A Pair of He-100's...Sort of

[sequoiaranger]

My long-standing fascination with the Heinkel He-100 will come full circle with my next project---actually a "two-fer". I have built the real-world V8 record-breaker and several "advanced" whif variants of the He-100, but to complete the missing "lineage", I need to build a "real-world" OOB He-100 in the livery of the factory propaganda machines the Luftwaffe trotted out to make the Allies think the "He-113" was an operational fighter (here below is Logan Hartke's fine profile of something similar--mine will have the "knife through Churchill's Hat" motif):



That will be the fine MPM model. The other...

...will be a modified Argentine-built naval fighter built for Japan's island bases but incorporated into the Kriegsmarine aboard the Graf Zeppelin for Pacific duties. The whole backstory will fill in all the sordid details. Here below are the donor kits (there is actually one other very important one--a Fw-190, and a subsidiary one--a Vickers Wellesley):



This is a "Phoenix" project, taking my *VERY FIRST WHIF* and "upgrading" it, though my old original Lindberg He-100 (c. 1967) will only have a few parts incorporated into the new plane. The Lindberg box shown is the second iteration of the model; sadly I accidentally threw out one of my true original boxes (it was a darker color and I think had the "cellovision" window).

The Hien will give its nacelle (perfect exhaust look), the Mustang will give its ventral radiator and tail (cut down a bit), the Fw-190 will give its wing roots (extending the wingspan a little), and the Wellesley will donate its cockpit/canopy. The plane will be stretched just a tad (the He-100 was a VERY SMALL aircraft!). The result will look like:



(If you put your finger horizontally over the ventral radiator scoop on the screen, it *LOOKS* like a He-100, eh??) Like its "He-113" cousin I did a year ago, it will be a "traded" aircraft, given a "Japanese" paint job, partially covered over by a "German" one, indicating a replacement aircraft aboard the GZ taken from dwindling Japanese stock.

[TallEng]

So.... It's going to be an German designed Aircraft, built by the Argentinians for the Japanese, but used by the Germans
Thats nearly as convoluted as the way your going to build it
I shall look forward to this immensely 

Regards
Keith

[sequoiaranger]

>So.... It's going to be an German designed Aircraft, built by the Argentinians for the Japanese, but used by the Germans
Thats nearly as convoluted as the way your going to build it<

Convoluted??? Nah!    

As you might know, the Japanese were very interested in the He-100 and bought some examples and a manufacturing license for a future "land-based naval fighter", designated "AXHei". AND...you might know that as much as the He-100 showed many aspects of superiority over the Bf-109, the Heinkel fighter was turned down for Luftwaffe use, partly because of feared engine shortages (Bf-109 and Bf-110 using the same DB-601 engine, and the He-100 SPECIFICALLY designed for ONLY that engine).

But... *I* have a Heinkel shadow-factory in Argentina producing the engines (but of course as soon as Germany goes to war, Argentine production cannot reach Germany with Allied blockade) and various airframes. The Japanese expand on the He-100 design and send the plans to Argentina to produce fighters for them in exchange for a small fleet of I-boats for Argentina's burgeoning navy. Since Argentine production does not interfere with German needs, the Argentine "He-100's" are approved for use by the Kriegsmarine. The carrier Graf Zeppelin, escapes from Germany and heads around the Horn for the Pacific. Especially since the GZ cannot reasonably be supplied by Germany at this point, she picks up a large batch of the now FMA-100T (Fabrica Militar de Aviones) for herself and Japan and heads for the Marshall Islands, etc., etc.....

[sequoiaranger]

Really, I'm *NOT* coughing, but cutting, viciously, extensively, provocatively. The Dremel rotary saw is in overdrive!



OK--the P-51, my "base" kit, had a .5 mm sliver taken from each half down the middle, to make the fuselage width a scosh narrower to fit the Hien/He-100 nose AND the Wellesley cockpit.  The P-51 also got its turtleback hacked off (AND the top of its vertical stabilizer, AND the rudder, and a few indents on the horizontal stabilizers which will be moved slightly backwards). Yet to come is the nose!

The Fw-190 had its wing fillet hacked off to join the wings (below) and now I have hacked more to fit the wing to the P-51 fuselage. The Fw wing was gouged (as opposed to hacked--the brown overspray on the left wing shows the difference compared to the wing on the right) to fit the P-51's indented radiator and will be tilted slightly (and guns, pitot, etc. will be bent back to parallel) inward, making a more straight leading edge (the original wing spar of the He-100 was canted forward, so it isn't too outrageous).

Hien---both bottom and top cowling hacked off and the portion left will be attached to the soon-to-be-hacked-off nose of the P-51.

Wellesley shown with its hacked-off cockpit area. Hacked off the Wellesley cockpit after needing to cement FIVE fuselage parts together.

Frankenplane!!  

[Old Wombat]

Mein Gott, ist der uber Frankenwhiff!!!!!

Crazy enough to be entertaining. I'm watching!

[PR19_Kit]

Don't forget that the Wellesley was a Matchbox kit, logic had no place in the location of the various parts, or their colours come to that! 

[sequoiaranger]

I have carefully installed the partial nose of the Hien into the partial nose of the Mustang. My careful pre-cutting measurements paid off, and I like the result (photos later).

More and more as I concoct this whif, I see less reason to hack up my "dear" first whif. At first I thought I would just incorporate the various other kits as add-ons to the original Lindberg whif, but the project has taken on a life of its own, and the highly-modified Mustang is proving a better "base" kit for what I have in mind.  I have another 2 Lindberg He-100's, so don't *NEED* any parts from my old one (though I *WILL* incorporate the Lindberg and MPM He-100 kits somehow). I think I will consign this old whif to my "history" shelf and make the FMA-100T an original whif instead of a "Phoenix". I can also put the two side-by-side for "comparison" in the art of whiffing!!!

