The Junkers Ju-87 ‘Stuka’ first flew in 1935 as result of a competition for a new dive bomber. The unsuccessful contenders included Arado, Hamburger, and Heinkel. Like Willy Messerschmitt's Bf 109 prototype, the Ju-87 prototype was powered by the Rolls Royce Kestrel engine and like the early Bf 109, the early Ju-87s were shipped off to serve in the Spanish Civil War to receive its baptism of fire to work out any bugs in the design.
Nicknamed the ‘Stuka’, the aircraft formed an essential part of Hitler's Blitz across Europe with its precision bombing capability. The Ju-87, like the American SBD, employed dive brakes to allow for near vertical dives on a target, the steep angles all but assuring a direct hit every time. As allied air superiority took hold in the west, the Stuka was too slow to remain a viable combat aircraft, but the Luftwaffe still reigned over the skies over the Soviet Union.
So is it a toy or is it a model? Release from the secret workshops of 21st Century Toys in 1/32 their Ju-87B/R Stuka is a building ‘breeze’, designed from the outset to be a simple yet satisfying model making experience. Few toy/kits actually have metal screws to hold it together (I seem to remember a 1/200 Typhoon submarine having them) and while some might scoff at the idea, this simplified kit is could become equally impressive as Hasegawa's beautiful and more intricate tooling of the Stuka. The question becomes one of perception - is the Hasegawa kit at more than three times the price, therefore three time better? I’m just grateful we do have a choice!
The kit comes in a solid cardboard box and the parts are packaged so well that it would take some serious work to damage the kit in transit. The way each major part of group of minor parts is heat sealed into compartments in each bag is very similar to the high-end resin kits like those from Anigrand Craftswork. Very nice indeed!
Speaking of the kit box, when was the last time you saw swastikas on the box art? While this boxing isn't being sold in Germany it is nice to see political correctness set aside for historical fact for a change.
The kit is molded in gray styrene and presented free of parts trees, and while this may have been originally designed for the pre-assembled/pre-finished desktop replica, it doesn't lack for details.
The kit has a nice cockpit, front and back, that can be tweaked and detailed as desired. The canopy sections are individually molded so the canopy can be positioned open front and/or back and a very nice sheet of decals are included for three examples:
Ju 87B-2, 9./StG 51, 6G+AT, Norrent-Fontes France, August 1940
Ju 87B-2, 5./StG 77, S2+LN, Graz-Thalerhof Austria, Spring 1941
Ju 87B, 6./StG 2, T6+DP, Libya, Africa, August 1941
I guess most people could slap one of these kits together in a weekend. Whilst heavy in parts, by taking a little extra time to make it into a model would be fun before parking next to a Hasegawa 1/32 Ju-87 on an IPMS contest table. Either way, the decals and colour schemes offered in this kit are such that you could afford to build all three schemes for the price of one Hasegawa kit.
I personally applaud 21st Century Toys for developing these new inexpensive kits as a proper segue for new modelers to get interest in our unique craft or to bring home a former modeler back into the hobby. In either case, once these new modellers have this kit under their belts, one can only guess what next they may aspire to…?
