Airmodel 1/72 He-42
KIT #: |
? |
PRICE: |
$14.00
|
DECALS: |
None |
REVIEWER: |
Carmel J. Attard |
NOTES: |
Basic vacuform kit |
The
Heinkel HD 42 50, later
designated the Heinkel He 42 was
a German two-seat biplene floatplane originally designed for the flying
school, and later built for the Germa Luftwaffe. The He-42 was absolete by
the start of the war. It was used as a basic trainer for many seaplane aircrew
and remained so until the end of World War II as a trainer for maritime pilots.
In 1929,
Heinkel developed a biplane, the HD 42, for use with the covert
military-training organization (DVS). Its fuselage was constructed out of a
welded steel tube truss and had a rectangular cross-section with a rounded top.
The engine covers were made out of light-weight metal, while the rest of the
fuselage was covered in fabric. The aircraft was equipped with floats.
The HD 42
model received good feedback from the Swedish Navy, who had purchased the
aircraft, as well as from the famous pilot Gunther Plusehow (who was the first
airman to fly over the Patagonian mountains of Chile and Argentina at Tierra Del
Fuego). The prototype was equipped
with a BMW Va engine but the later
versions came with a Junker L5G engine.
Ten aircraft
had been manufactured by 1932, when a new version, the He 42C was rolled out.
Series production began with the He 42D model (14 manufactured) which were
intended for the German Air Force, which at the time was illegal. A further 189
He 42Es were built in 1934 and these aircraft were used by various flying
schools until the end of Worle War Two. Bulgaria also received possibly three of
the He-42C. These were employed on maritime reconnaissance duties but soon
relegated to training duties when more advanced types started to arrive at
Varna.
A
basic vac kit with main airframe parts. Well-detailed mouldings with recessed
panel lines. A certain degree of modelling skill is required to build vacuform
kits. They are not recommended for beginners. The 4 page A4 size instructions
contain three view, history, and exploded view of kit parts and written sequence
of building the kit stage by stage. The kit is quite basic and contained on the
backing sheet are a pair of wing main planes, 4 float halves, two fuselage
halves, a separate fin and rudder piece, two tail plane parts, a vac propeller,
two seats and two clear canopy parts. There are no struts and one have to use
after market struts like Contrail struts obtainable from Roll Models (USA)
or Aeroclub (UK).
The
method is exactly the same as explained in building the He-60 described in a
recent issue. This is a slightly bigger floatplane and the instructions suggest
inserting a long flat piece of tin plate inside the wing parts that covers most
of the central part of the wings. This serves as an internal stiffener. The
lower wings have a similar one with the difference that this is slightly bent at
the wing root area so that the lower wings have a permanent slight dihedral.
Alas my kit instructions were in German, which was not one of the 3 languages
that I can easily follow but nevertheless the exploded view proved easy to
discern in this instance. It is also suggested to form a locating hole to take
the struts and the position of these has to be exactly marked so that there is
no play when it comes to fit them. The exploded view clearly shows the manner of
location of the float and wing struts and from scale plans provided one can
measure the size of each
strut.
A cardboard or plastic jig is also suggested in order to aid alignment of the
floats and wings in the exact final position.
One
may find that the struts at a particular place need to be replaced with longer
ones or require reducing in overall length of a particular set of struts. This
is part of the game when building a vac form kit of this type. I have dealt with
fixing the wings and in a separate instance assembled the floats complete with
the struts and in the end merged all the pats together. I discarded the vac form
propeller given and instead fitted an exactly identical metal one which I
obtained from Aeroclub of
Nottingham,
UK.
Rigging to the tailplane was made by applying nylon thread while those at the
float struts were made in steel wire. Other additional detail consisted of
adding strips to top of floats.
The
interior was painted medium grey with side instruments and front instrument
panel in touches of black and darker grey. The upper surfaces were in Humbrol
olive green while the lower surfaces in Hellblau. Yellow was applied to the
underside of wing tips and to rudder and front area of engine. Civil
registration of this military Bulgarian floatplane were in white lettering which
came from my spares box, fortunately I had the correct size for the white
lettering over the wings and fuselage sides, and black lettering for the
underside of wings. The kit was given two coats of Model Master semi gloss
lacquer.
This was yet another floatplane type of German origin which operated from
Varna
in
Bulgaria
and also operated alongside the He-60s which replaced it during the early days
of the formation of the squadron. This was of an early beautiful design, much
different from later models of biplane floatplane and the completed model made
an interesting addition to my Bulgarian section of scale models.
1) Kit instructions
2) Wikipedia.
Carmel J. AttardNovember 2011
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