A He 112 trilogy: in Regia Aeronautica service

Dizzyfugu · August 29, 2017, 10:41:05 PM

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
In October 1933, Hermann Göring sent out a letter requesting aircraft companies consider the design of a "high speed courier aircraft" - a thinly veiled request for a new fighter. In May 1934, this was made official and the Technisches Amt sent out a request for a single-seat interceptor for the Rüstungsflugzeug IV role, this time under the guise of a "sports aircraft". The specification was first sent to the most experienced fighter designers, Heinkel, Arado, and Focke-Wulf.

Heinkel's design was created primarily by twin brothers Walter and Siegfried Günter, whose designs would dominate most of Heinkel's work. They started work on Projekt 1015 in late 1933 under the guise of the original courier aircraft, based around the BMW XV radial engine. Work was already under way when the official request went out on 2 May, and on 5 May the design was renamed the He 112.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The primary source of inspiration for the He 112 was their earlier He 70 Blitz ("Lightning") design. The Blitz was a single-engine, four-passenger aircraft originally designed for use by Lufthansa, and it in turn was inspired by the famous Lockheed Model 9 Orion mail plane. Like many civilian designs of the time, the aircraft was pressed into military service and was used as a two-seat bomber (although mostly for reconnaissance) and served in this role in Spain. The Blitz introduced a number of new construction techniques to the Heinkel company; it was their first low-wing monoplane, their first with retractable landing gear, their first all-metal monocoque design, and its elliptical, reverse-gull wing would be seen on a number of later projects. The Blitz could almost meet the new fighter requirements itself, so it is not surprising that the Günters would choose to work with the existing design as much as possible.

The original He 112 was basically a scaled down version of Heinkel's aerodynamically highly refined He 70 and shared its all metal construction, inverted gull wings, and retractable landing gear. Like the He 70, the He 112 was constructed entirely of metal, using a two-spar wing and a monocoque fuselage with flush-head rivets. The landing gear retracted outward from the low point of the wing's gull-bend, which resulted in a fairly wide span track, giving the aircraft excellent ground handling. Its only features from an older era were its open cockpit and fuselage spine behind the headrest, which were kept in order to provide excellent vision and make the biplane-trained pilots feel more comfortable.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The He 112 V1 started in the head-to-head contest when it arrived at Travemünde on 8 February 1936. The other three competitors had all arrived by the beginning of March. Right away, the Focke-Wulf Fw 159 and Arado Ar 80 proved to be lacking in performance, and plagued with problems, and were eliminated from serious consideration. At this point, the He 112 was the favorite over the "unknown" Bf 109, but opinions changed when the Bf 109 V2 arrived on 21 March. All the competitor aircraft had initially been equipped with the Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, but the Bf 109 V2 had a Jumo 210. From that point on, it started to outperform the He 112 in almost every way, and even the arrival of the Jumo-engined He 112 V2 on 15 April did little to address this imbalance.

Eventually, the Bf 109 was chosen as the Luftwaffe's new standard fighter, and Heinkel was left with an excellent but unwanted fighter. However, the He 112 was subsequently marketed to foreign customers, including Yugoslavia, The Netherlands, Finland, Romania and Japan, and saw a mild export and license production success during WWII's opening stages.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

One of the foreign countries which adopted the He 112 was Italy. The Regia Aeronautica suffered, like many other contemporary air forces, under outdated biplane types and the fast technical developments of surrounding nations. Indigenous monoplanes like the Fiat G.50 or the Macchi MC.200 and 202 were under development, but especially an aircraft with more powerful armament and longer range, primarily for bomber escort duties, was missing. Since the new high-performance Bf 109 was not be cleared for export at that time, the He 112 appeared like a good "second choice" option for both Italian and German officials.
The He 112's range of more than 700 miles (1.100 km) and a performance similar to the Fiat G.50 and even better – despite a nominally weaker engine – was convincing enough, so that the German type would fill the Regia Aeronautica's perceived gap well.

