Heinkel He 112 V9. Spain. 1938 (Finished)

[Graham Boak]

It was, and a decidedly ugly beast it became, but it was not successful.  Not least because (as with the B) it was lagging too far behind the 109 in development and production.  Besides, by then Heinkel was much more interested in the He100.

[AdrianMF]

Nice to see you are working through the “old kit” issues - open wheel wells and dodgy radiators. The seat belts look great - all my home made buckles are at least 6-9” when scaled up.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Pete F]

Apologies for the break but a couple of rats have chosen to migrate into the loft for the winter. One of the few downsides of living in the deepest sticks. The loft is pretty inaccessible in places making it hard to access. There were two options for dealing with them: 

 

1. Purchase and build a 1/16th fully equipped Tamiya Tiger 1 R/C kit and equip it with an air pistol. This could then crawl through the roof space dispatching rodents with Wehrmacht efficiency.

 

2. Do all the usual stuff and call the local council pest control.

 

I favoured 1. but my wife insisted on 2. Actually the council is very good but it’ll take a few weeks to sort. Given my modelling speed I suppose this is a lot quicker than 1.

 

Anyway…

 

I found a couple of photos of the He 112 wheel wells (copyright expired and/or fair use). 

 

 

I assume that the first is in the factory without the final well boxings. 

 

 

The second shows what seem to be more traditional wheel wells. 

 

In the end I liked the look of the internal wing structure in the first photo. So in order to break me out of my indecision I did this:

 

 

I know it isn’t accurate for an operational aircraft but it looks like the first photo and I like it. So that is what I am going for. Hopefully it’ll look good with a squirt of RLM 02.

[Rabbit Leader]

That does look great Pete. I Ike what you’ve done with those wing guns and the internal structure looks good too. Just wondering how you are going to box in those wheel wells with the cannon barrels in place. I’m sure you’ve got that sorted, however I’m still scratching my head! 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Pete F]

The upper wings are now on. They needed only a very small amount of MR Surfacer 500 which was probably my fault for not perfectly aligning the lower wing. The fit on this kit is very good.

 

 

 

After lots of different ideas I made covers for the inner wheel wells that incorporated a piece of tubing to house the cannons. 

 

 

It looks okay and is an approximation of the effect I was after (see factory image in my above post). However I wouldn't do it again like this. I’d probably leave it altogether and just go OOB.

 

I keep getting the feeling I'm building a Spitfire.

[Pete F]

A very short update today.

 

Main part of the model assembled. Bitter experience has taught me, if possible to never stick anything on that I can knock off (AKA almost everything). 

 

 

Washed with Fairy Liquid and IPA. Then primed and ready for the base coat. I try and leave my primer for at least 48 hours to cure.
 

[Rabbit Leader]

Looking great Pete. I must have missed that last image of the painted wheel wheels, that looks most effective and I’ll be adding some more details to mine a little later. I know its a chore, however these kits will look so much better for the additional work and I agree, the overall fit is quite good for this era of plastic model. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Pete F]

The base coat for the underside of the aircraft was airbrushed with RLM 65 (Vallejo Model Air 71.255).

 

Then a minor disaster struck as I was masking for the upper side. I managed to drop the model. It only fell a few inches onto my workbench and at first I thought all was okay. Then I noticed that the wing roots had started to separate from the fuselage and the seams on the front of the wings had split in places. I guess all models have weak points and these stress areas in the wing joints are a common one. In the end I went for my homemade liquid poly filler to sort it, as it supplies more structure than my other fillers. The downside is it takes a while to set and requires sanding. I lost a little detail on one of the wing roots but it is now all together and seems structurally stable.

 

Then I could proceed with an RLM 2 basecoat (Vallejo Model Air 71.044) for the upper aircraft, the white wingtips and tail rudder. I masked the tail cross in the end.

 

There is a little overspray to correct where I under masked the last stage.

 

 

I hate airbrushing two colours; yellow and white. This white gave me more hassle than all the other coverage.

 

Next it will cure for a while and I am probably going to dot filter with oils to give some texture and interest to the base coat.
 

