Henschel Hs-129B-2/RIII - Finished

[Dpgsbody55]

My next project will be Zoukei Mura's Henschel Hs-129, which will be my first Z-M kit.

 

 

I also have a little of Z-M's aftermarket, to enhance the cockpit a bit more.

 

 

I've done nothing so far on it, except study the instructions, open the box and scratch my head a bit.  The box contains a heap of parts, molded in a delightful shade of babypoo, but the parts at least look well molded.  It will be interesting to see how it all fits together.

 

 

Perhaps the colour of the plastic may help as I'll be building this pretty much O O B, except for the etch parts shown above.  At this moment, I'm also not planning any enhancement of the engine detail, such as spark plug leads, as I haven't a clue about this.  The engines and propellers were French and not built in large numbers by the scale of WW2, so right now, I'm still doing a bit of research to see what I can add, if anything.

 

More in a while.  I'm looking forward to see what others will bring to this GB too.  I'm hoping to see a bit of variety here.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[artoor_k]

My mind still sees it as a What If Reno Racer There is something cool about nose and canopy shape of this airplane.

[monthebiff]

Nice project, did a build log of one of these when it first came out. Fit is very, very good indeed with the only tricky bit being the cockpit tub and nose panels to fuselage.

 

Regards. Andy 

[Out2gtcha]

Nice project!  Ive wanted the B3 version of the Hs-129 for some time now. This will be a good one to watch come together! 

[Dpgsbody55]

18 hours ago, artoor_k said:

My mind still sees it as a What If Reno Racer There is something cool about nose and canopy shape of this airplane.

 

The shape of the fuselage was largely determined by the desire to protect the pilot and engines.  The forward fuselage was made of plate steel and angled inwards to help bullets glance off the surface.  Not at all sure I'd want to race one of these as they were slow, with only 700hp engines of uncertain reliability.

 

17 hours ago, monthebiff said:

Nice project, did a build log of one of these when it first came out. Fit is very, very good indeed with the only tricky bit being the cockpit tub and nose panels to fuselage.

 

Regards. Andy 

 

Thanks for the tip.  I'll have a look for your build as I'm still scratching my head as to where's the best place to start.

 

13 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Nice project!  Ive wanted the B3 version of the Hs-129 for some time now. This will be a good one to watch come together! 

 

From a modelling perspective, the B3 may be more interesting with the 75mm gun, but apparently it was an even worse plane to fly than the B2.  And the B2 wasn't brilliant in that regard either.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Out2gtcha]

Nope, poor engines and power to weight ratio really made it into a poor performer for the Germans.

 

The Romainians really made a winner out of it!

[Dave Williams]

The Argus powered A series must have been even worse.

[Dpgsbody55]

On 6/4/2021 at 1:47 AM, Dave Williams said:

The Argus powered A series must have been even worse.

 

It was appalling, truth be told.  Seriously underpowered, which makes such a twin engine plane extremely dangerous.  Usually in such cases, that second engine just gets you to the scene of the crash a bit sooner.  But the plane had it's problems, mostly with the reliabilility of the Gnome-Rhone engines, which had a poor serviceability record and were prone to seizing up with no warning.  It was also very sluggish in it's handling with high stick forces needed to make any kind of manoeuver.  However, when it flew, and the Luftwaffe could get the numbers needed, it was an effective weapon.

 

As to my model, I finally have something to report.  I have one engine built, and the other ready to be assembled.  Here's the bits of the second engine, all painted up.  This has been a very fiddly affair, but it's straight out of the box.  I decided not to do any further enhancement but because of the complexity of adding details such as spark plug leads, as from what I can tell the cowlings are not removable, so all you'd see are a few plug leads that disappear around the back of the engine, which is where the ignition system is located.

 

 

The push rods assembled and painted.  Looks a bit like a hedgehog.

 

 

This is the engine going together.  Reduction gear, cylinders and supercharger together.

 

 

Here's the other engine, all complete.  The sprues have an engine support stand built into them, so I've broken them out and built them up quickly.

 

 

 

The grey (RLM02) is the engine mount.  The black ring is the ignition ring, and you can see the magnetos connected to it.  Any plug leads you care to add would have to come through the black cooling tins on the tops of each cylinder, away from the exhaust, then through the engine mount and go into that black ring.  And the engine cowlings, I think, are not removable, so it's probably not worth the effort.  Here's some more pictures.

 

 

 

 

I've also made a small start on the fuselage, putting the fuel tank bay together.  The cockpit also attaches to this part.

 

 

I used the fuselage halves to help with alignment while the parts dried, which is critical as the wings are joined on here, as is the gun pack underneath the plane.  What I have found is that the fuselage halved don't want to stay together unless the interior ribs are in place, as there's no locating pins in each half; just small tabs to help.  So my next job, will be to build up the fuselage.  I probably won't paint the insides much, only where there's a possibility of the interior being seen.  I'll also put the other engine together this weekend.  All the hard work has been done on that .

 

That's all for now.  Hopefully more soon.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Dpgsbody55

[MikeMaben]

[Panzerwomble]

Great start ! 

[Neo]

oh i love this plane

[Rick Griewski]

I love the engine.  

[Dpgsbody55]

Update time again, and I now have both engines finished ready to install, and the fuselage finished.  However, in this kit, that fuselage doesn't yet include the cockpit, as everything forward of the wing is separate to the rest of the fuselage.

 

Looking at my last update, it occurs that I didn't take enough photos of the engine in construction.  Pictures posted of the front, but not the back so here's a few shots of the second engine being built.  I built up the two rows of cylinders then put the supercharger halves together and attached the engine mount ring to that, then attached the two assemblies together.  The instructions say to put the intake pipes on first, but gluing that mount ring is easier this way, I think.  This is the back of the engine with the supercharger and engine mount ring attached. 

