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Henschel Hs 129B-2: DONE!!! (Now with more pics!)


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I grabbed a few pictures, with hopes of clarifying my intentions. The 75mm Pak 40 gun seems to be the one that most people are familiar with and what usually gets all the attention (and I can see why. It's huge!). However, the most common was probably the MK 103, which is what's included in the kit. The B-1 and early B-2s had the MK 101. This is mainly what was used in North Africa and the earlier stages of the war on the Eastern Front. Here's a picture of a B-1 armed with the MK 101.

 

MK101002.jpg

 

And, in more of a plan form:

 

MK101.jpg

 

Here is the higher velocity MK 103, for comparison:

 

MK103.jpg

 

 

The aircraft I chose to do is this one:

 

Yellow3.jpg

Yellow3006.jpg

 

I found this particular plane to be interesting for a few reasons. First off, it was assigned to a fighter squadron (JG 51) and has "non-standard" numerical markings, as opposed to the usual letter codes found on most Schlacht Geschwader aircraft. Second, it has some winter camouflage (which I liked), but it's not completely white. So, some of it's factory paint is still identifiable and it's not a subject that I've seen anybody model before.

 

The last thing that really intrigues me about this particular airframe, is it's service record. From what I can gather, I believe it was built in the very last days of 1942. The photos above were reportedly taken in the spring of 1943. Records indicate that it was eventually given to the Romanian 8th Assault Group in the early autumn of 1943. It sustained 30% damage from AA fire on 4 October of that year and, according to the Squadron book (which I can't verify anywhere else), it was recaptured by the Germans on 24 August, 1944, one day after Romania ousted it's pro-Axis regime and switched sides. Now, considering the conditions and odds that these planes flew against, not to mention the dangerous work they did and their so called (but probably not deserved title of) "inferiority", that's an incredible record for a single airframe!

 

 

John

 

(The first three images are from the Military Aircraft In Detail's Henschel Hs 129, by Denes Bernard. The Last two images are from Classic Publications' Hs 129 Panzerjager!, by Martin Pegg. Fair use policy applies)

Edited by mywifehatesmodels
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I grabbed a few pictures, with hopes of clarifying my intentions. The 75mm Pak 40 gun seems to be the one that most people are familiar with and what usually gets all the attention (and I can see why. It's huge!). However, the most common was probably the MK 103, which is what's included in the kit. The B-1 and early B-2s had the MK 101. This is mainly what was used in North Africa and the earlier stages of the war on the Eastern Front. Here's a picture of a B-1 armed with the MK 101.

 

MK101002.jpg

 

And, in more of a plan form:

 

MK101.jpg

 

Here is the higher velocity MK 103, for comparison:

 

MK103.jpg

 

 

The aircraft I chose to do is this one:

 

Yellow3.jpg

Yellow3006.jpg

 

I found this particular plane to be interesting for a few reasons. First off, it was assigned to a fighter squadron (JG 51) and has "non-standard" numerical markings, as opposed to the usual letter codes found on most Schlacht Geschwader aircraft. Second, it has some winter camouflage (which I liked), but it's not completely white. So, some of it's factory paint is still identifiable and it's not a subject that I've seen anybody model before.

 

The last thing that really intrigues me about this particular airframe, is it's service record. From what I can gather, I believe it was built in the very last days of 1942. The photos above were reportedly taken in the spring of 1943. Records indicate that it was eventually given to the Romanian 8th Assault Group in the early autumn of 1943. It sustained 30% damage from AA fire on 4 October of that year and, according to the Squadron book (which I can't verify anywhere else), it was recaptured by the Germans on 24 August, 1944, one day after Romania ousted it's pro-Axis regime and switched sides. Now, considering the conditions and odds that these planes flew against, not to mention the dangerous work they did and their so called (but probably not deserved title of) "inferiority", that's an incredible record for a single airframe!

 

 

John

 

(The first three images are from the Military Aircraft In Detail's Henschel Hs 129, by Denes Bernard. The Last two images are from Classic Publications' Hs 129 Panzerjager!, by Martin Pegg. Fair use policy applies)

Ah yes,now I remember that gun. It's been a long time since I made that kit and did all of the research. Amazing how fast the facts slip away when you move to different subjects.

