Airfix’s Junkers Ju 87B & two odd “G”s

[John Symmons]

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This review started out as a direct comparison between the Airfix Ju 87B-2 ( A03030A the previous release.)and the B-1 ( A03087 the current new tooling release.) Stuka to see how the kit had evolved. In October of this year I visited a model shop and saw the new tooling of the Airfix 1/72 Stuka, I’d already brought what I thought was the new tooling about 2 years previous but later found out it was the older previous tooling. I was going to return it but as it looked quite decent kit with a great decal sheet I decided to keep it; raised detail and all. So when I saw the new tooling there was a bit of humming and haring but finally decided to buy it; and what a superb kit it looked when I opened the box.

After adventures with some old WW1 models and rigging them thought I’d give the Luftwaffe a go with the new tooling and previous one. Digging through my stash I came across a bagged kit that at first I thought was an old Frog Stuka but the decal sheet had Airfix on it. This turned out to be a release before the A03030 one the catalogue code being 02049-1; so the comparison build now grew to three. In my digging through my stash I also found the old Frog Stuka but the “G” version, and as it looked fairly simple that was added to the build. Easy way to lessen my stash. Then I remembered I had the Academy Ju 87G, so that was also added as a comparison to the Frog one. I later found I had the Italeri B-2 as well but thought fives enough to be going on with and it was returned to the stash.

So this posting will be a comparison build of the three Airfix kits; sort of the evolution of a kit; with a nod at the old Frog and the more recent Korean offering, to see if Airfix can convert their new tooling to the “D” &/or “G” versions. I’ll note be going into a blow by blow of the building of each kit; I’ll leave that to Heather, as she’s building the latest tooling at present, ( see her posting.) but focusing on how the Airfix kits have evolved with a few nods to the Frog & Academy kits.

The earliest two Airfix kits are very simular in that many parts are interchangeable both have are festooned with a myriad of raised rivets and other raised detail, but the rivets are quite fine and actually very well done especially the cockpit canopy, (More on that later.) and very basic interiors. The first Airfix Stuka comes in at 35 parts one build option with very basic decals, ( If I remember correctly the original Airfix Stuka of the 50’s had 27 parts.) the Frog one has 36 parts with two build options on the decal sheet, one oddity by to-days standards is Frog included swastikas on the decal sheet. (Which dates the kit to the early to mid 60’s. I think Frog were the first to include swastikas in their kits, much to the joy of model makers at the time.) Looking at both kits now both are pretty basic and typical of the era. The Frog “G” didn’t have bombs or dive breaks but did have the two 37 mm cannons under the wings, so you lose a few parts but then gain others.

Comparing the two early Airfix kits as I’ve mentioned the two are so simular even down to sink marks, that many parts are interchangeable; at one point, I had to stop the building and label which parts belonged to which kit; the second Airfix Stuka comes in at 52 part, according to the box, and has two build options with parts and decals. It was the decal sheet that decided me to keep the kit as it has a full stencil set included. The options being a BoB B-2 or an Italian “R” version complete with long range wing tanks. The BoB version includes the centre bomb and the wing bombs, unfortunately only one large bomb is included in the kit, being the same one as the earlier kit representing the 500 Kg bomb which is wrong as it was a 250 Kg bomb that was carried with either the wing bombs or fuel tanks. What you gain with this release is a very good decal sheet, a slightly more detailed cockpit, ( Added control stick and instrument panel with decal.) a radiator grill, separate wheel and spats, (In fact I think the wheel is better than the new tool release wheels as they have the distinctive tread pattern that the newer kit lacks,) Fuel tanks for the “R” version and the underside or ventral radio mast and the two distinctive pilot tubes that look as if they’re steps just aft of the wings. Although a later kit it’s obvious that this kit was modified from the earlier kit with added detail parts the only parts that have been changed were the fuselage halves to allow the radiator grill and instrument panel, the under wing parts have also been modified with improved wing mountings for the bombs or fuel tanks, but the engineering and detailing are now showing their heritage.

