Control Line Scale
Bill Boss [[email protected]]
Highlighting the Henschel Hs 129B-2 built by Victor Gearhart
In the December 2005 column I introduced Victor Gearhart of Torrance, California, and his work with an electric-powered B-25. This month I'm going to present Victor's work with standard glow engines and, in particular, the Henschel Hs 129B-2 he built in two sizes.
Before getting into Victor's models I'll give you some history of the Henschel aircraft (from Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation).
- Hs 123: The Hs 123 single-seat biplane was designed as an interim dive bomber until the Ju 87 class was brought into service. The Hs 123A-1 became the production aircraft and entered Luftwaffe service in October 1935. The Hs 123s were also used as ground-attack aircraft and were in service until roughly the middle of 1944. This aircraft was powered with an 880-horsepower radial engine and had various armament arrangements employing machine guns, a single 250-kg bomb, four 50-kg bombs, or two cannons for ground attack.
- Hs 126: Designed for short-range reconnaissance, it carried a pilot and observer/gunner. This design had a parasol-wing configuration, strut-braced tail section, and streamlined cantilever main landing-gear struts. It was the first all-metal aircraft of its type to enter Luftwaffe service and was used effectively until 1943.
- Hs 129: Designed for ground-attack operations, it entered service in 1942 on the Russian Front. The Hs 129A was equipped with two Argus As 410A 12-cylinder, inverted-V, air-cooled engines driving Argus automatic controllable-pitch propellers.
- Hs 129B series: The Hs 129B-1 and 129B-2 became the production models, equipped with two French-built, 660-horsepower Gnome-Rhone radial engines driving Ratier propellers. Depending on the variant, armament included an MG 151 20mm cannon, MG 17 machine guns, a 30mm MK 101 cannon, or 350 kg of bombs in place of a 30mm cannon and four machine guns. More than 800 Hs 129s were produced.
Victor chose the Hs 129B-2 version because it used radial engines and the cowling size would provide sufficient space to entirely hide the Magnum .36 engines he uses for power.
Victor made two models of the Hs 129B-2. One had a 1 inch = 1 foot scale, yielding a wingspan of approximately 46 inches. That version was powered with two AP .15s and had throttle and flaps as operational features; it appears to have been a test bed for his larger version, which is featured in the accompanying photos.
The larger version is built to a scale of 1.5 inches = 1 foot, yielding a 70-inch wingspan. This model has many more electronically controlled operating features: flaps, bomb drop, throttle, and homemade electrically driven retractable landing gear. Another feature is that the engine exhaust exits through the exhaust stacks on top of the engine nacelles, as in the prototype. Victor noted that the exhaust stacks work great, have a fine sound, and are equivalent to a Magnum muffler.
The paint scheme replicates an airplane flown by Lt. Walter Krause of 10.(Pz)Sch.G9 on the Eastern Front in early 1944. The electronics are turned off and on by twisting the cannon in the belly pod, and there is a small red LED in the tip of the cannon to indicate when the power is on. Because of the model’s size, the wing and fuselage are separated for travel.
Victor said another project in the works is the Westland Whirlwind. As of this writing the fuselage framework is almost complete, and this will be another electric-powered aircraft. I’m sure we will be hearing from Victor with another great model when it is finished.
CL Scale at the 2006 AMA Nats
CL Scale at the 2006 AMA Nats will take place Friday through Sunday, August 4–6, and will be under the direction of Chuck Snyder, a member of the F4B team that will represent the US at the 2006 CL World Championships.
- Static judging will take place Friday at Worthen Arena at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
- Flying will be done Saturday and Sunday.
- CL Scale events to be offered: Fun Scale, Sport Scale, FAI (F4B), Profile, and Designer.
- The Profile event will be divided into separate classes for Junior, Senior, and Open.
Chuck has stated that the Team Scale event that has been sponsored by the Queen City CL club will not be offered at the Nats because of the small number of participants in the past couple of years.
Team Scale provided an opportunity for the older modeler with great building experience who could no longer handle the flying because of age or illness to get with a younger, more capable pilot for the flying portion of the event. The older modeler could dust off a scale model or two he or she could no longer fly and see it go around the circle once more.
The ideal situation would be for a pair of modelers—young and old—to get together, pick a scale subject, and go through the building and flying process together before entering competition. This would give the older, more experienced modeler an opportunity to impart valuable building skills to the younger, inexperienced modeler. The older modeler, who had been successful at flying scale models, could give the less-experienced partner pointers on what to be careful of while flying a scale model. It’s too bad that more CL Scale modelers didn’t see the value in the event.
Chuck also wanted me to mention that there are always opportunities for new people to get involved with the judging aspect of the contest. It requires flight and static judges, pull-test officials, and scorekeepers to make a contest happen.
If you want to learn more about yourself and improve your scale-modeling abilities, there is nothing more enlightening than having the experience of judging. Judging—especially in the static portion of the scale events—will allow you to see the mistakes you may have made in your own models and allow you to make tremendous improvements.
If you want to try judging or help run an event or two, please contact Chuck Snyder at [email protected] or by telephone at (513) 489-8681. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Workshop Hint
Have you ever needed a third hand at the workbench when working with minute components? There is a simple solution. All you need are a pair of needle-nose pliers, a rubber band, and the small shop vise many of us have in our workshops.
- Double the rubber band around the handles of the pliers and clamp one of the pliers’ handles in the vise.
- Pull on the opposite handle of the pliers to open the pliers to the desired position and clamp the vise handle.
The setup will hold small items—pushrod clevises, jewelry components, etc.—while you solder or work on them. The accompanying photo shows my wife’s bracelet being held in the pliers for silver-soldering the loop of a charm.
Be careful not to touch anything you have soldered until it has cooled. Safety in the shop keeps you away from accidents and harm.
Please send ideas, notice of upcoming CL Scale events, contest reports, and especially photos of CL Scale activity to me at the address at the top of this column. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
