Heinkel He-121 Stratospheric Fighter

[PACOPEPE]

I like it very much. Japanese Bv 155,  . Have you thought to put the radiators over the wings, like the german aircraft?.

All the best
Fran

[dumaniac]

the painted model looks great - keep up the good work

[bobbo]

Craig,
If this is a tail sitter, the pilot's going to have a fun time lining up on the runway and taking off. With wings that big, the takeoff run would probably be short, though.

FRank

I'll bet the take-off run and climb out will resemble the U-2 

Outstanding aircraft, BTW!

bobbo

[sequoiaranger]

>Outstanding aircraft, BTW!<

Thanks, bobbo. Yeah, with wings like these you hardly need engines to get airborne--just point it into the wind!

>the painted model looks great - keep up the good work<

Thanks dumaniac. It's nice to see the parts that were black, white, light gray, yellow gray, blue gray, and three different shades of green turn into a single color.  However, like the "W" of a "storyline", I am at an "up" point where my hard work has paid off to flesh out a recognizable "framework" of a model and I am pleased with the results---so far. Now comes the "down" as I have to futz around and fine-tune all the details that make a model worthy of presentation, but it is a time-consuming process of great effort for seemingly little payoff (not true, but it seems so). There are a LOT of those, and it gets me down sometimes when inevitable compromises have to be made. But I will prevail.

>I like it very much. Japanese Bv 155. Have you thought to put the radiators over the wings, like the german aircraft?<

I think the overwing radiators of the BV-155 are downright UG-LY. The P-47 Thunderbolt managed to have its radiator/turbocharger setup fairly compact and using the same opening for both. The Fw-190 V-18 had some additional cooling besides the enormous belly scoop, so I will add something else to help cool the He-121--probably underwing radiators like the Bf-109 or something. Not decided yet.

[pyro-manic]

This is looking very good indeed!

[PR19_Kit]

That looks REALLY great! 

You'd never imagine it started off as an He-111.

As to the radiators etc. the P-47 didn't have any, it was aircooled so didn't need them. You could have UNDER-wing radiators, as on the later Bv-155s (or my MB8 Marlin.....  ) but they wouldn't improve the looks of your He-121, the BIG belly scoop surely looks the way to go

[jcf]

As to the radiators etc. the P-47 didn't have any, it was aircooled so didn't need them.

Ahem, are we perhaps forgetting the Chrysler XI-2220 inverted V-16 powered XP-47H? 

[Taiidantomcat]

Looking great!  What a span!

[sequoiaranger]

>As to the radiators etc. the P-47 didn't have any, it was aircooled so didn't need them.<

Brain f^rt! OK--ya got me!

<You could have UNDER-wing radiators, as on the later Bv-155s (or my MB8 Marlin.....  ) but they wouldn't improve the looks of your He-121, the BIG belly scoop surely looks the way to go<

I think I would need a much bigger belly scoop to do all the cooling and turbocharging (looking like the XP-47 H illustrated by JC---incidentally likewise with a 16-cylinder engine, albeit smaller) needed for my whif, so I am including two small under-wing radiators (again, note the annular radiator AND oil-cooling scoop on the Fw-190 V-18) near the wing roots, OR...I might go bold and drill out some wing-root openings in the overly-thick leading edge (like the He-119 had).

Taiid >What a span!<

Yes! Actually more than the He-111 (80 for the He-121, 74 for the He-111) on a smaller body (only 39 feet long for the He-121 as opposed to 52 for the He-111, and 48 for the He-119 ). The elderly He-70 has similar length, but the He-121 is "heftier".

I'm sure on my next "regular" model I will wonder how it stayed up in the air with such puny wings!

[dumaniac]

Yes - interesting issues for Luft46.  One option (as others have said) is the belly air scoop - maybe like the P51 with the radiator housed well behind the engine.  Or - using the same radiator placement, perhaps two smaller side air scoops - kind of like the little scoops on a P38 on the tail booms - it would get you away from the ugly Me155 underwing air scoops.

For your consideration

Bernie

[tc2324]

Love the look of this so far and can`t wait fo the finished product.

[dumaniac]

how did you make the wings so long - what bits did you use?

Bernie

[sequoiaranger]

dumaniac: >how did you make the wings so long - what bits did you use?<

I was originally going to use the 1/100 Faller He-111 wings out to the engine (so the wing root thickness would be continuous--a major problem now with the wing switch), then join Ar-234 wings out beyond that. I realized that even then the wings would be VERY thick (for 1/100 scale, they would rival the ugly French monsters like the Amiot 143), so I fished around in my stash for something better that wouldn't need such a lash-up. I happened upon a Lockheed U-2 (1/72 scale). At first I said to myself, "No Way", but then, my inspiration took over and it became, "Way!". If you go down the thread a ways, you will see that I "Heinkel-ized" the wing at the rear roots, and added small wingtips from a He-70 for the final look. BTW, when I held the model by one wingtip to photograph it, the wing bent quite a bit and I was worried it might snap, but, like the Lockheed U-2 itself, the wing flexed and held.

tc2324: >Love the look of this so far and can`t wait fo the finished product<

Thanks, and...me too!

Right now I offer this "teaser", a paragraph in the He-121 backstory:

"Only two enemy fighter kills are attributed to He-121s, both Soviet HALF's*. One time a fierce dogfight broke out between a HALF and a Heinkel. The trainable front guns of the HALF made for a vicious adversary, and when a Soviet HALF attacked a Heinkel He-121 from behind, the Heinkel pilot flicked his ailerons, pulled the stick to have the Heinkel leap up, and side-stepped the attack---almost. Two 20mm shells found the engine and it immediately caught fire and seized. As the HALF passed underneath, the Heinkel pilot shoved the stick forward and ripple-fired the mortars, causing mortal damage with two direct hits. The HALF pilot bailed out about the same time as the Heinkel pilot blasted the cabin module free. The HALF pilot free-fell a long way before opening his chute, but the greater descent speed of the module caught up with him in the lower atmosphere, enabling the Japanese pilot to fire his Nambu 9mm pistol and kill the Soviet pilot in his harness."

*BTW, The half-scale B-29 decoy "High Altitude Long-range Fighter" (H.A.L.F.) fighter mentioned above can be seen in my Gallery at:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=2259

[PR19_Kit]

Ahem, are we perhaps forgetting the Chrysler XI-2220 inverted V-16 powered XP-47H? 

No, we aren't.

The H was hardly a mainstream P-47.........

[sequoiaranger]

Though "marred" visually by a lot of PSR, the undersides here reveal the custom "piping" of the turbocharger from the spidery exhaust manifold, over the wing like "lake pipes" to the rear of the scoop, with "cutouts" (lake-pipes and cutouts!! Am I back in the 50's with my Chevy???), with the high-pressure pipe back to the engine, the curvy, spindly outrigger wheels, the main landing gear (stainless-steel pegs drilled into the shaft/wing keeps the butt-joint secure), and the gun armament (with drilled out bore and muzzle-brake!). Not seen are the wing-root oil-cooler openings.