A total of 60 aircraft was ordered in 1939 (an initial batch of ten aircraft, plus fifty more), and Heinkel – knowing that the He 112's potential was limited – reacted quickly with the He 112 E (for "Export").
The E-1 variant was tailored to Italian specifications, but it was also stripped off of any items with high military value or innovation. For instance, in order to improve performance but not to give away the more modern and potent DB600 or Jumo 211 engines, the export aircraft for Italy received uprated Jumo 210Ga engines (rated at 730 PS/534 kW) and a new three blade propeller that would transfer the engine power into propulsion more effectively.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Furthermore, no armament was fitted to the export He 112s upon delivery, since the German 20mm MG FF cannon were not cleared for export, too. The Italian operators did not mind, though, since many indigenous equipment pieces would be retrofitted to the new aircraft, anyway. As a consequence, the Regia Aeronautoca's He 112 E-1s were locally outfitted with proven weapons of domestic origin, namely a pair of 7.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns in the cowling flanks with 500 RPG, plus a pair of 12.7 mm (.5 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns in the wings with 400 RPG.

The Italian He 112s' first active involvements in WWII started in July 1940, with the Italian bombings in the British Mandate of Palestine. The freshly delivered machines were not ready in time to take part in the Regia Aeronautica's Battle of France at the Western front line, so they were directly delivered to South-Italian units and primarily used in the Mediterranean and Northern African theatre of operations.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The raids in the Middle East with He 112 involvement primarily centered on Tel Aviv and Haifa, but many other coastal towns such as Acre and Jaffa also suffered. Haifa was hit many times by the Italians, because of the port and refinery, starting in June 1940. The 29 July 1940 issue of Time reported a bombing at Haifa by SM82 bombers during the previous week, with a dozen casualties. According to Time Magazine, the Italians claimed a huge success, which the British did not deny. Where the British oil pipeline from Mosul reached tidewater, "Ten big Italian bombers, flying at great altitude from the Dodecanese Islands, giving the British bases at Cyprus a wide berth, dumped 50 bombs on the Haifa oil terminal and refinery."
The bombing started fires, which burned for many days afterward, and the refinery's production was blocked for nearly one month. British fighters from a base on Mt. Carmel were too late to overtake the Italians returning to their base in Italian Dodecanese. The last Italian bombing on the territories of the British Mandate of Palestine occurred in June 1941. Haifa and Tel Aviv where hit, but with little damage and few casualties.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Further He 112 engagements included Eastern and Western Africa, and they participated with the Regia Aeronautica's air offensive against the British-controlled island of Malta along with the German Air Force in an attempt to gain control of the Axis sea routes from Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy to North Africa.
The final front line duty of an Italian He 112 E-1 took place in 1942, when Italian Piaggio P.108 bombers, accompanied by Italian He 112 escorts, attacked Gibraltar from Sardinia, flying a number of long-range night raids, which lasted until October 1942. By then, the He 112 in Italian service had been fully replaced by indigenous and more capable, new fighter types. Moreover, advanced Bf 109 versions were delivered in early 1943 to the Regia Aeronautica, too, and the remaining He 112 E-1 were relegated to advanced weapon training duties.

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 9.22 m (30 ft 11 7/8 in)
Wingspan: 9.09 m (29 ft 9¾ in)
Height: 3.82 m (12 ft 6¾ in)
Wing area: 17 m² (183 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,617 kg (3,565 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 2,248 kg (4,957 lb)

Powerplant:
1× Junkers Jumo 210Ga liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, rated at 730 hp (534 kW)

Performance:
Maximum speed: 510 km/h (317 mph)
Range: 1150 km (715 mi)
Service ceiling: 9,500 m (31,200 ft)
Wing loading: 132 kg/m² (27.1 lb/ft²)

Armament:
2× 7.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500 RPG mounted in the sides of the engine cowling
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns in the wings with 400 RPG in the wings

The kit and its assembly:
This whiffy He 112 was inspired by a CG skin found at the warthunder.com forum (created/posted by user Arkham815). In its characteristic Italian "smoke ring" livery the depicted He 112 B looked pretty natural:

Found at http://live.warthunder.com/post/629103/en/

Since I had a Heller He 112 stashed away without concrete plans/ideas yet, I built this one as a simple quickie and just as a fictional color variant.
The Heller kit dates back to 1979, and it is pretty good. You get raised panel lines, but decent interior detail and good fit. For this pseudo-Italian incarnation the kit was mostly built OOB. The only mods are a new three blade propeller (from a Hobby Boss Mitsubishi A6M and an AZ Model Spitfire V spinner, plus a metal axis and a styrene tube adapter inside the fuselage) and some oxygen bottles behind the seat.
The canopy was cut into three pieces for display, and I added some structures inside of the landing gear wells with styrene strips since they are OOB totally bleak. For the wing cannons, barrels cut from a steel needle were added (the original 20mm cannon just featured holes in the wings' leading edge).

