COBI Junkers Ju-87G-2 Stuka Set 5767

COBI's Junkers Ju 87 G-2 Stuka is a 1:35 model built from 571 blocks, 35 cm long with a 41.5 cm wingspan. A new brick was made for the cockpit glazing, the propeller and ailerons move, the wheels turn on rubber tires, and the canopy opens for two Luftwaffe figures. The underwing cannon are fitted, and a display stand with a transparent rod shows the aircraft in flight. No stickers.

Two cannon under the wings

The G is the Stuka rebuilt as a tank killer, and the change is impossible to miss: a 37 mm cannon in a pod under each wing, firing tungsten-cored rounds, with six shells per gun.

Six is not many, and the aircraft had to be flown almost to the ground, from behind, to hit the thin engine deck of a Soviet tank. The dive brakes were removed — this version did not dive-bomb — and the extra weight made it slower than a Stuka had ever been, in a sky where the Luftwaffe no longer controlled anything. Flying one in 1944 required either an escort or a great deal of nerve.

Look for the small tank symbol printed on the fuselage. Those were kill marks, one per confirmed armoured vehicle destroyed, and pilots collected them the way fighter pilots collected bars.

The most famous G-2 pilot, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, is credited with over 500 destroyed vehicles. He flew more than 2,500 combat sorties, which is a number that says as much about how long the war lasted for the Luftwaffe as about any individual.

In the COBI range

Set 5768 is the Ju 87 D-3 in Eastern Front winter camouflage, the dive-bomber version, at the same scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 571 · Figures: 2 · Scale: 1:35 · Age: 9+ · No stickers
Model dimensions: 35 × 41.5 × 11.5 cm (13.8 × 16.3 × 4.5 in), 16 cm high on the base