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I‘ve had this Stuka lying around for many years then I saw
this scheme in a SAMI and new I just had to do it. Thanx to my friend Phil Camp journalist, historian,
photographer and modeler extraordinaire who gifted me this sheet from ED models
, I got down to try my hand at this tropical Stuka (I’d already done
Hasegawa’s Rudel 87G). There are
many versions of this snake including the 1/24 white/red one.
But many say that’s a little far fetched, and the white/tan one is
almost certainly the correct one.
Subtleness being the better part of modeling, I settled for
this version. The aircraft was flown by Lt Hubert Polz of St.G 3 based at Tmimi,
Libya in Aug 41. The camouflage was
standard African front- farbton 78/79/80 except for the fact that the fuselage
pattern was irregular rather than the splinter pattern on the wings and tail
planes. Like most African front
Stukas, this one was over painted in the field after arrival.
The original European 70/71 pattern can be seen in the scuffed wing
walkways.
The build was OOB except for additional side armour to the
LLK rear gun mount. After the paint
job (I mix my own shades, I don’t trust standard colors to replicate effects
of sun and rain) I gave the lower surfaces and undercarriage a fine dusting of
sand. Then the exhaust stains on
the snake head. I overdid it first
and then lost most of the snake head. A
quick wipe up recovered a little of the snake, and I left it in what I thought
was the best compromise between reality and artistic license.
The base is from a diorama for an Italian MC 202 Veltro (my
next article) and the bomb loading trolley from Dragons Luftwaffe “Battle of
Britain pilots and Ground crew”.
Polly
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