For only the SECOND time in this forum, here's a thread on the bizarre H-119, after TomZ's magnificent single seater version last year that's here.

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=52357.msg1023672#msg1023672.

I got the Valom kit of the V3 floatplane a while ago, and only came across it lurking in The Loft the other week, so decided to build it as an adjunct to The Wooksta's fleet of captured WWII Luftwaffe models. In the RW the singular V3 was scrapped in the mid-war years, but my backstory has it being captured and flown back to the Felixstowe based maritime version of Boscombe Down, or maybe Calshot, who knows? In any case it'll be painted yellow underneath.

Here's the mandatory box lid pic.



As is patently obvious the He-119's engines (there are two of them, side by side and coupled together) are behind the cockpit and the big single prop is in front of the cockpit, so the prop-shaft goes right through the centre, in BETWEEN two of the crew members!



That's the massive prop-shaft going close to the crew seats, so close they could rest their elbows on it, and the instrument panels are actually mounted ON it! Hardly conducive to vibration free instrument reading I'd have thought.

As this is a Valom kit some of the parts actually fit each other, some fit other parts that they're not really intended to fit,. and some parts don't ANY other parts at all! Not only that, some parts may exist on the instruction sheet, but look nothing like their drawings in reality, and some don't even have numbers, ANYwhere!

'Simple to build' this isn't!



The third crew member its behind the coupled engines as seen in the starboard fuselage assembly, but if I glued his seat onto the floor panel where the instructions indicate he'd not be able to see anything...............



The V3 kit is essentially a V1 kit with a floatplane conversion kit as well, so you get a whole lot of landplane landing gear left over, but they looks quite good for future Whiffery. The Float conversion is also nicely done, for a change.



Which is more than can be said for the cranked wings, and presumably they're that shape so the landing gear legs , land or sea, didn't have to be all that long to keep the prop off the surface, a bit like the F4U Corsair. The two wing halves fit where they touch, which isn't very often, and needed more thinning of the trailing edge than I gave them, so they may need some extensive filing later on. Trying to fit the miniscule landing light is a real PITA, and the wing root has absolutely NO sign of that big intake that's so obvious in the box art!

LOTS of work to do on this before that yellow paint I think.

The starboard wing of the -119 is even worse than the port one! 

The gap between upper and lower surfaces at the trailing edge is over 1.5 mm! It looks like Valom have been over generous in the thickness of the upper half's trailing edge and it'll take LOTS of heavy duty filing to eradicate it.

I love Valom's ideas on their subjects to model, I just wish they'd go about it a bit more carefully, and it's not as if they're cheap kits either, the current price of the V3 version is over £38.00!

Interesting Kit, I wasn't aware of this boxing of the 119.

As for Valom ? Their origional kits, the XF8B-1 and Airacuda for instance were appalling, and thats so sad as they are fantastic subjects. However in all fairness to them they have learned and their more recent kits, like the Barracudas and Brigands arn't bad. I've also recently read a build of their Valetta in SAM and the build is summed up by "So, overall an excellent model, which does require some care, but if you really want a Valetta in your collection you can say a huge thanks to Valom".

Ummmmm, it says V5 on the box...

 

I KNOW what it says on the box, as it does on the Planet box too, but it's actually the V3.

Valom are certainly challenging. The twin Pioneer I did a few years back proved the point. Still bought a Valetta though   

Oh dear, I have one of their Twin Pins in The Loft!

Quote from: PR19_Kit on September 08, 2024, 10:10:21 AMOh dear, I have one of their Twin Pins in The Loft!

Worst part about the one I built was that one fuselage half was bigger than the other. I can't remember how I fettled it now.

I've been TRYING to build the 'sandwich' instrument panel that I posed a query about elsewhere.

Eventually I've got one of the panels together, that's the larger semi-circular one mounted forward on the propshaft, but the smaller, rectangular one mounted closer to the crew just refused to co-operate. It's so small I can't hold the 4 layers together to glue it up and it's fallen on the floor more times than I've had hot dinners, so it's scrapped.

