Vic Balshaw
Major General
Nice steady progress there Grant. 
1/48 Classic Airframes Heinkel He-51
- Thread starter Grant Barr
- Start date
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Crimea_River
Marshal
Loving it. And I know what you mean about the rigging.
Nicely done so far!
- Thread starter
- #105
Grant Barr
Senior Airman
Steady progress, but progress none-the-less!!!
The rigging is finally complete and as good as I can make it. Shots below.
There are a couple of things that I did wrong, but I am sure not going to go back and correct it now. You will note that the twin wires connecting the leading edges of both wings have separate connections at the top but go into the same location on the bottom wing. Source photos tell me this is wrong - they should be slightly separate. The same applies on the outboard cables from the wheel spats to the lower wing. The outboard wing locations should be slightly separate - meh!
Biggest lesson learned? Do not attempt this job if at all angry or annoyed (ie: straight after a sh*tty day at work...). That is how I broke the inboard cabane strut (sky high blood pressure and flimsy wing supports are not a good mix
).
Onwards and upwards as they say. Now I need to move onto all the tiny little parts that stick out and are easy to lose or break. I have the external fuel tank ready to fix into place, so that might be the next job sometime this weekend. Then I have the tab actuators, a wing mounted venturi and I noticed a control rod that goes on the port side next to the strut that I assume is the actuator for the elevators. Need to find some better photos of this area so that I can make and fix something into place. Obviously the prop, exhausts and the step hoop need to be fitted as well. Then some panel line wash around the engine and a general coating of grime, seal it with some matt clear coat and I'll be calling this one done.
Thanks to all who pop by, hopefully another update later this weekend.
The rigging is finally complete and as good as I can make it. Shots below.
There are a couple of things that I did wrong, but I am sure not going to go back and correct it now. You will note that the twin wires connecting the leading edges of both wings have separate connections at the top but go into the same location on the bottom wing. Source photos tell me this is wrong - they should be slightly separate. The same applies on the outboard cables from the wheel spats to the lower wing. The outboard wing locations should be slightly separate - meh!
Biggest lesson learned? Do not attempt this job if at all angry or annoyed (ie: straight after a sh*tty day at work...). That is how I broke the inboard cabane strut (sky high blood pressure and flimsy wing supports are not a good mix
).Onwards and upwards as they say. Now I need to move onto all the tiny little parts that stick out and are easy to lose or break. I have the external fuel tank ready to fix into place, so that might be the next job sometime this weekend. Then I have the tab actuators, a wing mounted venturi and I noticed a control rod that goes on the port side next to the strut that I assume is the actuator for the elevators. Need to find some better photos of this area so that I can make and fix something into place. Obviously the prop, exhausts and the step hoop need to be fitted as well. Then some panel line wash around the engine and a general coating of grime, seal it with some matt clear coat and I'll be calling this one done.
Thanks to all who pop by, hopefully another update later this weekend.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Regardless of your blood pressure, aggravation and a bad day at work, you have done an amazing job and remember.....................................IT'S FRIDAY. So enjoy your weekend.
Crimea_River
Marshal
A very sharp looking model Grant and the rigging looks great. Looking forward to the icing on the cake.
- Thread starter
- #109
Grant Barr
Senior Airman
Ok - it has been some weeks since my last update, but I do have a pretty good excuse for it. Last weekend was my final Triathlon race for the summer season - a Half Ironman distance (70.3 miles or 113km) held in Geelong (just 20 minutes from where I now live). It's not my first half IM and it wasn't my best time but I am happy with progression I made over the summer given I have not trained/raced in the preceding 4.5 years (COVID etc...). I have finish line picture proof 
Anyway - enough of the unimportant stuff. I am calling the He-51 done!
The last few bits and pieces were extremely fiddly and frustrating. Every time I looked at reference photos, I saw things that could/should be added to make the model look just that little bit better. All up I added things like the pilot step, a scratch pitot tube, a half scratched elevator control line tube, a scratched rear mirror and clear styrene windscreen - just lots of little details that go that bit further in making any model look just that bit more representative of the real thing.
Photos follow:
There were some more things I was thinking of adding/refining, but I am really keen to move onto the next project - so that is it.