The new tooling is a B-1 variant: the previous two being the B-2 version: and quantum leap over the other two, and brings the kit up to modern standards and at 110 parts is almost double the previous kit’s count. Of those 110 parts you’ll only use about 85 of them depending on the variant modelled. About 100 parts are used in both versions offered in this kit with a choice of tail wheel, both un-weighted, open or closed canopy, pilot’s seats with or without seat harness; very nice that one, and Airfix is to be congratulated in this innovation: choice of weighted or un-weighted wheel, actually one part just a choice of positioning, very clever: sirens for the wheel 

spats. (At last these have been a long time coming.) Two sets of sirens are included one with and one without blades. I assume the bladed ones are for a grounded aircraft, while the none bladed one’s are for an in-flight aircraft, but only the none bladed ones are mentioned in the instructions. (Same as in the new release of the B-2 version.) Choice of both 500 Kg or 250 Kg bomb with different bomb-rack for each and different swinging cradle for each: again a nice touch from Airfix. The wing tanks included with the kit are not used for either build options, only being used for the “R” version that’s recently been released.

Two oddities with the kit.; one is the lower wing halves that have what looks like the outer bomb-racks moulded with the wing; very simular to the ones on the previous tooling; but the instructions call for parts A21 to be used for these wing bomb racks and holes have to be opened out before the wing halves are joined. The instructions don’t show these moulding on the wing and on mine there are small locating pips moulded onto them but there’s no corresponding hole in part A21. Odd or a whoooops from Airfix, maybe they used the previous release’s wing as a pattern and forgot to remove that part of the moulding. As I’m not using those small 50 Kg bombs or the racks I’m leaving the wing as-is, as I’ll be making mine in the Spanish Civil War version. If you model the BoB version maybe they should be removed before using the bomb-rack part A21???? (See Photos below.) the other oddity is part E1 a clear part for the rear gunner, but with a small flat window pane, it’s not mentioned in the instructions or the B-2’s recent release, It can’t be for a D or G variant as these had a twin rear gun mounting and a totally different rear canopy section and mounting. Could it be for a future “A” variant; any ideas anybody?/media/tinymce_upload/c5f894b42c094d2c9e7a8123b1b06712.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/89f35f27e43a18181845fff2a9634bb3.jpg

Bomb rack mystery.

While this new tooling is a superb kit and great value with the promise of future releases I do feel that at times it’s a bit over engineered. It seems that the designers at Airfix have studied the Academy offering and used some of the same solutions that the Korean’s used. Namely with moulding the wing guns as separate pieces; at first I thought this could be for a D or G version but then realised the D and G’s had a different wing, so would need a fresh tooling for those parts. The Academy model has these guns as separate parts, and they give you both the machine and cannon versions but don’t say which to use, by 1942 the “G” had cannons fitted in the wings as machine guns were a bit useless against ground targets and Russian tanks. Then there’s the 250 and 500 Kg bombs that Airfix has moulded in three parts, the previous release’s two part bomb was was quite adequate, and side-by-side you can’t really tell the difference. The bomb aiming device in the cockpit is very nice but completely obscured once installed. It was the only bit that gave me some pause installing it as it’s a tight fit under the instrument panel and there’s very little gluing area, but it does fit, so some patience and plenty of dry fitting is needed; just be careful with the glue so as not to fog the crystal/ clear parts, and don,t forget to mask the window before assembling. If using the very nicely moulded crew figures note that the pilot and gunner are different. Neither will fit correctly in the others seat . The pilots feet fit on either side of the bomb aiming device, now that’s precision designing and moulding.

