt that I'll risk ruining it.

Cockpit paintage

From empty promises to actual action

When a model is waiting for some paint on its surface, it needs to get it. Therefore I applied the primer on all the cockpit surfaces so that I shouldn't encounter any "ha ha, funny!" surprises later on. Supposedly.

Primed grey

According to the instructions the cockpit should be painted grey-black. I still had some of that left in my Model Air bottle (note to self: acquire more asap). After it had dried properly, I drybrushed the mg and just about everything else with Vallejo's gunmetal - more or less carefully.

These last two photos from last evening are horrendous as they were taken in a rush and with bad light. My deepest and humblest apologies yet again.

Grey-black

After some serious gunmetalizing

Further development

I was thinking that all those radios, dials, indicators and whatnots could be highlighted a bit. The stick can also be whitish, according to my image search.
Following my weird ways of working, I'm once again going to omit the decals and do everything myself. That means that the dashboard will be done next. The dial faces with black and then some white lines on them, pointing at semirandom directions. It may sound a bit hazardous, but that's how I like to do things.

Also, before I'm going to seal the cockpit inside the hull halves, I'm definitely going to attempt some sort of seat belts for the crew. I'm not going for a "himmel!" effect this time, either, but a "hey, there's seat belts as well!" kind of a reaction instead. All in all: tiny improvements with a small effort, improvements that would annoy me to no end if they were missing. Once again following the finest traditions of the Project Mumblings.