Prudenzio Contest- JU87D

[cjwalas]

Can't pass up a good contest or a new Stuka kit so my entry is this one;

ZP offers three stukas; two B versions and this D. I haven't built this one, so here goes!
The nice thing about this kit is that it's one of the ones that comes with a diagram, so I have a little more faith that I'll get this one finished.
Chris

[Don Boose]

Of course! The Stukameister strikes again.

I'll enjoy watching this build and pick up some tips for when I try the Breda 65.

Don

[doctormax]

oh that is a nice one,

[rockpaperscissor]

Nice choice. Tricky wings on this one. I'll be watching and learning.

[cjwalas]

Yes, Don, I remember. The wings are tricky, really tricky. I think that's largely due to there being no formers in the fuselage. I'm tempted to add a couple of styrofoam supports in that section to help. The fuselage on the Stuka kits needs careful forming in the first place and any small misalignment is magnified when the wings are attached. The one piece fuselage reminds me a little of Mr. Trotskiy's designs, except those have the advantage of being designed as angled assemblies for easier alignment. Zio's design depends on bending nearly compound curves into the paper.


I'm using 110 lb cardstock (I'm a klutz and I need a strong model) and the curves are causing a fair amount of delaminating so I've had to reglue the edges a few times.



I also found that the radiator was not a great fit. This was true of the B version Stukas as well.



Another thing to watch for on this kit is the front ring for the fuselage. The tabs on the main section are too long and need to be cut back;


I usually like to try and make clear canopies for these smaller scale planes, but I'm hesitant to on this one as the the solid canopy adds much needed strength.



So much for the easy part.
Chris

[doctormax]

I think they need the canopy to push out to buik up the fusalage and give shape. and the engine which I notice with the planes I have seen of his have what I will call disks to keep a shape. try my little way of the wings. I glued along the back back of the wing then taclked the front and put a butter knife in at the tips when gluing the leading edge It worked on the FW190 thank goodness for butter knives. then glud the tips down. seemed to work. i take a picture of that when doing the other side of the wing

[Don Boose]

This is a very useful series of photos and narrative, Chris.

Don

[cjwalas]

I finished this up this morning, but I thought I'd share a couple of thoiughts along the way.
The tail feathers went on without any problem of any sort;


The Main Wings
Well, boys and girls, I'm not sure what to tell you here. While Zio's designs are relatively simple, we must keep in mind that simple doesn't mean easy.
Now I've built a few paper Stukas in my time (this is at least #50) and I haven't found the perfect kit yet. I've built three other Zio Stukas so far and always had a problem with the main wings. For one thing, the upper and lower wings don't entirely line up;

But that's an easy trim. The real challenges are the attachment to the fuselage and the angles mid-wing. If you build them as supplied they wind up flat like this;

My solution was to slice the upper joint and overlap the outer wing top over the inner wing surface. I may have gone a little too far, but I think it looks better than the flat version.

I do need to build another Zio Stuka just have them all in the same scale, but I won't even think about doing it without internal fuselage supports. And I plan to separate the wings entirely for assembly.
Finished photos coming up in just a few minutes!
Chris

[cjwalas]

Here she is all finished up. She tuned out nicer than I feared she might. Zio's Stuka is not the most accurate, and it's certainly one of the most frustrating, but I still really like it as an artist's interpretation and a nice looking little model of the prototype.


I think I may take a break from Zio planes before I start on the SM 79 and do something more straightforward!
Chris

[Don Boose]

Nice work on a challenging kit, Chris. Your craftsmanship is certainly excellent. From a couple of angles, the airplane looks a little hunched up, but the colors are beautiful and the 3/4 rear shot is very realistic.

Don