The other area that’s possibly a bit over engineered is the front cowling that’s made up of no fewer than nine parts and could have been a total train crash, but Airfix have again pulled off what years ago would have been a disaster. The whole lot goes together seamlessly the fit being superb especially the exhaust stubs, all that’s needed is some light feting with the back of a scrapple blade and dry fit before cementing. When I made mine I almost forgot to add the internal part to the upper cowling luckily the glue was not set when I realised my mistake and was able to rescue the situation. Also I deviated in only adding the upper cowling after I’d assembled the rest to the fuselage, and ended up with a slight step on the starboard side seam. Nothing that some stretched sprue and sanding couldn’t cure. A good point is that Airfix have designed the propeller assembly to be fitted later in the build, the propeller boss fitting into circular housing in the front of the cowling. An oddity is that in step 22 this housing is shown at the rear of the cowling: another whoops: it should be at the front of the cowling as shown in step 18 and 19. This separate cowling is simular to the Academy kit but they only had the cowling in two halves; the “G” being a much cleaner design: the Academy cowling almost fits the Airfix fuselage just being a touch wider but it could quite easily be grafted on to make a what-if. One thing that’s finally gone is the starboard side’s big square air intake of the previous kits, now replaced with a far more accurate smaller and rounded one.

I seem to be focusing on many of the negative aspects but really this is a superb kit and arguably the ultimate Ju 87 kit currently available especially in 1/72 scale. I especially like the wing construction being almost fool proof just again requires some slight feting which seems common with the new tooling’s with fine tolerances. Also the interior detailing is superb maybe just leave out the bomb aiming device if crew figures are to be used, just using the ventral window will make life that bit easier. Airfix have used the same solution as Academy with the tail-plane end plates being separate, pity they couldn’t have made the elevators pose-able like the rudder, but I’m sure some careful surgery could be done to archive this. Also the full width ailerons and flaps are beautifully moulded as one piece for each side  complete with mass balances and actuating arms, again well done Airfix and they fit beautifully. The Academy one had the ailerons moulded with the wings, the balances and arms added as separate pieces personally I think the Airfix solution is the better one and easer to assemble. I like the choice of bombs supplied with the kit  just that oddity with the wing racks. The canopy is again very well done just be careful assembling the rear gunner’s port so as not fog the rear canopy part. The use of canopy or PVA wood glue will solve this problem. The final thing that gave me pause for thought is part E04 the clear forward gun-sight. Mine seemed to bare little or no resemblance to the part drawn and being so small is very awkward to handle even with tweezers, and locating it into the fuselage being very hit-and-miss. Maybe it would be better assembling this gun-sight at an earlier stage like just after the fuselage halves are joined in step 6 or 7, just be aware it’s there and not break it off with future handling. One final oddity that Airfix missed is the under-belly radio antenna even though it is included with the previous tooling, still it’s nothing a bit of stretched sprue and flat pliers can’t fix. 

The Academy model comes in at 81 parts with 78 being used with the open cockpit. Only one build option is offered and no crew figures are supplied and is equally on a par with the Airfix model even though it’s a different mark, although I feel the Airfix one is a superior but more challenging build. The main high-lights with the Academy one is the nicely detailed interior recessed exterior detail and the beautifully moulded twin rear machine gun. Over all quite a decent kit with nice glossy decals, some decals might be a bit chunky but at least they give a full stencil set. The decals are dated 2005 so this kit is now over 10 years old, the decals did behave themselves as I’ve heard some horror stories concerning Academy decals, but these seemed OK although hot as opposed to warm water helps.

Construction or assembling all models was basically hassle free except as previously mentioned and the fit of all five was quite acceptable with just the usual seem clean-ups. All builds were OTB without any after market add-ons. The only things I added were any missing antennas and those under-side pilot tubes that look like steps. I’d recommend only adding these at the very end of the build as I’ve lot count of the extras I had to make to replace the ones I’d knocked off. The interiors of all models were painted using RLM 02 and not dark grey as sometimes called for as I felt that would make the interiors too dark. Details picked out in various other colours and installed into the fuselages. The only deviation I did was assembling part A17, in the new tooling, this is the radio and frame part directly behind the pilots seat, onto the cockpit floor at the start and not later in the build. It does fit through the fuselage halves with a bit of a wriggling, just dry fit first and do any feting if needed.

