Jump to content

Henschel Hs129 Romanian colours


neil5208

Recommended Posts

Hi

 

Picked up an Hs129 yesterday and it has option for a Romanian aircraft included but it shows the aircraft in the standard Luftewaffe splinter scheme of rlm 80/81 over rlm 65. I was under the impression that the Romanians only had a single green with rlm 65 undersides or was this only the aircraft were flown after the Romanians switched from axis to allied forces. If any knows different please let me know.

 

Thanks

 

Neil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, neil5208 said:

Hi

 

Picked up an Hs129 yesterday and it has option for a Romanian aircraft included but it shows the aircraft in the standard Luftewaffe splinter scheme of rlm 80/81 over rlm 65. I was under the impression that the Romanians only had a single green with rlm 65 undersides or was this only the aircraft were flown after the Romanians switched from axis to allied forces. If any knows different please let me know.

 

Thanks

 

Neil

AFAIK all Romanian types retained original delivery schemes, so 70/71 uppers.  

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In August 1944 Romania went out from Axes and got allied with Soviet Union. So any fresh supplies from III Reich not happed after this date. I think that RLM 80/81 came into use later, in the home defense time of Germany (not earlier than Autumn 1944, I think). I am sure that somene know this date better. Therefore I think the Romanian Hs 129 has either RLM 70 overall either RLM 70/71 on top.  

J-W

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I've seen, it is generally but not universally true that the Romanians retained the delivery camouflage.  In the case of the Henschels, I've only found representations of 70/71 on aircraft carrying the St. Michael's cross.  I did however find a specific statement that following the change of sides, these were repainted in a single uppersurface green (possibly a Russian colour) before operating again with roundels.  I must admit that the photos I've seen have not been clear enough to confirm either of these, however given that they would (initially) have received a steady flow of replacements from Luftwaffe stocks then retention of Luftwaffe colours seems exceedingly likely at this time.  

 

A single green on the uppersurface appears to be one of the two main Romanian colour schemes, but (as might be expected) Bf109s following the initial delivery of Es are quite another matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, everyone,

 

As Graham says, Dark Green uppersurfaces was a common Rumanian camouflage, usually seen on locally built machines, or else in "cobelligerent" or post-war ones. I have not seen any German built machine in camo other than German. 70/71 is a very low contrast scheme, that can be easily mistaken for a single colour. Besides, no Hs-129 TMK has ever been painted in the late war scheme of 81/82 (not 80, which was a Troppen colour).

 

Fernando

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The pre-Barbarossa deliveries of Bf109Es were in a single dark green (as indeed were other export Emils, Switzerland and Yugoslavia).  And being well aware of the difficulties in distinguishing fresh 70/71 from a single top colour, I actually did my Romanian Bf109E in 70/71.  Can't win them all.   The single green was also (IIRC) adopted as a fighter scheme just before Barbarossa for other types such as the P-24s.  I have not seen any reason why some (many?)  IAR 80s were in the prewar 2-colour scheme, possibly it was simply a matter of informing the service units but not the factory.

Edited by Graham Boak
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/13/2019 at 3:44 AM, JWM said:

I addition

I've googled a short film with Hs 129 in Romanian end of war markings (roundels, not crosses) from fights in Hungary in 44-45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10SW4GoF-m4

Cheers

J-W

Thanks for posting the film. That crash on take off was pretty violent. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Thanks for posting the film. That crash on take off was pretty violent. 

And this crash is very predictable - I do not know how pilot did not consider obvious risk of crash with flooded grass field as runway!

Cheers

J-W
 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, JWM said:

And this crash is very predictable - I do not know how pilot did not consider obvious risk of crash with flooded grass field as runway!

Cheers

J-W
 

You can actually see there is a big mound of mud/slush in its path that swipes the port uc leg right off.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Should be RLM 65, 70 and 71. Someone on a Romanian forum is using the 1/72 Italeri kit to produce a Romanian machine:

http://www.cartula.ro/forum/topic/15536-henschel-hs-129b-2der-geflugelte-buchsenoeffner/

Language barrier aside (there`s always google translator available), the thread is full of useful photos. There`s also a book on the subject of Romanian Hs-129, in the same series with the one about the Hurricane that I`ve reviewed here - that should be ready by November and present at Telford, according to this post:

http://www.cartula.ro/forum/topic/15536-henschel-hs-129b-2der-geflugelte-buchsenoeffner/page__view__findpost__p__230629

Hopefully it will bring together everything that is available atm as far as imagery is concerned.

Edited by Fin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/13/2019 at 4:44 AM, JWM said:

I've googled a short film with Hs 129 in Romanian end of war markings (roundels, not crosses)...

 

No doubt I've seen this combination before, but it looked novel to me!  I'd already had the Hs 129 come 'round to the back of my mind again, but then I saw that short film.  Yesterday at a model show I found a cheap ESCI 1/48 kit, which I opted for over the not-so-cheap Hasegawa one, so now I've got another "active" project!

 

Further to this, what was the standard (if there was) armament configuration for the Rumanian ones?  This build says bomb racks- is he right and is his rendition reasonably close?  EDIT: Here's a thread with some seemingly good information (third post has armament variations).  It appears that Rumanians only used bombs, not the belly guns.

Edited by gingerbob
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few hours later, and I've got appropriate Aeromaster decals headed my way, and have glued the first couple of parts to each other (and to a limited degree to my finger, though for once on the BACK of the part).  This thing is simple enough that I don't think I'll even bother with a WiP, especially since I'm not planning to do any elegant modelling on it.  So thanks for asking the question, Neil!

Edited by gingerbob
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...