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Heinkel He 51 of Harro Harder, Legion Condor, Hasegawa 1/72


JWM

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Hi,

My third one frinished in 2016: Heinkel He 51, 2-64, pilot: Harro Harder, Legion Condor 1937, Spain.

This is an old kit from Hasegawa (1/72) with some small modifications (like sctrach build fuel tank). The control panel by Yahu, decals partialy form Print Scale (this particular machine is not provided by Prints scale but all SCW insignia came from this set) - the rest I had painted (the birds and skull) or from drawer.

Hauptman Harro Harder was one of German aces during SCW and then in WWII. If someone would like to read about him it could be here http://www.luftwaffe.cz/harderharro.html or here http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/germany_harder.htm .

He was credited with 11 victories in Spain (on He 51 and then on Me 109), 1 in Poland in Sept. 1939 and next 3 or 5 during BoB. He was KIA on 12 August 1940 beeing shot down by a Spit over sea near Isle of Wigth. He was older brother of another German ace - Jurgen Harder ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Harder) who died in Me 109 crash in Feb 1945. There was also third brother Harder, who was also a German pilot and who did not survived the war as well.... For me, as for Pole it should be difficult to feel some sympathy to Harder family, anyway - I feel some. OK - the swastika used as personal emblem suggest that Harro was a convienced nazi so my sympathty diminishing fast...

I chosen this painting scheme not only because of the high score of pilot but also because it is not bad documented (there are many photos in net) and (perhaps because of this swastika) not very common - nor in Hasegawa neither in ICM kit...

 

He51 DSC00298he51 DSC00265

 

he51 DSC00263he51 DSC00262

 

he51 DSC00261he51 DSC00259he51 DSC00260he51 DSC00258

 

he51 DSC00256

 

he51 DSC00257

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yahu cockpit:

 

he51 DSC05810

 

 

 

Comments welcome

Regards

Jerzy-Wojtek

Edited by JWM
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Nice! I just love the pre-war fighters, there's something menacing about those sturdy biplanes.

Out of curiosity, what did you use for the wiring? And how did you color it? There's another one in my stash waiting and I think it will be the next one I will start, after I finished my shelf of doom...

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Cya - thank you for comment. In fact the wiring (riggings) was the reason, that this model was waiting some x-teen years or even more than 20 in my stash. It has particulary lot of riggings. In past I was using styren thin wires obtained by partial melting and streching etc... Nowadays I am using EZ - which is made of a kind of elastic polymer- which is very friendy. Glueing with cyano-acrylic glue. It is black, so I was trying not paint it, sometimes I failed so I corrected it back to black using a black marker. If you wil try to paint EZ with enamel (thinned) it makes it soft and losing its tension, however after evaporation of thinner it comes back (....well - almost) to original elascticity. So one have to be careful with painting EZ with enemels, with acrylic should be OK.

Regards

J-W

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Jerzy!!!!!

I have been missing some models here as have a lot of things that have me busy and out of the site but anyway, is better later than never, so your wonderful job won't be missing my attention as you see.

This one is a nice model, maybe old but just as wonderful with a loving care of embelishing and with not so common dress as this one, that make oen thing about a kit at hand to try following yours steps.

I liked a huge ot the way you painted her and even the version that is not so common and as Ihave done before in a comment, watching those magnificent models as you build make me smile and remember of old times when the "Resin+PE+Shake+Bake" models were only a dream and enjoying modeling was easy than now...BUT the only nice things are the wonderful prolific choice we have in those new times.

BTW Have found in a Municipality Sponsored Book Fair not so longer from my job a Second hand book named I was a "Red Fighter Pilot" by Francisco Tarazona Toràn dealing with his diary as a Republican pilot...maybe you are a little guilty, and now will look for the "Assault Air Chains" by Jimenez Arenas to have both main SCW books I have read more than 30 years ago.

Thank you very much for sharing!!!

Cheers,

Luis Alfonso

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Thank you Luis Alfonso for your comment. Indeed - the He-51 by Hasegawa is very old kit. It was waiting so long in my stash - much more than 20 years for sure... The riging - rather massive in this type - was discourages me for so long, perhaps...

I don not know this books, you've quoted. Regarding books - let me tell something. When I was ten-fourteen I've read a lot of momoires of Polish pilots of WWII. Especially - Bohdan Arct. He was fighter pilot, scored 6 (I think). After war he was a writer. I wonder if people in word do know his novels - doing fas google searh I have found one novel in English:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prisoner-war-My-secret-journal/dp/B0007C3U30/ref=sr_1_2/279-2119999-6048303?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456076328&sr=1-2

There is about him in English Wikipedia.

Cheers

J-W

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Hi Jerzy!

Nice build! Rigging looks very good. Heard about that EZ stuff, but have no idea where to get it. Think rigging with metal wire works well, too. Have you any long-time experience with that elastic stuff?

Have a nice evening

Mario

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Thanks Bernd and Mario for nice comments.

