Zvezda 1:100 Ju-87 B2 Stuka

A closer look at the 1:144 JU-87 B2 Stuka modelkit made by the Russian producer Zvezda. This kit belongs to Zvezdas range of 1:144 plane expansions for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame. I think Zvezda gave up this game since its official homepage is dead. Or at least was when I looked the last time. Since half of the internet fails today, I could not check it.

By now I own 3 kits from this range, and when my mate Olli got this kit, I used the opportunity to look at it. So let us take a look at the content of this box:

The kit comes in a single grey plastic sprue. The material is softer than the green plastic what is used for other Zvezda kits. In future reviews we will see, that the grey stuff generally is softer than its green counterpart.

Only 8 parts will be needed to build this plane, and the quality of the kit is ok, but the grade of detail is very basic and could be way better. There are no sinkholes and only minimal flash can be found. The body has to be cleaned because it has a major mouldline all arround, but the other parts are ok.

The clear part for the cockpit comes as a solid piece, what was already known before from other Zvezda kits. There is no room for pilot and gunner figures or torsos and the rear AA machine gun is missing completely. Slightly disappointing but what was I expecting to see?
Maybe I really should try to vacform some canopies.

The second sprue in this box contains 2 parts to build a stand for the plane. It is included in every "Art Of Tactic" plane expansion. It seems solid and not too bad and would be a decent model stand.

The decalsheet seems like it is printed in the same good quality than the other Zvezda decal sheets I know. This one contains some generic numbers and Balkenkreuze. I had no time to test them at the moment, but there should be no issues with them.
If you want to use decal setting and/or decal softing solution there is the chance that it may damage them, I had this issue with the decals from Zvezdas Hawker Hurricane.

This is a pretty basic kit, with some grade of detail, but most details are missing. The missing supports of the rearwings could easiely be scratchbuilt, adding the AA gun would take some more efford since you would have to drill into the clearpart.
Adding these tho things already would improve its look.

For a simple gamepiece this thing is ok, but if you want something more, you should get something better. Eduard offers various versions of the Stuka in 1:144 scale. Or you may find the Revell "Micro Wings" Stuka which I built some time ago.

According to my mate Olli, this was built without any issues, and after he built this plane, we compared it to the Revell Ju-87:

Just take a look for yourself, you will see a lot of differences between these two. The Revell model was shown in a previous post, and while its overall detail is mediocre, it beats the Zvezda JU-87.

Both planes were made for the planes expansion, and by now I finally have all special abilies created and wanted to show them up to you, even when it takes some more weeks to finish this.

I copy/pasted this part of the rought draft of the rules, I think I should not have to explain them, just read for yourself:

The new Special Abilitiy for all tanks:

AA Gun

This model gets 3 attack dice against air units.

New Special Abilities for planes:

Plane

This model can only shoot targets entirely in front of it.

Constant Movement

This model has to move in every phase of the round.

Dogfighter (x)

This model gets (x) additional attack dice when attacking other planes.

New Special Abilities for air defense vehicles:

AA fire (x)

This Model has (x) Attack dice when shooting at planes.

Penetrator Rounds (x)

This Model gets (x) attack dice when attacking Models with with 0 Basearmour.

(the name of this may be changed)

Does not look bad or does it? Another thing I made some thoughts about were the AA guns for the British and the American forces and I decided, that both vehicles I made up could be choosen from either the USA or the UK.

Then one of these two doctrines, both costing 0 points, must be chosen to mark the country for which the model stands:

In British Service

The player may choose to keep one of their die results and re-roll the rest when Shooting while Stationary with this model.

In US Service

Treat this Model as making one less Move than shown on its Speed token when calculating its target's Defence dice.

Sounds pretty simple, and it is. This way each nation has at least 2 different AA guns to choose from. Since I may add the Ostwind, I also may add the Canadian Skink tank to choose, playable like the Italians in "TANKS", what can be seen, when I take a closer look at the Italian expansions for "TANKS".
Actually, I could do this in the next post, but first it is time again to show some some built models in the next post.

Update:
I uploaded the video of this post to my youtube channel.

1:144 Messerschmitt BF-109 F2& Hawker Tempest Mk. 5

Some pictures of two recently finished 1:144 model planes. 

First there is the Messerschmitt BF-109 F2 made by Russian producer Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" Range. I got it together with the Ilyushin IL-2 and other things some time ago, while I built and painted the IL-2, see pictures in this post, the BF-109, you can see the sprue on this picture, was built but got lost somewhere.

