GB-48 1/72 Heinkel He 112B-0 - Military A/C before 1939 (incl Spanish Civil War)

[imalko]

Username: imalko
First name: Igor
Category: Category 2/Intermediate
Scale: 1:72
Manufacturer: RS Models
Model Type: Heinkel He 112B-0
Details: "Yellow 4" from III/JG 132, Fürstenwalde, Germany, October 1938

After a long while, I'm returning to the Group Builds with this little project. Planning for this to be a simple and straightforward OOB build. As you can see in the photos below, the kit has decal options for German as well as Romanian machines. Though Romanian one would offer a much more colorful subject, I'm building a German one in accordance with the GB timeframe.

 

[imalko]

Few words on the subject…
As we all know, the He 112 was a losing contender to Messerschmitt's Bf 109 in a competition for Luftwaffe's new modern fighter aircraft. Despite the setback, Heinkel continued the work on his aircraft. After a number of prototypes and unsuccessful He 112A series, the He 112B series emerged as an upgraded and completely redesigned version. Heinkel hoped that Luftwaffe might show new interest for his fighter, but this was not to be. A number of these aircraft were tested in operational conditions in Spanish civil war however, and the type was authorized for export. It was used in small numbers by the Air Forces of Spain, Japan, Hungary and Romania.
He 112B-0 did have a short lived service with the Luftwaffe though. During the Sudeten crisis in fall of 1938 twelve aircraft from Japanese order were hurriedly pressed into service. The machines were delivered to III/JG 132 at Fürstenwalde, but fallowing the signing of Munich agreement, the fighters were returned to Heinkel for export once again. Heinkel He 112B-0 was armed with two 20mm cannons in the wings and two 7,9mm machine-guns in the fuselage. Equipped with Jumo 210C engine, the aircraft had max. speed od 510km/h, range of 1150km and ceiling of 9500m.

 

[Crimea_River]

Excellent Igor. Great to have you back.

 

[rochie]

great to have you back Igor, great choice of model too !

 

[Wayne Little]

Igor, been a while, glad you have returned to to fold....

 

[T Bolt]

Very cool Igor. I built the 1/48th Classic Airframes kit a while back and its a very interesting looking aircraft

 

[javlin]

Some Nice lines in that one Igor.

 

[Bustedwing]

Nice choice and a good model kit. Built it a while back. It's a beautiful plane, much nicer looking than the 109 !

 

[imalko]

Thanks for your response mates.

I've been working on this model for a past few weeks, so it's time to show what has been done so far. Let me start by saying that small number of parts (there is only one sprue of grey plastic and one small clear sprue) and small overall dimensions of the model could fool someone into thinking this should be an easy build. However, it presents quite a challenge. The cockpit is way over engineered for this scale. For example, just rudder pedals consist of four separate parts. In 1/72 scale! And none of it is visible once the fuselage is assembled. There's no locating pins, so one needs to be careful when gluing fuselage halves or main wings together in order to align them properly. After assembling the main parts, there are a few gaps that require filling them with putty.
So, after a lot of gluing, sanding, filling and more sanding the model is ready to receive some paint. One major issue remains to be addressed though. As you can see in one of the photos below, the cockpit canopy doesn't sit properly on the fuselage. So, I need yet to find a way to fix this.

 

[fubar57]

Fiddly but looking good

 

[Airframes]

I agree, it's looking good Igor.
that gap in the canopy joint could be filled wit stretched, clear sprue, and then sealed with a bead of PVA. I've had to do that a few times, and it normally works out fine.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice update Igor and looks like you've come through the challenges well. Good luck with the canopy.

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far!

 

[Wayne Little]

Good stuff Igor, keep at it.

 

[rochie]

Nice work Igor

 

[imalko]

Paint job in progress... I have a question though. Does anyone have some input about the He 112 RLM 70/71 splinter paint scheme? The one offered with the kit paint guide (you can see it in my opening post for this thread) just looks odd to me. Not sure how credible it is.

 

[Crimea_River]

Sorry Igor, but I have nothing on the correct splinter scheme for the He112.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Wayne Little]

Not one I know much about...