Stuka Restoration

nice touch on the tail wheel and great thread..

Here's my Stuka from several years back, i was lucky to find a donor plane that had all the parts i needed and busted parts i didn't.

That is an outstanding transformation.

How many hours did you have to put in to that?

Great thread and subject! Plastic RTF or not, the Cox Stuka is STILL (in my opinion) one of the coolest planes to ever turn a circle. Even as I 'graduated' to larger planes in the late 60's, my Uncle's Stuka was still as cool as anything parked on the ballfield on flying days.

I've got a new wing for mine and intend to fly it again, the original had steel wire gear that were bent backwards and caused it to be very prone to nose-over. One of the new lineguys at the airport has a Stuka he wants to get going, so we'll be having a dedicated Cox/Wen Mac day down at the airport ramp...if the we're not seen as a threat to security !

Good luck with the resto!

Uncle Wayne's original Stuka:





Mine before the new wing:

NICE WORK Bottomgun , you and Mark will be the ones I will need to hook up with when the time is right for me to start some restorations . I like the way you rebuild the original parts back to new look , Thanks for sharing . Eric

i hate to say it, but i had/have decals on my computer of both green and black versions and now i can't find them!

It took three donor models for me to assemble enough parts to make a nice Stuka. The new windscreen was big $. Bombs, antenna, the little spinners, windscreens, tailwheels are very rare.
Your meticulous work on your models is very impressive, nice work. These are my parts ready for assembly, start from the front with rubber bands and work rearward is the way I found best.
Still looking for black bomb.





I auctioned my used windscreen on eBay and it went for 54$ with many flaws!!

Nice restos on all these Stukas! Yep, you have to do what it takes to get you there, even if it's buying up a few "junkers" to get the parts you need. I was most fortunate that what I had to fix was very minor. I went ahead and ordered the repro antenna and wing props. Trying to find originals will be pretty difficult and at least the repros are available now at a somewhat decent price. I'll paint them when they get in and offer an evaluation on their quality.

Yes, nice restorations guys, these are not easy to find parts for at reasonable prices or to put back together.

Mine was missing the pilot and the front part of the canopy but was otherwise complete.  The previous owner did a nice job on painting the gunner though.



Some aids made reassembly easier.





I was able to find the front part of the canopy, but i still have to paint the frame to match.



I believe these came with a couple of different style fuel tanks, mine is the squarish type,but I think others were round with different fillers.



Bob

I found different fuel tanks also, one was softer plastic with one fill hole and the other was hard with two fill holes.

On my wing bottom it is molded with the Thimble Drome moniker. Does anybody know the last time they used this? I know they stopped sometime. I'm sure even if they had a sufficient supply of wings with this mold, I would figure that they weren't just going to have a cut off point and pull them out of the assembly line. Just trying to pinpoint a production time on my model. I'm contemplating on doing some masks for painting all the emblems on. I'll still hold out for some decent repros if they pop up in stock.

Cribbs74 wrote:It's a worthy restoration project for sure.

It's been said they are really poor flyers, yet I saw one fly and it did quite well. I hope it's not going to be a shelf queen and you can get out and fly it.

I'll attach a video for inspiration when I find it.

Wingovers that are not planned are usually do to loss of line tension and a gust of wind...

Ron

https://www.coxengineforum.com/t7333-they-do-fly?highlight=Stuka

Thanks for sharing this video. Pretty neat to see how happy that guy was after the flight. Something about CL, that brings people back. It is just great, clean fun. Andy

I have looked at that video several times before and I'm always thrilled for the guy. Reminds me of my first successful flight.

Fast little critter that Stuka. I have never flown one, but it did glide well. I would think that it would have fallen like a rock.

Bob

Yea, that video is inspiring. I still have to find a decent spot to fly but I know I will. Anyway, today I made up my masks for the flat white base. I cut them out using Frisket Paper. It's translucent and you can trace anything on it then cut it out, peel back the backing and stick it to your work. I bought it at a local art shop that also stocks replacement parts for my Paasche airbrush. Here are the masks all applied to the wing and fuse halves ready for paint.





I'm using Tamiya acrylic paints and thinner this time. As a rule, even though you'll get hints on the internet about using substitute thinners that will work and cost less, I use the brand name thinner that goes with the paint as a system. It saves me any grief I may have with compatibility. The Flat White laid down very well. We've been having temps in the 80's with very low humidity so the paint sets up quick.




