Tamiya 1/72 Henschel HS 129

[builder2000]

 My latest build

 

The Tamiya 1/72 Henschel HS 129 B2. This is a rebox of an Italeri Kit. This is also painted with Tamiya Acrylics, which I used for the first time on the main body. The result is not my best work, in any case here it is.

 

I have done a full video build, which took longer than the kit to make so I hope you guys enjoy it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DonW]

Nicely done. Despite it looking the part, especially with that big cannon slung underneath,  I knew this type of plane had not been a great success operationally and you model inspired me to look on Wikipedia - now I begin to understand why:

The Hs 129 was designed around a single large "bathtub" of steel sheeting that made up the entire nose area of the plane, completely enclosing the pilot up to head level. Even the canopy was steel, with only tiny windows on the side to see out of and two angled blocks of glass for the windscreen. In order to improve the armor's ability to deflect bullets, the fuselage sides were angled in forming a triangular shape, resulting in almost no room to move at shoulder level. There was so little room in the cockpit that the instrument panel ended up under the nose below the windscreen where it was almost invisible; some of the engine instruments were moved outside onto the engine nacelles' inboard-facing surfaces and the gunsight was mounted outside on the nose.

Henschel's plane came in 12 percent overweight with the engines 8 percent underpowered, and understandably, it flew poorly. The controls proved to be almost inoperable as speed increased, and in testing, the V2 prototype flew into the ground from a short dive on 5 January 1940^[1] because the stick forces were too high for the pilot to pull out. The Focke-Wulf design proved to be no better. Both planes were underpowered with their air-cooled, inverted-V12 Argus As 410 engines, and very difficult to fly.

What's not to like, for a pilot?!

The screen was  75 mm (2.95 in) thick armoured glass!. 

[Snake45]

Very cool, very nice build! 

I have the ancient Lindberg kit of this airplane and I've had it forever. It's not bad at all considering its age. I hope to build it "someday," just to say I did. I think I also have a 1/48 (ESCI?) kit of this airplane. 

[Scalper]

Looks great 

[Mike999]

3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Very cool, very nice build! 

I have the ancient Lindberg kit of this airplane and I've had it forever. It's not bad at all considering its age. I hope to build it "someday," just to say I did. I think I also have a 1/48 (ESCI?) kit of this airplane. 

ESCI or Hasegawa.  Revell re-issued the 1/48 Hasegawa kit in its own box but I've never seen one in the plastic.  Aircraft fans say it's much nicer than the ESCI (also released in an AMT box).  But it should be, the ESCI kit is about 20 years older.  I think the ESCI version has optional weapons, including the great big 75mm cannon that stuck out past the front of the fuselage.  IIRC, when that one was installed, the other guns were removed and their openings faired over.  Some fans also say the ESCI kit is a quick, fun build that only needs a little putty.

ESCI was a real mixed bag with aircraft kits.  Their 1/72 scale F-100 was a little jewel, their 1/48 F-100 was a barking dog. 

[builder2000]

10 hours ago, DonW said:

Nicely done. Despite it looking the part, especially with that big cannon slung underneath,  I knew this type of plane had not been a great success operationally and you model inspired me to look on Wikipedia - now I begin to understand why:

The Hs 129 was designed around a single large "bathtub" of steel sheeting that made up the entire nose area of the plane, completely enclosing the pilot up to head level. Even the canopy was steel, with only tiny windows on the side to see out of and two angled blocks of glass for the windscreen. In order to improve the armor's ability to deflect bullets, the fuselage sides were angled in forming a triangular shape, resulting in almost no room to move at shoulder level. There was so little room in the cockpit that the instrument panel ended up under the nose below the windscreen where it was almost invisible; some of the engine instruments were moved outside onto the engine nacelles' inboard-facing surfaces and the gunsight was mounted outside on the nose.

Henschel's plane came in 12 percent overweight with the engines 8 percent underpowered, and understandably, it flew poorly. The controls proved to be almost inoperable as speed increased, and in testing, the V2 prototype flew into the ground from a short dive on 5 January 1940^[1] because the stick forces were too high for the pilot to pull out. The Focke-Wulf design proved to be no better. Both planes were underpowered with their air-cooled, inverted-V12 Argus As 410 engines, and very difficult to fly.

What's not to like, for a pilot?!

The screen was  75 mm (2.95 in) thick armoured glass!. 

 

4 minutes ago, Mike999 said:

ESCI or Hasegawa.  Revell re-issued the 1/48 Hasegawa kit in its own box but I've never seen one in the plastic.  Aircraft fans say it's much nicer than the ESCI (also released in an AMT box).  But it should be, the ESCI kit is about 20 years older.  I think the ESCI version has optional weapons, including the great big 75mm cannon that stuck out past the front of the fuselage.  IIRC, when that one was installed, the other guns were removed and their openings faired over.  Some fans also say the ESCI kit is a quick, fun build that only needs a little putty.

ESCI was a real mixed bag with aircraft kits.  Their 1/72 scale F-100 was a little jewel, their 1/48 F-100 was a barking dog. 

 

3 hours ago, Scalper said:

Looks great 

 

3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Very cool, very nice build! 

I have the ancient Lindberg kit of this airplane and I've had it forever. It's not bad at all considering its age. I hope to build it "someday," just to say I did. I think I also have a 1/48 (ESCI?) kit of this airplane. 

Thanks for the comments guys. Really appreciate it.

Also Don thanks for the history of the aircraft, I didnt know any of that. 

And thanks Mike for info kn different versions of the kit. 

[slusher]

Very very nice!

[builder2000]

On 5/20/2020 at 12:44 AM, slusher said:

Very very nice!

Thanks slusher mate.