[RidgeRunner]

Very smart

 

Martin

 

 

[fightersweep]

That's looking very nice indeed. You're right though, white and yellow sucks. Nice work on the wheel well detail too. Looks great painted up. Fancy doing a civilian marked He-112 myself. I had earmarked this scheme, but you beat me to it. looking forward to the coming progress.

 

Steve

[Rabbit Leader]

That’s looking very lovely and sharp Pete, a real motivational piece to push me along to compete mine. Love the colours and overall scheme. Now as for whites and yellows, these are two colours that drove me to lacquer paints. I use ‘primer’ type whites in very thin layers until I build up to a solid finish. If I’m doing yellow, this is always applied over the top of the white base primer. Like most, I struggle with acrylics for these two colours. 
 

Cheers.. Dave 

[exdraken]

The 112 looks so Spirfire!

 

Nice work

[Pete F]

Quick question.

 

The prop blades?

 

I am tending towards a bare metal finish. However this is a difficult thing to determine from the two available photos.

 

Does anyone have a view?

[Rabbit Leader]

1 hour ago, Pete F said:

Quick question.

 

The prop blades?

 

I am tending towards a bare metal finish. However this is a difficult thing to determine from the two available photos.

 

Does anyone have a view?

 

I had this similar question in my head too, Pete. In the end I settled for silver on the front and black on the back.

Seems to be quite common from what photos I came across. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Pete F]

2 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

silver on the front and black on the back

That's very interesting. Thanks.

 

I wonder why this is?

[Rabbit Leader]

1 minute ago, Pete F said:

That's very interesting. Thanks.

I wonder why this is?

 

Black so as not to cast glare reflections to the pilots eyes... Silver, cause they’re German and it looks good. 
Cheers.. Dave. 

 

[PeterB]

The Japanese used silver/black  on their props well into the war I believe, eventually going for a red/brown "propellor colour"on front and black behind in the majority of cases though I believe those of some if not all Ki-84 were grey or greenish grey. The black is presumably as Dave said, to prevent glare.,

 

Pete

[Pete F]

23 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Silver, cause they’re German and it looks good

That raised a smile in difficult times. Thank you.

[Pete F]

The Heinkel Spitfire approaches completion.

 

 

The fuselage and wings are now finished. I have applied an oil paint filter to add some weathering to the base coat. I then added a layer of Future, the decals and another Future gloss coat. The wash is one from Flory. I tried to copy the level of weathering in one of the two photos from Spain (see above). Then a little exhaust staining and finally a matt varnish.

 

The decals are excellent. Very fine and easy to apply. I used the diluted Future method described elsewhere on this forum for the first time. It worked very well and I shall probably make this my standard approach. There was one small problem in that the LHS 8 . 2 was mirrored as 2 . 8. My sources don't show this and it doesn't make sense. Either way I shifted the numbers around matching the RHS.

 

Now for the final stretch. This is always the hardest part for me. It seems like each small job lasts forever. 
 

[Pete F]

Finished. I will post pictures to the gallery.

 

 

 

In the meantime here is a comparison with one of the few pictures of this aircraft from the Spanish Civil War.

 

 

 

 

 

Some thoughts from the build:

 

A really nice little kit to make. One thing that this has taught me is not to be afraid of raised panel lines. In many cases I think they look as good as, if not better than, recessed lines. I found it easier to use washes without it looking excessive.

 

The He112 is a more attractive aircraft than I had previously thought but it does have a very short wingspan. Making a model teaches you more about an aircraft than just reading about it.

 

I never did manage to get rid of the cockpit antenne hole despite trying various suggestions. Canopies have always been my achilles heel and I suspect always will.

 

Heller kits, at least from this period (late 1970s) are definitely worth a look at, even after 40+ years.

 

Thanks for allowing me to take part in this group build, I enjoyed it immensely.

[Jinxman]

That's a cracking build.

[fightersweep]

Wow! That's just lovely! Great scheme too and a cracking finish. I see a few more 70s era Heller kits on your horizon.

 

Steve

[Wez]

Great result Pete, very well done!

 

I like that, a lot!

[John Masters]

That's really nice Pete.  

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

She looks great  ... I agree about the Heller sentiment and I wouldn't worry about the antenna hole to much. The only option would be to use a vacu-form or plunge-mold a clear canopy to replace it.