Hansa Brandenburg W.29 by MPM

1/72 scale
Kit No. 72058
Retail: $35.00 – $41.00
Decals: Two versions – both Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy), World War I
Comments: Engraved panel lines, photo etch details, poor fit in places, scratch building skill required, great historical interest; aftermarket replacements for lozenge decals and rear machine gun strongly recommended

History

The Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 was a two-seat seaplane fighter primarily employed by the German Navy during World War I to patrol the coastal waters of Germany and the Netherlands as well as the North Sea. But it was also used by Turkey on the Black Sea, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (as the license-bult UFAG Type C) on the Adriatic Sea during the conflict.

On January 17, 1918 the Brandenburg Company received a contract from the German Army and Navy to build three prototypes of a twin float monoplane. The result, the W.29, began as an improvement on Hansa-Brandenburg’s W.12 two-seater biplane seaplane. It was designed by engineer Hans Klemm in 1917 as a monoplane (although Ernst Heinkel also took credit for the concept, describing in his autobiography how he conceived the design on the back of a wine list in a Hamburg nightclub). While the W.12 fuselage, floats and tail unit were modified, and it had a single wing, the engineering of the W.29 was otherwise similar to many biplanes of the day.

The first flight on March 27, 1918 occurred on Plauer Lake. The third prototype was successfully tested on the front at Flanders. It was operational by that summer, and one of its earliest combat operations occurred on June 4, 1918 when five British flying boats were patrolling the North Sea to investigate wireless activity related to German Zeppelins, which at times caused near-panic in Britain with their bombing raids. The patrol consisted of four Felixstowe F.2a aircraft and an American Curtiss H-12. Five W.29’s appeared but retreated when the British formation turned toward them, only to reappear later with a total of 10 fighting seaplanes. An air battle ensued in which a W.29 was shot down, and a Felixstowe forced to land on the water, only to be shot up and set afire by the Germans. Two days later on June 6, a Curtiss H-12 was jumped by 5 W.29’s and shot down.

Both British and German reports said that the W.29 was considerably faster than many enemy aircraft and it was possible to perform surprise attacks quickly without prolonged exposure to enemy fire. With its twin forward firing 7.92mm machine guns, synchronized to fire through its spinning propeller, the W.29 posed a significant danger to Allied aircraft and shipping — evidenced in part by the degree of Allied concern regarding the disposition of these seaplane fighters after the war. One spectacular W.29 attack carried out by aircraft led by Friedrich Christiansen and 1 Staffel severely damaged a British submarine on July 6, 1918. W.29’s strafed Submarine C-25 to the point that the hull was compromised, making it impossible to submerge. The Germans thought they sunk it, but it ultimately limped back to a British port with the Captain and five others dead.

While they did not tip the balance, W. 29’s proved a lethal hazard to Allied vessels and aircraft operating in the North Sea in the final months of the war, downing at least one British airship, C.27, as well as a number of large flying boats that were shot up, forced to make water landings, and in many cases set ablaze by gunfire and destroyed. During the war a total of 305 machines were ordered, but only 209 were delivered.

Continued Allied concern about these aircraft, even after the end of the war, is demonstrated by the fate of many seaplanes that had been forced down during the war and interned for the duration. Per the terms of the Versailles Treaty, these aircraft were to be returned to Germany, or purchased by the nation with possession of them. Some were instead sold as scrap in violation of the treaty, with the proceeds going to the German government. Others met an unknown fate and were never again acknowledged by the interning governments.

The W,29’s utility is best exemplified by its continued use after the war in the hands of Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Japan. Japan received fifteen W.29 floatplanes as war reparations, including four that had been built illegally after the war, per the terms of the Versailles Treaty which forbade German aircraft production. In Germany, a small number of W.29’s were operated by Deutsche Luft Reederie (DLR), a civil airline.

For a preview of this kit directly out of the box, click here.

Construction

The biggest challenges this kit presents are its poor fit and the extremely spindly nature of some of its struts, four of
which I threw out in favor of scratch built examples. The cockpit floor is too wide and must be sanded down significantly to fit comfortably inside the fuselage halves. Even then the tops of the fuselage halves will not meet upon cementing, and there was a significant gap along most of the dorsal length of the fuselage that had to be closed by a combination of putty and plasticard cut and sanded to fit the aircraft’s dimensions. I filled the area between the rear gunner’s position and the tail, which had a gap so wide you could see into the fuselage, with Milliput. I did the same for the other gaping area between the engine bay and the cockpit.

That left the significant gap between the pilot’s and rear gunner’s position, which was glaring and too big to ignore. I cut a section of plasticard, sanded and shaped to conform to that section of the fuselage, and cemented it on top of the gap to cover it completely using Tamiya Liquid Cement. Once puttied, sanded and painted, this major defect in the fuselage was completely covered.

Another challenge was the one-piece engine. This part was simply too long to fit into the engine bay. I had a choice of either cutting down the engine, or enlarging the engine bay by making it a bit longer. I set to work with an Xacto blade and a file and lengthened the engine bay by nearly a full centimeter in order to get the engine to fit inside it.

The wings had mere stubs of locator pins corresponding to machined holes in the fuselage, but the pins were so small they were hardly worthy of the name, more like pimples. They were of no real use. I sanded them off and tried replacing them with metal pins for which I drilled holes in the wings where the locator pins had been. Everything was fine until I fitted the wings to the fuselage, when it became clear that the pins placed the wings at a
low, drooping angle in relation to the fuselage, as if their internal spars had fractured at the wing roots. I reluctantly abandoned the pins and attached the wings to the fuselage with cyanoacrylate, unassisted by anything else. Fortunately owing to the composition and ruggedness of the MPM plastic (the Hansa Brandenburg W.29 was first released in 1997), the bond held and the cyanoacrylate alone kept the wings firmly attached to the fuselage.

