Tomcat's 1/72 Matchbox He115 Floatplane

[Tomcat64]

Since the poll response for my tongue-in-cheek rule 9 violation thread was a resounding "Build the damn thing" my entry into this GB will be Matchbox's ancient Heinkel He115 floatplane...

Here's some information on the type courtesy of the instruction leaflet along with some images from t'internet

Overview

The Heinkel He 115 was conceived in 1935 as an advanced torpedo-carrying general purpose twin-engined floatplane, the prototype He115V-1 making its first flight in August 1937. The initial He115A-1 entered production in 1939, these also having provision for carrying bombs internally and on underwing racks.

Priority was given to meeting export orders from Sweden and Norway, their He115A-2s having some equipment changes, the first German unit (1./K, .Fl.Gr.106) receiving their machines in September 1939. The He115B-0 and B-1 superseded the A model from November 1939, these having several modifications including fuel capacity which increased the range of operations from 2,000Km (1,243 miles) to 3,347Km (2,080 miles). Various field modification sets (R stsatz) could also be fitted to the B models to suit them for specific roles, the final 18 having reinforced floats with steel skids for operations from snow or ice covered surfaces. These floatplanes were operated mainly over the Atlantic, Baltic and North Sea areas and later on over the Arctic regions by five K stenfliegergruppen (nos. 106, 406, 506, 706 and 906) and by KG200; their main duties were torpedo dropping and bombing, mine laying and air-sea rescue.

Following the invasion of Norway in 1940, some of the Norwegian He115As were used against the German forces and four managed to escape to Great Britain, the RAF using two of them for clandestine operations. Although obsolescent at the beginning of World War Two, the He115 was of extremely sturdy design. Possessing a good performance, and was the Luftwaffe’s most successful attack and reconnaissance floatplane.

The 12 Swedish Air Force machines, designated T2s, served with coastal unit 1/F2 at GAI from 1939, the last example being retired in 1952. Powered by two 960hp BMW radial engines the He115 had a maximum speed of 355km/h (220mph) at 3,400m (11,152ft) Wing span: 22.2m (72ft 2in) Length: 17.3m (56ft 9in) Height 6.6m (21ft 8in).

Kit

Onto the Kit - Scalemates shows the first release as back in 1976, but the stamp inside the fuselage is dated 1975... either way the moulds are getting on a bit, but this boxing is Revell's re-release from 1998 with new decals


Not much in the way of parts - some wings & what passes for a cockpit


Fuselage, floats, crew & engines


Decals, clear bits & greenhouse masking set to save what's left of my sanity


A couple of pages of highly detailed instructions


And the final equally detailed page...


There are two marking schemes available and whilst I'd love to do the Swedish scheme the monotone paint job puts me off


As I think those big ole wings are crying out for the splinter pattern so it'll be the German markings for this one

I was chatting with @Stokesy44 the other day about those halcyon days when we'd spend our pocket money on a kit on Saturday morning, have it build by lunchtime and painted in time for tea; this kit definitely falls into that era as I was ten or eleven (depending on which year was right) so it'll be interesting to see how many sessions this takes me now

[Tomcat64]

As a bonus I made a start on this one over the weekend whilst waiting for bits of my Panther dio base to dry out and spent a happy few hours cutting & gluing... with a bit of filling & sanding to pass the time...

First the highly detailed cockpit was assembled


And a test fit showed the fuselage halves closed up fairly nicely, albeit with impending filler required


This was primed with Ultimate black and then give a coat of Vallejo RLM02


While I had the airbrush out I primed the engines in Ultimate Black as well and then dry-brushed them with "Oily Steel" prior to installing into their respective nacelles


Back to the fuselage and a session with my mates Phil & Sandy to sort out the seam along the turtleback section between the two cockpits; this was then given some Ultimate Grey prior to RLM 73. I also filled & sanded the rest of the fuselage seams until I was happy they were sorted out


Various other subassemblies were put together & also had their seams sorted in a similar fashion


The crew received some treatment (I hate showing pics of 1/72 figures as mine always look naff!)


