DONE @p.2 +++ He 115 D-4b "6I+CK", 2./SAGr 130; Norway, 1944 (incl. box art)

Dizzyfugu · December 11, 2017, 03:19:47 AM

A project I've had on the agenda for a long time, but never had the drive to tackle it. But the "Amphibian" GB is a good reason to finally build a model of the semi-fictional upgrade or the He 115 floatplane.
The whole thing is not purely fictional, since the BMW 801-powered He 115 D actually existed – but only as a single prototype. However, I wondered if some more upgrades would have been possible, and this led to this model.

Basis will be the (simple) Matchbox kit, but it will receive some updates, including new engines and a heavier defensive armament. Other weaponry is under consideration.

sandiego89 · December 11, 2017, 02:27:20 PM

Ohhh, love those long struts. Glad you got the inspiration.

Dizzyfugu · December 11, 2017, 11:59:48 PM

Work has started, and raids in the donor banks yielded a surplus H2 293 glide bomb and an MG 151/20 cannon as a replacement for the nose gun. From a Me 210 I will also implant the unique side barbettes as a defensive upgrade. And a recently bought Italeri Do 217 K-1 will have to give its BMW 801 radials. Many cosmetic changes, but I think this one will look pretty good.

Dizzyfugu · December 14, 2017, 03:12:41 AM

Progress here is good, and in fact I am faster than the visual documentation of the build. The kit already stands on it floats and saw some cosmetic conversions. The engine swap was a bit more challenging than expected, because the BMW 801's diameter is smaller than the orginal 9 cylinder radials. The implantation of the side barbettes also worked fine, and a gun fairing was added under the nose. Mounting the clear parts comes next - the nose is pretty tricky, but I expect painting to start this weekend.

PR19_Kit · December 14, 2017, 03:25:01 AM

I just KNOW this is going to look awesome.

Love the idea of the side gun barbettes.

Dizzyfugu · December 14, 2017, 06:36:22 AM

I hope I can justify the expectations.

Dizzyfugu · December 16, 2017, 03:37:24 AM

Just doing finishing touches to the kit, e. g. a scratched chin-mounted cannon and the underwing pylons. Painting about to commence soon, I guess I will make a full post with background, WiP and respective pics, all in one.
I am in parallel still working on the pics for the interim build, which will probably turn up this weekend in another section of the forum.

Dizzyfugu · December 17, 2017, 11:45:15 AM

Further progress. Upper sides have been painted, and most of the afternoon went by trying to paint all the braces on the clear parts... $:-\$
Undersides are WiP, I guess thsi will be done tomorrow and I can start with weathering and shading. Looks rather special in the paint scheme I gave it - lent from real world He 177 operated over the Atlantic.

rickshaw · December 18, 2017, 05:11:53 PM

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on December 17, 2017, 11:45:15 AM
Further progress. Upper sides have been painted, and most of the afternoon went by trying to paint all the braces on the clear parts... $:-\$

A good trick I have found is to paint some very narrow self-adhesive tape the correct colour and apply it to the canopy after dipping the canopy in Future/Klear. Once applied, dip it again and that makes sure the tape stays in place. Much easier than trying to paint all the little bits of framing!

BTW, Jammy-tape is ideal.

Dizzyfugu · December 19, 2017, 12:32:00 AM

A good brush with a decent tip also does the job - it's juts (a lot) more work than a simple bubble canopy... Results look good so far. Spent yesterday evening with a black ink wash and post-shading. All that surface, with the large wings and the extra floats, is tedious. I know (again) why I normally build smaller kits.

Some detail work is still to do (e .g. painting the Hs 293 and the drop tank, as well as the propellers), but soon the decals will follow. I can see this one being finished on the Xmas holidays.

NARSES2 · December 19, 2017, 06:29:29 AM

Quote from: rickshaw on December 18, 2017, 05:11:53 PM

A good trick I have found is to paint some very narrow self-adhesive tape the correct colour and apply it to the canopy after dipping the canopy in Future/Klear. Once applied, dip it again and that makes sure the tape stays in place. Much easier than trying to paint all the little bits of framing!

Yup been doing that for a while now, use pre-cut tape - 0.5 & 0.75mm

Couple of manufacturers go down to that width now, one or two go even thinner

Dizzyfugu · December 21, 2017, 12:09:05 AM

The first major update here: building/conversion phase:

The kit and its assembly:
A project I had on the agenda for a long time, even collecting donor parts and kits, but never had the drive to tackle it. But the "Amphibian" GB at whatifmodelers.com in late 2017 gave the impulse to finally build a model of the semi-fictional upgrade of the rather overlooked He 115 floatplane.
The whole thing is not purely fictional, since the BMW 801-powered He 115 D actually existed – but only as a single prototype. However, I wondered if some more upgrades would have been possible, and this led to this model.

The basic kit is Matchbox' venerable He 115 B/C – a simple affair, but the He 115 is, to be honest, a simple aircraft, slender and big. In my case, it's a Revell re-boxing, and the dark green styrene, in which it is moulded, turned out to be rather brittle, not making it a truly pleasant build (unlike the light grey styrene Revell frequently uses for the Matchbox re-issues, which is somewhat smoother).

