Henschel Hs 129B-2 by Landlubber Mike - Hobby 2000 - 1/48 - PLASTIC

[Landlubber Mike]

For the "Sandbox" group build on the LSM sister site, I'll be building (and hopefully finishing) the Hobby 2000 Hs 129B-2.  I've got probably every piece of aftermarket for this kit so I'm planning on showing this bird fully opened up.  I hadn't heard of Omask before, but when researching, I found they offered a lot of great AM for this kit, including a 3D printed Mk 101 cannon (which I couldn't find elsewhere in this scale) and stencil masks for the two color schemes offered in the kit.  

 

I'm planning on building the one on the cover:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also managed to find some scale camels to add to the diorama.  Should be a fun ride!

[Landlubber Mike]

When I was researching this a few weeks ago when the GB topic was being considered, I think I found a picture of the particular plane I will be modeling:

 

 

The caption for the photo I believe said something to the effect of US soldiers inspecting a captured Hs 129 in Tunisia in May 1943.

[king derelict]

This should be a spectacular build.im looking forward to it.

alan

[Egilman]

Kool pic, nice shot as well... But I was wondering, how you gonna model that flat tire? {chuckle}

 

I'm down for this one brother....

[Landlubber Mike]

6 hours ago, king derelict said:

This should be a spectacular build.im looking forward to it.

alan

Thanks Alan!  Hoping it goes well!

 

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

Kool pic, nice shot as well... But I was wondering, how you gonna model that flat tire? {chuckle}

 

I'm down for this one brother....

Thanks EG!  It would have been fun to try and model that scene - flat tire and all - but I have a lot of aftermarket to open the plane up so I probably will just model it undergoing maintenance or something.

 

There are some other cool pics out there of US and UK soldiers coming across fields of wrecked Hs 129s in Tunisia.  That would be another fun diorama to try out.

[davec]

Mike - I'm looking forward to watching, especially seeing how you integrate all that aftermarket. I always learn a lot. Dave

[Canute]

Mike, I'm in for this build. Very interested in your integrating this mass of detail parts.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Dave and Ken!  Thankfully, a lot of the AM is plug and play, minus some cutting out of panels, etc. in the fuselage and wings.  So, it hopefully shouldn't be that bad.  There's definitely some duplication amongst the AM sets, so I'll just pick whatever looks best.

[Dave_E]

I’m in! 🥤🍿👍😊

[Landlubber Mike]

Glad to have you Dave!

[Landlubber Mike]

Last night, I started work on the cockpit.  The CMK set has a nice replacement tub that includes the fuel tank behind the pilot's seat.  To display the fuel tank, you need to cut off the part of the fuselage that covered it, which you can see in the top fuselage half below:

 

 

Next up was trying to fit the CMK tub.  It was a bit too big for the fuselage halves to close properly, but after sanding back some of the interior of the fuselage and portions of the tub that will not be visible, it fit nicely:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited September 6 by Landlubber Mike

[ccoyle]

The problem with viewing other people's build logs is that it often kindles a strong desire to build a similarly-themed model. In this case, I'm thinking about all the desert camo kits I have in my stash, both Axis and Allied. I'm very close to finishing my current project, ya know. 😬

[Landlubber Mike]

11 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

The problem with viewing other people's build logs is that it often kindles a strong desire to build a similarly-themed model. In this case, I'm thinking about all the desert camo kits I have in my stash, both Axis and Allied. I'm very close to finishing my current project, ya know. 😬

Glad to get your interests piqued!  Would love to see your desert camo work!

 

In other news, after some prodding by the folks on LSM, I've decided to do a second diorama of the desert Hs 129B-2.  First will be the one I'm currently working on, with all the aftermarket, things opened up, etc.  Second will  be a recreation of this scene below of a Hs 129 B-2 "Blue C":

 

 

I already have an Opel Blitz truck in the stash, and building this Hs 129 will be fairly quick as I won't need much aftermarket, particularly since the nose, cockpit, and nacelles are covered by tarps, and I won't need to include the wings.  A couple of hours ago I managed to pick up an older Hasegawa B-1 kit off eBay for a really good deal.  The B-1 and B-2 were very similar, and essentially the two kits are the same minus different nacelles (which will be covered up by the tarps).  Along with the great price, the B-1 kit has a decal for an "O" which I can use as a template to create a mask for the Blue C.  The camo is a little easier to recreate, so I can practice on this second one before the the more complicated first one.

[Haliburton]

You’re off to another great start Mike - looking forward to watching your progress and the diorama piece will be very interesting too.  Scott

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Scott, really appreciate it!

[Lt. Biggles]

On 9/5/2024 at 12:59 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Last night, I started work on the cockpit.  The CMK set has a nice replacement tub that includes the fuel tank behind the pilot's seat.  To display the fuel tank, you need to cut off the part of the fuselage that covered it, which you can see in the top fuselage half below:

 

 

Next up was trying to fit the CMK tub.  It was a bit too big for the fuselage halves to close properly, but after sanding back some of the interior of the fuselage and portions of the tub that will not be visible, it fit nicely:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

Looks like an interesting build! Flying a normal plane the fuel is a big enough hazard… can’t imagine flying knowing that fuel tank was right behind me while in a combat environment! 

