Hs 129B-2 by Hobby 2000 (Hasegawa) 1/48 -- two different dioramas

[BlrwestSiR]

On 10/3/2024 at 2:01 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Thanks Rob!  yeah, it's a really cramped cockpit.  Definitely not ideal if you were claustrophobic!

 

Or if you have broad shoulders. 

[Landlubber Mike]

12 hours ago, HubertB said:

I think your skills are good enough for any Z-M kit, Mike, and it’ very obvious

Hubert

 

7 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Mike

Your skill levels and talents are way beyond what is needed and a gem would surely be created.

Thanks Hubert and Peter for the kind words!  I still feel like very much a novice compared to some of the stellar works on here, but thank you!

[BlrwestSiR]

On 10/3/2024 at 2:09 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Given the size, maybe I'll go for the ZM offering in the future.  They have a B-2 version similar to the ones I'm working on, and also a B-3 with the big BK 7.5 cannon.  I'd love to build another in a winter camo scheme.  This zebra pattern looks really cool to me

Mike, the ZM B-3 kit is on sale at Sprue Brothers until tomorrow. It's 25% off which is a pretty good deal. 

https://spruebrothers.com/zkmk31105-1-32-zoukei-mura-henschel-hs129b-3/

 

[Landlubber Mike]

7 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Mike, the ZM B-3 kit is on sale at Sprue Brothers until tomorrow. It's 25% off which is a pretty good deal. 

https://spruebrothers.com/zkmk31105-1-32-zoukei-mura-henschel-hs129b-3/

 

Thanks man, looks like I missed it unfortunately.  I'm sure I'll find someone on eBay looking to sell it with the AM at some point.  I picked up my other ZM kits on eBay for much less than retail with all or almost all the AM.  For some reason, ZM kits don't command much resale value.

[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!

[PanzerWomble]

Thats all coming together very nicely . 

[KevinM]

You know Mike that looks pretty dog gone good there if I may say and you seem to be moving at a faster pace ......kit?

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Kevin!  And yes, both are from the Hasegawa 1/48 boxings of the Hs 129.  The opened one is actually a Hobby 2000 repop of it.  A very well designed kit where everything fits together nicely.  The part count is reasonable, so you probably could build one OOB in about a week or two.  I'm just torturing myself with the CMK and Aires aftermarket sets and cutting up the second for the diorama.  I'm actually thinking I could finish both of these by Thanksgiving, if not pretty close to finishing by the end of the month - which would be a record for me!

[Peterpools]

Mike

Amazing progress and in your capable hands, the delicate detailing work looks spot on. The dio Hs129 clipped wing ribs looks lie a perfect match to the photographs - so very nicely done.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Peter!  Really appreciate the kind words.  I let the putty cure 24+ hours and sanded off the excess yesterday evening, and it looks pretty good.

I think the next thing I'm going to tackle is adding rivets.  Martin's diagrams are very helpful in this regard.  I've replaced rivets before on one of my early models, but have never riveted a full model before so I figure I might as well try it out - especially since the lines on the Hs 129 are fairly straight.  I have the clipped wing end pieces to practice on too.  What I'm thinking of doing is priming the fuselage and wings first, before adding the landing gear encasements, engine nacelles, and other detail pieces to make the riveting easier.  Then I can add those things, and spot prime those areas separately.  I did some looking online, and it seems that the general consensus is to rivet after priming but before painting.  So, I think priming and riveting at this stage probably makes the most sense.

The remainder of the builds should be fairly straight forward, but I'd like to show the opened up model with a fully exposed engine.  The Hs 129 used a Gnome-Rhone 14M 04/05 engine that ended up being underpowered for the aircraft given its weight from all the armor plating.  The Verlinden set has the parts to build one engine exposed - it includes a full engine, including rear part, and the exhaust ring that circles the back half of the engine and then has two exhaust pipes coming out through the top of the nacelles.  The perfectionist in me then had me thinking that the open engine would look nothing like the  closed engine, so I bought a CMK engine that seems fairly close to what the Verlinden engine will look like.  

