The Ju-87G Stuka was the last of the line. There were some purpose-built G’s, but most of them were D models with the cannon pods added. The first use of the Ju-87G was at Kursk, but there were only a few, and they made no difference.

Master has turned out a pair of new barrels for the 37mm cannon. They are turned brass, and so are much more durable than the original barrels.

I was able to find only one 1/144 Ju-87G kit, Eduard’s. The Eduard kit is very good, I built one for a review back in 2014. So I used the new barrels on the “old” kit.

Prep

I removed the barrels from the underwing pods with a sprue nipper. I then used a #11 blade to form a depression in the front of the pod to use as a pilot hole. The spot is quite small, and small drills have a bad habit of slipping off.

I had to buy some small metric drills at the LHS last weekend, because I didn’t have any drills that small left. They were either broken or somewhere in the den of the carpet monster. The drill I used on this project was a .3 mm. That’s 1/64 of an inch.

Installation

After drilling both holes, I test fitted the guns in the pods. This was necessary, not because the holes weren’t the right size, but I had to work to get the holes deep enough to accept the mounting pins. I dad to drill the left pod a little deeper. Once the barrels were fitted, I removed them and put a small dab of thick CA on each one. After I aligned each one, I put a bit of accelerator on. And they were firmly installed.

Painting

Low degree of difficulty here. I used a small brush with MM Luftwaffe 70 and applied paint to the barrel and the damaged area where the pod was drilled.

Overall Evaluation

Recommended. The barrels are smaller and better scaled than the plastic version from the kit. Also, there’s better detail, especially at the muzzles, where there’s a visible hole. Well, visible with a magnifier, this IS 1/144. So, if you bend or break one of your cannon barrels, or there’s a project with another Luftwaffe aircraft which used the 37mm gun, this is the go-to version.

Many thanks to Master Model for the review item, and to IPMS USA for allowing me to upgrade my Stuka.