A couple of observations about the old Classic Airframes kit. First up the plastic is now getting quite brittle, given it is a kit from the 1990's I suppose it is to be expected. The surface detail is great and the kit did not have excessive flash or mold seams. Where it did fall short was the warping of some of the larger parts (top wing and fuselage were the big ticket items here). This proved to be quite challenging, especially getting the upper wing on and properly aligned - if you look closely you will see it is not quite straight but the best I could do in the circumstances. Another shortcoming was the "scaling" of some of the smaller parts. In particular the windscreen, rear mirror and pitot tube seemed to be half a scale too big (somewhere around 1/40 would be my guess). For this reason I scratched all three. I am probably the happiest with the windscreen - I added a photo of the original so you can see how big and thick it was, were as the clear styrene one I made is much more delicate and closer to scale - it's not perfect, but still better than the kit part.
From the perspective of some skills picked up with this project - I am happy with how the rigging & aerials turned out. There are a couple of wonky bits, especially with the aerial, but I am pleased with how it all went. Not sure if I would use the same process on the next biplane I make - I think some more research and reading is required in this regard. I did also improve my masking efforts on this one. Some of the white circles are a bit "fluffy" around the edges but I think both the blue and the white area masking was reasonably successful. I also learned how to be more patient with the airbrush, not trying to get perfect coverage in only a single coat. This is my single biggest challenge when using it - the temptation is always to get a full covering on the first pass, which simply ends up flooding the surface with too much paint.
My thanks as always to anyone looking in on my projects. All feedback is appreciated and the inputs from you all help me make a better model each time. On to the next project!
Anyway - enough of the unimportant stuff. I am calling the He-51 done!
The last few bits and pieces were extremely fiddly and frustrating. Every time I looked at reference photos, I saw things that could/should be added to make the model look just that little bit better. All up I added things like the pilot step, a scratch pitot tube, a half scratched elevator control line tube, a scratched rear mirror and clear styrene windscreen - just lots of little details that go that bit further in making any model look just that bit more representative of the real thing.
Photos follow:
There were some more things I was thinking of adding/refining, but I am really keen to move onto the next project - so that is it.
A couple of observations about the old Classic Airframes kit. First up the plastic is now getting quite brittle, given it is a kit from the 1990's I suppose it is to be expected. The surface detail is great and the kit did not have excessive flash or mold seams. Where it did fall short was the warping of some of the larger parts (top wing and fuselage were the big ticket items here). This proved to be quite challenging, especially getting the upper wing on and properly aligned - if you look closely you will see it is not quite straight but the best I could do in the circumstances. Another shortcoming was the "scaling" of some of the smaller parts. In particular the windscreen, rear mirror and pitot tube seemed to be half a scale too big (somewhere around 1/40 would be my guess). For this reason I scratched all three. I am probably the happiest with the windscreen - I added a photo of the original so you can see how big and thick it was, were as the clear styrene one I made is much more delicate and closer to scale - it's not perfect, but still better than the kit part.
From the perspective of some skills picked up with this project - I am happy with how the rigging & aerials turned out. There are a couple of wonky bits, especially with the aerial, but I am pleased with how it all went. Not sure if I would use the same process on the next biplane I make - I think some more research and reading is required in this regard. I did also improve my masking efforts on this one. Some of the white circles are a bit "fluffy" around the edges but I think both the blue and the white area masking was reasonably successful. I also learned how to be more patient with the airbrush, not trying to get perfect coverage in only a single coat. This is my single biggest challenge when using it - the temptation is always to get a full covering on the first pass, which simply ends up flooding the surface with too much paint.
My thanks as always to anyone looking in on my projects. All feedback is appreciated and the inputs from you all help me make a better model each time. On to the next project!
Snautzer01
Honourably banned
- 42,927
- Mar 26, 2007
Nice.
Wow, that looks great
Crimea_River
Marshal
It was an entertaining journey Grant and the end result is spectacular. The rigging and antenna work look to be a right pain but you knocked it out of the park. Looking forward to your next project!
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Agree with Andy, spectacular and those little things, the detail scratch built add that extra authenticity. Nicely done Grant and look forward to you next venture. Well done on the triathlon as well.
Looks good so far!
fubar57
General
Beauty
