The
Hs 123 was quite a pre-war designed dive-bomber that lasted longer in service
than might have been expected. It was used in the Spanish Civil War, the
early WW II campaigns in
Western Europe
and continued to be used widely on the Eastern front in the close-support
roles. At least one was in service with the Spanish Air Force (Ejercito
del Aire) after 1945. I decided to model this example, as myself and three
of my mates all chose build this old Airfix kit as a quick bit of fun. They will
all build different versions and air arms to add to the interest when we bring
them along to our club (IPMS Auckland, NZ).
My
model has quite a bit of scratch-built detail, including cockpit (I used a
friend’s unbuilt AmTech kit with Black Box interior as a guide), drop tank,
steps, windscreen, engine detail, carburetor intake, gun blast tubes, bomb racks
and so on. Other small details like foot pads on the wheel spats, reducing
the gun blast tubes, and replacing some struts, thinning prop-blades completed
the refinement. The hardest part was probably dremelling out the cowl,
raising some flutes at the rear over the blast tubes and positioning the cowl
braces. I removed all surface detail, and then added rib tapes from decal
strip in the correct location.
Decals
came from the spares box, and the rather unusual style “5” was made from a
reversed “2” cut into four pieces. Currently missing is a small serial
on the tail fin which a friend will print for me on his
ALPS
printer. This build was a lot of fun, and replaces yet another lost model
form my childhood days.
Mark
Click on
images below to see larger images
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