JU87G-1 Stuka Tank Buster

I began my personal quest to build a selection of the worlds best ground attack aircraft in 1/72nd scale this year including the IL-2 Sturmovik, A-10 Warthog, A7D Corsair II, etc. The Academy JU87G-1 Stuka Tank Buster has to be part of that illustrious group with its huge 20mm big guns! Academy did a beautiful job on this kit and all fits and finish are superb, such that none of the seams needed any filler. The recessed panel line scribing is dead nuts perfect, probably ranking with the best kits currently available. I encountered no issues whatsoever with the build process. I used Testor's Model Master enamels to match each of the RLM spec. colors. Masking the splinter camo. typical on Luftwaffe aircraft can be a bit of a challenge, but well worth the time to get it right. The only negative for this kit is the decals, which though nicely printed, seemed slightly on the thick side. They were also resistant to Micro-Sol and it took several applications to get them to settle to any degree. The yellow fuselage band decal refused to align in an acceptable way, so I trashed it and painted the band instead. If your goal is historical accuracy, then you'll have to provide your own after-market swastika decals. I had some in my decal stash and the 7mm size looked to be about right for the scale. I would recommend finding some good after-market decals to use when building this kit. Other than the decals, I give this kit top marks in every category with the added plus that it's a very good value as well.

This is the second 1/72 scale ACADEMY aircraft model I completed in the last couple months. My previous one was the P51D Down for Double aircraft. OBSERVATIONS: (1) The parts for the model were very easy to peel off of the sprues; whatever excess plastic that was still on a part could be deleted with little or no trouble. (2) I had little or no trouble assembling the model together. The parts (with one possible noteworthy exception, to be mentioned shortly) fit together quite nicely. (3) Using just acrylic paints from bottles and paintbrush, a good modeler (unlike me I sense, if the three pics I submitted on this HOBBYLINC website serve as an indicator) should have little problem with achieving a nice finish from the painting perspective. (4) Just like in my previous P51D model, the decals in this kit were pretty thick. Overall I actually had little trouble placing them on the model, but the thickness of the decals stood out. The only challenging decals were the ones that went on the leading edges of the wings; and all those itty-bitty ones that, in hindsite, I probably should not have even bothered to deal with. (5) Also just like in my previous model, the level of detail on this aircraft appears to be quite impressive for a 1/72 scale kit. (6) Late in the assembling of this model, I noticed that the wing assembly was tilted approximately 5-10 degrees to starboard relative to a straight and level fuselage. I initially (reasonably) assumed that I did not attach the wing assembly to the fuselage correctly, but upon further inspection I concluded that the bottom single piece of the three-piece wing assembly was actually warped, with the starboard gull-wing section more bent downward, relative to the center base section of the piece, than was the port gull-wing (sorry for the nautical terms here). FINAL ASSESSMENT: Flawed (?) wing piece aside, I found this model truly challenging and yet rewarding in the end. In my opinion, it should be treated as a labor of love (especially when doing the wacky paint scheme on it) and not something to be rushed: it would be worth the extra time spent. I give this kit four stars out of five, instead of a full five stars, primarily due to the wing assembly issue.

A VERY NICE kit ,parts fit well no issues with assembly.Nicely detailed.A GOOD KIT for A GOOD price.Would reccomend.