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Henschel Hs 123 A-1

 

AviS, 1/72 scale

S u m m a r y

Catalogue Number:

AviS BX 72004 Henschel Hs 123 A-1

Scale:

1/72

Contents and Media:

60 white plastic parts on four sprues, windshield on one piece of acetate sheet, decal sheet for 4 a/c plus 2 double sided A4 sheets with history, parts plan, 6 build diagrams and 4 camouflage and markings diagrams.

Price:

MSRP USD$14.95

Review Type:

FirstLook

Advantages:

Interesting subject, sufficient detail for scale, most accurate kit of the type in any scale.

Disadvantages:

No locating pins, some clean-up required of both flash and ejection pin marks.

Recommendation:

Highly Recommended to all but the novice


Reviewed by Dave West


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FirstLook


A Brief History

The Henschel Hs123 entered service with the newly established Luftwaffe in 1936 as its first dive bomber. Declared obsolete in 1938, it remained, unmodified, in front line service in the ground attack role until 1944, when attrition and lack of spares forced it to be withdrawn. Had the jigs not been destroyed, production would have been restarted in 1942 and, no doubt, this aircraft would still have been flying at the very end of the war.

The Henschel Hs123 also flew with the Nationalist Chinese forces against the Japanese and remained on the Spanish Air Force inventory from the time of the Spanish Civil War until finally retired in 1953.


The Model

I ordered my kit on the internet and on opening the package when it arrived, I found the lid and base flat packed with the 4 sprues, instruction leaflet, decal sheet and acetate windshield in a sealed plastic bag. The base was very quickly and easily turned into a sturdy box to hold all the parts. The lid states that only 1000 boxings are to be produced. However, as the parts breakdown shows that several pieces are not used, I assume more will appear with different markings or by another manufacturer.

The four main sprues are finely moulded with subtle engraved panel detail, but there is a little flash, a few ejection pin marks and some surface roughness that have to be cleaned up to allow parts to fit together. The kit is for the Hs123 A-1 with no headrest and spatted wheels, though the headrest and parts for the unspatted wheels are included.

 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

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The span of the top and bottom wings and tailplane scale out exactly to the manufacturer’s published dimensions, at least to the accuracy that I can measure. The fuselage looks right and the cockpit, which consists of 6 parts plus detail moulded into the fuselage halves, matches the manufacturer’s drawing of the region as closely as can be expected for this scale. The windshield is printed on acetate sheet and will require cutting out and bending before attaching. A nice touch is the inclusion of a tool for aligning the interplane struts.

There are no locating pins. Everything is butt-joined.

Decals are matt and on separate carrier film.

 

 

All the marking for any of the 4 options are included, but there are no stencil decals apart from those on the propeller blades.

The four options are all for aircraft in the pre-war three colour scheme of 61/62/63 Upper Surface with 65 Lower Surfaces. Two are for 2/StG165 “Immelmann”, the first Luftwaffe unit to operate the Hs123 and are well covered photographically. The other 2 are for aircraft operated in Spain by the Condor Legion. The instruction shows that the forward face of the propeller blades are aluminium and the rear are black. This is, I believe, correct for the Spanish aircraft, but I think the Luftwaffe aircraft should have the blades painted RLM 70 Black Green. The Condor Legion option 24o5 shows the correct style of codes, but option 24o2 shows the style of codes used later by the Spanish and would be in the range 24o6 upwards.

The camouflage and markings guide is in black and white and show 4 views with full colour details and decal placement for each option.

 

 

Conclusion



The Airfix kit in this scale was available recently and can easily be found second hand, but is superseded in every department by this new one.

Whilst not a shake-and-bake model, AviS’s new 1/72 scale Henschel Hs 123 A-1 is well detailed, accurate and, with the application of average modelling skills, can be made into a very good model.

Highly Recommended to all but the novice.

Review Copyright © 2007 by Dave West
This Page Created on 11 June, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

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