Stuka D-5 variant model aircraft kit in 1/72nd scale

This example of the Italeri Stuka kit is moulded in a medium/hard light grey plastic which is easily worked. The mouldings are very clean and free from flash, sink and ill placed ejector pin marks.

The Stuka kit comes on two main sprues plus a third clear sprue for the transparent components. A decal sheet is also included which contains markings for three aircraft, two eastern front planes depicted with the water soluble white-wash camouflage and a further aircraft with the scribble pattern.

The mouldings on this kit are very finely made with recessed panel lines and good levels of detail for the scale. I've built one of these and can confirm the fit of parts to be superb. The transparent parts are particularly well made, being clear, sharply moulded and quite thin. Three segments of canopy are used including the sliding centre section.

The two main sprues left and right and the decals and clear parts below.
Click on pictures for enlargements.

The wing on this model Stuka is moulded in three parts, these consisting of a one piece lower section with the flaps moulded on and two upper sections. The flaps are moulded to the mainplane with small triangular gussets which while not accurate is probably done through necessity. The skilled modeller could probably improve things here but the resulting flap join would be very fragile.

The fuselage consists of two main halves, with a further three smaller pieces being used for the front end and cowling. Fit here is very good, in fact when I built mine I had no fit problems for any parts of the aircraft, though a scrape of filler was applied to the cowling behind the spinner to correct the shape a little (wasn't quite round on one side).

Moving on to some of the smaller parts, the cockpit is quite well done with a long floor piece to which is fitted a bulkhead, pilot seat, gunner's 'stool', instrument panel and joystick. All of these parts go together nicely and make for a pretty realistic interior for this small scale, the whole cockpit assembly can be added after the fuselage halves are joined. There is however no detail on the inner fuselage sides.
The undercarriage being fixed on the stuka is a doddle to assembly and very strong. The wheels themselves are rather plain though.

The decal sheet on my example is well printed and in good register.

Regarding accuracy, this Stuka model looks pretty good to me. I haven't taken a micrometer to it but have put a ruler to it. Length is about 159mm while the span is about 206mm (both approximate measurements including spinner), it compares well to all the pictures I've come across and the model looks about right to me. The span is not far off I reckon for the D-5 which had a slightly longer wing than some other variants I believe.