[Landlubber Mike]

7 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Looks like an interesting build! Flying a normal plane the fuel is a big enough hazard… can’t imagine flying knowing that fuel tank was right behind me while in a combat environment! 

Yeah, not sure how common that was/is.  I haven't fully gone through the cockpit area, but it looks like there is what could be a metal armor plate between the seat and fuel tank to maybe offer a little protection.  I think this plane also had fuel tanks built into the wings, as one of the CMK detail sets allows you to model those.

[Landlubber Mike]

I managed to find a 2000 boxing on eBay for a really good deal, so I will do two dioramas (especially since I already have an Opel Blitz kit I can use for the tow vehicle).  It's for a B-1, but really the only difference is the intakes on the nacelles so I can easily convert it.  Another good thing is that this kit has an "O" decal, which I can use as a template to create a mask the Blue "C" for the subject I'm doing.

 

 

 

I've spent the last few days working on the various CMK sets, cutting them from their plugs, cutting open the fuselage and wings, etc.  Here you can see what was cut from the first kit versus what the original parts look like from the second kit.  Given that the second diorama will be covered in tarps and partially disassembled, I probably won't use much aftermarket at all on it.

 

 

 

 

 

If you're building this with the various CMK sets, the wing/undercarriage details need to be modified to fit everything in the wings.  You have to really shave back the undercarriage tubs to be able to fit the wing fuel tanks from the CMK exterior set.  I also had to cut an opening into the fuselage to fit the ammo magazine from the armament set.

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

[Landlubber Mike]

Some progress on the two Hs 129s.  The first one with all the aftermarket has taken quite a bit of time to get the detail pieces installed.  The CMK sets individually fit quite well, but there is quite a bit of work to make them all fit together.

 

Here is the CMK cockpit set - I still need to add wires between the seat armor plate and the firewall for the fuel tank.  I also have to finish up painting the seat belts:

 

 

 

Here it is installed with the fuselage halves closed.  Took quite a bit of time test fitting to get the fuselage halves to close properly, but eventually I got there:

 

 

 

Left side of the fuselage showing the MG 151 (from Aires set) and FuG 7 radio (from CMK armament set):

 

 

 

Right fuselage with open luggage compartment (from CMK armament set):

 

 

 

I also closed up the fuselage on the second Hs 129.  Because the cockpit was covered in a tarp in the picture I'm reproducing, I didn't do much in the cockpit aside from adding the cockpit tub.  The fit on the kit is incredible - the two fuselage halves and the tub snapped together perfectly!  The only other change I made was to (1) cut off the rudder, since I have a one-piece rudder in the Verlinden set, and (2) close up the insertion points for the horizontal stabilizers/elevators, since those were left off the Hs 129 as it was being towed.  Can't really see it well in the picture, but I inserted a piece of plastic strip, with three holes drilled out as seen in some of the pictures of wrecked Hs 129s.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

[Javlin]

Looking Nice there Mike as others have said a small copit did we say small yet!!

[Landlubber Mike]

19 hours ago, Javlin said:

Looking Nice there Mike as others have said a small copit did we say small yet!!

Thanks Kevin!  Yeah, the cockpit is tiny as you can see from this picture:

 

 

In fact, it's so small, a number of the instrument gauges had to be located outside of the cockpit and onto the engine gondolas:

[AJohnson]

I’m getting claustrophobic just looking at those pictures! 😱 😆

[Landlubber Mike]

2 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

I’m getting claustrophobic just looking at those pictures! 😱 😆

Yeah, and the pilot was sitting a couple of feet away from the fuel tank 😳

[Landlubber Mike]

Quick update - I've spent quite a bit of time this week working on the wings for the two 129s.  

 

The first one (opened up) was a bit tricky in trying to get the CMK undercarriage set to fit, along with the open panel for the first aid kit in the upper left wing and magazine in the lower left wing from the armament set.  I found the undercarriage set not only needed a lot of shaving back along the sides to get the various aftermarket pieces to fit, but I also needed to thin them as they seemed to be a bit too tall and were bulging the wings a bit too much.  Given that the undercarriage won't really be seen, if I had to do it again, I wouldn't bother buying/adding that set (which I didn't for the second 129).  

 

After a lot of grinding and test fitting, everything looks pretty good.  Very minimal filler needed along the wing roots and nose pieces.  This kit really fits together like a glove!  A nice change of pace from my last few models that required a lot of work to get the fuselage, etc. to fit and close up big gaps.