Then I found that Vector makes a very nice Gnome-Rhone 14M engine, so I've been building up two of these:

The Vector set doesn't include the engine backs, so what I probably will do is frankenstein the open Vector engine with some of the Verlinden parts.  The tricky part there will be to somehow mount the engine so that it is sitting the correct distance from the wing and be parallel with the other engine.  Fingers crossed that I can figure that out.

The nice thing about the towed Hs 129 is that the engines were tarped, so I'm not too worried about the engine detail and will just build them OOB.

Thanks for looking in!

[Peterpools]

Mike

Riveting - oh what fun but way better then scribing - my least enjoyable part of any build. 

I've read and seen videos where the model was first primed and then riveted and the conversation then centered around the  do you just rivet in the primer or into the plastic as well. Not sure which would be the preferred way. 

Holy smokes, those Vector Engines look brilliant and seems there is going to be a lot of extra work in add a rear crankcase. I wonder why Vector didn't include them with the engines. 

[Martinnfb]

Catching up up with you build Mike, it looks really nice, great research and attention to detail, as always. 

Cheers

Martin

[Landlubber Mike]

1 hour ago, Martinnfb said:

Catching up up with you build Mike, it looks really nice, great research and attention to detail, as always. 

Cheers

Martin

Thanks Martin, really appreciate it!

On 10/14/2024 at 2:14 PM, Peterpools said:

Mike

Riveting - oh what fun but way better then scribing - my least enjoyable part of any build. 

I've read and seen videos where the model was first primed and then riveted and the conversation then centered around the  do you just rivet in the primer or into the plastic as well. Not sure which would be the preferred way. 

Holy smokes, those Vector Engines look brilliant and seems there is going to be a lot of extra work in add a rear crankcase. I wonder why Vector didn't include them with the engines. 

Thanks Peter!  I didn't catch whether people riveted into just the primer or into the primed plastic.  I have some of the Rosie Riveter tools, so I think I'll just take a stab at it and see what happens.  Since I usually use Mr. Surfacer, which has some filling properties, I figure I should prime before adding the rivets.  If I make them too deep, at least I know I'll have a few layers of paint (the typical German greys followed by the mopped on sand color), and of course a few laters of clear in between.  I'm almost wondering how much of the rivets will be visible at all, particularly if I make the models look dusty/sandy at the end.  So, given all that, I think these are probably good subjects to experiment on versus starting with a model with a clean paint job.

And yes, the Vector engine looks great!  And yes, it would have been nice if they included the engine backs but it is what it is - the Verlinden set gives me what I will need I think.  I was sold on Vector engines after putting one together for my Walrus build (which reminds me, I need to get that one completed - maybe a good post-Sandbox project).

[Peterpools]

Mike, I'm a huge fan of Rosie the River tools and have a nice collection - they are awesome to use.

Fingers crossed all the riveting goes according to plan and I'll be waiting for an update.

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Some great progress Mike. The Aires stuff has always been hit or miss. It either fits or it's way off. But when you get it to fit, it certainly looks good. 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Mike, I'm a huge fan of Rosie the River tools and have a nice collection - they are awesome to use.

Fingers crossed all the riveting goes according to plan and I'll be waiting for an update.

 

 

Thanks Peter!  I put a coat of Mr. Surfacer on this evening.  Have a few spots to clean up, but hopefully can start the riveting later this week.

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Some great progress Mike. The Aires stuff has always been hit or miss. It either fits or it's way off. But when you get it to fit, it certainly looks good. 

 

The Aires MG fit really well.  The CMK stuff mostly fit perfectly, though the cockpit tub needed to be thinned down quite a bit.  The other CMK sets individually fit really nicely, it was just trying to fit them all together with the CMK undercarriage set that gave me some issues.  Definitely a pain when you realize you need to put in time to make their sets fit, but as you say, when you do, their sets look good.

[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.  Thanks again @Martinnfb for posting the panel line/rivet diagrams!

 

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!

 

[belugawhaleman]

Nice work! Those Vector engines look amazing I'll have

to look at their website . I like following this as I think the 129

has an interesting airframe.