Scratchbuilt 1/72 Henderson HSF1 By Gabriel Stern

Introduction

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 naïve 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. Rigging the beast was not my favorite afternoon, and more tears came as I was getting e-mails sent by my fellow modelers showing their marvels of craftsmanship done majestically and seemingly without effort.

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. The chosen colors are exactly that, chosen colors, since my proficiency interpreting orthochromatic, dichromatic, panchromatic, ectoplasmatic and ancient photography in general tends to cero. I won’t hide either behind the “educated guess” excuse this time.

But again, once 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.