I'm currently building the Hasegawa Henschel Hs 129 B-2, it's a very good kit with excellant fit and is going together very well. I am stuck however on the position of the seat armour. I have a picture and an excellant article (in TMMI) show the seat armour in a near upright position

The lugs on the kit seat armour suggest that it angles back, almost touching the cockpit rear bulkhead. In the article in TMMI the builder has added 2 "support" rods, between the armour and the bulkhead. If you look at the picture the 2 "rods", from the armour to the rear bulkhead are not straight and one has a spring hanging from it. This makes me question the position of the armour when there is no pilot present.

In this picture the armour is deffinately further back

In the first pic it seems to me that the pilot would have difficulty getting out of the cockpit, with the armour in this position, or getting in, for that matter. I believe the "rods" are part of a system that pulls the armour back, to enable the pilot to egress the plane.

Does anyone have any other picks of this armour in a rear position, or can tell me where to look. I got these and many others via a picture search with Google.
TIA
Mal

Mal, those are the same pics I got and i figured the pilot would ajust the seat. to the desired position once he was in the cockpit it would explian why the pedals and instrument panel are place forward enough for an 8' ft tall man to pilot the plane in position the kit has it placed. But I again put faith in the Hasagawa team and placed mine in the full back position as per the instructions. HTH Stug

Hi Witchking

Fantastic! :-) I've copied your pics to my Gallery, so it should be safe to delete the originals. :-) The following are the copies:











All the best

Rowan

:-) Great, thanks guys. I think the last pic answers the question and confirms my theory. I just love it when a plan comes together
Mal

Hi Mal

The last pic looks like a classic case of making extra room for a fat officer who won't even take off his greatcoat...

Seriously, these are awesome pics from Witchking!

Yes great pics, I'm now just trying to decide if the seat belts have been "thrown" back over the armour, before it has been pushed back? Take a look at the 2nd of my pics and the one with the fat greatcoat dude This would make perfect sense for when the pilot came to be strapped back in :-)
Mal