discussion Zoukei Mura Hs129B-2/ RIII, 1/32 scale.

[BarryW]

Well I am almost ready to start. My modelling room is awaiting my shelves and blinds but that does not stop me building. So this is it, my first build in the new man-cave.

The box:
View attachment 434979

The aftermarket, not much, just paint masks. I will probably use decals for the swastikas.
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The sprues labelled and in my sprue rack ready.
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My bench all set-up
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More to follow….

 

[Jim R]

Hi Barry
Well after all the time and effort you must be feeling pretty excited to at last start a model. Looking forward to following along.
Jim

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looks good. A very interesting little plane as a starter to christen the bench….

 

[dalej2014]

That workspace looks amazing. Well done sir. Look forward to seeing how the model turns out too.

 

[rtfoe]

What a way to start off with a tank buster Barry. Now the itch will stop. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard

 

[adt70hk]

Nice one to start with and something out of the ordinary....have a soft spot for a lot of WW2s twin engined fighters and ground attack aircraft..... This is one of them.

Looking forward to it coming together!

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Andy the Sheep]

I have just marked "Watch" this tread.
Will follow with interest.

 

[Dave Ward]

Barry,
oh, that looks far too tidy, and much too clean! More like a surgery, than a model bench. I could never keep mine like that, I'd have it looking like a rubbish dump in a day or so!
The Hs129 has always attracted me - I made the Airfix model a long time ago ( 45 years? ), that 75mm cannon being the main attraction!
Dave

 

[BarryW]

Hi Dave. ZM will produce other variants with the bigger cannon in due course.

Anyway. I have cut plastic!

The parts are beautifully moulded, crisp, clean with no flash and minimum clean up.

The plastic is very high quality but soft, not soft in the Airfix sense which is easy to work with, but soft with a little elasticity. That gives it some minor sanding issues that I am not very keen on, but there are some advantages, the elasticity means that parts are less fragile and are less likely to break.

I really love the instructions, they leave no ambiguity about part placement showing the parts from different angles with excellent explanations. This model is going to be a fun build.

I have started work on the engines and have been working on the first two stages.

View attachment 434993

Here is how they are left for now.
View attachment 434992

 

[Jim R]

...and he's off. Those instructions do indeed look rather special.
Jim

 

[adt70hk]

...and he's off. Those instructions do indeed look rather special.
Jim

Got to agree, almost a work of art in themselves.

Looking forward to this come together.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[BarryW]

I did a little more this morning. It is so nice not being exiled to the garage and just being able to just pop in.

The engine is coming together beautifully. The manifolds just click into place, beautiful engineering.
View attachment 435026

What I love is how ZM really want to help make sure you don’t go wrong. Just look at this, one step in the instructions for attaching one part, the care taken to make sure you know exactly what to do puts every other model company to shame and I do not exclude Tamiya from that.
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[BarryW]

I have completed the construction of the engines, beautifully detailed, not much will be visible when completed.

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I will be painting them soon.

While I will be fitting the engines ZM do give you the means to display them separately with a nice little engine mount made from the (now empty) sprues the engine parts came on. I will not bother but this is a nice touch.

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Before I move on to the cockpit this might be a good time to report on the success of my ‘carpet-monster suppression measures’ or perhaps I should say, CSCM, taken in my new modelling room. To which, so far, I can say they are a great success. Every dropped part, however small has been quickly spotted and retrieved. The combination of the blue colour and low nap of the carpet tiles really makes parts stand out while keeping the floor clear of clutter gives nowhere for the CM to hide before pouncing. I have taken to vacuuming after every session as well as, again, by keeping the amount of plastic cuttings down spotting parts is a lot easier.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Barry
Lovely work. All credit to Zoukei-Mura and yourself. Nice to know that a very hungry Carpet Monster is jumping about in a frustrated rage :tongue-out3:
Jim

 

[adt70hk]

That's coming on very nicely indeed Barry and as you say the engine stand is a nice touch. Also good to hear that the anti carpet monster measures are working well so far.

ATB

Andrew

 

[BarryW]

I have made a decent start on the cockpit.

The fit of parts is superb but they are very fiddly so a good ‘third hand’ set up is really needed. This is what I am using:
View attachment 435091
Simply a pair of locking tweezer held in a base (both available through John). It works well.

The photos and line drawings in the instructions make it really clear how parts should fit. With the parts below it would have been easy to get it wrong.
View attachment 435094
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The seat in place, matching exactly what the instructions show.
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More than any other brand it is important to follow the ZM instructions or you can make life difficult for yourself.

 

[scottie3158]

Looks like a great kit to build with excellent instructions, what better way to christen the new man cave.

 

[Airborne01]

What better way to christen the new man cave? Oh come on Christy Brinkley with a paint rack, couple of beers, and a big smile ....

 

[BarryW]

An inbox review has been posted today on YouTube of this kit. It is interesting to watch.

Anyway I got a bit more work done on the cockpit this morning then I sprayed a coat of RLM066 to the inside of the cockpit and will detail it up later after I have sorted a few more cockpit subs. I also sprayed black MRP primer onto the front area of the engines. Very little of the engines will be seen so I won’t be doing a lot of detail painting and will just use metal powder to bring out detail and give it a metal glint.

View attachment 435140

A closer look at the cockpit before I painted it There is a lot more to do to this, not just detail paint.
View attachment 435141

 

[Tim Marlow]

Coming on really well. However, it looks like there are noticeable ejection pin marks on the seat base and back there Barry. Are they covered by anything during assembly or are they just not visible when the bird is completed?