When I found this thing in one of my bitsboxes, it had suffered some serious damage. The antenna went missing, what I still have to fix, two rotorblades were broken off, and both tailwings were seperated from the plane, one of it was broken in two halfes.

Fixing the rotor was no big issue, as also the reglueing of one of the tailwings, but the part broken from the other wing did not stick well to its counterpart.

It broke off at least 4 more times, the last time after the plane was painted, what you clearly can see on the picture below. But I thought fuck it, and left it as it is now.

The upper half was painted in Revell Aquacolor Khakibraun, while the lower half was painted in Revell Aquacolor Light Green, brightened with some drops of white. As usual, the decals were taken from the scrapbook.

The second finished 1:144 plane is the Hawker Tempest Mark 5 made by Revell from its old "Micro Wings" range. I wrote this in a previous post, and I write it again, it is too bad, that these small things are out of prodution, even when they are pretty simple and their moulds are almost worn out.

The belly of this plane was painted in a Vallejo Grey, which label is not readable anymore. The upper part was painted in a selfmixed blue grey, which got too blue, and Revell Aquacolor Dark Green. I used so liquid masking solution for the camouflage pattern.

The decals were taken from the kit and as usual produced in the same good Revell quality as usual.

At the moment the printer is running, I am printing a final plane for the planes expansion. If everything will work out as supposed I will add another post tonight.

Victrix 1:100 Ju 87 G2 Stuka

A closer look at the 1:100 JU87 G2 Stuka model kit made by Victrix Models. This is one of their two new kits of 1:100 planes for wargaming, the other kit available at this moment is the Hawker Typhoon IB, also in 1:100 scale. A closer look at the Typhoon is not planned.

First, as usual, let us take a look at the plastic included in this kit:

The kit came in one grey sprue containing all parts needed to build the Stuka. On a first look, the kit seems without any flaws, no injector marks or sinkholes and virtually no flash.

This kit seems great, but more on that when it is actually built.

Some details of the sprue: two pilot figures are included, and a detailed look at one of the 3,7 guns which will be attached under each wing.

Also icluded is a nice flightbase, the socket may be pretty huge, but this thing allows to show different heights by expanding it like an antenna.

Too bad that I already lost the clear plastic rod which should be attached to the sprue, but this will be replaced if I should use this thing.

The detail picture of the clear parts shows that the plastic is very milky, maybe some polishing paste may help, but when I saw the clear parts I was pretty unsatisfied.

The instructions which are included are colorcoded and are kept simple and understandable, I have seen a lot of worse building instructions but only a few in this great quality.

The last item included in this kit is a decal sheet, which allows you to build one of 4 different planes using this sheet. Since I did not use them I can not say anything about their quality but the print looks good.

This is a pretty nice modelkit with a decent choice of decals. The subject of it is chosen nice, I think that this is the only tankhunter version of a Stuka in this scale.

The only flaw is the pretty milky clear sprue, I hope Victrix will fix this issue when new units will be produced. But even whith that flaw, this kit is great in detail, and it seems that it will be nice to build this kit.

I think if Victrix would sell the flight bases only, they would be soldout in short time.

Originally I wanted to use this thing for the "TANKS" thing I am working on, but since this plane is pretty big, I will stay with my 1:144 Stuka, which can be seen in this post.

A lot on mini reviews will follow in the next time, but it will will try to keep the blog content balanced between closer looks at kits and actual hobby posts.

Revell 1:144 Ju 87b Stuka Todays W.I.P.

Two pictures of Revell's 1:144 Micro Wings Stuka kit. Revell's Micro Wings range offered 16 world war 2 planes in 1:144 scale made from moulds from the early seventies. My mate Olli made pictures of another two Revell Micro Wings fighters which he will publish in his blog soon (update: this post).

Due to the age of the kits' moulds there was a lot of flash and some parts did not went together without putty and some mild violence. I painted it with the brush, using masking tape for the camouflage pattern. While I am not 100 percent satisfied with the results, it will be a decent game piece.

The (still unfinished) diorama base was made with a picture frame and some cartonage.

Today my mate Olli joined me for another Montagmaler session. Our roguish goals for today are to build two Zwezda "Art of Tactics" 1:144 planes, I will try to build a Sd.Kfz. 215/20 "UHU" from the PSC Sd.Kfz.251/D kit and the Heer46 UHU conversion kit. Olli wants to remove its paint before he starts to repaint one of his Tigers. Maybe we will build and paint some more stuff, but the clock is ticking.

 

Later in the evening I will post some pictures of today's progress.