Full Review with Rob Ruscoe
The Ju87 was designed to be the nascent Luftwaffe’s pinpoint dive bomber and ground attack aircraft. First flown in 1935, its angular gull wings and large spatted fixed undercarriage, gave the aircraft a distinctive shape which was soon to become dreaded by allied soldiers and civilians alike. The addition of ram-air sirens to earlier variants also amplified the terror effect during the Blitzkrieg. Although feared by troops, the Ju87 was well liked by allied fighter pilots who found its lack of speed and manoeuvrability made it especially vulnerable. In this respect, the aircraft could only operate effectively whilst the Luftwaffe enjoyed air superiority over the battlefield. Under these conditions, the design proved to be very effective in the ground support role, the steep dive attack proving highly accurate.
Known to both the Allies and the Axis powers as the Stuka, this term was actually a shortening of the German generic word for dive bomber – Sturzkampfflugzeug or literally ‘Dive Assault Aircraft’. A number of variants served in all theatres and in various roles including anti-shipping and anti-tank operations. As the Luftwaffe lost the advantage of air superiority, the Ju87 became an easy target for fighters and suffered heavy losses. However, lacking a better replacement, it continued in production until 1944 and remained in service until the end of the war.
The Ju87R was a long range version of the B variant designed primarily for anti-shipping missions. Extra range was achieved by fitting a larger oil tank and fuel lines to the outer wing stations to allow the carriage of two 300 litre drop tanks. This increased fuel capacity to 1080 litres and extended the useful range by 360km. Drawbacks were a decrease in bomb load to a single 250kg bomb if fully fuelled, and a reduction in speed of 30km/h.
The Ju87R-2 was powered by a Jumo 211D inverted V12 engine of 1400hp and carried a crew of two. With a wingspan of 13.8 m and a max take-off weight of 8100kg, the Ju87R-2 was certainly an imposing aeroplane.
The Kit…
Trumpeter produce a number of Ju87 variants with the R first appearing in 2012. This company had a reputation at this time of being a little hit or miss as regards accuracy, indeed some of their latest offerings can still suffer in this respect. Luckily I knew this kit was one of their better efforts having built a D variant some years ago. I wanted to build the R variant as I had a wartime photo, taken by my Father, of an abandoned aircraft on a captured airfield. This is just annotated ‘Libya 1942’. I particularly wanted to reproduce the heavy weathering evident on this machine. Three options are provided in the box, one with RLM 70 Black Green over RLM 71 Dark Green splinter scheme. The second has RLM 71 mottles over RLM 79 Sand Brown. The third is an all over RLM 79. All these have RLM 78 Light Blue undersurfaces. Fourteen sprues are contained in the large stout box along with a single PE fret and a fairly basic decal sheet. Love them or hate them, the tyres are vinyl.