Mass-producing all of my HS-123s, and finally the pilots

[anton ryzbak]

I decided to quit fiddling around and just build all of each type of plane in my inventory all in one go. As I had five HS-123s they were the first up. I was surprised at how quickly I got all of them assembled. I'm interested to see if I can get them painted with equal speed. A step-by-step here https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2024/10/enough-of-monkeying-around-mass.html

[Tom Dulski]

 well done

[anton ryzbak]

I decided to do the Spanish and Chinese aircraft first, the Luftwaffe birds will be much easier. More here https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2024/10/mass-build-hs-123-by-airfix-let.html

[FifteensAway]

Very nice work.  As usual.

[anton ryzbak]

The three remaining HS-123s have joined the Luftwaffe, more here https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2024/11/meanwhile-back-in-germany-hs-123s-join.html

[marianas_gamer]

Nice work. My favorite is the one in Chinese service.

[fred]

Great work - the production line method seems to be working very well for you

[anton ryzbak]

I finally got around to painting the pilots. Airfix generally does a decent job of sculpting them. Others, not so much. https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2024/11/pilots-for-my-planes.html

[SJWi]

Lovely. I need to find one in 1/100 for my Spanish Nationalists.

[anton ryzbak]

SJWi,  I used a Russsian tanker figure from Flames of War for the I-153 I scratchbuilt.  I filed down the bumps on the helmet. I think it worked OK.

[madman]

Would they all have identical flight suits? I understand 4 are German but would the Chinese use the same suit? I mention this as the Italians between the wars had very light coloured suits. I could not discover if they were white, light blue, gray or sand but from the pictures it would have been a very faint tint.

[carlos marighela]

Those HS-123s look great. Fabulous little plane that gets a lot less attention than it should.

[carlos marighela]

Would they all have identical flight suits? I understand 4 are German but would the Chinese use the same suit? I mention this as the Italians between the wars had very light coloured suits. I could not discover if they were white, light blue, gray or sand but from the pictures it would have been a very faint tint.

I suspect the Luftwaffe chaps are being depicted as in service dress, which was common for fighter sized aircraft. German flight suits for the period were a sort of khaki beige colour.

I've seen those photos of Italian aircrew in very light coloured flight suits.  There's a photo of Italo Balbo wearing one. I suspect they are white, which was not uncommon at the time. RAF pre-war flight suits were white and you see them being worn through to the Battle of Britain. The Italians also had khaki coloured suits and some in Italian uniform grey. There's a good depiction of a khaki suit on a bomber crewman in the Osprey on the Italo-Ethiopian War.

[anton ryzbak]

It turns out that the paint job is of small matter. To my chagrin they won't fit through the cockpit opening and thus will be pitched into the spares bin. Now what I really need is a source of pilot figures (slimmer than the current supply). There are resin ones available but they run about nine dollars US per figure, which is simply absurd. In a pinch I can raid my supply of PT-13D as they come with two figures each and I have abandoned my King Kong project (I know that he was gunned down by O2-U Corsairs but that was a s close as I cloud manage). But, in the long run, most Japanese and European models do not come with crewmen so I still need a source of pilots. If anybody has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated!

Worst comes to worst I could make a mold and cast my own

[carlos marighela]

Eureka do a 20mm scaled seated pilot. It's  a US Pacific War pilot but given the size of the cockpit opening, you'll probably only see the head and shoulders and a paint should disguise the rest. No idea if it's going to fit but I recall it being a little less bulky than 1/72 plastic pilots. If I knew where mine was I'd happily send it to you.

I suppose you could always purchase one from Eureka USA and if it doesn't work, you coud bung it in a Wildcat or Hellcat at some later date.

https://www.eurekamin.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=1361