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

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Alan - yeah, I was a bit nervous as you can see how much I already had to file off the CMK interior tub to get it to fit properly with the other CMK sets and especially the Aires side gun insert.  The tub for the cannon likely extended to at least the bottom of the fuel tank, so I was worried that the CMK tub could break up, especially if the fuel tank was hollow.  Thankfully everything stayed together.

My guess is the parts from the various detail sets are pretty accurate when it comes to scale.  It's interesting to see how much stuff was crammed into the fuselage, almost like a puzzle getting it all to fit.

[Canute]

Gutsy move, Mike. Glad it all fit together. The Czechs are really good with their aftermarket aircraft parts. This is shaping up well.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Ken!  Yeah, CMK, Aires, Eduard etc. all help bring models up a few notches in detail.  Sometimes you have to adjust the parts to fit, but generally, I've been very excited to add them to a build.  

[Landlubber Mike]

Quick update on these models:

 

For the first diorama, I've gotten the plane and most of its parts primed.  The flaps gave me a little issue as I was planning to use the CMK flaps so cut them off the kit wings.  Well, as you can see in the picture below, the CMK flaps (upper right) are too short relative to the kit parts I cut off (bottom two on the right).  Thankfully I remembered I had the Verlinden set which had flaps that were the proper size (top left, relative to the kit parts I cut off immediately below it).

 

 

I finally got the pushrods added to the Vector engines.  A real pain, but I eventually figured out a way to get them installed - only 28 per engine!  But, the engines look pretty good now.  I had toyed with the idea of adding a small connector at the ends of each rod using minuscule pieces of brass tube, but I dropped that idea quickly as it was just going to be too difficult and take way too much time.

 

 

Here are pictures of the plane almost completely assembled, and later primed:

 

 

 

 

I also remembered that I had a Verlinden "Luftwaffe Airfield Carts" that is a multimedia set that allows you to build an oil cart (first two pictures below) and a power supply cart (second two pictures below).  Took much longer than one would think, but the two came out really nice I thought:

 

 

 

 

 

I'll probably use one of these in the diorama, as I found this picture:

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited December 29, 2024 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

 

The second plane has been a little easier.  I did realize that the cowling shapes differed between the B-1 which was my kit versus the B-2 which i am modeling.  It helped a lot having the Hobby 2000 B-2 boxing for the other model so that I had a model to convert the B-1 cowlings.  It wasn't too difficult, and I didn't try to make them absolutely perfect given that the engines are going to be tarped anyway (all I needed was the general shape):

 

 

With the cannon pod removed from the plane in this diorama, I realized that all that would be remaining would be the cannon rack as well as the open space in the bottom of the fuselage for the ammo, etc.  So, I cut open the bottom of the fuselage similar to how I did the other.  Much easier this time around as I didn't have the various aftermarket detail pieces in the fuselage so the fuselage was essentially hollow.  After cutting, all I really had to do was line it which was fairly easy.  I'll scratch the cannon rack and add it separately at the end of the build.   

 

 

This model is also primed, so I can start throwing on some color tomorrow:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

 

[king derelict]

Great work Mike. The engines are terrific. This is going to look very good.

Alan

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Alan!  Trying to get these done by January 1 for the LSM group build deadline.  Cutting it awfully close

[Landlubber Mike]

I've made some good progress the past few days.  I've got both planes mostly built up and a few rounds of primer and sanding to get them ready for actual painting:

 

One of the trickier parts of the build was to modify the left nacelle be able to show an exposed engine.  Verlinden provides a full engine, the exhaust ring for the engine, a mounting ring for the engine all in the same Hs 129 upgrade set so you have a one-stop shop for this.  Things are a little more complicated for me because I decided to use the very nice Vector engine along with the CMK external set which replaces the parts for the undercarriage and nacelle.  After some putty, everything is looking pretty good - you can see the Verlinden engine mount ring on the left nacelle and the CMK nacelle front on the right nacelle:

 

I think Verlinden vastly oversimplified the engine mount ring.  Looking at schematics and the Zoukei Mura kit, the ring is actually just a smaller diameter ring supported by a lattice type structure of frames inside the nacelle.  Where this matters is that the rear part of the engine actually hangs down on the other side of the ring into that bottom vent piece you see in the Verlinden ring.  That was going to be way too complicated to replicate, so I just stuck with the Verlinden mount ring.  What's interesting is that Verlinden provides the back pieces for the engine that would feed down into the bottom vent piece, but you can't really use them because the Verlinden engine mount ring is not accurately configured.