J

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Do not wrong at all. Just this guy, a little stopped the project yet.

http://forum.fhms-gr.com/index.php?topic=9.0

 

Florin

 

Florin,

 

Thanks for that link. I was not aware of that build, either. However, I'm very familiar with your B-2 and must tell you that I found it inspirational and have viewed the pictures of it many, many times!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

John

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Dear John,

 

Just found this thread, can not believe I all most missed this one.

 

What a COOL BUILD! Cannot wait to see this build come to life.

 

Hs129, Hs123 along with the Ju87 D are my favorite planes, love close support / tank buster aircraft.

 

From what I understand the cannon will be a total scratch build. Look forward to seeing that.

 

Regards,

 

Christian

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Thanks for your support, Christian!

 

Yes, the cannon will be mostly from scratch. However, I'm only doing the assembly so far as it sticks out from the cover/gondola/pan, or whatever you want to call it. That, in itself, should be enough to keep me busy. I'm itching to get back to this one, but trying to finish up another, two plane project, first. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks!

 

John

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  • 1 year later...

Well, I was tempted to just start another thread for this build, as I'm almost too embarrassed to look back at the first posts and see that over year has passed with pretty much nothing being done. On the positive side, however, I've completed some other projects that have taught me a few things which will come in handy for this build, later on. Also, I've been holding off for a bit, to see how Jeroen's build was going. It has been great and allowed me to pick up a couple more pointers, as well. However, being that Jeroen is going to stick with the "Yellow 3" scheme, I've decided to go with a different one. I'm 99% sure that I know what it will be (It's something not included in the kit's decals and I'll reveal it later on, once I'm 100% certain).

 

I got to work on the cockpit and it's ready for paint. Actually, the first coat of paint is drying right now. But, here's basically what it looks like, so far:

 

HenschelHs129B-2005.jpg

HenschelHs129B-2006.jpg

 

Assembly went pretty smoothly. I have to hand to to Jerry on this one, as the parts almost snap into place at some points. Not something you would expect from a handmade resin kit. Excellent work on his part!

 

I'll post more as the work progresses.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

John

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I've made a little more progress.

 

The cockpit is pretty much done. I had to make a few modifications to get things to fit right. The floor/tub needed a bit taken off the sides, as well as the fuselage sides. The most notable change was to the armor plate behind the pilot's seat. The slots where the seatbelts go through sit too low to go over the top of the seat like they're supposed to. The "shoulders" of the armor plate also sat too low. Also, the attachment points for the seatbelts and the armor support cables, on the rear bulkhead, don't line up as they should (they sit too low). So, I raised the entire plate by adding a spacer at the bottom. However, this brought the very top of the plate too high for the canopy to clear, so I had to take that down a bit. Everything looks better, now.

 

Being that the seatbelts and cables need to attach to the rear bulkhead, I struggled with whether or not I should attach the bulkhead to the fuselage first, or try to attach the belts/cables first, then try to fit everything in at the same time. I came to the conclusion that it would be easier to get the correct tension on them by putting the bulkhead in, first.

 

Here's a couple quick pics. I still need to add the "glass" with Future, to the instrument faces. The support cables for the armor plate are made with E-Z Line and will be stretched into place once the tub is glued into position and the belts are attached. The belts were made with masking tape and the PE buckles/fasteners provided in the kit. The buckles on the shoulder straps are made from wire. The spring that will run between the two armor support cables was made with stretched sprue that I wrapped tightly around a hypodermic needle, then slid it off.

 

HenschelHs129B-2007.jpg

 

HenschelHs129B-2008.jpg

 

I'm almost ready to install the cockpit into the fuselage and button everything up.

 

Happy Modeling,

 

John

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Well done! Glad to see you're back on this. I just received my B-3 from Grey Matter a week ago and can't wait to get cracking on this.

 

The attachment points for the cable on the seat-back are soooo small. Congrats on not breaking them.

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