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Airfix's A03030 coclpit assembled, more paint touch-ups needed.

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The tail-plane an all models needed care to not have them ending up with an anhedral especially when adding the V-struts underneath, I’d recommend not adding these struts until after painting as it makes painting and masking very awkward. With the Airfix’s new tooling the tail-planes wanted to fit with a slight forwards sweep and some careful sanding was required to correct it. If making the BoB version don’t add the dive-breaks as under-wing cross decal fits under them, this will be make the decal mush easier to apply, the dive breaks are easily installed later. Once everything was assembled time to undercoat with Tamiya white surface primer, that was when I decided to finish the Frog “G” in a winter camouflage scheme.

The only thing that needed to be masked off was the cockpits and I used the canopies to do this after first masking and lightly tacking them in place. Well that was the plan; the only canopy I masked was the Frog one, and it took forever, and the thought of doing four more almost made me give up. That was when I decided to try something I used in my Ju 52 3-M build and use thin strips of painted decal paper. I had several off cuts of decal paper and painted these with RLM 71 and tried it out on an old Revel Fw 190 and it worked fine after first glossing the canopy. As the Ju 87’s canopy framing was basically straight lines it should work, and the curved bits I was sure a decal setting solution would help.

Once the undercoat was sprayed the light blue RLM 65 was added. I decide to brush paint the green camouflage bits and removed all the making, in hindsight not a good idea as the brush painting came out very patchy especially on the Academy “G” and the Airfix new tooling, and the contrast between the RLM 70 and RLM 71 was almost non-existent. When I masked the models I scanned in the Airfix colour profile and enlarged this to 1/72 scale then traced out the camouflage pattern, this was printed onto paper that allowed me to transfer this to the model to get some were near the correct splinter pattern. The masking of the wings, tail and rear fuselage is fairly straight forwards, but the nose and cowling is a right sow’s ear. Once the masking was done the RLM 70 was brushed painted.

This lack of contrast I should have known about as I’ve had this problem before as mentioned in my posting of the Ju 52, Fw 189 and Me 109. The RLM 70 was left as is and the RLM 71 over painted with a green a few shades lighter after experimenting with several shades on an old model I finally settled on Vallejo 95 US Dark Green. This green is very close to the Vallejo’s version of RLM 71 but just a touch lighter or brighter, and therefore allows some contrast between the two greens, which I feel in 72 scale suffer from the scale effect and end up looking too dark. The two early Airfix kits were basically left as they were , but the Academy “G” and the Airfix new tooling needed to be improved so were over-sprayed with US Dark green, re-masked and semi dry brushed with RLM 70 giving a much better result. If I was ever to redo this model I think the painting’s best done 

before the wings are assembled to the fuselage and I’d definitely leave the tail-plane struts off and do any touch-up later.

Back to the canopies. These were removed from the airframes glossed with Humbrol Clear and thin strips of decals added alone the frame lines. If you try this just first trim the decal paper’s edges after painting yo remove any bits were the paint has adhered to the paper backing. The decal paper used was Trim Film from the US, the same as I used for printing my own decals. Once painted it doesn’t need over-coating with varnish or liquid decal film, but I did find hot water helped the cut thin decal strips to be more manageable and conform to curves better. The use or setting solutions is recommended in the papers instructions but I found that in most cases the strips settled down nicely on with-out the use of setting solutions. Only on the rear gunner section was setting solution really useful to settle around the compound curves; the other thing I found helped was Tamiya’s decal glue, also adding a touch of washing-up liquid to the water helps, then brushing this water mixed with decal glue onto the model also helps in positioning and moving the decal once applied.

