Airfix 1-72 Henschel Hs123

Well here we are guys, my latest project the Airfix Henschel Hs123.

I’ve always liked this kit right back to the time I first built it somewhere back in the dark mists of time when cars were insured against viking attack. I use it as a test if you like, to see how far my modeling skills have progressed. (or as our better halves would say how far the disease has progressed! Just kidding honey!)

The kit itself has a few fit issues, not un-suprising for a kit whose molds were first made somewhere back in the sixties or seventies. Raised panel lines and golf ball sized scale rivets. Personally these are not an issue for me; I try to see it as a challenge to my modeling skills.

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The main issue is around the bottom wings to fuselage. As you can see from the pics in the gallery I packed out the joints with plasticard, this worked very well till I decided it needed to be thinned a little! It then required the use of a little putty to close the joints. It did, however, work out well in the end.

As with most airfix kits of this scale there is not much to speak of in the way of a cockpit. So I added an instrument panel and painted the interior before painting it RLM02. The instrument panel I painted matt black, it is barely visible but I know it’s there!

It was at this point that I decided that painting the aircraft in it’s splinter camouflage could best be accomplished by leaving the top wing off, so I glued the supports to the bottom wing and taped the top wing on to keep the supports lined up. It was upon reflection I relised I had made things a little more difficult for myself because these supports were painted the same colour as the bottom of the top wing! I now had to mask the supports to paint the splinter camouflage, this was accomplished quickly and I cleaned up the seams ready for painting and masked the areas I had previously painted RLM65.

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The greatest time spent on this kit was masking it for painting the whole top surfaces RLM70, then cutting out the masks to do the splinter camouflage. Which I’ll cover in the next post… until next time!

Happy modeling

NzFlyBoy

by NZ Fly Boy

Avid WW2 aviation enthusiast and modeller. Been making model kits since age nine and I now model mostly ww2 model airplanes. (my wife is an understanding one!)