But in they went and the wings were nailed on using Tamiya white cap to give a stronger bond as TET was just evaporating off the surface too quickly


Down the back end the tail wing strakes were just dry fitted to help get the right angle on the planes


Those were left to set overnight before I tackle the joins between the wings & fuselage as it looks like there'll be more filling & especially sanding to try and tidy the roots up a bit.

So with that in progress I moved onto the glasshouse and did a quick dry fit of the main cockpit housing which seemed to fit remarkably well, although there's a couple of gaps that I'll need to try & address probably with some thick PVA


With the main build set aside I moved onto something that ten-year-old me would never have done and that was to make a start on masking up the glasswork


And that's where the weekend ran out - so not quite in time for tea on Sunday but it's still been a lot of fun so far... next up we'll finish that masking and try & sort out the wing roots - thanks as always for looking in

[Twokidsnosleep]

This is gonna be good


Cripes you are far along already

[digger303]

Your far more fussy than your 10yr old self and I'm guessing the filling, masking and painting will take longer than the build.

[aur0ra145]

Cool kit! Good call with the canopy masks!

[Tomcat64]

This is gonna be good


Cripes you are far along already

Thanks mate - yep cracking on with this one as I heard a rumour that there might be a Sci Fi GB coming up and I want to try & get this one done in time to do something spacey

Your far more fussy than your 10yr old self and I'm guessing the filling, masking and painting will take longer than the build.

I suspect you might be right about the masking for sure!

To be fair to the age of the kit the fit is pretty good and there's only been a bit of filling needed so far

Cool kit! Good call with the canopy masks!

Thanks mate - and yep the canopy mask set has saved an absolute ton of time

[Tomcat64]

This one is ticking along nicely

Wing roots were given some tlc... the trailing edge of the upper port wing needed some serious sanding but I've tried to run that along the line for the flaps to disguise any obvious stepping.


Undersides weren't too bad to be fair - just a bit of a gap to fill


And the view from the rear - they're not perfect but they'll do for this build although I might give the port trailing edge another couple of swipes with the sanding stick


The aforementioned canopy masks were deployed over a couple of shortish sessions


And then started to get them installed


The front section is only partially built up as I wanted to install the main sections and let the PVA set a bit before fiddling with the other parts... and I'd missed the bit where I needed to paint up the underside of part 32 with RLM 02 to match the interior Oh and I wasn't sure how the front gunner/bomb aimer dude was going to fit as Section 4 of the instructions show him floating in front of the nose


I'm hoping I can just temporarily attach the nose cone as I know for sure I'll break off the gun barrel during masking otherwise

Anyway just for fun and because I wanted to stick some bits together I've attached the engine nacelles and main pylons for the floats


My intention with this one is to put it up on a Perspex rod to make an "in flight" model as I usually do with aircraft, but for anyone else that has this kit, and will be displaying it "dry" then you'll need to add some weight to the front of the floats as it's a little tail heavy even with the floats in place.

That's all for now, we've got another busy weekend coming up as it's Mrs Tomcat's birthday on Monday but I'm hoping to get another couple of sessions in during the evenings if possible.

Thanks as always for looking

[Tomcat64]

I did a quick dry fit of the front glasshouse last night and hit my first real snagette... Either the clear parts or the roof section has been short-shot


I've managed to remove the glasshouse from the fuselage without breaking anything so I can work on it.

I'll see if I can find some decent references of that section and then try and remedy it with some creative bodging

[digger303]

That is a tonne of masking and a nasty short shot to deal with. Deep breath and soldier on.

[RangerNeil]

Might be easier to build the nose out with plastic strips than try to fix the clear parts??

[Tomcat64]

That is a tonne of masking and a nasty short shot to deal with. Deep breath and soldier on.

Might be easier to build the nose out with plastic strips than try to fix the clear parts??

Yep - my current thinking is to cut the roof part off square and then attach a shim on the front and sand it to shape.

From what I can see that's supposed to extend forward and cover up where the gap is - so I think it's the roof that's short-shot even though it looks pretty symmetrical.

[Stokesy44]

Might be easier to build the nose out with plastic strips than try to fix the clear parts??

What he said.

