Heinkel He46c - Planet Models 1/48 Resin

[andyh59]

I bought this resin model from Ebay some years ago, it's an aeroplane that has interested me for sometime a 1930s design that lived on till the end of WW2. These aircraft used by the Luftwaffe for night harassment on the Eastern Front make a change from all the usual 109s and 190s I have built.

Onto the kit all the basics are there in resin plus white metal undercarriage legs, injection moulded wing struts, vac formed windscreens and decal sheet. Unfortunately I should have checked the contents of the kit a little more carefully when I received it as some of the smaller detail parts were missing ( good old Ebay!!!!).

I managed to get some reasonable idea of the layout of the cockpits from trawling the net. Incidentally it seems the French have an example of this aircraft preserved, it originally was liberated by the French Resistance!

The kit detail in cockpits was basic 2 floors, 2 seats, crude instrument panels, two radio sets, moulded interior framework (removed) and a missing control column! I added as much detail as would be seen, the cockpit openings are not that large. Fuselage was glued together and sanded down. The wing was supplied in left and right halves which I joined using small metal tubes to add strength, the weight of the assembled wing meant that the interplane struts supplied in resin were not going to support it, they would have been better supplied in white metal.

My solution for this was to fabricate struts in metal using some brass Strutz streamlined wire I've had for many years, this was quite a reasonable solution I'm pleased to say. The joining of wing to fuselage still caused me a lot of frustration and cussing but eventually came together quite well.

 

I painted the wing and fuselage seperately also applying the decals before joining them together. I fabricated the exhausts using 2mm soldering wire as the exhausts supplied were not suitable for a night harassment aircraft. A note about the colour scheme and decals these came from an OWL decal sheet I bought after buying the kit, they were quite thick and a couple of the items broke apart when applying them however I managed to get them on successfully in the end!

 

The aircraft is He46c of NSGr.1, Idriza airfield, Eastern Front early 1944.

 

Not one of my best builds but I highly doubt we'll see an injection moulded kit of this aircraft, watch the Czech kit producers prove me wrong 😁.

It would be great to see some of these neglected second line aircraft in kit form (1/48 of course).

 

                                                                                                             Thanks for looking

                                                                                                                                       Cheers  Andy

 

[andyh59]

Apologies this post is supposed to be in RFI not sure how to correct this. Anyone help  

                                                                                                                                            Andy

Edited November 11, 2019 by andyh59

[Greg Law]

You have made a brilliant job of this build. These kits are not easy that's for sure. The effort was well worth while. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Wow quite a good job of a Night harassment plane. 

[Erik Leijdens]

Fantastic job! 

[Spitfire31]

Excellent model of a frequently overlooked Heinkel! And it sits really well in the atmospheric diorama.

 

Excellent and ambitious modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Vinnie]

That's a very nice kit, Andy. Looks good as does the photography.

[Learstang]

Brilliant job on the Heinkel! I love those Eastern Front Nachtschlactgruppen aircraft.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[SafetyDad]

Nice work!

And also a +1 for the photography from me

 

SD

[GrzeM]

Very good job! I have 1/72 AML plastic short-run kit - I intent to build it in September 1939 scheme - at that time both He 45 and He 46 were quite widely used in Army Rec squadrons.

Like this, on Bielsko-Aleksandrowice airfield.

[Adam Poultney]

Very nice and an unusual subject

[RMCS]

Lovley 

[Luiz]

I agree with Greg...it´s not an easy kit to build...I just completed a Bücker from this company...

 

You did an excelent job!

 

Luiz.

[Johnson]

That's a really nice model you've built there Andy! The engine looks superb, a close up photo would be nice (and maybe the cockpit? ).

And great rigging, that can't have been easy. 

Cheers,

 

[Harold55]

Very nicely done and a very interesting subject.  I gave been tempted by Planet Model kits in the past as they occasionally can be found on-sale but have never pulled the trigger.  I have to admit I lack the skill you show her in pulling this off but maybe some day.  I do think these types of second line planes may appear in plastic at some point.  It's great to see lwhat has been coming out of both the Czech Republic and Ukraine - this is the golden age of modeling so anything is possible

[andyh59]

Many thanks for all your positive comments on this build. On the subject of Planet Models they are not the easiest of builds but at least you get a reasonably accurate representation of aircraft unlikely to be kitted elsewhere. To date I have built the Arado Ar240, Klemm Kl25 and the Blohm und Voss Bv138 (branded as MPM but basically same manufacturer), in the stash I have the Fw187 awaiting my attention.

I see these builds as a throwback to the model making skills of earlier days when the kits then were a lot more basic than the quality kits we get these days.

 

Back to the He46 as requested by

On 11/12/2019 at 10:39 PM, Johnson said:

That's a really nice model you've built there Andy! The engine looks superb, a close up photo would be nice (and maybe the cockpit? ).

And great rigging, that can't have been easy. 

Cheers,

 

Please excuse quality of photos, taken with a Xperia phone not too good for close-ups 🔍.

 

 

Again apologies for quality of photos, the rigging is just thin copper wire superglued in place.

 

As a companion to this machine I have a Sierra Scale Models vac form Arado Ar66 (1/48) plus the remains of the OWL decal sheet for another  Nachtschlactgruppen aircraft, but that will be another story!

 

Thanks to you all for looking.

                                                Cheers

                                                        Andy

 

 

 

  

[Johnson]

Marvellous, thanks Andy.

 

If the object of modelling is to portray a full sized object realistically in miniature, you have certainly succeeded. The attention to detail and the finish are superb.

[GrzeM]

The engine is fantastic!