Classic Airframes 1/48 He-51
KIT #: |
96-407 |
PRICE: |
$29.95 MSRP, I paid $5 for
mine. |
DECALS: |
Two Options |
REVIEWER: |
Lee Fogel |
NOTES: |
Rigging can be fun! Short run multi-media
kit |
The Heinkel He 51 was the fledgling
Luftwaffe’s first mass-produced dedicated fighter aircraft.
It served with distinction with the Legion Condor in the
early part of the Spanish Civil War but was later outclassed but the I-15 and
I-16 fighters it faced.
It then served in the light ground attack role and had
assumed an advanced trainer role by the beginning of the Second World War.
A sturdy and capable aircraft, it has long been a
favorite of both Luftwaffe and biplane aficionados.
This kit has been issues twice by
Classic Airframes.
This is the first release (circa
1996).
The 2nd
release (circa 2008)
is a completely new kit so this review may not be suited for addressing the
newer release.
I received this kit from a friend who had
started
it but then lost interest.
The wheel spats and cockpit had been started, the
horizontal stabs added to the fuselage halves and the lower wings glued
together.
The parts are molded in a light gray color and have a slightly
grainy texture (mainly
on the struts and smaller parts).
There are a few small resin pieces mainly used in the
cockpit.
A small PE fret is included and is mostly used for the cockpit and minor
surface details.
The instructions are four pages, printed clearly and do have a
rigging diagram.
The decals have a color profile sheet that offers two options and
are printed very cleanly and look useable.
Recently I
had wanted to change direction a bit and build a biplane to expand what little I
knew about rigging.
My prior experience had been with a single wire here and
there but nothing substantial.
I figured the price was right and if I messed it up
badly I could always find another use for the kit.
So, off to Rigging 101 I go!
The cockpit had already been
completed and added to one side of the fuselage.
I cleaned up a few things and added Crystal Clear
for the gauge faces.
The fuselage halves were then joined together using
Plastruct liquid cement and the engine intake scoop and PE screen were then
glued into place.
The fit of the fuselage halves and scoop was good
with minimal filler required.
I
then
glued the completed lower wings to the fuselage.
Fit here is so-so with a good amount of Squadron
White Putty required to smooth the joined areas out.
I also cleaned up the seams from where the lower
wings were glued together.
I then drilled out the rigging holes for the
horizontal stabs, landing gear, lower wings and fuselage.
The wing struts were also cleaned up and drilled at
this time.
I glued the spinner backing plate on and added the two
ventilation holes and four fasteners to the front of the cowling.
The
supplied radiator scoop was cast out of dark green resin (as
was the drop tank) and I can only assume that these parts
came from an older vacuform kit (perhaps
Karo-As or Wings 48?).
I cleaned up and assembled the radiator scoop per the
instructions.
I was missing the radiator screen piece so I made one from a
piece of wire mesh.
This assembly was then set aside.
The landing gear attachment points looked very flimsy so
I decided to use wire to reinforce them with .051mm brass rod.
I drilled holes in the wheel spats and at the top of the
gear leg.
I then inserted a piece of brass rod in each hole and assembled
the main gear.
The tail skid also had a hole drilled out along with a
corresponding hole in the fuselage and brass rod was added to this part to give
it a positive location and added strength.
The radiator assembly was them glued between the two
landing gear struts as shown per the instructions.
I started
the rigging by using .013 inch monofilament for the horizontal stabs.
I used Loc-Tite super glue to anchor the line to the
hole in the vertical tail plane.
One piece was used and strung it through all of the
holes.
I used tweezers to pull it snug and then
anchored
it with another bead of super glue.
This was repeated for the 2nd
wire.
I then turned to the landing gear.
Having already drilled the holes for the rigging in the
landing gear I figured I could slide a piece of brass rod thru the holes to keep
the gear steady and lined up while I applied glue to the attachment wires and
positioned them into place.
This worked out very well with the super glue acting as
both adhesive and filler where the landing gear attached to the fuselage.
Once this assembly was complete I simply removed the
wire from the holes. I
let the model sit overnight to ensure a solid bond and returned to it the
following day.
Another piece of monofilament was cut to length and attached to
the lower port wing with super glue.
This was then threaded through the landing gear struts,
pulled tightly and anchored to the lower starboard wing with (what
else?) super glue.
At this point I glued the interplane
struts and cabane struts in place.
For those that may not be familiar with biplane
terminology the interplane struts are the outer wing struts while the cabane
struts are located on the fuselage in front of the cockpit.
The attachment points on both the wings and the struts
are, in a word, lousy.
The interplane strut holes in the wing are practically
non-existent and they all have very thick flash at the end of each strut were
the nub should go into the hole on the wing.
Plus, the forward angle of the interplane struts are not
molded into the strut meaning that the struts are glued into place 100% vertical
instead of at the proper angle.
