Heinkel He 111 and derivatives

[GTX]

Hi folks,

I've updated the Floatplane He 111 with larger floats:



Regards,

Greg

[sequoiaranger]

Something that seemingly crops up on all REAL land-to-float conversions is increased vertical stabilizer area, usually under the rear fuselage. Since "we" aren't going to need the tailwheel on "our" He-111 floatplane, perhaps that would be a good spot for a ventral strake of some sort.

[GTX]

Something that seemingly crops up on all REAL land-to-float conversions is increased vertical stabilizer area, usually under the rear fuselage. Since "we" aren't going to need the tailwheel on "our" He-111 floatplane, perhaps that would be a good spot for a ventral strake of some sort.

Picky, picky...



Regards,

Greg

[Daryl J.]

 


Daryl J.

[Maverick]

Something that seemingly crops up on all REAL land-to-float conversions is increased vertical stabilizer area, usually under the rear fuselage. Since "we" aren't going to need the tailwheel on "our" He-111 floatplane, perhaps that would be a good spot for a ventral strake of some sort.

I guess if one wanted to be completely anal about the thing, the ventral gondola would go too as it seems a likely candidate to get soaked during take offs & landings.  But then, I'm sure there'd be other glaring errors that could be pointed out.

[GTX]

Bah!!!!

[sequoiaranger]

>the ventral gondola would go too as it seems a likely candidate to get soaked during take offs & landings. <

We could convert that into a glass-bottomed lifeboat!!

[gooberliberation]

I'd want the ventral guns to stay; very few float/seaplanes have their bottoms covered with defensive guns.

[Maverick]

Goob,

Whilst my comment was very much 'tongue in cheek', it was valid and that sort of shows why very few had their bottoms covered.  About the only one that comes to mind was the 'tunnel gun' on the Catalina, but I'm assuming the hatch for that was watertight.  Exposed weapons like the 111s would no doubt rust double quick-time when operating in a maritime environment.

Regards,

Mav

[sequoiaranger]

Though I **LOVE** the camo and the general look, I have always had a slight dissatisfaction from my "He-211" four-engined maritime patrol bomber whif. I used TWO He-111Z kits to get the straight-section wings with two engines apiece, plus various components and vac-formed pieces from Airmodel. I like the stepped-windscreen look of the early He-111's, so kept that in the He-211.

My dissatisfaction comes from the "short" fuselage in comparison to the long wingspan. I kept the original He-111 fuselage (early nose), but it seems a little too short. Maybe that bodes well for its appellation "Albatros", but it looks out-of-balance.

I am going to re-make the Albatros some day, using the extant wings/engines (though will probably put some beefier LG/wheels on), but grafting on a new, larger and elongated fuselage.

I have one of the old 1/64 Lindberg He-111 kits (Cello-vision box!) that is a larger overall aircraft. The engines are HUGE compared to 1/72, but surprisingly, the wing-root is EXACTLY the same size as the fine Italeri He-111 from which my He-211 was made. The main fuselage is larger and slightly more round in cross-section. I will use the top turret from my old He-211 (from the Airfix He-111 H-20) in place of the open top-gunner's spot. The enlarged ventral "dustbin" doesn't have the plethora of windows as the Italeri kit, but that's OK with me. The Roden early-model He-111 nose will be grafted onto a section of vac-formed Me-264 to extend the nose so that the pilot can see down and to the sides without the engines in the way.

I had thought of grafting on the smaller-diameter rear fuselage and tail section of the Italeri kit to extend the tail, but now have a new scheme. I have an Ilyushin Il-28 that has a tail gun position looking somewhat like the one on a late-model Martin B-26. I would have liked to have kept the Heinkel look and grafted on a He-177 tail gun postition, but not only don't I have a He-177 anymore (had two, but sold them this summer), but I think it would have been too "square", anyhoo.  The tail-gun section from a Renzan "Rita" was too fat. I may or may not put the horizontal stabilizers back down in mid-fuselage to keep the He-111 look.

So the crude side-view drawings below has the proposed remake. Just imagine the enlarged and elongated fuselage connected to the wings you see:

[sequoiaranger]

Fiddling with the various profiles here, I have come up with a "He-211" remake that does NOT have the tail-gun position as I had proposed in a previous post. Looks pretty cool to me, so hmmmmm. Maybe I *WON'T* put the tailgun position in. We'll see. The project is still a long ways off, but it's fun to speculate!

[elmayerle]

Well, you could always use the approach boeing considered for putting a tail gun position on the original neatly-tapered B-17 fuselage, go to twin fins and put the gun position in as a smoothly-faired blister position.

[GTX]

Maybe you could go with the remote 7.92 mm MG 17(?) that some He-111s carried in the tailcone.  Possibly even upgrade it to a 20mm canno for added punch?

Regards,

Greg

[sequoiaranger]

>Maybe you could go with the remote 7.92 mm MG 17(?) that some He-111s carried in the tailcone.  Possibly even upgrade it to a 20mm cannon for added punch?<

Yes, my current He-211 has one of those "nuisance" MG in the tail cone sometimes seen on He-111's, but that was un-steerable and just relied on a car spring to randomly vary the aim (spray and pray) of the tail gun!

Most likely I will put in a tail gunner's position, despite "ruining" the clean taper of the tail. A maritime attack plane far out at sea is terribly vulnerable to ANY damage preventing its return to base. A human-guided defense position in the tail, with the best field of fire, would go a long way to instilling confidence in the crew's expectation of reaching land safely.

I *MAY* put in a remote chin-turret, too, for strafing. We'll see!

[JayBee]

In autumn 1940 Luftwaffe finally understood that Me-109 had too short range, Bf-110 were too vulnerable. The solution found was similar to what USAAF did three years later with B-17 and B-24 : a flying AAA platform  with massive firepower.
Sadly with all these weapons onboard these He-111 could no longer followed the bombers, and were quickly scrapped.

Just found this thread.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!