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Painting and markings:
Well, the "smoke ring" camouflage used in the CG animation looks pretty on the He 112, and the aircraft's outline similarity with the Macchi MC.205 make it a natural choice. But I did not use it for my build because it would not match the He 112's time frame. The "smoke ring" scheme was only used from 1942 onwards, a little too late for my place in history for the Italian He 112, and it was furthermore more or less confined to the Northern African theatre of operations.

Consequentially, I chose an earlier standard scheme for my fictional Italian He 112, even though it would have a similar style, so that the original design idea would be kept. My choice fell on the so-called "C1A" scheme, basically an overall sand yellow with irregular, small green and brown mottles.
The colors were guesstimated, based on contemporary Regia Aeronautica aircraft. The basic Giallo Mimetico is represented through the rather yellowish Humbrol 94 (Desert Sand), later highlighted and somewhat dulled down with dry-brushed Humbrol 168 (Hemp).
The mottles were created in Bruno Mimetico with Humbrol 113 first, and "on top" came another layer with Verde Mimetico (Humbrol 150). Unlike the CG benchmark, the upper camouflage was extended under the engine and the rear fuselage, as well as around the wings' leading edges. The wings' undersides were painted in Grigio Mimetico (Humbrol 64).

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The white ID band round the fuselage was created with generic decal sheet (TL Modellbau), and all other markings come basically from a vast Fiat CR.42 sheet from Sky Models with markings for roundabout 70(!!!) aircraft. The white spinner with a thin red band was adapted from a contemporary real world 162° Squadriglia Fiat CR.42. It is the only colorful addition, because I wanted to keep things rather subtle – and the mottled scheme in itself is already a spectacular sight!

Being an aircraft of German origin, the interior surfaces became RLM 02 (Humbrol 240), lightly dry-brushed with light grey.

After some soot stains with graphite the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

1:72 Heinkel He 112 E-1; '110' of the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) 162° Squadriglia, 161° Gruppo Caccia; Dodecanese (Aegean Sea), summer 1940 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Part one of a Heller He 112 trilogy, and a rather simple and quick build, done in less than a week and mostly spent on the painting phase. But the He 112 looks very good in its fictional Italian livery, if not spectacular? I find it amazing how well this scheme disrupts the aircraft's outlines, and how the marking blur into the overall livery. Only the white MTO ID markings truly stand out – an unexpected result. More He 112 mayhem to follow.

ysi_maniac · August 29, 2017, 11:17:01 PM

Perfect idea!

TomZ · August 29, 2017, 11:38:18 PM

Wow, beautiful.
Love your camouflage. Beautifully done!

TomZ

PR19_Kit · August 30, 2017, 12:03:14 AM

I didn't think that you could get a Whiffie nomination for a real world aircraft...... Oh, it's NOT real world?

Could have fooled me, it looks SO realistic. Nice one Thomas!

Dizzyfugu · August 30, 2017, 12:04:01 AM

Thank you very much. Yes, the paint scheme looks surprisingly good - I have never been a big fan of Italian schemes, but this pesudo-leopard style turned out to be both highly effective and pretty, at least on the sleek He 112. Looks so natural.

And, OMG, thanks a lot for the Whiffies nomination! Did not expect that for this rather simple one!

zenrat · August 30, 2017, 12:39:53 AM

Good job. Although to my eye the shape of the stabilisers clashes with the shape of the wings.

Dizzyfugu · August 30, 2017, 01:55:12 AM

Totally agree. Looks like a poor kitbash, but in this case the parts are OOB! They are really (relatively) huge, almost like a Delanne design, the square shape does also not match well with the rest, and the He 112's wing span is also very short for this sleek aircraft. Proportions are ...weird. I left is "as is" though, since this He 112 is supposed to remain close the original (the German B-0/-1 variant).

dumaniac · August 30, 2017, 02:52:00 AM

great build and camo. I have one of those in 48 scale. I'll have to give the camo at go.

thanks for sharing

NARSES2 · August 30, 2017, 06:35:47 AM

Great build. Absolute natural in Italian colours

comrade harps · August 31, 2017, 05:24:21 AM

Lovely dapple effect

DogfighterZen · August 31, 2017, 06:38:41 PM

Looks great, Dizzy!

Hotte · September 02, 2017, 03:13:19 AM

Beautiful Camouflage

Hotte

Dizzyfugu · September 02, 2017, 03:45:39 AM

Merci bien!