Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt7

Whoo Hoo!!! Final shots of Dave's completed Airfix Henschel Hs 123 in Spanish Nationalist colours ah la 1938.
Dave has figured they would be using them off irregular airfields and potentially not maintaining them very well so he dished it up accordingly.

Since the last post Dave attached the radio line, and scribe the panels to give a depth appearance, then added some mud on the spats and general wear and tear on the frame.

Now the underside looks truly worn and working.

Impressive looking aircraft that Dave threw together over a week, cheers Dave.

Just when you thought he had enough of Aircraft, Dave sent me some snaps of his latest project- 1/32 Revell Beaufighter!

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt6

Second last post in the Airfix Henschel Hs 123 story by Dave sees decal application.
Dave has used standard stock Airfix decals as supplied in the kit.

Looking very clean and shiny, the next post will see the dirtying process to show it's rough field operating capabilities.

The Spanish Nationalist markings although very simple and plain do give a striking impression with the bold lines on the tail flap.

Underside view of the bi-plane, showing it's clean lines. Final post next...

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt5

More Henschel action in this ''frenzy'' series of photographs from Dave.
3 coats of Blue to finish the underside, crikey no need to use filler then to fill gaps!!

Tyres tided up and Cowl added.

Although a bi-plane the 123 did not use rigging to tension the wings.

Nice prop action here!

White Recognition flashes added using a Revell enamel...Dave said it was terrible to apply.

Pilot looking cozy.

Dave has said he know's now why he switched from Enamels to airbrushed acrylics.

Most paining complete, decals to follow.

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt4

Base coat of Humbrol Grey applied after putty filling.
Pilot safely hidden with Blu-Tac...this is a great trick to use while painting and I use it myself when masking for camouflage.

First coats of the Spanish Nationalist scheme.

Dave was a bit worried at this time that the colours did not seem to match the Airfix boxart. I have noted this before myself with Humbrol paints, different batches seem to come in different shades.

Layering of camouflage continues...

While it may not be a perfect match to the actual colours it is still looking good.

Waiting to dry...

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt3

More Henschel action from Dave, with construction well underway.
Mumbling in the background (its driving Jazz crazy! Why the he&% do you need to photograph it every minute!!)...heh heh heh....

Dry fitting of the engine cowling, a good idea with all kits prior to gluing.

Completion of the radial engine painting.

And we finish off with the start of the gap filling process.

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt2

Dave call's this sequence going, going, gone. He loves painting pilots and then sealing them into the cockpit.
Classic Airfix rivets to the fore.

Dave has decided to build it as a Spanish Civil War bomber serving in 1938 with Nationalist Forces.

The Hs 123 featured an all-metal construction, clean lines and excellent maneuverability. Its biplane wings were of a "sesquiplane" configuration, where the lower wings were significantly smaller than the top wings.

More to come...

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 Pt1

A break from the Quad of Quad's saga tonight see's the compilation of a number of emails I have been inundated with from Dave concerning his lastest project, the German Bi-plane Henschel Hs 123.
The Henschel Hs 123 was a single-seat biplane dive bomber and close-support attack aircraft flown by the Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War and the early to mid-point of WW2. Although it was an obsolete design, it continued to see front-line service until mid1944, and was only withdrawn due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts. No Hs 123 are known to have survived.

As you can see Dave is a big fan of pre-painting the parts on the sprue.

While I think this is a good idea, I always seem to manage to ruin the painting when I cut it off the sprue...

Dave decided to go ''Old School" for this kit and use all Humbrol Enamels and brushes as described in Airfix's instructions...he had serious concerns about doing this as for large surfaces it is not really renown for it's even coverage.

Up to 450 kg (992 lb) of bombs under wings and under fuselage could be carried making it a useful ground support aircraft, in fact in 1943 Generaloberst Wolfram von Richthofen, the commander-in-chief of Luftflotte 4, requested that production of the Hs 123 could be restarted because the Hs 123 performed well in a theater where mud, snow, rain and ice took a heavy toll on the serviceability of more advanced aircraft. However, the Henschel factory had already dismantled all tools and jigs in 1940. By then training aircraft and even damaged aircraft from dumps had been brought into frontline service to replace combat loses.

ESCI-Italeri Quad Tractor

I opened my to do box today and pulled out three more partially built Quads to go with my the other partial built Quad, so now I have a Quad of Quads and only one Gun to tow...
Most are in good nick, although they all need some TLC. I could re-build three totally complete Tractors or four almost builds...still hunting some missing pieces.

I found some old ESCI box artwork concerning the Quad, the top box is technically incorrect as it is a Canadian-built Ford (CMP -Canadian Military Pattern type) Field Artillery Tractor not a Morris...Rivet counting again...

A pretty useless kit to sell on it's own, at least the folks at Italeri had the commercial and common sense to rebox it with the 25 Pounder Gun.

ESCI-Italeri 25 Pdr & Quad Pt5

Gun and limber finished bar the weathering. I did this last night while the weather was a little cooler...thank goodness for small mercies.
I was a bit concerned that the Instructions did not carry any info on decals for the Gun, I may have to look into this as NZ arty certainly carried markings on the 25 Pdr during the war so it would be quite reasonable to suggest that the mother country did as well.

Quite happy with that lot, now I suppose the Quad need to be done.