Matchbox 1/72 He-70 (Civil) - Denied!

[AdrianMF]

I wanted an excuse to do this one and so this is a build for @Torbjorn!

 

Three coloured sprues and some rather suspect looking decals:

 

I will make a start tomorrow....

[JOCKNEY]

Delighted to see this one joining the fold.

 

I believe one of the Spanish Civil War versions was Black and Silver on the top like a fan spreading out, whats the civil version look like ?

 

Good luck with the build 

 

cheers Pat 

[John Masters]

Looks good Adrian.  

 

 

[AdrianMF]

5 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

whats the civil version look like ?

Silver with a black cheat line and nose. The wings are black on the topside roots.

[Natter]

Another one?  Rearrange this well know phrase or saying  - 'punishment sucker for'!

 

Good luck none the less.

[Graham Boak]

To clarity the above - at least based on my experience - it is a very nice little kit of a beautiful aircraft, but desperately in need of a far better means of attaching the wings to the fuselage .  If you want to end up with a convincing result whilst retaining much hair.

 

The real problems are in determining the colours.  Civil aircraft, said by some to be in silver ( or natural aluminium), appear identical in photos to Luftwaffe aircraft said to be in a light grey - and presumably RML 63 by the time such things were settled.  63 is one of these odd colours that begins as a light yellowish/greenish grey but fades rapidly to an very light ash grey.  But were they in the pre-existing civil colours of L40/52 Hellgrau or the similar Avionul 7375 paint?  Or something else altogether?  There's a strong hint in Uhlmann's Luftwaffe Colours from Hikoki, where he has a 4 page listing of Lufthansa paints dated to 1936.  This is when the DKH paints were being standardised, and for the He 70  Lufthansa required DKH Nitro-enamel Grau, L 40/51, replacing an Avionorm paint for which only the Lufthansa reference is given.` 

 

To me, this (and the other references to other types) makes clear that Lufthansa aircraft of this period (especially the He.70) were a light grey rather than the oft-quoted silver.  Some types, perhaps later, do seem to be in natural metal finishes, so perhaps that were some change, somewhere.  I'm interested in doing the Olympic rings Ju 52, so am experimenting with different light greys, with or without Aluminium mixes.  The current RAL 001 (not sure of the designation) Silbergrau is definitely a light grey, with no metallic content, but I suspect this is in the right region for a model.  Both it and the L40/52 Hellgrau are available from Colourcoats - I'd ignore other attempts at the Hellgrau but the RAL Silbergrau is presumably also available from Revell.

 

For a military example then one of the civil light greys for early aircraft with a factory-fresh later military example in 63 - though I feel that the examples available are a little to intense in the colour and would benefit from being lightened - for a more used example just use a light grey anyway.

 

This does mean that the sunray example from the Spanish Civil War had blue rays on a light grey background - I have seen it suggested that way elsewhere.

[Torbjorn]

Fabulous, will sneak away from work to get some peeks at this!

[JOCKNEY]

Hi @Graham Boak

Great explanation, would this be simular for the He51 floatplane also pictured in 1930's luftwaffe "light grey" ?

Apologies for thread drift Adrian.

Cheers Pat

[AdrianMF]

I’ve had lunch and the P-47 decals still need more drying time. So on with the He-70:

 

The cockpit is conventional enough. No “facilities” on board, sorry @Moa.

 

Thanks @Graham Boak for the colour notes. I have a very pale neutral grey, akin to Hu28, that I will deploy instead of silver.

 

The kit is about as far away from the crisp precision of Academy as you can get. The plastic feels very blobby and wing joint is strangely engineered, but looks workable - I may glue upper surfaces only to start with:

 

The time difference between the two pictures above was mainly taken up by me saying “what the...?” over and over again. The cowling looks like it needs eight hands to assemble it in mid-air. Fun will be had, even if it’s the sort of fun you get watching two clowns, a ladder and a bucket!

 

[AdrianMF]

Cockpit done, windows next...

[AdrianMF]

Glazing done. The kit windows were discarded and replaced with packaging material cut to size and glued in with Future:

 

The transfer sheet looks very odd:

 

I will try out one of the military option decals and see what’s up.

 

There is a bad mould mismatch on the grey screw:

...which leads to this:

It’s a kit that keeps on giving!

 

[edit - a corner of a wing stripe left the decal sheet and arrived in one piece on my test plane, so that’s better news]

[Jinxman]

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The time difference between the two pictures above was mainly taken up by me saying “what the...?” over and over again. The cowling looks like it needs eight hands to assemble it in mid-air. Fun will be had, even if it’s the sort of fun you get watching two clowns, a ladder and a bucket!