Mario, I bought EZ for the first time about year ago. In an Internet shop which has exclusive rights to distribute it in Poland. And I really do like it. It beat anything for riging I met before. Tthou I've noticed already some limitations. First it is not wire-like but tape like - so one have to take care and not twist it, or pretend, that you do not see it :). Second is black colour - perhaps there are silver as well but I do not now it. Third one is that EZ is affected by thinner - when wetted with thinned enamel it losses for while elasticity, then it returns to stright line, but sometimes not perfectly. So - have to be careful while painting.

Cheers

J-W

Edited by JWM
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Very, very nice!

Don't forget that the swastika was a good luck symbol for hundreds of years before the Nazis used it. It was used in WWI as a personal insignia way before the Nazi party, and it was also used by Finland (in reverse) as part of their national insignia....so it doesn't necessarily mean he was an ardent Nazi....

Ian

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Ian - thank you for comment. In general I agree about the broad cultural meaning of swastika. Not only Finns, but also Latvia used it in national insignia. Even in Poland there were airplanes wth this symbol used as individual emblem ( http://www.rbi.webd.pl/swarga/galeria105.php- this is from 1921-22 ) Certainly - It was like this earlier - in 20-ties of XX Century. However in Germany, in years 1936-1937 - the contects was alredy much narrow, I am affraid...

Cheers

Jerzy-Wojtek

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I don not know this books, you've quoted. Regarding books - let me tell something. When I was ten-fourteen I've read a lot of momoires of Polish pilots of WWII. Especially - Bohdan Arct. He was fighter pilot, scored 6 (I think). After war he was a writer. I wonder if people in word do know his novels - doing fas google searh I have found one novel in English:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prisoner-war-My-secret-journal/dp/B0007C3U30/ref=sr_1_2/279-2119999-6048303?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456076328&sr=1-2

There is about him in English Wikipedia.

Cheers

J-W

Hi Jerzy!!!

BTW you have guessed what I was thinking, for sure it will be nice to know the WW II from the perspective of this gentleman, so next step will be to watch in this side of the pond for the book, Thank you very much My Friend!!!

Cheers,

Luis Alfonso

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Very nice, J-W! That is an interesting paint scheme. I also have the Hasegawa He-51 done as an SCW aircraft, but in a simple overall grey scheme. I didn't attempt any rigging, as frankly I think I'd do a bad job of it. Maybe I'll try that EZ-line, or even Nitinol.

Regards,

Jason

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Thank you Luis-Alfonso, Jason and Andy for comments - apprecieted :)

Cheers

J-W

P.S.

Suddenly I've got a phase for old and odd Germans. Some more are baking... Soon on RFI

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Regarding books - let me tell something. When I was ten-fourteen I've read a lot of momoires of Polish pilots of WWII. Especially - Bohdan Arct. He was fighter pilot, scored 6 (I think). After war he was a writer. I wonder if people in word do know his novels - doing fas google searh I have found one novel in English:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prisoner-war-My-secret-journal/dp/B0007C3U30/ref=sr_1_2/279-2119999-6048303?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456076328&sr=1-2

There is about him in English Wikipedia.

Frankly speaking, Sq Ldr Bohdan Arct became fighter pilot very late (for WW2 standards). Born in 1914 he was "too old to be a fighter pilot" when the Germans invaded Poland and the same opinion was repeated in France and Britain in 1940. His first combat deployment was RAF 145 Squadron in Tunisia (1943), where - flying the Spitfire - he shot down 3 a/c: a Bf 109, a Fw 190 and a MC.202 (this last one being still not identified, thus "probable"). Back in the UK he became the C/O of the Mustang-equipped Polish 316 Sq., shooting down another Bf 109 and two V1 flying bombs in 1944. After the war he returned to Poland with his British-born wife and daughter. He wrote 44 books about aviation - mostly memoirs, but not only. This cannot be considered strange, as his mother (Maria Arct) was the famous Polish author of children's books, while his father (Zygmunt Arct) was a pre-war editor and a bookshop owner.

BTW many other Polish fighter pilots (to list just W/Cdr S. Skalski, W/Cdr W. Urbanowicz, G/Cpt T. Rolski, F/Lt M. Wyszkowski, a.s.o.) also published dozens of books after the war. But the most prolific of "true" fighter aces was W/Cdr Waclaw Krol (with final score of 2 Do17s, a He 111, 4 Bf 109s, a Fw 190 and a MC.202), a fighter squadron C/O already in 1939, then fighting in France (1940), in BoB, in Tunisia and over Germany till 1945 - the author of 30+ books, of which several were also translated to English. His data also appears in English Wikipedia.

For several thousands of Polish boys - like you and me - in the 60s and 70s they were WW2 top heroes...

Edited by KRK4m
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Thank Mike (KRK4m) for this details.

Perhaps all they brave pilots and then writers deserve for separate topic on WWII forum, not the one post by the way of Harro Harder and his He 51? I do hope you 'll agree with me...

The rest in the evening phone call :)

Cheers

J-W

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  • 4 weeks later...

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