Jump to content

Recommended Posts

This is my entry for the Eric Brown GB: Alley Cat's Henschel HS-123A-1. The HS-123 is included in the Wikipedia's list of airframes flown by Eric Brown. Since the HS-123 was considered an obsolete design already in 1939 (production ran from 1936 to 1937), the two other subtypes HS-123B and HS-123C never made it beyond the single prototype stage (and probably did not survive the war) and so I will assume that the HS-123 flown by Eric Brown was an A.

 

This is an all resin kit without any photoetch. No seat belt is provided in the kit so I will add an HPH Bf-109 belt, otherwise it will be built OOB. I may go with the kit decals or paint the markings, either way it will be painted as bird fighting on the Eastern front.

 

Here are the box shots:

Box%20shot_zpsi05u1jee.jpgstarting%20point_zpspcsxmyxs.jpg

Cheers,

 

David

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That looks cool. I'm not sure where he would have flown one as I don't think any were captured. Unless he flew one pre war in Spain or Germany. He was friends with Hanna Reitsch so he may have been able to get a fly in one. It'd be nice to see his log books.

Edited by BradG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It'd be nice to see his log books.

I think they are documents of national interest so surely there must be plans afoot to make them available in some form or place for all to see?

 

Max

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kev,

 

I will check tomorrow when I am back at home, but AFAIK this kit is a recast of the Montex kit. From what I could gather on the web, the only difference with the Montex kit is that Alley Cat has included decals where the initial Montex kit had only masks. Cheers, David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kev,

 

There is no date on the box or on the instructions, there is however a Copyright 2012 on the color profile and decaling instructions contained in the box.

 

I received today this book to use as reference:

HS-123book3_zpsdrfe2mqq.jpg

I only glanced through it so far but it looks like a great reference with lots of period pictures I had never seen, color profiles and caption from the operating manual:

HS123book_zps1uwg9iv4.jpg

HS123book2_zpsag3qzwda.jpg

 

I gave the kit parts a soapy water bath and once all is dry I will get going.

 

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kev,

 

There is no date on the box or on the instructions, there is however a Copyright 2012 on the color profile and decaling instructions contained in the box.

Thanks, David. 2012 it is!

 

Kev

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And so it starts. Since this is my first full resin kit, I am approaching it with caution, even though reviews I had found at the time before purchasing the kit were excellent. A lot of time has been spent cleaning the parts and cutting them from their pouring block. For the smaller parts (and there are a lot of them), I used the RB production set of mini saws and they are working extremely well but you need to take your time, not applying too much pressure and let the tool do the work. Most of the cockpit parts have now been cleaned, primed with Mr. Resin surfacer, given a coat of RLM2 (Gunze) and then a shot of clear. No pictures yet but that will come soon. I actually spent a good part of the week building the engine which is very nicely cast with separate cylinders. The only problem I had was with the pushrods, which seem too short to fit but maybe it was be not cleaning the cylinders properly. I ended up replacing the pushrods with 0.5mm brass rods and resin nuts from Meng. I also added the wires (using lead wire), which will be hardly seen once the engine cowl is in place. I thought about leaving one cowl panel open, but that would have meant scratchbuilding the engine frame and a lot of details behind the cylinders, so I will close all cowl panels. Here are two pictures of the engine. I need to give it a coat of flat but otherwise it is done until I install the cowl panels and then I can glue the exhausts and some more wires.

Engine2_zpse61h2i2c.jpg

engine1_zps1nmk4fhl.jpg

Till next time, thank you for watching.

 

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Carl, Maru, Hakan,

 

Thank you for your kind words. The engine has been painted with Alclad Gloss black and then various shades of Alclad: steel for the center and aluminum, hot metal red and hot metal sepia for the cylinders, then a coat of Alclad aqua gloss and finally Flory black wash. Pushrods are painted with Valejo black.

 

I made some progress on the cockpit:

Rudder and mg17 ammunition box:

cockpit3_zpstpmrxi0g.jpg

Sidewall, right now the wires are left loose and willbe threaded into the bulkead when I install them:

cockpit2_zpsqyb600rq.jpg

The seat mounted on the bulkhead with HGW luftwaffe seatbelt. I still need to give the belts a Klear cote, a Brown wash and then a coat of matt varnish.

These HGW seatbelts are growing on me: with an optivisor and two fine tweezers, there are actually pretty easy to assemble and it looks much better than photoetch.

seat_zpschfgjcs3.jpg

And the seat dryfitted into the fuselage, the fit is actually very good:

Cockpit_zpslyxkstq7.jpg

Cockpit has been painted RLM2, then a Klear coat then a brown enamel wash to get the details and a bit a aluminum dry brushing around the seat and the rudder pedals.

 

I hope you like it. Till next time.

 

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...