The b/w drawing of the FMA-100T in my first post has a "turtledeck" much like the original He-100, but my model FMA-100T will have that area cut down, looking more like the "D"-type Mustangs with a kind of "squashed" canopy (the Wellesley one--herewith illustrated).



I have made my right wing (quite a bugger to cut down and form) conform to the Mustang wing/fuselage interface (still will need mucho PSR) and am mirroring that with the left wing.

There are slivers and chunks of plastic---two shades of gray, two shades of brown, and green---scattered all over my desk. I couldn't do what I do without the precise cutting ability of my Dremel and its thin, rotary sawblade. When I do the OOB He-100D I *KNOW* I can slap that baby together in a day it will be so RIDICULOUSLY easy in comparison. *WHY* do I torture myself so with elaborate construction?----because I *CAN*!

[tc2324]

Ohh..., now I`m liking this...... alot! 

[sequoiaranger]

tc2324, Old Wombat,TallEng, Pr19_Kit-----Thanks. It's coming along nicely. Just forging ahead utterly convinced it will turn out all right.

I had to fashion an oversized propshaft (from an old bomber landing gear) and inner hub (from a small wheel), so now the shaft is anchored, can spin freely (an important sequoiaranger element), and it is protruding out the front so I can attach a prop and spinner (w/ 20mm gun in the middle) to it later (couldn't seal up underside without doing that) after painting.

I had to add plastic and shape to the underside scoop (partly my earlier errors, partly that the Monogram "P-51B" scoop is asymmetrical inside, requiring lots of careful filing to achieve symmetry).

Next, the Fw-190 wings are now shaped and fitted (crudely but effectively) to the fuselage (LOTS of carving and test-fitting). The inner section of the wing will be level (the bottom of the wing, that is---the top taper gives it a slightly inverted-gull look); the outer sections (actual He-100 outer wings) will have slight dihedral. No pics yet, as whole assembly is drying in a press to keep everything in place. My diligence has paid off--I'm excited!

[sequoiaranger]

OK. Finally some pics!
Here are the Hien and Mustang "carcasses"---the Mustang (brown) has had its turtleback, rudder, top stabilizer and cockpit areas cut, with a precisely-angled cut on the nose to hopefully match the similar cut to the Hien (marked with a pen) for the exhaust/supercharger area to be transferred:



Now you can see it assembled, plus the token green Lindberg chunk over the turtledeck, and the FW-190 wings in place:



The last pic taken from underneath shows the Fw-190 wings attached, with a "wedge" of scrap in there, the "filler" for the underside of the nose, and the jury-rigged-but functional green propshaft. The Fw wings had to be carefully "sculpted" with an inverted "U" at the bottom to fit the ventral scoop "neck" and other areas ground down to match up other parameters.  The wing is "canted inward" slightly to produce a straight leading edge. The wheel-wells will be filled in and the immediate area ground down a bit. Also to come will be the He-100 outer wings married to the Fw-190's (cut somewhere around the middle).

[Old Wombat]

Looks great, so far! Keep it up!



Guy

[sequoiaranger]

When selecting the outer wings, I found, curiously enough, that the seemingly-better MPM He-100 model kit had "inferior" wings for the purposes of this project, so I duly used the ancient Lindberg ones--they fit perfectly! Now I have all the "basics" together and can "fill in" the spaces, PSR the results, and get on with the "funnest" part of the project--decoration. But...lots of PSR to do in the meantime!

In the photo below you can see all the disparate elements that went into creating the shape of the "FMA-100T". Relative to the He-100, the FMA-100 increases the wingspan by six feet, the fuselage by five, and the gunpower by 2 20mm cannon. Heinkel shoulda-oughta done the same!

[sequoiaranger]

All those colors of plastic plus the putty make it difficult to assess the smoothness of the PSR work, so I will "primer" the whole plane to unify the color so that "sheen", shadow, etc. will tell me how I'm doing. I always prepare myself to endure three iterations of PSR, so this is just after the first iteration, KNOWING I will have at least one more to get things smoothly to my satisfaction.  Here is the FMA-100 dressed in "uniform" gray:



Here is the side view, looking a little Mustang-ish (no wonder--the Mustang ventral cooler setup is visually unique, but no reason that other nations couldn't have come up with the idea, too!), but...



And here is the "comp" with my old Lindberg "He-100T" for comparison:



I also have "opened the box" of the MPM He-100 that I will do "stock", and put the wings together. Lots of "flash" to clean up, but it will go together quickly. It will be "black-green" over RLM 65 with the peculiar center-of-wing Balkenkrueze.

[sequoiaranger]

While waiting for the FMA-100's third iteration of PSR to dry, I turned my attention to its "real-world" He-100D companion. The MPM kit is very good dimensionally, but has thick sprues that impinge on the parts, and lots of flash. Also, NO locating pins. My two concessions to doing this OOB is that all Sequioaranger propellers must turn (usually freely so I can blow on them), and I have altered the stock exhausts on my other "real-world" V8 recordbreaker and my FMA-100, so "must" do that here, too.  I had to saw off the "solid" nose to get a proper rotating propeller, and will use the excellent Hien prop (same "brand" as the He-100). Neither the Lindberg nor MPM He-100 got the exhaust look correct---the Ki-61 Hien has it PERFECT, so....yet another Hien gives up its exhaust look:

[Old Wombat]

So, a lot of future turbo-prop/jet Ki-61 Hien's in your future?