[Garion77]

Nice looking kit ! what an old one though !
Nice progress already on it. For the canopy I would have go may be the other way around... since it's too long at the bottom I would have cut it because it's on the underside, so not showing as much. But never encountered that problem before ... the kit may be older that I am !

[Tomcat64]

Well let's crack on a bit with this one...

Regarding the front windows I did some fettling and then used PVA as a filler...I think this'll work out ok in the end. The nosecone is just lightly tacked with PVA as I'm hoping I can remove it & install the crew figure in the nose along with the machine gun (I just know that would have been broken during masking)


With that done all the windows were given a quick coat of RLM02 and a little more tidying up where I thought it was needed (e.g. under the cockpit window)


The whole thing was given a coat of Ultimate Grey primer...


Undersides done with Vallejo RLM65 - I've also done the struts & ladders the same way


Masked off - one of my least favourite jobs


And upper surfaces sprayed with RLM72


After taking this photo I noticed that I'd missed a bit of the starboard wing with the second coat so I've been back & rectified that.

That's now being left to cure overnight as I always do before masking ModelAir and I'll tackle the splinter camo masking hopefully in the week

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

[aur0ra145]

Looks good so far! That's a ton of masking.

[Tomcat64]

Looks good so far! That's a ton of masking.

Thanks chaps

[Tomcat64]

Welcome to another episode of "The joy of masking"...

Everything properly swathed in layers of the yellow magic...


And after spraying with RLM73 this was uncovered, the contrast between the two colours is more visible to the eye but seems to confuse the camera


You can see on the port wing where my nemesis Darth Primer has struck and left white patches where I didn't sand down the original priming efforts enough. There's also a patch on the tail fin


I'll leave everything to dry off properly and then see if I can rectify this with a bit more masking & the airbrush; there's also a bit of tidying up to do on the trailing edges of the tail plane.

Overall fairly pleased with the results and especially proud of getting this far without breaking off the dorsal gun

Thanks for looking

[aur0ra145]

Looks nice! Sorry about the masking peeling the paint, it seems to always happen in the most obvious spots too.

[Quax]

Its nice to see a fairly unusual subject its not been easy but you're making great progress with it.

Paul

[Tomcat64]

Looks nice! Sorry about the masking peeling the paint, it seems to always happen in the most obvious spots too.

Thanks mate & yep it never seems to screw up in a quiet, out of the way corner does it!

Its nice to see a fairly unusual subject its not been easy but you're making great progress with it.

Paul

Thanks Paul - it's definitely a throwback

[Tomcat64]

Despite work's best efforts I did manage to get some decent time at the bench over the UK's long weekend.

Floaty bits were added... the length of the spars & ladders was a bit variable but everything is connected to something else...


And the right way up - as you can see I've also popped the nose section of the glasshouse off to try and install the crewman & gun


A blob of PVA on the boots and he's in


Here's the nose back on with a little more PVA - might need a bit of tidying up


...and then it was the Day of the Decal - actually there were quite a few for an aircraft of this era


Most went on ok, but there was some nasty silvering on the fuselage markings even after I chopped them up into sections to try and avoid it I attacked these with Daco Extra strong but they weren't playing, so I also hacked at them to try and get them to play... more on that later


And a minor breakage on the wing markings which was just down to me getting impatient (and probably hungry...)


While the decals were drying I made a start on the base with some Vallejo water effect gloop... and this was also put aside to dry out for a few days


Back to the plane and the last few greeblies were painted & added - in this case the counterweights for the tail controls


All given a coat of Aqua Gloss - oh and I decided the ladders looked wrong in the underside colour so repainted them in RLM72 by brush


And then a grime wash


Which was mostly removed to leave some faint streaking in most places


Once that was completed it was a coat of Ultra Matte and then the fun of removing all those teeny tiny masklets... which did their job admirably


As you can see, despite my best efforts so far and convincing myself they were sorted there is still silvering around the fuselage decals So the only thing I can do is overpaint around them and try and blend it in.

Aside from the decals and a little fettling around the glasshouse that's the plane just about done - just need to work on the base and put the thing in flight

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

Sometimes there is only so much can be done or in my case want to do. But it does look good.

