Heinkel He-113 Mittlesee

[sequoiaranger]

Though not yet finished with the Douglas Decimator, I have begun surgery for the upcoming He-113 M, kind of a He-100-on-steroids. Below are the beginnings, circled in white:

The all-white thingy is the vac-form wing I will be using from the He-280 jet. It has much the same planform and head-on profile of the He-100, but larger.

Then comes the Frog Mustang, from which I chopped off its tail. Again, the Mustang tail resembles the He-100, but is larger (compare with He-100 tail below). The triangular cross-section matches up well with the Nanzan, too!

Then comes the Tamiya Nanzan main fuselage, from which I excised the canopy section (a two-place aircraft, the Nanzan had to be altered anyway). The pilot of the He-113 will be about where the Nanzan's GIB was. The nose of the Nanzan looks like the He-100. I will be putting a supercharger intake on the opposite side (the Jumo engine, which will power the He-113 like it did the He-112, had it there.)

Then comes the MPM He-100 which gave up its cockpit and turtledeck, after some widening by me. You can tell that the He-113 will be a scosh bigger than its "parent" He-100.



Some of the backstory and drawings are at:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,18085.0.html

and my gallery:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=3851


So the fuselage is "done" for the most part. The wing attachment will be problematic, as the Nanzan wing has a broader chord, but I am up to the challenge. The wing will be a composite, as I "need" some of the Nanzan wing for structural strength. Not sure how I will do that, but it will evolve. I will have to do the cockpit from underneath, as the set-ins for the cockpit and turtledeck preclude having fuselage "halves" to work with.

But...I'm OFF and running on another Whif! Life is good!

[sequoiaranger]

I cobbled the fuselage parts together. A thought hit me last night (still have the bruises) that I might use the Ryusei wing, or part of it, as the Ryusei wing has the crook in the wing, the straight leading edge (the model does--the real plane did NOT), and wheel-well shape. Unfortunately, the Ryusei wing is WAAAAY too big. Nice idea, though--would have saved me a LOT of work. I will most likely use the wing-to-fuselage fillet from the He-100 to fill in the gap from the larger Nanzan wing. I "photoshopped" a little bit of the He-113's tail to make it more "triangular" and rounded at the top relative to the Mustang tail that is actually there, but I am not sure I will keep the effect on the model.

Below is a comparison. Clear tape over the He-100's nose distorts the profile, but I think you can get the idea of how similarly the two will look:

[dumaniac]

looks good so far

cheers Dumaniac

[sequoiaranger]

I have to put the He-113 on the back burner (or maybe even off the stove) for the time being, needing to finish my almost-completed Decimator and start on my Phoenix CV-6 project. So this will be the last post on the project for awhile. I'll dredge it back up when more progress is made.

I am, however, re-thinking the desert camo scheme, maybe to something more like the "Blordiator" in mimicking the North African desert terrain below--like wadis, escarpments, dunes, and oases minutely represented on the top surfaces. It will definitely have Italian markings overlain with German, though, to represent the transfer of the Heinkels once in North Africa.

See ya then!

[Brian da Basher]

I hate to see this hit the back burner, but I think you'll come back to it with an even clearer idea of where to take it. I've never regretted taking time on a project, but I've often wished I hadn't rushed things.

I'll be keeping an eye peeled for this one returning front and center, SR!

Brian da Basher

[sequoiaranger]

After the exhausting USS Enterprise project, I am returning to my first love: aircraft.

However, SWMBO deserves a break, too, from my absorption of time for the above. The "craft room" is now cleared of the sprawling clutter of my complicated model ship project, and will stay that way until July, when I dare resume my craft.

But my mind is restless.

I have re-visited the idea of using the Fujimi Aichi B7A "Grace" wing (improperly shaped for the Grace, but good for me!) and sectioning it to reduce length and cord to an appropriate size for a fighter. It has the perfect planform, head-on shape, and wheel-well; just too large. I would prefer injection-molded styrene to vac-form, so I may ditch the vac-form He-280 wing altogether for this project. I think sectioning the Grace wing will be simpler and faster than bracing and shaping a wing root, wheel wells, and such from a flimsy vac-form.

See ya later!

[sequoiaranger]

In the pic below, the original He-100 wing is shown at bottom. VERY short span. My idea for the He-113 is to increase all dimensions, and bring the wing up close to the span of the He-280 jet (middle wing, the vac-form).

The top wing, that of the Aichi B7A "Grace" by Fujimi, is incorrect for the Grace, but you can see that it looks very much like the He-100 wing, only MUCH larger. The chord of the Grace wing is too great for the "Nanzan" fuselage I am using, so I need to reduce it down a bit (hence the lines of the proposed cut).

