Panzerknacker - Henschel 129B-2

[CliffB]

As Michael Caine might have said, "There's not many people get that"

Cheers Don.

I don't remember many of the 'interesting facts' that I've been exposed to on holidays over the years, but I do recall (from a trip to Istanbul), that all mosques are built with a few deliberate mistakes in them - on the basis that only God can be a perfect creator.

I also learnt that all carpet sellers have a relative in Birmingham.

Cliff

[Bertie McBoatface]

OK. Enough chatter, lets get to business. Focus!

So then I went to town to buy some paints at MZ. Very expensive paint as it turned out.

Each less than half price, big boxes, bright paintings. Who was I to resist? Trouble is, I paid for them with this week's housekeeping money. Fortunately I can still afford some beans.

Plastic has been cut. The Old Salt approves.

Chain drill and filing for the radio shack.

If I can paint as well as Eddie can mould, that will be a little gem.

The gun hatch is larger, allowing use of a saw.

Not a bad start, though it took over an hour to accomplish. Now its time for tea and beans.

[Learstang]

Not surprised to see Ted having a butcher's. He was 3/4th German, don't you know!

Regards,

Jason

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Personally, I always follow the Muslim religious sculptors' 'code of practice' when making my models.....

nodnodnod I'm rubbish at painting figures.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Okay.... that's excellent work! I should get me one of those saws.

[Bertie McBoatface]

nodnodnod I'm rubbish at painting figures.

Yes that's the meaning I first though was intended by Cliff.

Okay.... that's excellent work! I should get me one of those saws.

It's my favourite tool for this kind of work. Unfortunately, they are very pricey though this one was a gift.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I may have just broken all my picture links with a classic Photobucket fumble. If so, I will repair the damage asap. Sorry for any inconvenience.

I'm having increasing amounts of tech difficulty with my free Photobucket account (Won't load, freezes, wont upload, editor useless); anyone recommend an alternative?

Edited July 1, 2012 by per ardua ad ostentationem

[Parabat]

Ted sticking his nose in again I see... Hopefully you'll be able to persuade His Madge that the New 'Splinter Camo' is actually better than Hot Pink and Purple!

Edited July 1, 2012 by Parabat

[Bertie McBoatface]

Not surprised to see Ted having a butcher's. He was 3/4th German, don't you know!

Regards,

Jason

Ted sticking his nose in again I see... Hopefully you'll be able to dissuade His Madge that the New 'Splinter Camo' is actually better than Hot Pink and Purple!

If you are wondering who Ted is, take a quick look at my Steam Punk GB thread, it's quite short. Just like him really.

Ted!

Edited July 1, 2012 by per ardua ad ostentationem

[Bertie McBoatface]

I'm adopting an approach that I've learned from other modellers here; doing the boring bits first. I customarily leave them to the end but that's the time when my passion starts to flag. This way, the money's already banked, as it were.

So, turning to the undercarriage, I found this in my aftermarket selection.

Inner skins for the doors.

But the brass was designed for the Esci kit which must have been very basic. Hasegawa give us this:

Which I thought was quite good enough when I looked this morning.. This was my decision:

But now... I can't help thinking that the brass would be sharper. What do you think boys and girls; brass or plastic?

So, onto the wheels themselves...

Do you have this problem? Fingers like pig's udders failing to find purchase on a rounded component. Glue smears everywhere!

Try blutac handles like this. It's an old tip but maybe not everyone knows it.

There was another difficult decision to make about the tailwheel

The kit comes with a tiny but chunky towing eye moulded on. (Unfortunately round the other side!) but look what comes with the etch set.

Piece #15. It's not very big is it? It took ages to get the thing stuck on. I could stick it to my tweezers, my hand, my forehead and the tailwheel - flat! Superglue? Supervillain! Eventually I prevailed by tacking it on with gloop and then washing a layer of CA over the top. What are the chances it will fall off before I'm done? Still, I think it was worth the effort.

Main U/C

The kit scissor links are good...

...but brass is better.

Tailplanes...

Those kit elevators look OK don't they?

Perhaps not from the back though. See how chunky the trim tab is. Maybe 4 scale inches thick.

Hacking the elevators off was a tedious job. At first I tried to leave this odd hinge cover [?] in place, but it's way too thick so it had to go. I'll replace it with a brass off-cut when I stick the elevators on.

I took this photo to use as a size guide when I do that little job. Camera's can be very useful.

And there's the horizontal tailplane assembled. I'll clean it up before attaching the rudders, which I will droop a bit. I'm planning to show the seat removed for maintenance, as it's the only way to show off the tiny cockpit, and I think I can justify pushing the stick forward in the circumstances. I don't like flappy control surfaces unless there's a good reason for them.

And that was today's several hours work. Hardly enough to fill a matchbox, but enough to make my back stiff!

See you soon.

[Col.]

It's a good start Don and significantly more than I've done for the whole week. Those parts are worthwhile upgrades but I suspect a wash and/or drybrush on the u/c doors will bring the detail out just grand for a lot less frustration and swearing than the etch parts.

[Parabat]

The kit gear door has 15 recessed circles, the brass 12... It might be an idea to sand the plastic of the doors down and use the brass, it'll give you a better scale thickness.

Looking good otherwise!

