The Hs 123 was a single-seat biplane and 'close-support' attack aircraft, flown by the Luftwaffe during the Spanish civil war and effective through the early campaigns of WWII, including Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.
The Airfix 72nd Hs 123 has been recently reissued as a 'vintage classic'. 'Vintage classic' usually means a bit pricey, 'not very good' and/or 'lacking in detail' - basically an old tool. Quite a few builds of this kit can be found on youtube, but none of the modellers that I can see have attempted to do anything other than build the kit - given the 'age' of the model, it desperately needs some more detail.
Here I've sanded away all the raised rivets etc, added a 'cockpit' with rudder pedals and instrument panel and cut away the pilot's entry doors. I had a number of disasters during construction, including snapping off a cabane strut and losing one of the footsteps - a replacement was made from wire.
The paint job is inspired by some of the artworks in the MMP 'Henschel Hs 123' booklet where a number of profiles depict machines in overall 71 dunkelgrun with yellow cowl and rudder. I used 'Colour Coats' enamels - but didn't really like the green as it seemed far too dark when dry.
Two images of the Henschel upper surface colours - the first below almost certainly showing a single overall green finish, while the second image clearly shows a 70/71 splinter demarcation...
I had to dig out some replacement decals - for some reason the 'Schlacht' triangle is presented in 'red' on the kit decal sheet.
Below; two views of the kit built by Jose Cavas in the Legion Condor scheme on the kit decal sheet. Neat work!
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