 

One other note - the CMK undercarriage set provides more details for the landing gear bay for sure, but if I had to do it over, I don't think it's a set worth adding.  It's a lot of work to add the CMK parts for details that will not really be visible.  In addition, the kit has a very secure way of installing the landing gear legs where they are locked into position into the wing.  For the CMK set, you can only glue the flat end of the leg against the nacelle, so it's definitely a lot less stable and not as easy to lock into the proper orientation.  I ended up using two-part epoxy glue to make sure that the legs are securely fastened to the undercarriage bay.

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited January 5 by Landlubber Mike

[davec]

Looks great!  I'm impressed by how you have integrated all the aftermarket.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you paint the model with so much of it already assembled.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks!  You probably can build this kit out of the box in a week, it goes together that smoothly.  The aftermarket is probably causing me to spend probably 4-5x the amount of time it would normally take to complete it 😵‍💫

 

Some people prefer to paint parts first, then assemble.  I tend to prefer assembling as much as possible, mostly because I can minimize glue issues that way.  

[Landlubber Mike]

Moving along at a decent pace on the painting.  I have the undersides of the two models painted in Hellblau Light Blue (RLM 65), along with their bands.  For the first diorama, I'm doing this scheme which is German Sand Yellow (RLM 79) painted on top of the typical RLM 70/RLM 71 scheme:  

  

 

Since the RLM 70/RLM 71 scheme will barely peak through the Sand Yellow (and are quite similar in hue), I went ahead and free hand painting the underlying scheme.  

 

For the second plane, I'm doing this scheme:

 

 

 

I took a different approach and just painted the topside with RLM 79 (Sand Yellow), and will add the splotches after:

 

I used Mr. Color for the undersides and top coats on both planes.  I think I might try using Vallejo for the Sand Yellow (first plane) and splotches (second plane), as I can scratch off the excess fairly easily without mucking up the Mr. Color underneath.  I'm dreading the first scheme, but have some paint mules to practice on.

 

 

The second diorama will have an Opel Blitz truck.  Originally, I was planning to use this truck from SOL Models for which I somehow had two kits of in the stash:

 

The truck isn't bad, but it's resin, and very fragile.  I broke the roof section off BOTH cabs 🤬 at the windshield pillars when trying to clean up flash.  For the windows, I'd have to cut them out myself out of included clear plastic sheet.  And the undercarriages of both kits were warped, and had a slight bend no matter how much I soaked them in hot water.  Given all that aggravation, I broke down to save my sanity and ended up buying the Tamiya kit below.  

 

 

 

After an evening, I'm almost done assembling it, and will post pictures later.  It's a very, very nice kit that goes together easily and perfectly (thank you Tamiya!).  I might actually use the figures and crates from the SOL kit as they are really well done, so I guess not all is lost with the SOL kits.  I thought about toughing it out and finishing the SOL kits, but I just want to get these dioramas done and move on to other projects.  These trucks were fairly prevalent in the various war theaters, so I'm going to put them aside and maybe use them as secondary pieces in later builds.  The SOL instructions weren't the most clear, especially for the undercarriage, so while I'm working on the Tamiya kit I might just pre-assemble the SOL undercarriages while I know how the undercarriage should be configured.

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited January 8 by Landlubber Mike

[Danstream]

Nice progress Mike.

Indeed, the first scheme above is a bit challenging. I would have tackled it with a 'reverse mottling'. I know, it sounds late now, but you could paint everything with the sand color of the mottles and then stick on it blobs of blu-tack (or masking fluid). Then spray the green paints. If you go this way, before committing the model, I recommend to test it first on a scrap part.

Good luck anyway and keep with the good working.

Greetings,

Dan

Edited January 10 by Danstream

[Landlubber Mike]

7 hours ago, Danstream said:

Nice progress Mike.

Indeed, the first scheme above is a bit challenging. I would have tackled it with a 'reverse mottling'. I know, it sounds late now, but you could paint everything with the sand color of the mottles and then stick on it blobs of blu-tack (or masking fluid). Then spray the green paints. If you go this way, before committing the model, I recommend to test it first on a scrap part.

Good luck anyway and keep with the good working.

Greetings,

Dan

Hi Dan, thanks very much for the suggestion.  I considered that approach, as well as just painting everything sand color and hand brushing the green paints (or using artist pencils).  I have an airbrush with a very thin nozzle (I think 0.18mm) so I'm going to practice and see if I can make it work.  I figure I can always touch up areas by hand brushing if need be.