Friday, April 12, 2019

Hutter HU-136 Stubo II

This was a model I've wanted to get out of my stack for a while. The Stubo II is a Fantastic Plastic offering, that comes back in stock every once in a while. 

From the Luft '46 site:
The second design (from the Hutter brothers)  - Stubo 2 (short for Sturzbomber or dive-bomber) - was also to be heavily armored and was similar to the Hütter Hü 136 (Stubo 1). The fuselage was lengthened on the Stubo 2 to accommodate the internal bomb bay which could hold a 1000 kg (2205 lb) bomb load.  

Ultimately, the Air Ministry passed on the unusual proposal, choosing instead to manufacturer the far more conventional Henschel HS 129.

The kit comes in 14 parts including a seat and stick, which you'll never see, and I left out. The canopy is clear but following the directions, the majority of it gets painted.  

 Being cast by Anigrand, you know you are getting a good kit. As usual, the parts went together with minimal effort. 

One thing I noticed with this kit is if the fuselage holes don't match the pins in the wings - swap them, don't clip the pins. They are made to fit only to one side. Cool idea!

A lil seam filling.
  The process continued effortlessly, and a coat of white paint, for the fuselage, and V. Game Color Gory Red, was the shade of red I chose. Then it was time for the decals.  The decals went on just as effortless as the rest of the build.  After a short wait the Micro-Sol went on and suck the decals into all the panel lines perfectly. 
It was here that I noticed that there was no decal for the gun placement. It wasn't sculpted into the fuselage, so I thought it was a decal. Looking closely at the instruction sheet, it says the model was created after the original which didn't have guns.  So if I wanted I could carve wells into the fuselage (THAT wasn't going to happen) or I could create a decals for it.  Umm, didn't the FP guy create decals for his? Why couldn't his design be added to the decals sheet? Even if it added another $1 to the price of the kit, I'd pay it.
Having no ability to create a drawing for a decal, mine will do without.
Hard to see - the skid also went in place with no problems.
Looking back one thing I should have done that I didn't was paint the inside of the canopy. With the white paint on the outside and the light tan resin showing on the inside, the windows almost disappear. I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time.  

While I was waiting for the clear coat covering the decals to dry I went apart creating a base for it. It consists of a square of foam that it coated in DAPs Plastic Wood.  I started out using a spatula, but it seemed to go on faster and smoother with just a wet finger. Being the craft just has one landing skid, I created a mini sawhorse to level the plane for display.

I plan to add some grass around the edge of the vignette, and rather than create a new post, I'll be back and edit this one when that gets done.   All done.

Thanks for looking.


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