As the only IP alternative there's just the FROG mould (and, beware, it comes in a Revell re-boxing, too!), but I am not certain if it is anything good at all? The Matchbox kit appears to be a bit more modern, even though it is very, well, simple, and basically goes together well. But it needs attention at every seam, and the nose section is tricky to mount, too.

The model was built mostly OOB, but received some superficial mods and enhancements:

The BMW 801 engine transplants come from an Italeri Do 217 K-1, including the propellers and the engine mounts/adapters. The problem: the diameter of the 14-cylinder engines is markedly smaller than the original 9-cylinder radials, so that the "adapters" had to be used to bridge this difference. But even with this help, some serious sanding and PSR were necessary. Additionally, the BMW 801s are longer than the original engines, and the adapters push them forward even a little more. Thanks to the aircraft's sheer size, this change of proportions is not too obvious.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The FDSL 131 barbettes were taken from an Italeri/Bilek Me 210 kit, which has been earmarked for a conversion (without them). In order to mount the weapon stations, holes were drilled into the He 115's flanks and, internally, a construction to hold them in place, made from styrene strips, was added. The periscopic sights above and below the fuselage were scratched from round styrene strips. As a side effect, the original hole in the canopy for the manual machine gun was elegantly covered.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Under the nose, a fairing for the machine cannon was scratched – it consists of sections from an F-14 recce pod. The MK 103's barrel was scratched from styrene, with an improvised muzzle brake. The manually operated MG 17 in the nose was replaced by a heavy MG 151/20.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The Hs 293 comes from a Revell He 177 A-6, together with its pylon. Just a small fairing (a modified 1:144 F-16 centerline drop tank) was added as a container for the wire spool. The drop tank on the other side is a find from the scrap box (IIRC, it belongs to an ART Model F8F Bearcat), modified with fins to (vaguely) resemble the Luftwaffe's 900 l drop tanks for the Do 217 (which carried the Hs 293 in a similar fashion).
Under the floats I added scratched ice skids, a suitable upgrade for an aircraft operated in Norway and over the Northern Atlantic.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Inside of the cockpit, a few details were added like a floor for the bomb aimer figure, and some internal structures added (all scratched from cardboard, and styrene strips and bits), plus a rack for the bomb aimer from an Italeri He 111, IIRC. Not much effort was put into this area of the model, since the kit would have its canopies closed, and the many braces on the clear parts would preclude any good view, anyway.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

PR19_Kit · December 21, 2017, 12:39:36 AM

Yes, as I suspected it's already looking all kinds of awesome.

Dizzyfugu · December 21, 2017, 05:17:46 AM

Glad you like it, Kit. And here's more, concerning the paint work:

Painting and markings:
Finally a good occasion to apply a scheme that some He 177 bombers, operated over the Atlantic, carried around 1944, consisting of a disruptive pattern of RLM02 greenish grey and (supposedly) dark green RLM 73, with hard edges and a low, hard waterline to light blue undersides.

However, based on the illustrations and a few real world He 177 color pics in that scheme, I rather changed the dark green tone to RLM 72, which is rather a dull, dark greyish olive drab than the bluish RLM 73. The undersides became Lichtblau, RLM 76 – another deliberate choice instead of the typical, brighter RLM 65 for sea-borne aircraft. The upper camouflage was taken around the wings' leading edges and onto the floats.
The paints come from the different sources: for the RLM 02, I used Revell's acrylic 45 (which is a tad more olive green and darker than RLM 02), the RLM 72 was approximated with Humbrol 66 (Olive Drab), which IMHO comes very close to the murky German tone. RLM 76 for the undersides comes from the ModelMaster Authentic line.

Due to the sheer size and the complex structure of the aircraft with its floats and the many struts, painting took some time. Everything was painted with brushes, freehanded, only for the waterline on the rear fuselage some tape was used.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

After the basis scheme was settled and dry, the kit received a light black ink wash and some panel post-shading with lighter versions of the basic tones, including "pure" RLM 02 (Humbrol 240).

The markings/decals were puzzled together from the scrap box – on the upper surfaces, simplified white crosses with thin outlines were used, almost resulting in a low-viz livery, and the tactical code was created from single letters (TL Modellbau). The "angry penguin" emblem is not really correct, but I thought that it would be a suitable mascot for the aircraft and its theatre of operations.

After that the model received some weathering with dry-brushed light grey on the leading edges and walkway areas. Exhaust soot behind the engines was created with grinded graphite and also some dry-brushing with light grey, simulating burnt areas due to lean fuel mixtures. On the floats I also added a waterline – a frequent sign of wear on the He 115 when it would stay aground/afloat for some time, with a mix of greens and greys.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The interior became RLM 66 (Dark Grey, used Humbrol 67, which is supposed to be that tone), as a typical late-war color instead of the earlier RLM 02 in which the He 115 was originally delivered. Both Hs 293 and the drop tank were painted in RLM 65 (Humbrol 65), as a subtle color contrast to the otherwise rather subdued aircraft.

1:72 Heinkel He 115 D-4b, '6I+CK' of the 2./SAGr 130, Deutsche Seeluftstreitkräfte; Hafrsfjord (Stavanger), Norway, 1944 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Still some finishing touches to do, but beauty pics will follow soon.

NARSES2 · December 21, 2017, 06:23:30 AM

At the moment she could pass as Italian in that scheme