Earlier I mentioned the raised detail of the previous Airfix releases. The canopies of these earlier releases also have fine raised detail together with very fine rivet detail, his actually made positioning the decal strip easier, and when they’d dried they pulled down right into that raised detail even over the rivets and looked really great; the same thing happened with the wing walk ways, when I used this same decal method with the very early Airfix release. Airfix’s new tooling lacks this type of sharp raised detail instead they’ve used a soft edged raised bump for both he wing-walks and canopy framing which made the positioning of the decals not as precise, and the accurate masking of the canopy if you’re masking the canopy that bit more difficult as the edges are not as sharply defined. Maybe something Airfix could look at for future model releases. Using decals for the canopies is much easier than masking and if you get anything wrong it much easier to correct without ruining the canopy. Any small missed bits can easily touched up later. The only bits I didn’t use decals on were the canopies framing where it meets with the fuselage as this is easily painted free hand..

The decal strips were about 0.5 mm wide some fine ones were cut thinner then the frame bit measured and the decal scored at that point then cut a few mm longer. This allows the decal to be held in tweezers and the decal slid off the backing paper either directly onto the canopy or onto a flat brush and the onto the canopy. I found that long pieces were actually easier to transfer and position than small bits. Any excess being easily trimmed with a curved scalpel blade rolled over the decal. Just remember you’ll need a really sharp blade, I’m always surprised a how hard decal paper is to cut, even with a new blade. I would estimate that each canopy took an about an hour to complete, some of the framing had to dry before I could lay cross pieces over it, or add other bits to join up, but I feel that it’s much quicker than masking.

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The Airfix's canopy frames all decaled up, some more touch-ups needed and the rear canopy need completing. I think they look cool.

That's it for now I'll add more trials and tribulations tomorrow and photos of the finished Stukas.

Remember we do this for fun                John the Pom

[John Symmons]

I had decided to finish the Frog model in Russian winter camouflage and the others in the usual RLM 70, 71 schemes. The Academy had to be done in the scheme supplied, The earliest Airfix release (02049) done in a BoB scheme, the previous Airfix release (A03030A) as an Italian “R” version, and the new tooling (A03087) as Spanish Legion Condor scheme. When I looked at the decals of the oldest Airfix kit I found that the protective tissue paper had struck to the decals making them unusable but I did manage to save a couple of the warning signs, the rest were replaced with the unused decals from the next release (A03030). When I checked the Frogs decals they were still OK but I did see there was an Hungarian option offered. Delving into my references I saw the tail-plane was adorned with the Hungarian colours. There was some confusion over where these colours were applied but I chose the ones shown. I’m not sure if the Hungarian’s used the winter scheme in Russia but I find no mention that they didn’t.

The BoB version was basic RLM 70 & 71 scheme from the A03030A release and using the surplus decals from that kit with a few added stencil decals left over from the other kits, and some of my own I’d had printed. The only real problem was the swastika, I’d just purchased a sheet of these at the local IPMS meeting but found that it didn’t include a black one with a with white outline; this swastika seemed to be the one most favoured by the Stuka’s. This was solved by me adding a few black 7 mm black swastikas with a white out-line on an approximate RLM 71 colour background. The RLM 71 colour was done by scanning a painted sample to get the RGB equivalents, the white out-line being left transparent when printed. The RLM background actually came out pretty close, the printed result being sort-of mid-way between RLM 70 & 71. If you get any laser printed decals get them to set the printer to maximum ink density otherwise they’ll be translucent even on maximum density translucence will still be there. These swastikas were applied over a square of white painted decal paper and any hard edges touched up with paint. This method was used on the Bob scheme and the Academy G-2 Stuka, It’s not perfect but unless you look really closely it works. ( see photos below) All that raised detail did give a few problems but Tamiya and Micro Sol setting solutions solved most of them, I also found Tamiya’s decal glue also helped. The most problematic decal was the Italian marking on the top wing of the “R” version; just couldn’t get it to pull down 100%, even with pricking the decal and loads of setting solution. The decals look a bit bright against the dark greens but there could quite easily be toned down with some weathering washes, I left them as-is. (I was getting a bit jaded by this time.) The spinner was painted by mounting it onto a tooth-pick and spinning it in a battery drill, I only mention this as there was a query a few weeks back as to how to paint spinners with stripes.

