The resprayed RLM76 was masked with dots of Maskol before a homemade mix of RLM24 Dunkleblau was applied followed by RLM70 Schwarzgrun, which was the scheme for aircraft operating over land when using RLM24. Once dried this was masked and the undersides were painted RLM22 using Tamiya NATO Black. The black squiggly lines are a version of Wellenmuster (Wave Mirror), which was used in the Mediterranean theatre in 1943-44, and were applied using a black Sharpie. The inspiration for this scheme is to be found in Paul Lucas' Colour Conundrum on Late War Luftwaffe Camoflague which shows a Ju 88S which crashed at Celle Germany in 1944. By August 1944 Dunkleblau is officially listed as RLM83 which confuses matters as most paint manufacturers list RLM83 as Dunklegrun. Initially this was listed as Hellgrun, Light Green, before changing to Dark Green. Confused? I am and I've got the books!!!
Back to the build. I had to resort to the vacform canopy which was masked and the framework painted RLM66 before it was fitted and blended in using more Glue and Glaze then touched up with more RLM66. A bomb and rack had been sourced from spares and swing arms made from Evergreen strip. Cannons were sourced from spares and finally, after 3 attempts at sizing the propellers were painted and fitted. I'm not totally happy with these so will probably revisit them before calling an end to this build as at the moment I can't source any Acrylic Satin Varnish hence the paintwork in the photos looking glossy. Due to all the work/alterations I've had to make I'm upgrading the aircraft to the A-2 variant, great as no-one can prove me wrong, lol!!!
As a footnote on 18 October 1943 the Schlacht (ground attack) arm of the Luftwaffe was expanded with the bulk of the new force coming from the Stukagruppen which were now considered not effective as bombers. There is photographic evidence of Schlachtgruppe aircraft in schemes similar to the one I've used so it's not as far fetched as it appears.
