BF Stuka Unboxing, Model Review and Build

I'll be painting mine up to look like this. It'll be a challenge
But I think it will be worth it. 

So I did it, I finally figured out what my first list is going to be for mid war: Fallschirjagers! To get started I picked up the company box of figs and one of the new Battlefront Stuka's.

Needless to say I was totally jazzed. Fighters and Bombers are possibly my favorite part of World War 2. And, for those of you who know your history, you know that the Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka" was a superb dive bomber.

The Stuka served in multiple variants from the Spanish Civil War, as part of the famed Condor Legion, right up through the  end of World War 2.


Like much of German aviation this guy saw his hay day during the Blitzkrieg, the Battle of Britain and North Africa.

Before picking it up I hadn't yet had a chance to play around with any of BF's plane models. And... I kind of have to say, at least in this case, I'm a little disappointed. My first big complaint is the proportions on the plane are seemingly off all over the place. The tail is too short (based off a proportional measurement I did to the canopy height from fuselage), the nose/propeller cone is too stubby, and the dive flaps on the trailing edge of the wing are  too small. Oddly, they decided to add the struts on the rear on of the aircraft under the horizontal stabilizers (rear wings :) and the posts on the front wheels, but they omitted the rear gun, the posts on the wings and antenna post  coming off of the canopy.

BF puts plenty of small breakable fiddly bits on their models, why choose to remove a few pieces that define the silhouette of this one?

But my biggest gripe is this: The definition of detail on the model is just awful. For a company known for it's, what I think are great, over exaggerated proportions on it's infantry figures and mostly crisp detailing on it's vehicles, why on this plane are the details so understated? It seems that the lines that make up the panels on the fuselage and wings of the plane are just whisper deep and a hairs width thin, almost to the point where a few coats of paint will cover them up. The only place where this isn't the case is on the canopy.

Not only does this lead to difficulty picking out details but it's a headache to paint (as you'll see in the next Stuka post).

Perhaps I'm being overly critical and I'm willing to admit this. But, compared to what I've seen from BF's line of vehicles and infantry, I feel like I bought a model from another company.

Click on to get to the unboxing and (quick!) build.

You get the flight stand, airplane die, options for Bombs or Guns, magnets and  decals. 

Close up of the top of the model. There was significant blurring of details on the exhaust. 

Underside. 

At first I wasn't sure what the two pointy bits were. 

Then I was like DUH! They go under the rear stabs!

Of course there's no fitting for them there so I used my favorite tweezers, the self closing ones, to hold the piece in place as the glue dried. 

They do provide slots for you to fit the landing gear into. Sadly, I think I put the bombs too close into the wheels. 

Am I being to harsh? Have you seen better planes than the Stuka? Do you agree?  Was this all nerd rage? Let me know!