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Home made decal with printed RLM 71? backgrount touched up with paint.

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Close-up of decaled cockpit & wing walk-ways

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Airfix's 02049 finalised.

The previous Stuka release (A03030A) is basically the same kit with a few added details including some very nice wheels. The main problem I saw was it only offered a 500 Kg bomb where-as the “R” version was limited to a 250 Kg bomb when using the wing drop tanks. The spare 250 Kg bomb, bomb rack and swinging cradle from the latest release was grafted used to replace the kit’s bomb. All the decals went on beautifully. I even used the white fuselage band decal; something I usually shy away from but tried this one and after trying to apply it it wouldn’t fit until I realised I was putting it on backwards. I cut it into two pieces and tried again, successfully. Even managed to decal the radio mast. The only decals I didn’t use were the yellow flashes for the bomb preferring to paint these.

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Airfix's A03030A underside showing the 250 Kg bomb from A03087 kit.

The new tooling as I’ve said is probably the ultimate Ju 87 kit kit in this scale and it had to see if anything could be improved. The only thing missing is the under-belly radio mast, but I thought that a dummy engine could have been placed on top of the exhaust pieces the the top cowling could have been posed open like the Me 109E. Again decals very nice with a full set of stencils some of which I found work better wit hot water like decal 16 that can easily curl but hot water seemed to make it more manageable. On the Legion Condor profile Airfix has left I in the decal 24 marker but this is the under-wing cross for the BoB version. It did have me scratching my head looking of a stencil 24. One thing Airfix doesn’t show is that if an open canopy is required, the rear gunners part has to be slid aft for an open canopy.

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Arifix's A03087 new tool B-1 in Legoin Condor scheme with the 500 Kg bomb.

The Academy decal I was a bit concerned about having had some bad experiences with past Academy kits, but G-2 decals actually worked very well the only thing is the decal were glossy. The yellow wing marking were a bit awkward to get correct and the yellow is a bit too orange for RLM 04 being more akin to Trainer or Insignia yellow, I even managed to apply the spinner’s spiral again using hot water and setting solutions although I did cut it into two pieces.

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Academy G-2

The Frog G-2 was actually finished first the construction and winter scheme being the simplest. The decals were as though as old boots but did finally go on with the exception of one of the upper wing national markings that wouldn’t release from the backing paper then just curled up and died. It was replaced with one made of a square of back painted decal paper over laid with strips of white. Doesn’t quite match the other wing the white being too bright compared to the yellowed other one but it close enough to jazz for me. I shied away from adding stencils to this model as I feel the winter white paint would have obscured them anyway. One thing I noticed was the Frog model looked a touch bigger than all the others, and on checking the wing span saw it measured about 8 mm more than the other G-2 this give a scale of 70.5/1 for the Frog model; odd? Checking my references it is surprising at all the different sizes quoted for the Ju 87’s and I’m not talking about an odd inch inch here-and-there but in some cases a foot or more, so maybe the original data Frog used back in the 60’s wasn’t correct. One thing modelling did do back then was to simulate decent research that we’re now benefiting from.

