Ju-87B Russian Front

As usual I bought the kit then set about hunting for an image to create a diorama out of. The image below is a Ju-87B1 of II StG1 somewhere on the Russian Front getting rearmed in its dispersal bay. Not sure how urgent that unit was as the armorer is taking it easy lying down on the wing!

My Version

I didn't have a 1/72 scale horse lying around so I made do and the background I used isn't blue sky so the finished diorama looks a bit different.

I used the Airfix JU-87 B set (set # A03030A) for this diorama. As usual I cut open the canopy supplied (even though it is too thick for 1/72 scale) and scratch built up the inside cockpit walls and added tin foil seat belt harnesses. I brush painted everything as usual (no airbrush yet) but then used a fine grit paper to sand away and achieve some basic weathering (excessive weathering bugs me since aircraft rarely lasted long enough in WW2 to become weathered!! yet it seems to be a norm for modelers these days)

I started the diorama on wood block with old wall trim as relief.

Lashings to plaster Paris created the snow banks for the dispersal.

Old dried hydrangea blossoms painted white substitute for russian birches and I used the pine tree kit from Woodland Scenics. Additional scrub and trees were added later.

The 2 amigos re-arming the aircraft were originally Airfix RAF ground crew figures re-painted although this set is made from a very soft polyethylene or similar plastic and is awful to trim and sand (stick with resin or harder ABS mix plastic). Still, they are 1/72 scale after all.

I painted the plaster snow with tints of blue since thats what snow looks like in shade areas and mixed plaster with brown paint and weathering pastel to create muddy snow. I then used baby talcum powder for the top covering although it made the diorama stink like perfume! Overall the effect worked well and I shot pictures with a Canon T3i DSLR camera outdoors in natural sunlight to get the right shadows and snow glare.