Not paying closer attention to this detail would have
dire consequences for me later on.
The instructions do illustrate the main struts at an
angle as do the pitcures in William Green’s Warplanes of the
Third Reich.
As a novice biplane builder I should have simply paid better
attention to this area and I did not.
But it does not excuse the lack of the proper mounting
angle and to achieve this will take some measuring, patience and teeth-gnashing
on the part of the builder.
Limited-run or not this is just poor product planning
IMHO.
Anyhow, I drilled out the attachment holes on the wings and cleaned up
the flash on the struts the best I could.
Knowing that I was going to have to
mask this off I went ahead and painted the nose, spinner, inner prop blades,
radiator and the upper landing gear struts RLM 23.
Please see my detailed notes on this in the section
below.
All during
my build I had been looking over the recommendations and different styles of
rigging aircraft.
Since I had tried using the “one-piece” monofilament
method I figured the “measure and cut” wire method was next up.
And, surprisingly, this went very, very well and even
quicker than I thought.
I used .051mm brass rod for all but two sections.
The remaining two sections were done with monofilament
and then the entire model sat for most of the day to allow for a strong bond.
I came
back to the workbench and started to attach the upper wing.
It was at this moment that realized that the interplane
struts were positioned straight-up and not at an angle.
So, in my infinite wisdom I figured I would bend the
struts forward with the upper wing in place and tack it in place with super
glue.
This was going pretty well actually until I flipped it over and realized
that I had somehow moved the upper wing.
The placement was WAY off…by a scale two feet or so in
my estimation.
So, now faced with a real mess of struts, wires and wings I
simply set the model down, stared at it for maybe 15-20 minutes and came to the
conclusion that the upper wing, struts and rigging would need to be removed and
new main struts fashioned from sheet styrene.
Oh, did I tell you all that I just love modeling?
I really do…I’ll fill you in on how deep my passion
really is after I jump into a pit of X-Acto blades!
Argh!
So, after
a wee bout of depression, the following day I came up with a different
direction.
I used Pic-Apart to loosen the super glue on the interplane
struts at the wing attachment points.
Then I was able to shift the entire upper wing and
properly reposition it into place!
Two of the interplane struts snapped at the bottom but I
glued them together and sanded everything down the best I could.
And, if you look close you can see a bit of a bend in
the port side interplane struts.
Granted, a few of the struts have some super glue
build-up at the attachment point but I can live with it.
Thankfully my wires wound up being reusable and only
required a bit of clean-up and trimming after the reposition of the upper wing.
At this point I decided to try using heat to tighten up
the monofilament.
This does work like a charm but be VERY careful here.
I had two spots that nearly split apart but thankfully
stayed together.
To wrap up things before painting I added the pair of PE control
horns for the flaps and the PE rearview mirror to the upper wing.
The boarding step was missing from the starboard side so
I bent a piece of brass rod, drilled out the two mounting holes and placed it in
the appropriate place with super glue.
The
decals have two options, one a Legion Condor aircraft and the other of 1./JG
132 based in
Germany
in 1936.
I chose the latter option with its striking red nose and tail
colors.
These markings are also included in the 2008 release but call
for the aircraft to be painted in RLM 02 and not RLM 63…hmmm.
Doing a bit of research I found out that RLM 63
replaced RLM 02 from early 1936 into 1938.
There’s always something isn’t there?
The RLM 23 printed on the decal sheet appears to
have a bit more orange in it than what I have seen RLM 23 presented as.
So, after some mixing I came up with a close match
of approximately 75% MM RLM 23,
15%
Testors Gloss Orange and 10% MM RLM 21 Semi-Gloss White.
Once mixed this was laid down on the nose, spinner,
inner prop blades, radiator and upper landing gear struts and allowed to dry
overnight.
One thing to note here is that the box top and the decal
profile show two different mask lines for the cowling.
I had already painted the cowling and installed the
upper wing when I caught this.
And I had a hard time finding a picture of this
plane to verify which was correct.
The rest of the aircraft was painted RLM 63 per the
instructions.
Having no RLM 63 in stock (and
my LHS being too far away) I decided to take a peek at
my RLM color chart and see about mixing this.
I noticed that RLM 63 has FS 36375 assigned to it.
So, I took a gander through my stock on hand and
what do you know I had it!
Apparently FS 36375 is Light Ghost Gray in the Model
Master line of paints.
So, after masking off the cowling and radiator scoop
I thinned this out and laid it on with nary an issue.
Once this was done I let the model dry overnight,
removed my masking and then applied Testors Glosscote in preparation for the
decals.
The decals are printed
by Propagteam and are very thin and have good opacity.
Upon very close inspection the Balkenkreuz are
just printed
slightly out of register.
I simply trimmed each edge with my scissors and that was
that.
