Scratchbuilt 1/72 Henderson HSF1

From the archive (2007):

Ah, those deceiving little monsters…you look at the 3 views and say to yourself –mhhn, piece o’cake. Pretty square, slab-sided, regular size….

Ha! Next thing you know, you are crying shamelessly over the building board, half-way the project, hoping you had tackled the Tarrant Tabor instead.

Anyway, the Henderson HSF1 was a creature born of the need to give some naive bystanders their short ride around the airstrip at a reasonable cost with certain level of safety. A leftover Beardmore engine was bolted to the back of the fuselage instead of the planned, more reliable –and more expensive- power plant. That should give you an idea of the state of things around that hangar.

Nevertheless the Henderson took to the air although with certain –understandable- reluctance and evolved to an all-enclosed cabin apparatus nicknamed the “flying greenhouse”, not secondly due to its aerodynamic properties.

The model, as said before, appeared as an easy ball, but later revealed its true malign nature. I quit counting the parts when I reached 150 and rigging the beast was not my favorite afternoon

The images are the chronicle of a long journey thru the barren lands of scratch-building. The wheels were the only borrowed parts, and the use of Contrail aerofoil section and “Strutz” material alleviated the task.

But after the storm passed, the sun shone once again on the skies of modeling world, illuminating the building board and the hieratic figure of the Henderson HSF1.

What can I say, it must be love.