1. This build will be using the 1/48 Hasegawa Ju-87G as a starting point. I'll be using the resin cockpit and radiators from Aires, Brassin MG-81Z, elements from Eduard's zoom PE set, and brass 37mm cannon barrels from Master. I also sourced a vacuuform canopy in the event that the kit parts were to thick to slide over eachother to display in the open position.

2-4. This will depict one of the aicraft flown by Rudel. By what I can tell from the photographic evidence, this particular aircraft was not fitted with the side applique armor, which is also not present in the kit, so no need to worry about that.

5. After separating the resin cockpit parts from the casting blocks, testing revealed a good fit to the fuselage sides after I sanded off quite a bit of the cockpit floor.

6. No rudder pedals are included in the kit, but the Aires set provides these. As I was working I managed to loose one of the photoetch pedals, so to keep things simple and symmetric I raided an Eduard Bf-109 kit to get some plastic German rudder pedals to use in their place.

7. More details being added to the resin floor. The gunner's seat is a combination of the plastic seat basket from the kit and the resin replacements for the legs and mounting supports.

8. Cockpit is primed and ready to paint. I prefer to use a lighter primer for interior spaces on aircraft, especially if the cockpit will be dark as in this aircraft, to give some better visual contrast. I've also sanded off the detail from some areas which will be represented with photoetch from the Eduard zoom set.

9. Base coat done with MRP RLM66 and Tamiya German Grey.

10. Here I've added some of the pre-painted photoetch parts as well as some detail painting on the cabling and various other pieces of cockpit equipment.

11. More cockpit equipment including the seat and pilot's bulkhead with the attached radio equipment.

12-13. Finished painting the cockpit, test-fitting the components here. The fit was a very tight squeeze, and I needed to put the instrument panel in place before closing everything up instead of dropping it in from above afterwards like the instructions suggested.

14. The fuselage halves are together aided by clamps and instant-cure CA glue. Some trimming/sanding needed on the ledges by the cockpit front but that's an easy fix. The pilot's seat was also a bit difficult to get into position from above.

15. To add the resin radiators, it's necessary to cut out the corresponding spaces from the wings. The aftermarket set comes with a photo-etch template, and using that as a guide I drilled out a series of holes to facilitate removing the plastic.

16. To fill the areas that ended up uneven, I used some tape as a straight edge and filled the space covered by the tape with a mix of talc and thick CA glue. Once dry, pulling the tape away leaves a smooth, straight edge.

17. Comparing the resin replacements to the standard kit representation

18. Both radiators in place

19. The aileron and flap actuator hinges of the kit are represented by crude triangles of plastic.

20. To replace these, I first cut them out as best I could and then drilled holes at the end where the rods emerged from the wing.

21. I also scraped off and sanded away the incorrect rectangular anti-slip areas on the wing-roots. This version of the Stuka had a series of strakes instead.

22. I represented the strakes with plastic stock.

23-24. I installed the middle canopy, as well as the resin gunsight with acetate film lenses.

25. On the inside of the canopy I attached the dive handles, meant to give the pilot support as he made violent maneuvers.

26-28. A canvas strap to act as the gunner's back support was the final touch in the cockpit.

29. The major components of the aircraft are now attached

30. Here I bent my own actuator rods and inserted them into the cutouts I had made previously

31. Also the interior of the kit's landing light in the leading edge of the wing had no detail, so I added a light made from clear sprue.

32. Many of the vertical frames of the Ju-87 canopy were inside the plexiglas and remained the interior cockpit color. After giving the canopies a coat of RLM 66, I've now masked off those vertical panel lines so they will remain that color after I paint the camouflage on top.

33. The rear of the chin radiator had absolutely no detail or internal structure, and I couldn't find any clear photographs or diagrams of what should be back there. So instead of having the entire inside of the nose structure visible through the radiator opening I covered the inside with some black styrene sheet.

34. Ready for paint

35. After black primer. I decided to use the vacuuform canopy for the sliding section, so I'm using the kit's example as a masking placeholder to protect the cockpit interior while painting.

36. I assembled the brass 37mm cannon barrels

37. The cannon pods received some detailing with plastic and brass rod as well as lead wire to represent the various pneumatic, heating, and electric cables necessary to keep the weapons operational

38. After some paint

39. Gunze RLM 70 went on first

40. Lots of masking required to represent the splinter camouflage scheme

41. Here is the basic camouflage pattern

42-43. The Hasegawa decals had yellowed to the point that the white ink was a cream color. So instead of relying on the kit decals, I painted my own markings with stencils made on a Cricut machine after scanning the kit's decals as a template. This is all paint, no decals added at this point.

44. A gloss varnish finished the early painting steps in preparation for stencil decals and weathering.

45. Here are the painted 37 mm cannons installed into their mounts.

46-47. After several passes with washes and the airbrush to create weathering and exhaust/fuel/fluid stains, I added the stencil decals followed by a flat coat to seal everything in. I also masked and painted the spiral on the propeller spinner.

48. One of the final steps was the replacement of the kit's machine gun with a Eduard Brassin example. Here is the finished item ready to be painted and installed after some basic assembly.

49. Here it is painted and attached into the cockpit. It was very difficult to bend the brass machine-gun belts that came with the Aires set to line up properly with the gun. They're only half-painted in this picture.

50-51. Rear machine gun is not painted and installed. A black oil wash brought out some of the details.

52. I replaced the kit's pitot tube with lengths of aluminum tubing.

53. After assembling the dual ring-and bead sights, I mounted them in their position on the rear canopy. The sides moved with the canopy as it slid backwards, which is why in this final installation only a short length of the gun barrels emerge. I also installed the antenna posts and replicated the aerial wire with Uschi's fine elastic rigging.