 

 

 

 

 

Next I worked on the wings for the second 129 (towed diorama).  I removed half the wings as per the pictures.  The trickiest part was creating the inserts at the ends of the wing stubs, but I think I managed to get a close representation of what those wing ends look like.  Like the first 129, the fit of the wings and nose pieces to the fuselage was amazing and required minimal filler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I figured I'd putty some of the seam lines at this point as well as the hollowed out tails to which I'll attach the aftermarket rudders.  While the putty cures (I used Tamiya's 2-part epoxy putty which I really like), I can start working on the engines and nacelles.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

I feel like I've been steadily working on the models but have little to show for it.  I did manage to add additional panel lines and rivet the two models.  I need to touch things up in a few places with primer, but the rivets look pretty cool.  We will see how much of them shows up after painting and weathering.

 

 

 

I also managed to build up the two Vector engines, though still need to add control rods.  I'll post pics when they are done, but they are looking very nice as per usual from Vector.  I have a couple of Opel Blitz trucks that are resin - took me hours to separate and clean up the parts, and now I can finally start building them.  I'm hoping they look ok when done, as I'd rather not have to go out and buy a Tamiya Opel Blitz kit.  

 

Other than that, I'm working on landing gear bays at the moment.  There's really not too much more I need to do build wise on these, with the exception of the open engines and needing to figure out how to make the Vector engines work with the Verlinden set and the Hasegawa kit.

 

Thanks for looking in!

[davec]

The rivets do look really cool.

[Javlin]

They are looking good from here Mike kinda hard to see the rivets but once the paint happens should be good to go,

[Landlubber Mike]

Quick update on where I am with the two Hs 129 builds.  I've been slowly working through the various details pieces like the engines, guns, landing gear, props, etc.  Everything on this Hasegawa/Hobby 2000 kit is going together really nicely.  If I wasn't adding in all the various aftermarket, I'd probably be long done now.

 

For my first diorama of the Hs 129 being serviced, I wanted to show at least one engine exposed.  The Verlinden set has only one engine in it, which made me think it would look a bit odd to have the two engines look different from one another.  I ended up finding two engines from Vector which are really nice.  Here they are next to the kit engine - I just need to add the rods, but you can see how much detail Vector includes which should make for a nice exposed engine.

 

 

Next post will be on the bottom cannon.

[Landlubber Mike]

While trying to figure out the landing gear bays, I also decided to take a look at the ventral cannon pod.  The Hs 129 had a number of weapons configurations as you can see below:

 

 

 

The plane I'm modeling had a Mk 101 30mm cannon - if you're looking at the picture above, it's the second from the top of the four weapons on the left side.  Here's a cutaway diagram of it installed:

 

 

 

 

The rack holding the cannon was on hinges, where the rack/gun swung down for service (and I think to reload).  Here is a picture:

 

 

 

Here is a picture of mechanic working on a Mk 103 cannon (different cannon from mine, but same principle):

 

 

 

When I saw these pictures, I thought to myself - how cool would it be to model that?  Seemed a little complicated to scratch build so I focused on finding an aftermarket Mk 101 cannon to improve on the kit part.  Essentially, was just looking for a brass barrel given the gun itself was mostly hidden in the pod.  Well nobody seems to make a brass Mk 101 barrel.  I did randomly stumble upon a printed cannon by Omask specially designed for this kit.  Figured it looked pretty cool and would be more detailed than the old kit cannon.  

 

 

When I opened the Omask set, I was really surprised to see that Omask gave your parts to actually build build an opened up Mk 101 cannon like in the pictures above!  

 

 

 

 

As an aside, the print quality on this set is fantastic.  I am very impressed with what you get.  As you can see in the instruction sheet above in the top right corner, you can show the cannon pod closed, or in one of two open configurations (one with the pod shell off and one with it on).  I'll probably model mine with the pod shell off to show the full gun detail.

I was initially super excited after cutting the parts out, but then realized to make it all work, I needed to cut out an opening for the gun bay tub.  This, not only after I had already closed up the fuselage, but had already inserted the CMK interior tub and the Aires MG 151 fuselage gun set.  I was really worried with how deep the tub was, as it would definitely bump into both the CMK tub and the Aires gun set.  

 

Warning - graphic photos follow:

 

After sleeping on it, I decided to go for it.  I used a cut off wheel and a hobby knife to cut through the bottom fuselage plastic.  The gun bay tub sat directly under the fuel tank that is part of the interior tub from the CMK set.  With a grinding bit in my micromotor, I had to grind out the bottom half of the fuel tank, as well as a small portion of the corner of the Aires gun set.  Everything just barely fit, with probably not even 1mm to spare - whew!  

 

 

 

 

 

Just need a little filler around the edges and it's good to go.  To make sure the tub sat properly, I put in some blobs of Tamiya two-part epoxy putty, and pushed the tub into it.  That seemed the easiest and most effective way to secure it in place in the right position.

 

That's enough excitement for today.  If I smoked, I'd probably need a cigarette right now.  Just glad it all worked out!

Edited December 6 by Landlubber Mike

[king derelict]

That’s terrific work Mike. I’d be scared to get rough with the model having done so much. It came out really well and displaying the gun in maintenance is going to look spectacular.

Alan