Hs 123A . Itareri's finest mojo mangler, or my cut-price Gaspatch.
The unpainted panels are what the kit provides. The full floor has been removed; seat brackets added as well as the forward bulkhead; the instrument panel was flat, featureless, and the joy stick wasn't up to the job.
Putting these three bars in led to many an interesting word (if I've had a swear-box, I would have been able to afford the Gaspatch kit). Also note the three 'straps' around the cowling.
I scanned the scheme from the instructions and after resizing and printing, I made my own paint masks, which made the painting much easier.
When I haven't got photo etch belts I print some off, on good quality paper, so these cost about 20p. They look much better when they aren't 10 times larger than life.
Improvements to the kit parts; replacements of parts and new additions are too numerous to mention. This view shows many of the external improvements.
The flaps are moulded closed, but I thought I might as well make my life more complicated than it already is.
Comentarios
1 26 November 2017, 17:02
Thomas Bischoffwell done - sometimes I question myself whether to build a second kit straight from the box and brush paint it to show the difference 🙂
26 November 2017, 18:43
Spanjaardthank god it was a quick OOB build, if you would have chosen a complicated one....😉 seriously, you did an excellent job in what seems to be a.... far from optimal kit. IMHO, instead of going to the corner, you should stand proud, no just just of an excellent result, but also to the fact that in a low mojo situation you pulled yourself together and finished it tot he highest standards. my congratulations, respect and admiration 🙂
26 November 2017, 19:44
gorbyThank you, thank you, thank you Mike, Thomas, Murad & last but far from least Spanjaard.
That is an interesting idea Thomas, but I'm going anywhere near this kit again. Now that the pain has stopped, It was worth the effort as I learnt quit a lot and tried a couple of new techniques (such as the home-made paint masks, post shading & a tiny bit of rigging). But I can still see a couple of mistakes that are bugging me.
Spanjaard: Never before have I poured so much time and effort into something so small. I built the airfix 123 when I was a kid, which was almost certainly built and painted within a day. What would that kid think of me taking five months! Probably think "What a crap modeller, I can do that much quicker!".
At least now I can move on, the stash has grown a little, due to the hold-up, so no time to waste...
27 November 2017, 07:27
Alec KSounds like this was a painful build, but it surely does not look it. Well done 👍
27 November 2017, 15:04
gorbyThanks very much Timothy, Redcat & Alec, it almost makes the pain seem worthwhile... almost. 🙂
27 November 2017, 17:14
Spanjaardi know what you think.... i could do one model during each school holidays (maybe two in christmas), and i have only done two (still working in the second) in more than year and a half 😄
27 November 2017, 19:51
gorbySpanjaard: When I were a lad, if I had a new model it HAD to be built NOW! I didn't wait for holidays, any day could be modelling day. For me it was less about modelling and more about holding my very own Me 262, or B-29 or Lanc etc.
During the school holidays, three of us took our models to a friends garage and re-enacted WWII (in 1/72). I had the RAF, Luftwaffe & U.S. air force; another had the AFV's of the main combatants and the third had all the army figures. Just thinking about it makes me smile. 🙂
28 November 2017, 16:20
Spanjaardsliding down memory line now... 🙂 bringing some memories about battles with my brother or with friends... but we never used models for that. but used cheaper versions that you could buy in some shops (short of crude 1/72 figures etc)
Anyway, when i was a child i could not do models out of holiday seasons (every holiday season was model time). Later on, i did them more often than i was supposed, even when i was supposed to be studying 😛 no idea how my parents did not notice the extra models appearing sometimes in my room 😄
28 November 2017, 17:49
Derek ReeveWW-2 isn't/hasn't been my thing since I was a kid but from a modellers view I have nothing but praise for this, awesome.
25 February 2018, 11:33
gorbyThank you very much Derek & Timothy, I'm surprised that this one has cropped up again. Always nice to know that your efforts are appreciated, and this kit was an real effort.😉
25 February 2018, 15:22
Album info
Thinking that the Gaspatch kit was a little pricey, I decided to do the Italeri 1/48 Hs 123A. How hard can it be?
Due to a major mojo malfunction, I decided to do a quick, out of the box build. That is until I found that the ESCI/Revell/Italeri cockpit is almost entirely a work of fiction. On discovering that, I should have shoved it back in the box and never meet it's gaze ever again, but foolishly I decided to carry on regardless.
I'm my own worst enemy (although there are others who may believe they deserve that honour, please form a queue). I always think to myself 'how can I improve that', which translates as 'how can I make that as complicated and as time consuming as I possibly can'. I knew that I would have to re-scribe it, but after years of running scared of re-scribing, I now find it quite therapeutic, and god knows, I need therapy.
So….
All the flight surfaces were razor sawed off; the cockpit was almost completely scratch built; the engine and exhaust was 'improved'; anything remotely drillab
