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Heinkel He162 Salamander/Spatz


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Treated myself to a couple of HobbyBoss easy-build aircraft after my struggles with Revell's Bf-109's. I like these: they're fun, and usually pretty accurate, within limitations.

 

41155399321_6555409b97_k_d.jpg

 

One limitation is that the trailing edges are very, very thick. A lot (a very large lot) of sanding and scraping is needed, and some post-sharpening work to re-scribe control surfaces and replace trim tabs will be needed. Note also the sprue attachment point on the rear fuselage, that would do credit to a short-run resin kit!

 

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Another limitation is the cockpit: it has some vestigial details, but it's not even a remote resemblance to the actual aircraft. Another issue is that it's much too shallow. The cockpit floor is basically the upper surface of the nose wheel bay, but the kit version is about 3.5mm above where it ought to be (about 10 inches in reality, so too much even for me to ignore). I drilled down to establish the right depth, then chopped out with a chisel to get rid of the "seat" and flatten out the floor. The instrument coaming position is wrong (it's too short) but that's a problem for a future version of me!

 

 

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This is a great little kit and I look forward to seeing how you get on with it. You will need to shorted the undercarriage legs though as they are not moulded as being under compression and give the model a very odd sit if not corrected. I realised this after I had installed and painted the undercarriage and had a pig of a job correcting things at that stage!

 

Martian

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Lots of time and effort expended, building a new cockpit. I added a vestige of a throttle unit, plus an oxygen regulator and switch panel into the sides. The control stick is a bent pin, and the central unit is a piece of plastic tube. This will get some silver to represent the little window the pilot used to check the nose wheel had deployed properly. I've added the coaming in the cockpit to cover the instrument panel: the kit version stops at the slot which is far too far forward.

 

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The instrument panel itself is plastic card with stretched sprue bezels. This will get slipped under the coaming before adding the seat.

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And speaking of the seat, I scratched this up. He He 162 was one of the first service aircraft fitted with an ejector seat, to allow safe escape past the engine air intake. Apparently it was effective, but a number of pilots lost their lives because the seat functioned but the canopy release failed.

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The seat is plastic card, with cushions made from cardboard (soft edges!), coffee jar foil belts and handguards/footrests from steel rod.

 

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I'll cram this lot into the hole then it's onto the undercarriage bay!

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 Like the drivers seat!

I did this kit a couple of years ago.

 

Found a restoration here http://memorial.flight.free.fr/He162photouk.html

 

based on this , i shortened the gear like this

 

IMG_2997

 

I also opened the intake and added a short section of 1/4" styrene tube(6.3mm outer dia. 4.8 inner)

 

IMG_2998

 

A splash of paint and a little weight and it sits like this.

IMG_3043

 

I hope I did not offend by posting my pics on your WIP

 

Whit apologies,

 

Garry c

 

 

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I just remembered  that the landing gear problem is due to the gear well being very shallow while the landing gear struts are the normal length.

Your choices are deepen the gear well or shorten the struts.

 

Garry c

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1 hour ago, Garry c said:

I just remembered  that the landing gear problem is due to the gear well being very shallow while the landing gear struts are the normal length.

Your choices are deepen the gear well or shorten the struts.

 

Garry c

Great posts Garry - really handy stuff! On balance I think I'll shorten the gear legs - I've done enough open-cast mining on this one already...

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  • 2 months later...

Sadly this one is on hold for now as I've managed to lose the undercarriage doors! Luckily there was a thread on here about getting spare parts for Hobby Boss kits, and I'll follow up and hopefully get some progress!

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