There is always great news from the Scale ModelWorld in Telford show every year – Zoukei- Mura had two kits in 1/32nd scale that were previewed heavily, the Japanese Ki-45 Kai "Toryu" & the German Heinkel Hs-129 that will come even sooner, we thought we would show you some info on the latter in our preview today…
New 32nd scale Super Wing Series Hs 129 (& others) from Zoukei-Mura on the way
Hs 129B Henschel B-2 & B3 Kits (2 boxings)
SWS series
1/32nd scale
Expected release in 2018
Price TBC – Around £150
The throngs of modellers attended Scale ModelWorld this November. There were a few “tasty “ things at the stand, the 48th scale F-4’s that have been so successful for ZM sold out, the new two-seat “anteater” Do-335 that is due for release on November the 18th was there in its full glory, also the news on two new kits from Zoukei-Mura -the dual engined 32nd scale pairing of the SWS 1/32 Ki-45 Kai "Toryu"
- we have a short video on that Ki-45 kit taken at the IPMS Omaha show this year..
The other new SWS kit we will feature in this preview – the SWS 1/32 Henschel Hs 129 B in two versions was present in advanced prototype form. Again, a short video of the prototype.
More information has come up about the Hs 129 kit and we will talk about that, but first a little more about the aircraft itself
Specifications (Hs 129 B-2 version)
Henschel hs-129B.svg
Crew: one, pilot
Length: 9.75 m (31 ft 11¾ in) / Wingspan: 14.20 m (46 ft 7 in)
Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in) / Wing area: 29.0 m² (312.15 ft²)
Empty weight: 4,020 kg (8,860 lb) / Max. takeoff weight: 5,250 kg (11,574 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Gnome-Rhône 14M 4/5 14-cylinder radial engines, 522 kW (700 hp) each
Maximum speed: 407 km/h (220 knots, 253 mph) at 3,830 m (12,570 ft) (clean)
Range: 690 km (372 nmi, 428 mi) / Service ceiling: 9,000 m (29,530 ft) / Rate of climb: 8.1 m/s (1,595 ft/min)
Armament - 2 x 7.92 mm (0.31 in) MG-17 machine guns, later models from 1943 to 1944 replaced the MG-17s with 2 x 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns
2 x 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons
4 x 50 kg (110 lb) fragmentation bombs on belly racks or 2 x 50 kg bombs on underwing mounts
30 mm (1.2 in) MK 101 armour-piercing gun in a conformally mounted gun pod. Later models could also carry a MK-103 gun pod, or a BK-3.7 gun pod.
The single aviator seated within the armoured nose behind a windscreen 3in thick, with armour all around the cabin. The triangular-section fuselage stored self-sealing tanks, weapons in the sloping sides and a hard point for a bomb below.
Test pilots at Rechlin dammed the A-0 pre-production planes as ridiculously underpowered, however, these planes went into action on the Russian Front by the Romanian Air Force. The newly designed B-series applied the huge quantities of French 14M motors that were on hand and in manufacturing by the Vichy authorities for the Me 323. 841 B-series were produced and used with significant impact on the Eastern Front however with considerably less successful results in North Africa.
Variants:
The B-1/R1 had 2 x 7,92mm MG 17 and 2 x 20mm MG 151/20, additionally 2 x 110lb or Forty-eight fragmentation bombs.
The R2 was built with a 30mm MK 101 attached below and was the first plane ever to employ a 30mm weapon during battle.
The R3 had a ventral box of 4x MG 17.
The R4 carried up to 551lb of bombs.
The R5 had a camera for vertical pictures.
The B-2 models switched the integrated MG 17s for MG 131s and other subtypes had several types of weapons for example the 37mm BK 3.7 of the Ju 87 G. The best innovative armament made use of verses Russian tanks with outcomes that were commonly destructive, was a battery of 6 smooth-bore 75mm tubes shooting recoilless shells down and to the rear with automatic activating as the plane flew over enemy armour.
The Hs 129B outfitted the 3 squadrons of the 8th Assault Wing of the Royal Romanian Air Corps - here is one shot down by the Soviets on the Eastern front.
The most remarkable incarnation of this aircraft was the Hs 129B-3/Wa. Fitted with the enormous PAK 40 anti-tank gun of 75-mm calibre. About 24 or 25 Hs 129B-3 were fitted with this anti-tank weapon.
This weapon considered 1,500 kilograms (3,306 lb) in its authentic ground-based kind and fired a 3.2-kg (7 lb) tungsten-carbide cored shell at 933 m/s (3,060 ft/sec). Even at a range of 1,000 m (3,280 ft), the projectile could pierce 133mm (5 1/2 in) of armour if it hit square-on. Changed as the PaK 40L, the cannon had a larger muzzle break to cut back recoil as well as electro-pneumatic function to provide following shells mechanically. Placed in the Hs 129B-3/Wa, the enormous weapon was supplied with twenty-six shells which could be fired at the cyclic rate of forty rounds per minute, so that 3 or 4 might be shot during one attack. Generally, just one hit could wipe out a tank from head-on.
In May 1944 this Hs 129B-2 was fitted at Travemunde with a mockup of a 75mm BK 7.5 (Pa K40) cannon installation for testing.
Perhaps the biggest issue was that the PaK 40L was too impressive a gun for the plane. Rather besides the extreme muzzle blast and recoil, the massive weight of the cannon made the Hs 129B-3 nearly uncontrollable, and in critical situations, the entire installation could be jettisoned.
The Kits:
There will be two versions of this aircraft coming out in two boxings:
The Hs 129 B-2 Boxing, featuring three different variants of the aircraft in 385 parts.
The Hs 129 B-2/ RIII mounted with a Mk 101 cannon under the nose, The Hs 129 B-2/R8 mounted with a Mk 103 cannon that can be posed open for maintenance, lastly, the Hs 129 with under-fuselage Bombload included.
The Hs 129 B-3 Boxing:
This kit features the massive Pak 40 75mm aerial Anti-Tank gun in a kit of 425 parts.
This kit features an incredible internal gun assembly inside the kit – no detail if there will be completely clear parts to show this off as yet. You can also show the pod gondola off the aircraft showing the whole process in a maintenance diorama.
That is all we have for now, we will surely show you more as the kit makes its attack run on our benchtops sometime in early 2018. Don’t forget to check out the “Old Man Blog” from Zoukei Mura and the musings of their very passionate modeller president – it’s great reading and sometimes he drops a hint in there about what is to come…
More on this as it approaches and info on where to get your new Do 335 if you wish – check out ZM’s homepage for more details