I was able to pull the masks after about twenty minutes, and now they will sit for close to 24 hours before I lay out my yellow masks for the emblems and the wide rear fuse color bar. Turned out well but for now it looks like a medical transport.




I had some slight bleed through using the frisket paper. I don't think it burnishes down as well as Scotch painter's tape but it did make masking easier. I'll cleanup the edges with thinner tomorrow and they will be covered with the yellow when I lay that down.

Nice. So much better than the stick-on's that tend to peel. Can't wait to see your finished product.

Bob

.

Got the yellow laid down for the crosses. For the rear yellow "KS" bar, I masked it off with the fuse halves taped together and laid down a base coat of flat white. Being that the vertical fin lead edge is molded onto one side of the fuse, I'm going to re-mask underneath that part when I spray the yellow on with the fuse halves separate so there is no color gap in between that area.






I'll spray the yellow bar on tomorrow morning.

By the way Mud Hen you are probably right about using thinner. I used 91 isopropyl alcohol instead and that seems to work just fine. Any bleed thru will get that treatment after I lay down all colors and before I seal it with clear Superpoxy.

The Stuka resto and flight were awesome! I worked hard as a kid to buy one of these. I couldn't afford fuel so made it last by whipping that Stuka around and around. It was a great flying model for plain ol' roundy round flying!

The guy in the video is Dan McEntee, he is a good guy and great Stunt flyer in St. Louis. He and I have been good friends from our first meeting and still long after I moved away from the area. He was even my crew chief when I raced my Pitts Special up at Reno in 1999. He had his childhood stories about his flying models with his brothers like so many of us and he wanted to do this when his younger brother unexpectedly died. Dan often flies 1/2A's for the older guys in their local 1/2A Speed events and he also is a great machinist and mechanic on 1/2As. We built two Nats competitive Golden Bees from reading an article and following the directions!
Chris...

Today I got the yellow band and crosses completed. Only thing left to do is the red letters and it's ready for a protective clear coat.

Outstanding Job Bottomgun

I got my repro stuff in the other day. The antenna is a good repro and the plastic has the same flex properties as the original. It fits snugly onto the canopy slot so no looseness there. Sand it, paint it red and I'm good to go.
   I wish I could say the same for the props. The styrene mold used around the blade area is so thin that with some bare nudges against the blades, I had them break off on both props. They are much weaker than the originals and there is no room for even the slightest accidental bump. They also need to be drilled which is a little trickier then it seems. You have a wider base hole at the rear of the hub while the front end has a smaller one to enable the prop to snap onto the stud and retain itself while still being able to spin around the larger main portion of the stud. I was in the process of drilling the first one when the blade broke. I was fitting the second one when that one broke. The photo below is after the first one broke.




To compound the problem, I just noticed that the left side ball end retainer on the wing prop post had broken off at some time, I don't know when. I can fix that also but I'm thinking, for now, of doing a "technically" correct blank fairing which they did on most Stukas starting at about mid-war before they phased out the wing sirens altogether. A good excuse for just waiting till some originals, or better repros are available.



I can put a dab of thickened epoxy on each tip and sand it round and paint it black for now. I'm still contemplating this so we'll see. Personally, I never liked the wing props but flawed or not, it was an original item on the Cox model.

I see several of you guys go to great lengths to restore these beaters and I am usually very impressed at the final finish and correctness some times looking much better than the exact model I pulled open on Christmas morning

If I were that dedicated in these total restorations I would have most all the casting tools and bits from Micro Mark

There are several ways to mold those hard to find bits...from silicone or casting resin to zink and the mold making process is fairly easy from what I have read and seen


considering what some of those reproductions or original small parts cost the start up cost is not that daunting

I doubt there is a good clean and low cost way to do many of the complicated canopies in clear without a perfect set and vacuum forming over a perfect plug

I am much impressed with this Stuka resurrection...also one of my child hood favorites.... that flew OK for how little I knew about proper car and feeding the engine....sometimes my brother would run half way round the circle before slinging it as hard as he could while I back peddled and whipped as hard as possible to get it flying....good times and we mostly fell down laughing after a spectacular crash