Initially I had thought I would need to shorten the span, too, but now it looks like I can dispense with (or alter) the Nanzan center fuselage piece, and merely use a strand of it to separate the wheel wells of the Grace wing somewhat like the He-100. This should bring the span down to about that of the He-280.



Here's a roughly Photoshopped version--I think that'll be just about right for my project.

[sequoiaranger]

Now I am re-considering using the He-280 wing instead of that of the Grace. (See photos in post below this)

The Grace wing has the "proper" straight leading edge, but a continuous taper at the trailing edge; the He-100 did NOT, only tapering outward of the wing bend. Taking out a center piece of the Grace wing to conform to the wing root chord of the Nanzan will make the wing awfully skinny outward of the landing gear and resemble a Stuka. NOT the look I am after.

Better, methinks, to indeed use the skinnier He-280 wing and include the He-100 fuselage-to-wing fairing to take up chord space relative to the Nanzan wing root, and perhaps use the old He-100 wing sections as stiffening inside the vac-formed wing. The bend in the He-280 wing needs to be transposed outward to the next panel line to allow for the landing gear to be wholly inside the wing bend. Luckily the thin vac-form can be bent or un-bent, unlike injection-molded parts. The wing thickness inside of the bend should be increased, too, tapering from the fuselage out to the crease. I may even use the wheel-wells from the old He-100 wing or modify the Grace ones and insert them into the vac-formed wing.  Should be about equally as complicated as sectioning the Grace wing. At least the He-100 wing LOOK will be preserved.

Whew!  

[sideshowbob9]

Whew indeed!

I agree that using the He-280 wing will preserve the Heinkel 'look'. The Grace wings don't quite look right.

Whatever way you decide to go, it will certainly be a stunner.

[Brian da Basher]

No matter what, this is shaping up to be some seriously impressive kit surgery, SR!

Brian da Basher

[Tophe]

Great! Go on, dear! Do it!

[sequoiaranger]

I carefully cut a longitudinal central slice out of, shortened, and re-shaped the Nanzan cockpit to fit up into the skinnier He-113 upper fuselage. I fashioned a slanting rear plate and glued it in. I need the cockpit sealed before messing with the lower fuselage and wing set-up.



The He-280 vac-formed wing is a pain, just as I thought it would be. I carefully cut out most of the form, then carefully moto-tooled the edges (all those shavings in the pic). I moto-tooled the trailing edge more, to make the otherwise thick trailing edge "sharp" without cutting into the wing itself---VERY TRICKY, as every edge has a "round-down" of thick plastic. I need to leave a bit of thick "flash" in the leading edge to thicken the wing to match the Nanzan wing root. The next step is to try to put the wing halves together in the right "flattened-W" configuration to match the He-100 look when seen head-on. I think I am going to have to re-inforce the inside of the wing to make it conform to shape, maybe even with metal.

But, it was fun to hear the whir of the saw and grinder, and be modeling again after a self-imposed layoff to rest up from my exhausting USS Enterprise project.

[sequoiaranger]

I finally think I have the wing thing down, or least a PLAN.

I sanded down the entire trailing edge of the vac-forms to get as sharp a meeting of top and bottom halves as possible. There still is an inescapable "round-down" that I may need to sand down from above, then re-scribe. We'll see.

I took a stiff brass rod whose diameter I knew could fit inside the He-113 wing, scored it to create sharp bends (NOT scoring it might make curvy bends), and created the flattened "W" shape of the He-100/113 wings.



I intend to super-glue it tightly to the upper wing half so that the head-on profile looks like the He-100 wing and the bends are in the right place, then epoxy it for additional security. I plan to add some type of strengthening to the flimsy vac outer wings, maybe even putting some Lindberg He-100 wings inside to "pay homage" to the "original" He-100 models that I picked up for $.79 long ago.

I may need to use some round-diameter sprue to support and/or fill out the leading edge of the wing, and fill in with PSR. I may also need to cut the lower wing flush with the lower wing "belly" piece of the Nanzan underbelly rather than try to put the whole wing through it.

As always, a work-in-progress.

[sequoiaranger]

Well, I did it. I now have my wing support that will also bend the wing in the right places for the He-100 look. I was thinking of putting in some wing support with wing halves of my old Lindberg He-100 model, but felt it was a "waste", when all I really needed was some sprue. So my old model kit is still intact. The box is the second cover iteration of the Lindberg He-100 kit; I unfortunately sold off my "original" box when I sold my huge stash. Anyway, I am proud to say that a small part of my He-113 will be the old Lindberg kit that inspired me some 50 years ago!

[CAO 700]

It will be a large fighter! (and a great model )