¹⁄35

Henschel Hs 129B-2 in the Snow

Construction continued without any problems, then it was time for paint. The scheme I chose was one depicted in the kit of an aircraft on the Russian front in the standard RLM 65 undersurfaces, with RLM 70/71 upper surfaces. Before painting started I washed the model with Isopropyl alcohol. You could use soapy water, but the alcohol dries almost instantly and there is never any residue left. I then followed my usual practice of priming with Halfords (auto store in the UK) white plastic primer, then pre-shading with black (see my article “To pre-shade or not to pre-shade”). The yellow quick recognition elements were applied first, using Xtracolor RLM 04. All colours were thinned with white spirit with a few drops of Rustin's Drier. This makes the paint dry in less than 2 hours. When dry the RLM 04 areas were masked, apart from the areas under the engine cowls. Xtracolor RLM 65 was then sprayed over the undersurfaces, allowing the pre-shading to show through. Other items, such as the Mk 103 gun cover, footsteps and the outside of the gear doors, were sprayed as well. Again, when dry, the undersurfaces were masked, with Tamiya tape, then Xtracolor RLM 71 was applied. When this was dry Xtracolor RLM 70 was sprayed on freehand. The usual camouflage scheme, on the Hs 129, in the Russian theatre would have a hard edge splinter camouflage. However, as I Intended to have a go at a winter whitewash scheme, I was happy not to have to use time to mask and followed the suggested free hand scheme. I have not been able to confirm this. Not much of the underlying scheme would be seen, but I wanted to show the affect of the two different greens under the whitewash.