I can't be dealing with such fiddly stuff, and no-one's going to be able to see if it's there or not!

Lots of PSR going on with the wings, and the interior of the fuselage is painted, but I'm probably not going to use the PE seat belts, they're even more fiddly the the ruddy panels!

Major steps for this build y'day.

I painted the fuselage interior, such as it is, aft of the engines, but as you can only see that bit through three TINY windows and a clear roof hatch I didn't take too much trouble over it.



That clear roof hatch was a bit of a pain when it came to joining the two fuselage halves together as I couldn't glue it in place after the halves had been joined as there was nothing to position it vertically. That meant it had to be glued into one half of the fuselage before any joining took place, and getting it at the right angle so it was flush on the other side wasn't the easiest of tasks. It looks OK now, pics later, but a tapered seat for the clear part would have made life easier.

I've got both wings assembled now too, and as the kit is of the landplane version with added floats, Valom have supplied two blanking plates to fit into the main gear wells, but they don't fit all that well and sit proud of the lower surfaces to an extent. A fair amount of PSR was required and it'll probably need some more after priming etc.



There SHOULD be a small clear window covering the landing light in that port wing, but it was so small I couldn't keep hold of it well enough, and the Carpet Monster snaffled it.    I'll try and apply a couple of layers of Glue 'n Glaze over the light, but it won't look as good as it could have been.

Lastly for this post I glued up the prop. All four blades are separate items, and they fit loosely into the hub and spinner, but there are no firm locations for them and I just had to guess at the pitch angle and position etc. They could have done with longer blade shafts and some holes in the hub to positively locate the blades really.



The fuselage is gluing up now, and I'll paint the cockpit assembly before sliding it into place later today with luck.

Keep at it mate ..your doing great without sounding condescending 😆 😄

Got the fuselage together now, and a right fat old thing it is too. But that's understandable as it's got TWO engines stuffed in there.



As the V3 has a much larger and squarer fin/rudder Valom tell you to saw off the original, more curved fin, which I've done obviously. It'll need a bit of filing and sanding before the new fin's fitted.

Here's the underside of the fuselage. Note the lower exhaust stubs sticking out right in the middle of the fuselage! The small white panel right at the tail is because Valom don't provide a blanking plate for the tailwheel, but they do provide a new ventral fin for the V3 version, but it's not wide enough to blank off the hole!

So I did...........

Oh yeah, I've glued the radiator on as well, right at the front end.



I painted up the cockpit assy, as well as I could, and the panel doesn't look too bad, but I'm glad it'll be hidden under that bizarrely curved  canopy.



And here it is in place at the front end. It doesn't fit very well, and it'll need some tweaking and leavering to ensure the prop hub is in the centre of the canopy, that'll come later.



You can see that PSR is in progress, as just like Chrisonord's Valom Twin Pioneer, the fuselage halves aren't the same size....... 

I built the Valom Lockheed XFV-1.  The experience scarred me for life.  I view Valom  the same way I view A Model - the subject would have to be really special for me to consider paying out for it.

Looks like a fight, but probably worth it! 

Quote from: zenrat on September 10, 2024, 04:18:13 AMI built the Valom Lockheed XFV-1.  The experience scarred me for life.  I view Valom  the same way I view A Model - the subject would have to be really special for me to consider paying out for it.

I have one too Fred, and your description of the build has stopped me doing anything with it so far!

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on September 10, 2024, 04:48:24 AMLooks like a fight, but probably worth it! 

I think so Thomas, it's such a rare and unusual machine it just HAD to be done. 

It's not coming along too badly now, I couldn't get the cockpit back out of the fuselage to glue it back in, so I've just left it jammed in position now! The rearmost part of the canopy is now on, as is the new, larger fin. I've scratched up a forward bulkhead, that's the one right at the front of the canopy, as the original became lunch for the Carpet Monster y'day. That's glued in place and painted now, and I'll put the main canopy itself on in an hour or so.

THEN I'll have to mask all those weird shaped panes, not looking forward to that one bit.