EagleCal Hs 129B-2 1/72 and 1/48 Decals

By Chris Bucholtz

EagleCal has released two sheets for the Hasegawa 1/48 Henschel, each of which give you a choice of four Hs 129s and show off just how colorful these aircraft were despite their ground-attack tasks.

EC17 has two desert birds, W.Nr. 0296 from 4. (Pz)/Sch.G 2, captured at El Adem, Libya in 1943 and W.Nr 0278 from 8. (Pz)/Sch.G 2, photographed at El Aouina, Tunisia in 1943. The former aircraft wears a mottled scheme of RLM 80 Olivegrun splotches on RLM 79 Italian Sand Yellow 1. The latter wears a 70-71-65 scheme oversprayed with RLM 79 squiggles, including some that go over the national insignia and fuselage band – a challenging scheme not recommended for the faint of heart! The other two schemes are more traditional 70-71-65 schemes, including W.Nr. 1408300 from 10. (Pz)/Sch.G 9 flown by Oblt. Georg Dornemann, which sports 11 tank kill markings on the rudder, and W.Nr. 0364 from 8. (Pz)/Sch.G 1 based at Kuban, Russia in 1943.

Sheet EC 17 covers only Eastern Front subjects in the 70-71-65 scheme, but is even more diverse in the variations depicted. W. Nr. 0350 from Pz.Ja.St./JG 51 wears splotches of RLM 80 and the remnants of its washable white winter camouflage on the nacelles. Lt. Walter Krause's 10.(Pz)/SG.9 machine wears crudely-painted winter white camouflage. Rumanian pilot Lt. Lazar Muntean's plane from the 60 Asalt Escadrila plane wears a skull and bone logo on the tail along with the blue/yellow/red fin flash, and the final aircraft is a 14.(Pz)/SG 9 plane in standard markings.

The decals are printed by Microscale and are precisely in register, and the white-bordered lettering is provided in two parts to ensure registration. The decals provide national markings, swastikas and octane markings; especially noteworthy are the small decals indicating dive angle which go on the right side of the pilot's canopy and decals to represent the instruments on each engine cowling.

Research was based on Martin Pegg's epic book Hs129 Panzerjager, and the instructions are dripping with detail, explaining the configurations of the antennas, armament and paint schemes in detail. In this, EagleCals sets the standard; no other decal company provides such detailed information on both the markings and the aircraft.

These decals get the very highest rating. You 1/48 builders who think that the Hasegawa Hs129 can't get any better are in for an even bigger treat! Our thanks to Eagle Editions for our review samples.