Peter O

That came out great, Andy! I'm looking forward to the cheesecake shots. My kit has been whistling and beckoning from the stash . But first I have to figure out where to put it when it's done! Peter

Glad to hear that it's off the SoD! The weathering looks great, and the overall loss of starkness looks the part to me. The Romanian aircraft got very grubby, very fast, especially in the winter and spring. Peter

Looks super, Andy! I'll bet that was a fun change from the usual tedious masking and spraying Peter

Looks spot on so far . Judging from the weather conditions in many of the photos in the Romanian Hs 129 book, you'll probably want to add some dirt and mud too. I would imagine the temporary white paint got pretty worn and grungy in a hurry. Peter

Looks great! Peter

Thanks, Tom! Peter

Yup, I can see it either solid or splintered, depending on the photo and my inclination at the time . An RLM 70/71 splinter is quite low contrast in any case. I've not seen a photo where I could tell that former Luftwaffe markings were painted out and replaced with Michael's Crosses, so it may very well be that the entire topsides were repainted. Peter

Apparently there's some uncertainty about that. Radu's decal notes say that the Germans had delivered other aircraft to Romania in solid upper colors rather than splinter patterns, and that photos of Romanian Hs 129s appear to show a solid color. He says it could be either RLM 70 or 71. Of course, if you do the white distemper scheme, what's underneath will not be very noticeable anyway! Sorry to be dense, but who is Pastor John? Peter

Looks great, Andy! Your build will be a great help when I start mine. The more I see of your build, the farther up the pile my kit floats. Radu's decal instructions say that the white distemper was painted with a 20cm distemper brush, which scales out to 1/4" in 1/32. I've never heard of a "distemper brush" before, but having been a USAF aircraft maintainer, I can picture some poor private being reamed out by an NCO for using the wrong kind of brush to paint the distemper Peter

You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! Peter

Radu has the 1/32 Romanian decals up on his site. Romanian Hs 129 decals I've already placed my order Peter

Looks great, Andy. I can't wait to see some color on it. Peter

Excellent! I'll be watching for them. Peter

Radu, are you going to make Romanian decals for this? Peter

That's a great looking cockpit, Andy . Good point about the shoulder belts. I've got a set of Radu's Luftwaffe seatbelts, so I'll have to see if they'll reach. My '129 arrived for Christmas, so I'll be paying close attention to your excellent build. I'm also considering building mine with the seatback tilted back against the rear bulkhead, as it would be before the pilot got in. It'll look a bit different than all the rest, as well as showing off the cockpit detail better. Like you, I'll be building a Romanian version. My maternal grandparents emigrated from the Transylvania region of Romania to the USA. Get to work, Radu, we need those Romanian markings Peter