 

 

Then I attached the seven sets of intake pipes.  These are a very tight fit, but no adjustment was needed.  I put glue onto the supercharger, then placed the intakes against the relevant heads using the locating pins, then snapped the pipes into place on the supercharger.

 

 

Next the exhausts were added, which cover most of the detail above.  I also built up the carburettor and ignition system.  The magnetos I've painted RLM02, with aluminium/black plug wires cases to the ingnition ring.

 

 

This then goes onto the back of the supercharger.  After that the cowling attachment plates are added, painted RLM66 schwarzgrau and some tidying up done.  I built the stand for the other engine, as well as the rest of the engine mounts which were painted RLM02 grau.  These were left to dry using the engine bulkheads as an alignment tool.  This is both engines now complete.

 

 

The instructions now say to complete the cockpit, but I've left that for now.  The reason is that as it's a separate assembly, it will need to align very tightly with the fuselage and wing joint, or it will look like garbage.  So on with the fuselage.  This is fairly complex by modelling standards, as it has all the ribs as well as some fuselage innards.  The first part to go together was the fuel tank mount and central front and rear wing spar attachment points.

 

 

As this is critical, it was glued into one fuselage half then left to dry using both fuselage halves as an alignment tool.  As you can see, the model provides removable access panels, so I've built up the fuselage as per the instructions and I'll make a decision later as to what gets closed up and what doesn't. 

 

 

The fuel tank mount is natural metal, as is some of the fuselage innards.  The rest is RLM02, so it was all sprayed in Tamiya rattle can aluminium then masked off and the RLM020 sprayed where appropriate.  The ribs are essential to align both fuselage halves, but whether you paint them or not is a matter of personal preference.  The second last rib also contains the tail wheel strut.  There is a locker, radios and a master compass to go in if you so choose.  I chose.   Here's the fuselage halves now ready to go together, with the main fuel tank installed.

 

 

Together at last.

 

 

 

Next up, the tail cone and tail fin is added.  I've also added the tail planes.

 

 

The painted area on the outside of the fuselage will have guns added later, with the possibility of having the covers removable.  Lastly, I've slotted, but not glued, the wing innards in place so you can see exactly why alignment of the fuel tank/wing spar assembly is so important.  Also clipped in place is the beginnings of the cockpit area so you'll now have an idea of the size of this model and some idea of it's proportions.

 

 

The next stage is to go back to the cockpit and put that together.  Whether I attach it once finished or do more work on the wing/fuselage area will depend on how happy I am that the cockpit will align as needed.  So the cockpit will be the subject of my next update.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

Go Mike 

[Dpgsbody55]

I've now finished the cockpit and I have to say that after the Tamiya Corsair, it was reasonably easy.  But then again, the real thing was so cramped that half of it (all the engine instruments) were outside, so that has yet to be completed.  I have used a photo etch kit also from ZM, but not all of it, as you'll see.  Here's the floor built up which included the attachment to the fuselage.

 

 

Most of the innards of the model are RLM02, but the cockpit itself is the darker RLM66.  This picture shows the floor, seat and rudder pedals as a first step.  The lap belts have to go in now as the cockpit is so tight for space that they would b e very hard to fit after the side consoles go on.  These belts are in the ZM photo etch set and are some of the easiest I've ever worked with.  The shoulder belts will go on later.  The rudder pedals are also etch parts and they were a little fiddly as the heel supports are a tiny separate part, glued on with CA glue.  Both the seat and floor were given a dry brush of aluminium before the pedals and belts were attached.

 

Next, the right side console was attached.

 

 

All the detail was filed off the kit part and an etch part attached in place, then the levers added from the etch fret.  I used the same process on the left side, but the levers were more complex, and I thought the kit parts were better than the skinny etch bits and easier to glue than the etch parts, so the kit parts were used.  Here's that left console in place, together with the control stick.

 

 

The instrument panel was also built using the etch parts, so the kit part was filed flat and the etch instruments then the panel were glued together, and more kit parts used for the levers and handles that attach to the IP.  Once finished, I put a drop of Micro Kristal Klear on each instrument face to simulate the glass.  Here it is, still not quite dry.

 

 

And in place.  (Dry, now ).

 

 

The fuselage outer panels are attached at this point.  The cockpit sides were lined, and a in a previous build, it was suggested that the lining was leather.  I tried to replicate this by first painting a rough coat of Kristal Klear on the sides, then over painting this in a brown leather colour.  However, I thought the result was too dark in comparison to the pictures, so I repainted in an undyed leather colour.  Alas in these pictures it looks a bit more yellow that in reality, but here's each side with instruments and other details added.

 

Right side.

 

Left side.

 

I may have this a bit too light in shade, but decided to leave it as is.  The next step is to attach them to the cockpit interior very carefully.  Any misalignment here will show up later when the other outer panels are attached.  Once these were in place together with the cockpit front, I then added the pilots head armour panel.  Here's the final result.

 

 

 

 

 

Brackets have been added to the outer sides of the cockpit, which will be used to attach other parts to the model, such as the lower wing centre section.  The top of the forward fuselage will be added later, as will the remaining seat belts.  For that to happen , I need to attach this to the fuselage, and that will be my next step.  From here on, I'll be following the instructions more closely.  So far, I've completed the engines of stage 1, the fuselage of stage 3, and now the cockpit of stage 2.  That seemed more logical and perhaps safer for the delicate cockpit structure than a more linear approach.

 

This has been a very enjoyable build so far, and not that difficult either.  So that's it for now.  More soon, I hope.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited June 25, 2021 by Dpgsbody55