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

[CANicoll]

On 12/30/2024 at 3:47 PM, BlrwestSiR said:

I'm getting close with my Wyvern but for the Sheridan I could a extra week or two. 

So you wouldn't be the only one. 

As for VMS, I found their stuff a couple years ago from a nearby shop but they were constantly sold out. BNA Modelworld carries them out of Australia and seems to have most of their products in stock. 

Carl,  Good to know!

[CANicoll]

Nice work, Mike!  The detail on the carts is terrific.  Looking forward to seeing the planes under paint.

How much snow did you get/are getting?  Seems to come and go here in Lansdowne, but steady.  Keeping the plow-folks busy.

[BlrwestSiR]

Great to see you're still working on this Mike. 

No snow here in the Great White North but the temps have dropped. 

[Landlubber Mike]

1 hour ago, CANicoll said:

Nice work, Mike!  The detail on the carts is terrific.  Looking forward to seeing the planes under paint.

How much snow did you get/are getting?  Seems to come and go here in Lansdowne, but steady.  Keeping the plow-folks busy.

Thanks Chris!  Looks like we got a good 6"+ here in Arlington.  Thankfully I managed to get my snowblower serviced over the weekend, so it should be good to go when I head out to shovel in a bit.  I've got a house with a detached garage in the back of my lot (the long way on the rectangular lot), so I've got a 100' driveway to shovel.  I've only had to use it three or four times in the last 15 years, but after I heard a client died shoveling out his driveway, I broke down and got one.

Still no plows on our street here, so my guess is kids will be off tomorrow as well.  Hope it's not too bad out there for you!

[Landlubber Mike]

43 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Great to see you're still working on this Mike. 

No snow here in the Great White North but the temps have dropped. 

Thanks!  Took a while to work all the AM in, but I think I'm on the home stretch now.  

Good luck with not having snow.  If we get more than 2" here, the DC area shuts down completely.  It's a bit ridiculous but we just don't have all the snow removal resources that areas north of us get.  Having grown up in NYC, it still amazes me how people freak out down here.

[KevinM]

58 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Having grown up in NYC, it still amazes me how people freak out down here

You should try going further south like another 4/500 miles whist it does not happen often here last time Jan/05 we freak.

[CANicoll]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Thanks Chris!  Looks like we got a good 6"+ here in Arlington.  Thankfully I managed to get my snowblower serviced over the weekend, so it should be good to go when I head out to shovel in a bit.  I've got a house with a detached garage in the back of my lot (the long way on the rectangular lot), so I've got a 100' driveway to shovel.  I've only had to use it three or four times in the last 15 years, but after I heard a client died shoveling out his driveway, I broke down and got one.

Still no plows on our street here, so my guess is kids will be off tomorrow as well.  Hope it's not too bad out there for you!

Wow, and smart to get the snowblower.  "Heart attack snow" is a real thing so better to be smart.  I live in an over-55 community (where I'm the 'young guy' at 64!) so the snow removal here is stellar.  Now, once you get outside the community, it's a different matter.  I have an indoor garage spot which is nice.  Took a quick drive this morning to check out the roads and how the new car handles the snow.  All good! (Plus, Starbucks was open - bonus!).

Stay warm!

[Landlubber Mike]

16 minutes ago, CANicoll said:

Wow, and smart to get the snowblower.  "Heart attack snow" is a real thing so better to be smart.  I live in an over-55 community (where I'm the 'young guy' at 64!) so the snow removal here is stellar.  Now, once you get outside the community, it's a different matter.  I have an indoor garage spot which is nice.  Took a quick drive this morning to check out the roads and how the new car handles the snow.  All good! (Plus, Starbucks was open - bonus!).

Stay warm!

I can only dream!  Once the kids are out of college, I can retire and then move someplace like that.  I just blew out the snow in the driveway - man, it's heavy!  So glad for the snow blower.  Though, we live on a hill and I went to blow out the neighbor two houses up the hill and felt like I was going to die dragging the snow blower up the street.  I did my good deed for the month!

[CANicoll]

7 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I can only dream!  Once the kids are out of college, I can retire and then move someplace like that.  I just blew out the snow in the driveway - man, it's heavy!  So glad for the snow blower.  Though, we live on a hill and I went to blow out the neighbor two houses up the hill and felt like I was going to die dragging the snow blower up the street.  I did my good deed for the month!

Way to go!!

[BlrwestSiR]

2 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

 Good luck with not having snow.  If we get more than 2" here, the DC area shuts down completely.  It's a bit ridiculous but we just don't have all the snow removal resources that areas north of us get.  Having grown up in NYC, it still amazes me how people freak out down here.

