1/72 Airfix Hs 129
Welcome! This series is a beginner's try at an old Airfix kit.
I wonder if this still exists...
"Hi, can I have new decals pls?"
It's interesting how consistent the Airfix instructions have looked over the last several decades.
The parts actually look pretty good, very little flash on the actual parts, lots of raised panel lines, and a clear stand! I don't think I can pass up that opportunity.
The pusher-configuration actually looks pretty cool, and seems to make sense. Maybe this will be a good kitbash sometime?
The fuselage and wings went on together pretty well. Unfortunately I have a good amount of cleaning up to do due to my poor construction skills.
Engines painted black and dryrushed with aluminum.
Getting a basecoat on the pilot.
Airbrush woes. Although it’s a brand new airbrush, sometimes it spits out paint although I never pulled back on, and opened, the paint nozzle. Dissasembking and cleaning the airbrush seems tk have fixed this.
My first attempt at pre-shading! It was way more difficult than I thought it was going tk be. Played with 15-25 PSI but ultimately settle on 20 at the end.
Despite the “overbred” of the panel line shade, this build is already shaping up to be much better than all my other ones
My attempt at a paper mask. I raised the mask by applying Tamiya tape underneath (making it two-sided) in order to not have as sharp edges on the camo.
RLM81 applied. It’s not the “Braunviolett” I wanted, but I hear it’s historically accurate.
I’m not sure if I like the “rainbow” on the left wing. It wasn’t supposed to turnout like that but I’m worried I would screw it up more if I try correct it. The brown is a mix of RAL8012, RLM81, and RLM83 1:1:1.
Tamiya TS-13 Gloss clear applied. This sh*t ruined my Revell 1/48 F4U Corsair, so I'm glad that it worked out here pretty well. I'm scared it will burn through decals.
Underside also sprayed with TS-13, one side is noticeably better than the other. The left side (of the viewer) has some very small cracking. I hope it's not too noticeable, oh well.
Tamiya TS-13 applied very lightly. Either due to this or it being 10F warmer, I thankfully had no orange peels or any other problems...this time...
I painted the exhausts with a 2:2:1 mixture of these colors.
After trying to weather the raised panel lines with a mechanical pencil, I decided that it looked too weird due to how shiny it was and used a Burnt Umber oil wash on the underside instead...before cleanup...
...and after. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!
Underside done.
Applied an Ivory Black oil wash on the top as well. My process was to paint the oil on the raised lines, and then remove the excess by carefully wiping up the excess with a small AK 5/0 brush dipped in odorless thinners. I created the exhaust streaks by brushing on black soft pastels and wiped away the excess with a damp (water) cotton swab.
After stretching some sprue for the antenna wire and applying a matt varnish, I'm happy to finally call this project done! I'm very happy with how it turned out except with the canopy, where it seems that the varnish seeped through (the front windshield was perfect though).
Final shots...
Comments
10 26 October 2020, 13:04
TreehuggerInteresting. Did Airfix always leave out the swastika symbol on their kits? I could swear I saw such things on kits when I was a kid in the late 1980's, but I guess I must have imagined seeing them on Airfix kits. I had to buy aftermarket symbols for this, but they were unfortunately not Cartograph quality, and probably printed on some mediocre printer.
26 October 2020, 13:34
TreehuggerIf you don't like the raised panel lines, I think it would be somewhat straight forward to sand or gently cut them off, assuming you don't end up with pits and scratches in the process. I have had success using Trumpeter's chisel tools, for removing protruding plastic detailing on surfaces, but one has to be careful not to dig into the plastic with the corner of the chisel tool. Now that I think about it, I should consider rounding the two corner edges on my chisel tools, I don't see the point (no pun intended) of having a sharp corner on all my chisel tools.
26 October 2020, 13:37
HSC1932Hi! There was no swastika included in this kit.
Thank you for your suggestion, I've been meaning to try to that sometime. This time though I think I'll keep them because I want to make this a quick build (I have several other projects that have been languishing for months) and I want to try some weathering techniques on raised panel lines before I use them on my Revell 1/48 F4U-4.
26 October 2020, 13:46
Patrick HagelsteinHey Otto! What's the matter in picture 11? Paint coming out sputtering?
9 November 2020, 07:10
HSC1932Hey Patrick! Yeah, paint would spit out at the slightest bit of pressure released to the airbrush although the paint nozzle wasn't opened. I believe this problem is called ("Continuous Paint"). I was able to fix this by disassembling my airbrush and giving it a good clean.
Here's a good resource that helped me:
sites.google.com/sit..tips/troubleshooting
9 November 2020, 08:29
playtime 222They did have them in the early 70s to my recollection. When the EU (or specifically West Germany only?) passed the law (1980-ish?), the magazine Scale Aircraft Modelling, who used to include a decal sheet every month, included a sheet of swastikas to help modellers finish their subjects. You still get japanese kits that get imported to the EU via Germany including decal sheets with the swastikas cut out with a pair of scissors to comply with the law. You can tell they were cut our on import as they were often packaged in plastic which had also been cut. Funny old world.
9 November 2020, 09:07
OlivierI started building Airfix planes in the late 60's and never did I find any swastika in the box. Frog kits included them and other brands too but not Airfix.
9 November 2020, 09:25
playtime 222I was UK then Oliver (NL now). Were they snipped out? So if they were manufactured in UK or import there first, our experiences may differ.
9 November 2020, 10:49
Patrick HagelsteinWow! That's a helpful article! 👍 Good thing it turned out fine then. 🙂
9 November 2020, 16:30
HSC1932I applied Tamiya TS-13 Clear (spray can) and I got an orange peel texture. Can someone please tell me how to prevent this from happening in the future?
11 December 2020, 06:08
playtime 222So many things can cause this 🙁 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_peel_(effect) Maybe one of these rings true?
11 December 2020, 12:07
HSC1932I did some tests on styrene and it seemed to be a question of applying it much lighter than Testor's Glosscote. Then again, when I applied it it was 10F warmer, so it may have been the temperature too
24 December 2020, 17:59
Ben MOttovonLindberg, I want to thank you for the article you linked to above (don's airbrush tips). I learned a lot from it, and for the first time I'm able to paint fine lines with my airbrush. Thanks for sharing!
I built a temperature and humidity measurement device with an arduino in my garage where my paint booth is: flickr.com/gp/benmesander/799J6K
I've found it helpful to keep notes on how my painting went vs. this data. I definitely take more care to make sure it is warm enough before shooting paint.
5 January 2021, 01:04
Ben MHi OttovonLindberg, I use Tamiya paints mostly. I have success spraying them if I am careful. They can be hard to brush but I can usually get it "good enough". The flat base is cool because you can mix it into gloss paint and get anything from satin to flat depending on how much you add. I use vallejo metallics and it took me a while to get a good result, but I have it mostly figured out now.
5 January 2021, 03:30
