COBI Junkers Ju 87 B-2 Set 5748

COBI's Junkers Ju 87 B-2 is a 1:32 model built from 525 blocks, 34.5 cm long, in tropical camouflage. The propeller and ailerons move, the wheels turn on rubber tires, and the canopy opens for the pilot and the rear gunner. A display stand with a transparent pin shows the aircraft in flight, and a nameplate is included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

Why the wings bend

The Stuka's inverted gull wing — down from the fuselage, then out and up — is the most recognisable wing shape of the war, and it exists for a mundane reason.

A dive bomber needs a large propeller for low-speed control and a bomb slung under the fuselage, both of which demand ground clearance. Clearance normally means long undercarriage legs, and long legs are heavy, draggy and break on rough airfields.

Cranking the wing downward at the root puts the attachment point for the leg much closer to the ground, so the leg can be short and stout. The shape is a solution to a landing gear problem, and everything people find sinister about the Stuka's silhouette is a consequence of it.

It had a second benefit nobody planned: the pilot in a steep dive could see the ground past the bent wing far better than he could over a straight one.

The B-2 in Africa

The B-2 was the version adapted for North Africa, with dust filters and tropical equipment. Stukas worked well there for the same reason they worked in Poland — open ground, no fighter opposition worth the name, and targets that could not hide.

Once the RAF had fighters in the theatre in numbers, the arithmetic reversed. An aircraft that must fly slowly down a predictable line to hit anything is defenceless against anyone who can catch it.

In the COBI range

Set 5768 is the Ju 87 D-3 in winter camouflage at 1:35, and 5767 the G-2 anti-tank version with 37 mm cannon.

Specifications

Pieces: 525 · Figures: 2, pilot and gunner · Scale: 1:32 · Display stand and nameplate · No stickers
Model dimensions: 34.5 × 14 cm (13.6 × 5.5 in)