[Bertie McBoatface]

It's a good start Don and significantly more than I've done for the whole week. Those parts are worthwhile upgrades but I suspect a wash and/or drybrush on the u/c doors will bring the detail out just grand for a lot less frustration and swearing than the etch parts.

The kit gear door has 15 recessed circles, the brass 12... It might be an idea to sand the plastic of the doors down and use the brass, it'll give you a better scale thickness.

Looking good otherwise!

Thanks for the help fellows, I'll fit brass to one side and wash the other!

[SaintsPhil]

Great Start Don, you're right getting the 'dull' bits out the way is a good way of stopping all those other projects looking tempting from the stash while you're still going...

Hence I've spent the weekend sanding away resin casting blocks! Still guess that's the joy of extra detail!!

I feel your pain I HATE superglue!

Keep up the good work

Phil

[Bertie McBoatface]

I feel your pain

Phil

Thanks Phil.

****************************************************

Well, we all knew I'd do it.

While the brass isn't a perfect fit to the Hasegawa doors, I think it's more '3D' than the moulded door inners. We won't know for sure until the paint's on though.

Cowlings for the stbd engine. Note those slots. Limited by the moulding process, they can be improved, I think.

A good way to find out where to scrape away the thickness of the wall. Left as it is, the cowling would be battleship thick.

Scraped until paper thin then the final web came out with a delicate scalpel

Nice thin edge. Still not scale thickness but it's soft plastic so I'm not trying for the razor's edge here.

One of the slots has a flap. Without modification it blocks the slot entirely.

Scraped down like a fingernail, it looks much better.

All evening on two doors and one cowling. Modelling is certainly value for money.

G'night all.

[Kallisti]

Yup its a great time sink great chance to listen to good music however... (Steve Hillage this evening, yeah man!)

[Bertie McBoatface]

Yup its a great time sink great chance to listen to good music however... (Steve Hillage this evening, yeah man!)

Steve who? No, don't answer that, I is only jokin' man! I have been remebering the boogie with Canned Heat among others, this evening.

Hey guys, look what I found.

Ain't that a scratchbuilding delight!

[Parabat]

Nice work on the cowls, the brass looks good on the bays too. What brass sheet no. are you using? Just got a He129 meself...

[Bertie McBoatface]

Nice work on the cowls, the brass looks good on the bays too. What brass sheet no. are you using? Just got a He129 meself...

Thanks mate. I'm using an old Eduard set dated 1995 designed for the older Esci kit - sheet 48 166. It was a nice bonus in my ebay kit purchase.

[Neal]

Don,

As always entertaining and informative, keep up the good work.

[CliffB]

Great stuff Don. It's interesting to see that there's always room for improvement, no matter what the kit!

Cheers

Cliff

[periklis_sale]

great work so far Don

:clap2:

[dazdot]

Nice work Don, lots of sawing and cutting gonna look cool once done

this is the first time i've tried the "get all the fiddly bit done first" myself right now but your'e right about time value 1 10 quid kits worth about 4 playstation games by my reckoning

[Bertie McBoatface]

Don,

As always entertaining and informative, keep up the good work.

Cheers Neal, keep up the encouragement!

Great stuff Don. It's interesting to see that there's always room for improvement, no matter what the kit!

Cheers

Cliff

Hi Cliff, there's always scope for personalizing a build, I reckon.

great work so far Don

:clap2:

Cheers Periklis.

Nice work Don, lots of sawing and cutting gonna look cool once done

this is the first time i've tried the "get all the fiddly bit done first" myself right now but your'e right about time value 1 10 quid kits worth about 4 playstation games by my reckoning

Hi Daz, that was the plan but it seems likely that this is ALL going to be fiddly bits! I'm having more ideas about opening panels every day. How about some fuel tank repairs in the wing?

****************************************

Brief update tonight as I have other stuff to do. Darned reality, getting in the way of my toys!

Remember this? Well, it's just gotta be!

The kit centre section is really good with panel lines exactly matching my photo. Notice the

shallowness of the ejector ports for the machine guns though. Something will have to be done.

Long straight cut? Call for the Olfa P-Cutter.

Corners finished off with a saw. No filing, no sanding apart from de-burring.

When fitted to the fuselage I'll have a nice little box for the cannon bay. Main spar forming

the roof and a bit of dummy structure around the edges in plasticard should do it. There won't

actually be much of a chance to see up into it when the aircraft is on its base. However, and

see above, God will know it's there, and you and me of course.

There are a couple of superfluous holes to be filled and I did this with stretched sprue. The ends

where the diameter increases are great for this as they wedge in tightly and self-adjust for size.

I also opened those shell chutes. This is the rough cut stage. I drilled the centres and then pumped

the drill bit in and out and sawed into the corners as much as possible, finally taking the corner

pieces out with a scalpel. Despite appearances in the photo, they do look good. I was going to line

them with a square section tube but I don't think it's neccessary as the plastic here is thick enough

to be convincing and it will be dark up there!

While I was in the area I noticed on the photo, a big drain pipe of some kind so I drilled location

holes both sides and did the sprue thing again.

When it's all dried, I'll cut the front ones flush and leave the drains sticking out a bit with oblique ends. Should I drill them out though? Whaddyafink?

[Thinks: My goodness I have big thumbs!]

Edited July 3, 2012 by per ardua ad ostentationem

[Kallisti]

You know what they say about people with big thumbs?

Edited July 3, 2012 by Kallisti