I then applied them using warm water and Solvaset.
They went on very well and are terrific…some of the best
I have ever used actually.
The carrier film was nonexistent once dried and they are
so thin that they look painted on at first glance.
Everything here went smoothly until I got to the
tail/rudder.
I had already done the rigging for this section and overlooked
that the rigging would interfere with how they were positioned.
Argh!
So, I decided to place them on underneath the
rigging,
make two cuts to the decal and then slide it into place.
On the starboard side the tri-color decal went on
without too much fuss and only minor touch up on the black section was needed.
The port side however wound up being a real mess as the
decal broke (due to my
ham-fisted prodding) and then started to splinter apart
after repeated maneuvering.
So, this required a lot of touch up with MM Flat White,
MM Flat Black and my custom RLM 23 mix.
It actually turned out pretty good and only under close
scrutiny can you see some of the touch up work.
The decals were allowed to set up over night and then
Testors Dullcote was applied to the entire model.
It was at this stage that I dropped the Heinkel, busting
the starboard side interplane struts, jarring some of the rigging loose and
breaking off one of the wheel spats.
Plus the Dullcote had not set up yet.
So, after a few minutes of sheer disgust I cleaned
everything up, touched up a few spots with RLM 63 and, with super glue,
reattached the rigging and repaired the damaged struts.
Moving right along I painted the main
wheels MM Flat Black and rims Floquil RLM 02.
The tail skid was chipped with Testors Silver and the
front of the prop blades were covered with Bare Metal Foil and the back sides
painted Floquil RLM 70 per the instructions.
The rigging wires were painted MM Metalizer Titanium and
the radiator and engine
intake screens dry brushed with Floquil RLM 02.
I painted the exhaust stubs MM Flat Black and then dry
brushed MM Rust and MM Metalizer Burnt Iron on them.
Attaching the exhaust stubs looked to be a real chore.
However I came up with an idea that had me lay down a
piece of wire where the stubs would hang down and tack it into place with
Blu-Tac.
This would allow for me to glue them onto the cowling without the worry
of them drooping out of place and then remove the wire.
Looking at my references I noticed a small tube that
attached between the 4th and 5th
exhaust stubs.
I replicated this with a small piece of wire.
The acetate windscreen is a one-piece affair that you
have to cut out from the acetate sheet and carefully bend to fit.
This takes a few times to bend it to achieve the correct
shape.
I did just that and it looks good.
The windscreen was attached with 5-minute epoxy.
Please note that the framing is printed on the acetate
and requires no painting.
The drop tank was cleaned up and the mounting bar
repaired as this was damaged at some point. I used brass rod and PE framing
scrap to do this.
It was then painted MM Metalizer Aluminum Plate, buffed
and attached to the underside.
Weathering
was kept to a minimum with pastels used for the gun ports, exhaust and main
wheels.
The navigation lights were painted Tamiya Clear Red and X-5 Green.
Good
grief!
After building this kit I can see why so few have appeared on contest
and club meeting tables.
The strut issues are a bit of a struggle even for the
common modeler.
Throw in the needed reinforcement work for the landing gear,
lower wings, horizontal stabs and the so-so fit of the lower wings to the
fuselage and it’s a recipe for frustration.
And I’m not sold on the red in the decals being entirely
correct for RLM 23.
However, if you can get past all of this the fine
surface detail, well detailed cockpit and nice quality decals make for a nifty
looking biplane.
Plus a bit of a sense of accomplishment never hurt anyone and you
will certainly have that once you complete this kit!
As for the
rigging I thought that this was a terrific platform to learn how to properly rig
an aircraft.
You can use both styles of rigging (monofilament
or metal wire) with terrific results.
Again, this was my first shot at a full rig job and I
wanted to try a few different methods on one plane to see which I prefer best.
Taking this approach from a novice’s point of view
allowed me to not get frustrated or feel obligated to use a single method and it
broadened my modeling knowledge.
For those of you who have not done rigging before I
highly suggest taking this path.
So, if you
are looking for challenging kit or to try your rigging skills on a rarely
modeled aircraft this 1996 release by Classic Airframes may be to your liking.
I recommend this kit for the moderate to experienced
modeler.
No prior rigging experience is needed as this is a fairly easy aircraft
to rig (it certainly is
no Eindecker!).
www.aviation-history.com
Green, William,
Doubleday, 1970. Catalog card number 88-29673, pp 267-273.
Cohausz,
Peter W., Schiffer Publishing, 2003. ISBN: 0-7643-1873-X, pp 94-96.
The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in
the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939,
Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans, Schiffer Publishing, 1992.
ISBN: 0-88740-339-5, pp 16, 64, 94, 96, 138.
Special thanks to the members at MM for their advice
and suggestions on rigging!
If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please
contact
me or see other details in the
Note to
Contributors.
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