Lindbergh 1/72 Hs 129 B-2/R2
Couple of my fellow club members built 1/48 Hs 129's in N. African desert scheme, and inspired me to pull this old kit out of the stash. I decided to go eastern front winter scheme, after seeing this beauty by fellow iModeler Morne Meyer @mornem (see the last pic).
At first I was thinking I'd sand all the detail down and re-rivet and re-scribe, but decided detail was good enough to leave as is. The rivets are a tad oversize (typical) but still looks ok. I did add gun barrels, took off the molded-on exhausts and replace with styrene tube, added additional detail to the top of the nacelles, opened the scoops (radiators?) next to the engines beneath the wings (front and back, and added grills), scratch built the gun pod out of a tear-drop shaped drop tank from the spares box (cut off the front ends of the 2 halves, glued together, then sanded out the tear-drop shape), and then had to scratch build the gnome-rhone engines, as the kit just provided blanks.
There was no gunsight in the box, so that was scratch built using a landing gear piece, styrene bits and a piece of acetate.
For the engines, a took some styrene tubing, inserted into a drill, then used a razor saw to "rib" the tube. Then split the tube in two, and further cut into a somewhat "v" shape for the cylinder heads. Then some brass wire and some painting, and looked good enough to me. They are actually one cylinder short, but hey - it's what I could fit into the space with what I had to work with, and I didn't have to buy resin engines (which would have cost about 6X what the kit did!). I also added the aerial and pitot tube (not provided in the kit).
Painted with Tamiya, including hairspray technique with Tamiya paint thinned 50/50 with water for the distemper. Dots were applied with thinned Tamiya paint and a brush. Weathered with pastel chalk powder, Tamiya weathering sets, silver pencil.
The Print Scale decals I purchased were horrible - only got the black crosses on the fuselage out of that set - the rest collapsed upon themselves like a dead spider. Luckily I had another set in the decals stash that I didn't even know I had for the Hs-129 (would never have purchased the Print Scale set had I looked first...). There were even spinner decals to replicate what Morne's looked like, but I couldn't make them conform, especially with the props being molded with the spinner.
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- 1. sanded away some of this hump per references
- 2. removed and replaced with styrene tube
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- 1. opened and added brass mesh grill
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- 1. drilled these 2 holes and added the bump
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- 1. This is Morne's build - my inspiration
Great build! I don't know how you guys do 1/72 scale so well...My eyes can't work that small!
She looks STUNNING Greg. You took a rough diamond and made it shine! Well done my friend!
Nicely done, Greg. It's a shame about those Print Scale decals they have a great selection, but you never know how they 'll react.
Nice one Greg. I remember doing this in in the '60's. By the way, the first time I tried Print Scale decals the same thing happened to me. I'll never buy them again.
Another gem Greg! Looks fantastic, I love it.
Nice, Greg. I remember building that kit around 1972. A real oldie!
Great results Greg, and such an old kit also. Looks fantastic with the custom upgrades. Nice work!
Great build, Greg!
I loved the scratchbuilding a lot!
Shame about the decals, but you found a solution finally.
All the best!
Greg, you nailed this one. Thanks for sharing all the detailed photos. Looking forward to more.
Perfect build Greg.
The winter scheme is looking great.
One of my favorites which I would like to build in 1/48
Well done.
Nice build, Greg!
Lindbergh? You really did wonders with it. Looks as good as Hasegawa’s 1/48. Looks great on the stand.
You are a brave man building a Lindbergh kit, but this shows that you can get a great result from an old kit with a little TLC (and scratchbuilding). It gives me hope for all those Lindbergh kits that I have on my shelf.
You are a magician doing that with a Lindbergh kit in... 1:72? Should I believe that? 🙂 A modeling gem for sure!
Very nice, I really like the way you put this kit together plus the scheme is awesome. I am currently working on a Lindbergh He-162, scratch built the cockpit and did a few more to it...I hope to have it done soon.