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Wnter camouflage Hungarian G-2 looking very racey

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Well that’s it for my adventures into the Junkers dive bombers hope you enjoy the photos. I’ve leant quite a bit and added to my skill set, and will be using the decal option more on those Luftwaffe green houses, as masking sets are a bit scarce in SA, and I’m not really happy trusting our post office or customs to deliver overseas parcels plus the added postage expense not to mention the cost of getting it through customs, but that’s another rant I leave alone. If you’re in the market for a 1/72 scale Ju 87 you can’t do better than the new Airfix offering it really is superb and a great improvement over the previous releases. Hopefully Airfix will give us more marks of the iconic aircraft and seeing as they have the basics already done hopefully we’ll be getting a “D” version soon, and then it’s only a quick walk to the “G”. If you want to do a model of Hans-Ulrich Rudel’s plane; good luck; as on one day he was shot down 5 times, but made it back to base commandeered another plane and took-off again. The Ju 87G’s and Rudel’s exploits are still reverberating to-day with the Fairchild A-10 Warthog as the Ju 87G inspired the A-10’s design and Rudel’s book “Stuka Pilot” was required reading of the design and development team of the A-10.

So what to tackle next maybe a change of pace as I see I have the Airfix E boat that I’ve tentatively started so that’s just crying out ME NEXT.

Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

PS Seasons Greeting to all at the forum see you all next year, from a sunny South Africa. JtP

[Ratch]

 Hi John, the designation R indicated “Reichweite” (Range).

[John Symmons]

Hi Ratch.

Yes you're correct, the "R" variant was "B" variant modified for increased range for anti shipping work. they were mainly used in the Mediterranean also used up north to harass the northern convoys and in the south east to deny Russia the freedom of the Black Sea and therefore the Aegean Sea. They were used by the Italians for anti shipping and reconnaissance..

The wing tanks were enlarged and together with the wing drop tanks the range was doubled, but this did limit the bomb carrying to a single 250 Kg bomb.

Remember we do thios for fun                     John the Pom

[Kenneth ONeill]

Hi John, a very general comment on posts #1 and #2. Some of the individual paragraphs gave me TL;DR syndrome.

[Ratch]

 Hi John, the Luftwaffe also used Rs, my point was that it is not exclusively an Italian variant 😉

[peebeep]

Some of the individual paragraphs gave me TL;DR syndrome.

Same here.

[T2B]

You have done well John to see the build out and get them completed without giving up lol.

 

But an interesting write up and comparison of the various kits. They are good and I'm now looking forward to getting my new tool Ju 87 B-2 from my stash sometime in the New Year.

 

And all the Best to you!

[John Symmons]

Hi all

Thanks for your comments. And; Er; what's TD;DR syndrom?

One thing I forgot to mention the tail decals for the Legion Condor are numbered wrong on the decal profile, somehow Airfix have got them reversed.

Remember we do this for fun      John the Pom

[Kenneth ONeill]

Hi all

Thanks for your comments. And; Er; what's TD;DR syndrom?

One thing I forgot to mention the tail decals for the Legion Condor are numbered wrong on the decal profile, somehow Airfix have got them reversed.

Remember we do this for fun      John the Pom

TL;DR - Too Long; Didn't Read. In your case it is honestly meant purely as a criticism of the paragraph lengths rather than of the content.

[John Symmons]

Thanks Paws I'll keep that in mind in future. I'd actually thought the same as I was posting, and wondered if I should'nt shortened it but I was trying to get it in before Christmas.

Remember we do this for fun                    John the Pom

[Kenneth ONeill]

No problem; I don't normally criticise a review that negatively, and always stop and think twice "is this valid and justified criticism?" before posting when I do.

Generally you're more likely to find "I agree" or "that wasn't my experience" style comments, like when Heather and I have built kits from the same tool.

[Heather Kavanagh]

I think part of the problem is the forum software. 

 

I am accustomed to various forum softwares, and most accept a double return to give a single paragraph space. Here, the software ignores the extra return, bunching the paragraphs up together and making it quite hard to follow sometimes. I have to train myself to type three returns, or at least add them to my post before hitting reply!

 

I try to write in a style that allows for lots of relatively short paragraphs, keeping relevant points and information together in one paragraph where possible. My personal preference, too, is to post a photo and then write descriptions underneath. It sort of makes more sense to me, in the manner of a good book or magazine generally captions photos and diagrams below. I'm not saying writing about a photo that follows the caption is wrong, only it doesn't flow to my mind.