Earlier versions of this kit came with a levitation spell for the cowling - we know you will prevail.

[AdrianMF]

Fuselage joined up:

 

The P-47 decals are dry now so I’m pausing this. 14:47 to 18:08 gives 3 hours 21 mins so far.
 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Nice to see a civil one, Adrian!

I have built the Matchbox and ICM kits of this plane, both posted here at BM, having fun with both. The latter was built as the British-acquired and Kestrel-converted G-ADZF (not a "what if", but a real plane).

I used silver on the first model, built a pile of years ago, but with better information I used silbergrau for the ICM model.

You are doing a very good (and fast!) job with it.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Moa
edited for color note

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

3 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

No “facilities” on board, sorry @Moa.

The German passengers will have an even more circumspect expression than usual...

[Graham Boak]

10 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

To me, this (and the other references to other types) makes clear that Lufthansa aircraft of this period (especially the He.70) were a light grey rather than the oft-quoted silver.  Some types, perhaps later, do seem to be in natural metal finishes,

I should have added that Lufthansa also listed Ikarol instant Aluminium lacquer for the Ju 52 "and other exterior finishes"  They also include a DKH oil-based (not nitro-enamel) W30/23 DLH Grau for the Ju 52, and W30/23 Reichsbahn Grau for the "Railway staffel" Ju 52 - used for training bomber pilots pre-Luftwaffe.  These last two are earlier paints using earlier technology.  I suspect that all these various greys were close to each other except that the RB Grau was said to be darker.  (As indeed was RLM 63 - perhaps there was some link?)

 

So at least some Ju 52s were in Aluminium paint, but which?  However, despite the "and other exterior finishes" addition, I don't recall seeing any He.70 looking convincingly as such.  But you may take it as an escape clause.

[AdrianMF]

Restarting with this:

 

The “past-my-bedtime” option. I want to play with the landing gear - if it’s really bad I will find a pilot and passengers and make it a flyer!

[AdrianMF]

Propeller re-centred with a brass bearing that can be inserted at the end of the build. Airframe complete:

 

Undercarriage next, then some filler and zzzzz.

[AdrianMF]

The undercarriage needs more research when I’m fully awake. I puttied up underneath the fuselage:

I think the rest can be done with acrylic filler so I can do that tomorrow.

 

5 hours 49 minutes so far...

[Natter]

'The undercarriage needs more research when I’m fully awake.'

 

Posts at 0120hrs, 0300hrs and 0350hrs?  Yikes, do you never sleep?

[AdrianMF]

I started at 11:00 and sanded the bottom filler down, and I’ve acrylic puttied the rest:

 

Pausing at 12:30.

 

7 hours 19 mins...

[Torbjorn]

It’s a nice-looking bird - indeed bird-like. 

 

I would have hesitated trying a kit needing that much filler for a sprint build.  

[AdrianMF]

Started again at 13:00. Everything is sanded down, time for a second coat of grey. If I don’t hear anguished screams, this might end up being the final colour...

[AdrianMF]

Well, I thought it was going well this weekend, but what I didn’t know was that Fate was merely taking his time getting the gremlins to form an orderly queue in the corridor...

 

First up, the paint. It’s acrylic and new to me. I’ve been gaily painting several coats of it, diluted with Future, all afternoon. No problem, rather chalky finish but perfectly acceptable.

 

I mask up and paint the walkway on the wing and...

 

...a coat of Humbrol acrylic is lifting the paint!

 

and...

 

...the paint has discoloured where I’ve touched it. 
 

So I re-coated The discoloured bit and gave everything a couple of coats of Future. Sorted.

 

The decals: I said they looked a bit odd, and they were. What I didn’t see when I tested them for breaking (on top of some camouflage) is that the glue has turned to brown powdery gunk.

 

So I put the decal back in the water, let it float off the backing and brushed all the gunk off. Luckily the decals are pretty sturdy and stood up to it.

 

At this point I realised that the question “why didn’t you take a picture of the shark attacking you?” could be quite annoying, but I did anyway:

 

Ewww.

 

Anyhow, I got them on in the end but I am going to declare DNF for this one, and will continue in WIP. Sorry @Torbjorn!

 

 

TL;DR: the dog ate my homework.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

 

[Natter]

Ten out of ten plus a gold star for trying.  Sometimes you have to swim away from the shark and catch it another day; good call.  Hopefully we will see this in the RfI sections another day when the gremlins have been exterminated.