Altogether about 802 were delivered, maintaining the Aufklarungsstaffein (recce squadrons) at a front-line strength of around 280 aircraft. By June 1941 virtually all were on the Eastern Front or in the Balkans or North Africa. A few survived until 1944-45 in operations against partisans in the Balkans, but most had been replaced by the Fw189 and used for towing gliders. The 200-odd combat veterans served in Nachtschlacht (night ground attack) wings, often using a variety of armament schemes.

After I saw Ryan Grosswiler's build of this kit, I was motivated to get one of my own. Sabrekits provides five different boxings, all the same plastic with different decals. I chose the 'Blitzkrieg' offering. The detailing of the kit is quite nice. It could be classified as a short run kit due to its lack of alignment pins/sockets and the small ejector towers on some of the large parts. Don't let the parts layout diagram fool you as the right hand sprue is about three times the size of the left.

The kit provides a nice cockpit and gunner's compartment with detail provided on the fuselage sidewalls. Decals are provided for the instrument panel and the seat belts. Once the interior is complete and installed, then the fuselage external bits are added. Note that though the instructions show a bomb rack being installed, this was not always present. I'd also hold off installing the canopy and rear gun until after painting. A choice is provided in terms of having wheel fairings or not. All the markings options show them installed.

When it comes to the engine, you are offered a choice of open or closed cowl flaps. The main cowl ring is made up of three parts which will require some care during construction as the segments are butt joined. Once all the bits are assembled for the engine, it can be installed on the fuselage. As the prop doesn't turn, I'd recommend leaving it off until after painting.

The final steps involve assembling and attaching the wings, struts, and tailplanes. There are a lot of struts on this aircraft so one does need to take care. Note that one of the markings options puts underwing insignia right in the middle of a strut attachment point so in this case one should paint and decal this area prior to attachment. Other small things like a small prop driven turbine for the instruments and an HF long wire weight are to be attached to the lower fuselage.

Instructions are on a single folded sheet and are well drawn, showing glue attachment areas. Three markings options are provided in this boxing. One is a prewar plane in RLM 61/62/63 over 65. Next is a French campaign plane in RLM 70/71/65. This one has oversize insignia. Finally, with a yellow rudder and cowling is a Greek campaing plane. Color info is in RLM and Humbrol references. Note that RLM 65, the underside color, is not listed at all, but that would be the correct shade for this aircraft.

Over the years, I have built two other 1/72 Hs-126s. The first was the Matchbox kit from when dinosaurs roamed the earth. A 19 years back, I built the one by Italeri. Now there is this one. I fully expect this to not be as easy to build as the Matchbox and on a par with the Italeri kit. I've not built the Airfix kit so cannot comment on that one.  Below is the Italeri kit.