Next came the floats. They assembled easily enough, but the two struts connecting them were too delicate for comfort: one of them broke and had to be repaired. This was the case with nearly all of the support struts, at least three of which  were broken upon removing them from the sprue. I scratch built replacements for four of them using strip styrene (.066 x .090″) by Evergreen Scale Models. They significantly improved the structural strength of the connection between fuselage and floats.

Some of the smaller plastic kit parts for the final stages of construction were too thick or lumpy. The latter definitely applies to all the kit machine guns. I used the two that are mounted to the sides of the nose, but for the more prominent rear machine gun, I replaced the kit part with a metal aftermarket Parabellum LMG.14 by Mini World from the Ukraine. This crisply detailed part helped put a nice finishing touch on the kit. Although parts are provided for the engine exhaust pipes, they were too thick and did not appear to be to scale. I replaced them with polystyrene round rods of .025″ diameter, and painted them with a mixture of four parts Testors Silver to one part Model Master Rust (both enamels). This captured the faintly rusted look often seen on exhaust pipes. Had these tiny parts been larger, I’d have airbrushed them with Exhaust Manifold, an Alclad II lacquer with a slightly bronze sheen to it.

It would be an understatement to call the vacuform windshield fiddly. It is a part easily lost. MPM provided a spare, but it was nowhere near as transparent. With effort and patience, I was able to cut it free of the surrounding vacuform mold and sand it down to the correct shape. I glued it to the forward edge of the cockpit without incident.
The photo etch handholds for the aircraft handlers aboard ship went on last. These ultra-small, ultra-fiddly parts can be seen at the bottom of the fuselage on either side just aft of the national insignia and ahead of the tail.

Painting

The kit is mostly painted in Humbrol enamels. Its upper surfaces were airbrushed in Humbrol Ghost Grey Satin (No. 127), an attractive shade of grey that dries to a flat rather than a satin finish. The under surfaces of the fuselage and the floats were painted Humbrol Light Grey Matt (No. 147), applied with a paintbrush. The undersurfaces of the wings and tail are covered in Polly Scale acrylic Doped Linen (No. 505029), also applied with a paintbrush. Many, but not all Polly Scale acrylics can be applied as well with a paintbrush as with an airbrush, and luckily Doped Linen is one of them. The rudder is painted Humbrol Gloss White.

Markings

The kit decals are by Propagteam and are of very high quality. That said, modelers should use great care as they are extremely thin and the bigger they are, they can be difficult to move around much once they are in contact with the model. You will want to ease them off the paper backing as close to the final position you want them in as possible, to avoid difficulties. The large crosses on the wings gave me a bit of trouble because I did not realize this initially, as it has been quite a few years since I worked with this brand. That said, once they are in place, they look great.

The color of the kit’s lozenge decals on a separate sheet seemed a bit lackluster to me, with a washed out appearance. I am not sure of their manufacturer, and it was not clear that they were made by Propagteam. I chose to replace them with a more colorful sheet in a darker shade of blue by Microscale. The Microscale decals were of above average quality and were at least 20 years old, but they had been sealed in a clear plastic envelope the entire time. That said, they were slightly crinkly and a little brittle, tending to break around their edges. I planned for this since lozenge decals are of necessity quite thin, cutting slightly larger shapes than I needed to cover the wings and tail. There was some difficulty getting them to lay down at first, but once I gave them an application of MicroSol, they settled onto the kit’s surface smoothly. The finished look was surprisingly good.

Conclusion

MPM’s Hansa Brandenburg W.29 deserves accolades for accurate lines (with the exception of the shape of the rudder) and a reasonably detailed cockpit, including photo-etched seat straps, control wheel, and rudder pedals, definitely above average enhancements for 1/72 scale. It is an unusual World War I subject and will have an enduring interest for modelers interested in this period. These are its significant good points, and I have to say I am pleased with the finished model.

That said, rarely will Hangar 47 engage in blunt criticism, but despite its good points this kit is something of a monster. It is poorly engineered and the fit in places is atrocious, from the undersized engine bay to the too-wide cockpit floor and engine rest, negatively affecting the fit of the fuselage. In addition, the illustrated instructions are inaccurate. For example, there are asymmetrical V struts connecting the floats to the fuselage, that are represented in the instructions as N struts. And again, the kit struts are in most cases far too delicate for the loads they are expected to bear — they are best replaced.

The strut assembly stage is not clearly illustrated, and I had to study the box art to get the arrangement of the struts right. Nearly every support strut associated with the floats is too delicate and too weak to support its share of the weight of the plane. It was a minor ordeal to free the struts from the sprue without damaging them, and not always successful due to the thickness of the connectors. For the key load-bearing struts, I made scratch built replacements. MPM’s Hansa Brandenburg W.29 is best undertaken by experienced modelers with some scratch building abilities. Given the challenges it posed, it turned out far better than I expected, but it demanded a lot of perseverance and a little skill. In that respect it is reminiscent of the Blue Max Halberstadt CI. II, the kind of kit that seems to have been intended for collectors to own, but never build. On a final note, Flashback made a limited run kit of the W.29 in 1/48 scale that may be better engineered but is hardly cheap, often fetching aftermarket sums in excess of $100.00.

 

References

• Kit instructions
• Hansa-Brandenburg Aircraft of WWI: Vol. 3 Monoplane Seaplanes by Colin A. Owers; Copyright 2015 Aeronaut Books; Charleston, South Carolina