 

Anway, although it was hard to read at times - mainly due to excesses of the Christmas season here, I think! - i have enjoyed following this thread and seeing how kits have evolved over the years. I'm actually quite happy only having one or two examples of each type for my collection!

[Kenneth ONeill]

Maybe this is partly OS/browser related? I use Chrome on Windows7 and find that 1 Return gives me a single line throw between paragraphs

Like this

 

2 returns gives this much bigger gap. But it doesn't WYSIWYG; the editor shows it as double and quadruple spacing.

[John Symmons]

Hi paws & Heather.

I realised a few days back just what Paws was saying about the paragraphs and Heather you reply put me on the right track.

The problem is the review was typed in a word proccessor ( Page Plus ) and when I cut and paste the forum software looses the carraige returns. It was typed with double returns between paragraphs, but seems to have lost them in pasting. and as the post contained photos I was unable to see the post for editing. In future I'll just have to paste each paragraph seperately.

I'll try a quick experiment with pasting several paragrphs with multple returns and see if it helps

Paragraph 1 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx one carriage returnParagraph 2 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx two carriage returns

Paragraph 3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx three carriage returns

Paragraph 4 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx four carriage returns

 

Paragraph 5 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx one carriage return

Looks fine when I paste it just see what happens on submission.

Submitted and the only one that came out corret was the 5 returns giving the single paragragh break. As I said in futrue I'll just have to paste the paragraps seperately.

Remember we do this for fun                        John the Pom

[Kenneth ONeill]

Ok, quick experiment using Wordpad, since that's on every Windows box and gives all the functionality we actually need here:-

Single spacedDouble spaced

Treble spaced

 

Quadruple spaced

 

And we get the exact same issue as in Page Plus!!

[Ratch]

 When I paste content from elsewhere I always check after submission and edit again if/when necessary. Pretty often lists come out as a continual line and I have to go back to insert the line breaks. If you check and alter after posting then it should all look OK.

[peebeep]

Forum text editors run on BBCode, a variant of HTML, copying and pasting from other WP software will always give unpredictable results because the formatting is not the same. Even some individual characters may come out as something completely different. The text editor on these pages is different to other boards and as paws4thot points out there is no WYSIWYG (or preview pane) and some of the usual BBCode functions are absent. Whilst it's a lot easier to compose using a WP off board, especially if you're worried a about any sort of glitch leading to data loss, it may be better to compose within the text editor and copy and paste every few minutes off board to protect your data.

[Kenneth ONeill]

Cheers Paul; I'm a software engineer (but not in web development) and didn't know that, although it makes perfect sense to me when stated.

[John Symmons]

Think this post has got a bit off topic, seeing as it was originally about the Ju 87's, but not to mind as this discuction has been quite informative. In future I'll post in seperate paragraphs as when including photos you don't get the edit option.

Next post will be on the Airfix "E?" or "S" Boat, sea you all at the waters edge.

All the best for the new year and hope 2018 will be a memerable Airfix year for all.

Remember we do this for fun                               John the Pom

[Kenneth ONeill]

Think this post has got a bit off topic, seeing as it was originally about the Ju 87's, but not to mind as this discuction has been quite informative. In future I'll post in seperate paragraphs as when including photos you don't get the edit option.

Next post will be on the Airfix "E?" or "S" Boat, sea you all at the waters edge.

All the best for the new year and hope 2018 will be a memerable Airfix year for all.

Remember we do this for fun                               John the Pom

Given I'm not sure we can actually even see the original subject from here  😉 "E Boat" and "S Boat" mean the same craft.:-

"E Boat" is an Allied contraction of "Enemy War Motorboat".

"S Boat" is a German contraction and part-translation of "Schnellboot" which means "fast boat".

 

And, in a bid to get back somewhere near the original subject, "Stuka" is a contraction of the German for "dive bomber", so as well as the JU-87 strictly applies to a range of other types (or at least sub-types).