That sounds like Vancouver. 

Being in a rowhouse, we have 16' of sidewalk and the path up to our house to shovel, so maybe another 10' there. The city finally added  sidewalk plowing to our neighbourhood after doing other ones in the city so that technically leaves even less for us. Plus we can get the boys to do it. 

38 minutes ago, CANicoll said:

  "Heart attack snow" is a real thing so better to be smart. 

It's definitely real. One of Sue's friend's  husband had one shoveling. Thankfully he knew something wasn't right and got treated in time. Which has made Sue paranoid to let me do any shovelling after my triple bypass 5 years ago. 

Stay safe everyone!

[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!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

I'm slowly getting closer to the finish Iine.  I spent some time detailing out the Vector engines for the first model according to some pictures of the Gnome-Rhone 14M engines.  The Vector engine is on the left, and the kit engine (which is pretty nice) is on the right. 

 

I'm at the painting stage now.  I first started with the second Hs 129, and used a 0.18mm airbrush to brush on the green splotches:

 

I then tackled the first Hs 129.  I had used Mr. Hobby paints for the undercoat European scheme (I figured Mr. Color would have a strong adhesion than Vallejo).  Then I sprayed a light coat of Mr. Surfacer semi-gloss for a little added protection.  

I struggled with how to do the camo scheme, and eventually settled on using liquid masks.  I did a bunch of tests first using Mr. Hobby - Mr. Masking SOL R and Vallejo Liquid Mask.  I tried them both out with sprays of Mr. Color and Vallejo paints on top as I wasn't sure if the Mr. Color would dissolve the Vallejo.  Turned out both were completely fine and compatible with each other, with Mr. Color on Vallejo's mask and Vallejo on Mr. Hobby's mask.  I ended up going with Vallejo as it was slightly easier to apply as it's a little less viscous compared to Mr. Masking.  One tip I found online was to paint masking solutions using silicone brushes.  They made it much easier to apply - just apply to a section, wipe the brush (because the masking solution starts drying pretty quickly), and repeat.  Still took hours to do, but well worth it with no aggravation.  I was really surprised how easy it was.

One thing to note is that I read that it's better to not leave masking solutions on for too long.  Some said a week or two and it was hard to get the mask off.  Others said they've left masks on for months and had no problems.

I ended up going with Mr. Color for the Mr. Color RLM 79.  I have the Vallejo equivalent to do touchups as I find Mr. Color doesn't brush as easily.  

Anywhere here are the pictures.  Thanks for looking in!

[CANicoll]

Mike, I'm sending you my radial engines for your excellent work!  Cool!!!

Love the camo.  A .18 needle?  I have to see what my finest needle is, but super job on the green blotches.  They look amazing.  PSI please?

Also, the 129 camo is lovely.  You ended up using the Vallejo masking agent (just checking!)? Great how you did that work.  I bet it did take hours, but the results speak for themselves.  I cannot imagine any other way to achieve that result.  I MIGHT see about using that technique on a 1/72 Japanese Hien.  On second thought, looking at my existing build of that aircraft (using the Tamiya decals!). Nope.  I think I would 1. go blind. 2. go crazy trying to make that work. Do you think its easier on a larger (1/48, 1/32) scale?

Sucks about the SOL trucks.  But the Tamiya kit sounds like the answer, along with the SOL figures.  Can't wait to see all of this come together.

Hang in there, Mike!

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Chris, thanks for the kind words!  Looks like I need to bend a couple of the wires i attached, but otherwise I'm happy with how the engines came out.  Those took a lot of work to get the rods and the wires in, but I think worth it.

For the airbrush, I bought this one (or maybe an older model) from Spraygunner.  From what I understand, these are made at the same factories in Japan as I think Iwata.  I can tell you that it is every bit as good as my Iwata Eclipse CS.  I like how it has a control knob at the end of it to limit how far you can pull back on the trigger to give you even more control.  For the splotches, I turned the compressor down to 12-15 PSI, and I believe I used Vallejo paints.

https://spraygunner.com/products/ps771-gsi-creos-mr-airbrush-custom-0-18mm?_pos=3&_sid=c5a9fec8e&_ss=r

For the masking solution, this is what I ended up using:

It was very easy to apply, and I would have no hesitation using it on a 1/72 aircraft.  Funny you mentioned your Hien as I have a 1/32 Hien in the stash and was thinking that I now have the solution for those similar paint schemes.  Definitely get a set of silicone brushes - they are fairly inexpensive, as they are used in things for painting fingernails.  If you use a regular paint brush, it will start leaving clumps in the bristles and ruin your brushes (some people though suggested you can dip your brushes in Dawn soap and that won't happen).  It takes a bit of practice, but you'll find the brush that works best and figure out how to apply.  For example, sometimes I'd get a dab on the brush, put a heavy dot on the model, and then pull the solution into shapes using the brush or a toothpick (especially for the very thin lines).  Trust me, it's very easy though certainly does take time.  Probably took me a good 1.5-2 hours to apply, and then a good hour to pull off by scraping gently with a toothpick and using tweezers to grab and pull the mask off.  It did not pull off any paint at all, worked a treat!

