Henschel Hs 129 "Tank Cracker"

Hello! This is the Henschel hs 129 variant B-3 which I’ve been making and I thought I’d share it here. It was a German ground attack aircraft from WWII. Dedicated purely for ground attack–it was armed with two MG-17 machine guns, two MG 151/20 cannons, and one modified PaK 40 75 mm anti-tank gun–this set up allowed it to destroy any armored vehicle on the battlefield.

My aim is to make it as realistic and accurate as possible. If you have any tips, see any problems, or have any comments feel free to leave them here.

I’ll update this thread with new screenshots from time to time. Modeling is a challenge since I’m not very experienced in Blender but it’s coming along, slow and steady.

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Hi coolfield7,

very interesting plane. Slow but deadly ! I advice you to model parts as separate mesh. For witold’s book, the english version is not really expensive imo. And you could learn a lot with it !

Alright, separate objects it is!

This is what I’m doing now: Going to model everything step-by-step, fully model the nose, then the cockpit, wing, etc. Before, I made everything at the same time in a rough form, problem with that is, if I put one loop cut it would go over the whole plane :spin:

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Modeled a bit more. Some of the basic cutout of the cockpit is done. Front window added.



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Added the cockpit/canopy hatch/cover.

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Added the wings, changed the cockpit front window, and a few more minor tweaks here and there. I made the flaps separate but before arranging the wings in the proper position, so I joined the meshes again and re-positioned them together, I might make them separate again later…maybe…



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Added a few more thinks and made tweaks. That bulge houses the upper machine gun of the plane if you’re curious.




Just an update, I haven’t given up! Took a break and in a few days I’m gonna start up the good ol’ Blender and keep at this thing until it’s done!

I’ve crafted the horizontal tail thingy. Time to craft the tails details.



Worked more on the tail and it’s done. Engines now!




PREPARE TO BE AMAZED!! Worked on the engines, not completely done but good progress.





Try to be a little bit more careful in shaping the contour curves:

  • the tip of the nose was rounded (as it is visible on the picture below) while you have left in your model a visible sharp edge along the centerline:

The upper part of the rudder in your model in post #13 had an uneven shape. I am not sure if you corrected it later, but it seems that it has a circular shape in post #14, while in the real plane it was a an ellipse. You can see it clearly on the photo below:

I am not sure, if you find these drawings - they may be helpful:
http://references.charlyecho.com/?mode=table&dir=/Henschel/Hs-129

However, never trust by 100% any reference drawing, except the original factory blueprints. For example - note that on the side views from different authors presented at this url address, the tip of the rudder is an ellipse or a perfect circle. Which is true? You can find the answer on the photos. Be also aware of the photos of rebuilt planes - sometimes they differ from the originals! The most reliable source are the historical photos, like the two above.

Hummm, yeah the nose on the real plane is more rounded, I’ll work on that.

The tail has quite a few vertices, giving more defined lines instead of a smooth curve. I’ll merge many of them and see if that works.



Thanks for pointing these out! Always appreciate the help!

Did some work on the landing gear, maybe I should put on subdivision surface… but not too high.



Wheels modeled, need some tweaks and some small bolts need to be added.

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Are you planning to make this landing gear permanently retracted? (I am asking about this, because it seems that the dampers in the legs and their scissors are made as a single objects…). On the ground dampers have a static deflection, but during retraction they extend on the full length…

They’re separate objects. Many of my renders will have the plane on the ground, if I’m doing a scene where it’s flying I’ll just move the wheel into position and move the remaining landing gear out of the way.

Back to Blender! I had exams which I just finished today. Now I’m free to work on this.

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