While looking for an early model B-17 I stumbled on a clearance of Italeri kit on LuckyModel in Japan and bought one. They were also selling 1/48 scale HS-169 with an Opel Blitz thrown in for good measure for $17. HS-169 is what I'd call a neat plane. There is a Hasegawa and a Revell/Hasegawa rendition on eBay. I think the Italeri was originally made by ESCI a firm I don't know. I've seen several mentions of the ESCI 1/48s and the opinions do vary, although an editor of a board claimed their HS-169 was a very good kit. On eBay the Italeri (also boxed by AMT) is widely available cheap. The Hasegawa is also available but at a very stiff price. I've learned a bad model is no bargain even if free. I've also learned that some of the 70's kits were very nice and make worthy builds, especially if you're not too picky about cockpits. Has anyone built either versions of the HS-169?

Hi Eric,
The Hasegawa (or Revell/Hasegawa) kit is far superior to the Esci one. I had both and built the Hasegawa one (it's in the features somewhere) and threw away the Esci one

Enough said. Thanks much. Maybe Hasegawa will reintroduce it: I think some of their Japanese Army fighters are back on the shelves after a rest. (Heaven knows how I mangled the plane's numbers. Very odd: last night I was watching one of the German weapon series based upon propaganda films (I find them invaluable for modeling) and there was some very dramatic footage of a HS-129 attack and I thought, "neat plane, wonder if there's a model?"

I was actually in the middle of re-scribing the ESCI Hs-129 and I had a photo etch set for it but I binned it when the Hasegawa kit came along. I looked for my build in the features but couldn't find it so here are a couple of pictures:







The rest can be found here:

Modsels

Very nice build indeed. And it is a neat plane even if pilots didn't like it - has a very lethal look. My next tank project (I do a plane, tank, ship sequence and plane is just beginning) is going to deal with winter weathering, something I've never done before. Going to build two old and simple Tamiya tanks and weather a T-34 in "Spanish School" style which emulates a kind of early spring look: hairspray etc. Also going to do a PZ IVD in Dec 41 garb because a lot of German armor didn't have whitewash in the early winter. There, the concentration will be on trying to emulate snow and ice. (If that works, I might try it on a destroyer.) I've got a Ju-52 that's begging to fly to Stalingrad, so how did you "winterize" the build just posted?

Hi Eric,
This was my first time "winterising" so it was a bit of an experiment. I first of all applied the proper RLM65 RLM70 RLM71 camo. Next I used blue tack to make soft edge masks for the markings and important stenciling. I then sprayed on light grey, not white, very thinly, in bands across the wings and down the airframe, building the coverage slowly so that it was slightly heavier in places (this effect doesn't show up to well in the pics)then, before the paint was fully cured, I used a cotton bud, moistened with white spirit (I use enamel paints)to gently remove paint in high ware areas. I forgot to mention that the initial camo coat had a coat of Klear and another was applied after the decals went on. Weathering followed the winter coat, simples