[KevinM]

I am so-so on the splotches Mike but that's me but the second crate Rocks I luv it....really sweet.

[Landlubber Mike]

21 minutes ago, KevinM said:

I am so-so on the splotches Mike but that's me but the second crate Rocks I luv it....really sweet.

Thanks Kevin!  I didn't have much to go on for the splotches on the first one except for the picture at the top of this page and the very angled pic of the real thing (and only on the right side of the plane).  I tried to make the right side match up with those pictures, and just took a stab at the left side.  That being said, the pictures I've seen for this particular plane isn't the coolest looking camo schemes that I've found, compared to other planes with splotches.  I might take another look at them though and see if there is anything I can do to get back in your graces on that one  

[KevinM]

5 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

 I didn't have much to go on for the splotches on the first one except for the picture at the top of this page and the very angled pic of the real thing (and only on the right side of the plane).  

I think it might of  looked better with more definition to the edges being 1/48th just my 2cents.

[Landlubber Mike]

18 minutes ago, KevinM said:

I think it might of  looked better with more definition to the edges being 1/48th just my 2cents.

I'm not sure if they were more or less defined on the real thing.  A bit hard to tell on the photo:

 

This profile interpretation seems to suggest softer edges:

 

I'm certainly no expert, so always open to suggestions

[KevinM]

Hard to tell for sure from that pic and the artist rendition shows some fuzz but ever so slightly constrained?I look at so much of my painting anymore through that guise of scale and depending on my mood/subject will not always follow suit.

 

Call me lazy

[DocRob]

Wow Mike, the liquid masked camo came out fantastic. I wanted to buy this kit as well and thought about, how to do the scheme, but had no final idea, how to tackle it. Luckily the kit was sold out and I only got the Eastern Front version .
The kit engine seems to have a much smaller diameter than the resin one. Does it fit under the cowlings or do they have thinner ones?

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

2 hours ago, DocRob said:

Wow Mike, the liquid masked camo came out fantastic. I wanted to buy this kit as well and thought about, how to do the scheme, but had no final idea, how to tackle it. Luckily the kit was sold out and I only got the Eastern Front version .
The kit engine seems to have a much smaller diameter than the resin one. Does it fit under the cowlings or do they have thinner ones?

Cheers Rob

The Eastern Front version has some really cool schemes.  Omask has a lot of goodies for this kit (for example, the cannon pod assembly), but if you prefer to paint on your own insignia, they sell a masking set for the Eastern Front kit.  I have their mask for my kit, so can report back on how they were.

https://www.omask.eu/34036-1-48-Hs-129-B-2-Eastern-Front-for-Hobby-2000-48011-d250.htm

The kit engine is definitely a touch smaller in diameter.  For my first diorama, I'm going to have one of the engines fully exposed so I only had to worry about one nacelle thankfully.  I used my micromotor to slowly thin out the interior of the nacelle, which was tricky.  Thankfully I had a spare to practice on, as one I went too far and had a small hole open up.  The second one got thin and warped a bit, so I ended up using Tamiya two-part epoxy and sanded everything smooth.  I was able to repair both.  That's why I was watching your Cobra log with a bit of nervousness when you mentioned trying to thin down the hood.

I also had to take off probably less than 0.5mm off the cylinders as well to make everything fit.  With the way the nacelle curves in at the front, the slight modification to the engine won't be noticeable.  

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Great paint job on both planes, especially on getting the squiggles done. I'll have to remember to try that on the ZM one in the stash. 

I have the same airbrush and like you, I'm fairly certain it's made by Iwata. Parts are compatible between them that I've tried. 

Carl

[Landlubber Mike]

46 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Great paint job on both planes, especially on getting the squiggles done. I'll have to remember to try that on the ZM one in the stash. 

I have the same airbrush and like you, I'm fairly certain it's made by Iwata. Parts are compatible between them that I've tried. 

Carl

Thanks!  

Yeah, it's very high quality.  I also have their 0.5mm airbrush for large models which I've used a couple of times and it works very nicely as well.