[Donkeywalloper]

This is a real labour of love / hate, delete as fits, but your doing a lovely job on this ancient model.
Great build.
DW

[RangerNeil]

Looking excellent - once on its base it will be an unusual display of an unusual aircraft.
Well done!!

(Do you think the silvering might be due to the age of the decals??)

[Twokidsnosleep]

I like what I see developing here, especially a water base inclusion

[BigWall]

Nice work! I can just imagine this massive thing coming in for a landing or taking off.

[PrivatePublic]

Looks like the masks worked a treat for all that glass. Looking good

[aur0ra145]

Really nice so far! Does that water gloop dry clear?

[psmithmags]

Excellent job,looks great and you've dealt with the short issue superbly. Hopefully your mates Phil and Sandy don't have to make an appearance for a while
Paul

[Quax]

considering age and scale its a splendid job - interested to see how the water turns out now!

Paul

[Tomcat64]

Sometimes there is only so much can be done or in my case want to do. But it does look good.

Thanks mate - yep sometimes you need to cut your losses & run but this was really annoying me so I've taken a swipe at it and think it turned out ok

This is a real labour of love / hate, delete as fits, but your doing a lovely job on this ancient model.
Great build.
DW

Hey DW - thanks for dropping in it's definitely taken me back to a simpler time of life

Looking excellent - once on its base it will be an unusual display of an unusual aircraft.
Well done!!

(Do you think the silvering might be due to the age of the decals??)

Thanks Neil - it might be down to age as the decals are from 1998 so not quite as old as the moulds but still getting on a bit

I like what I see developing here, especially a water base inclusion

Cheers Scott - stay tuned we're nearly there

Nice work! I can just imagine this massive thing coming in for a landing or taking off.

Thanks Joe - yep I reckon it was quite a sight looming over the fjords

Looks like the masks worked a treat for all that glass. Looking good

Oh yes - I definitely wouldn't have wanted to try & cut them all individually - thanks for stopping by

Really nice so far! Does that water gloop dry clear?

Thanks mate, yep the gloop goes clear (pics to follow) I think the intention is for it to be used over a coloured base but in this case I've just used it for sculpting the water effects & then painted over the top

Excellent job,looks great and you've dealt with the short issue superbly. Hopefully your mates Phil and Sandy don't have to make an appearance for a while
Paul

Thanks Paul - I think Phil & Sandy are safely tucked away on this one now

considering age and scale its a splendid job - interested to see how the water turns out now!

Paul

Cheers mate - hopefully the results should appear down below soon

[Tomcat64]

So with a bit of a following wind & work starting to behave for a couple of days I think I've got this just about done...

First the plane - as mentioned in the previous post I was not happy with the silvering around the decals so went at them with a paintbrush and then feathered that in with some really fine grit sanding paper (I think 12,000) and then gave it a couple of coats of ultra-matte... not 100% but so much happier with this that I'm calling it fixed


I then picked out the rear machine gun in errrm gun metal & gave it a black wash, reattached the float I'd knocked off in handling for the paint repairs and then added a bit of elastic for the aerial


Then the base, as I mentioned in my reply to Aurora the Vallejo Water gloop dries clear as it's intended to go over a coloured base


But in this case I was just using it's sculpting qualities to make a sea-effect base so it was given a coat of Ultimate Grey followed by Vallejo intermediate blue


This was then roughly dry-brushed with a lighter blue shade (I think Uniform blue) and then with silver grey to add the final definition - hopefully this looks enough like a nasty section of the North Sea


And so... I think with that I've got all the bits necessary to finish this off


With any luck I'll be able to get this assembled and get the reveal photos up in the next couple of days.

The reveal photos are now up here



Thanks as always for dropping in and for everyone that offered encouragement - despite the short-comings of the ancient kit I've really enjoyed this one

[digger303]

A very good result all round and I wasn't aware of the water product until you showed it here. It seems to work very well.

[Tomcat64]

A very good result all round and I wasn't aware of the water product until you showed it here. It seems to work very well.

Thanks mate

If anyone's interested this is the gloop I used - others are available

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Ah the Matchbox kits ... all my youth! Very good job, this kit is still a good one!

[Tomcat64]

Ah the Matchbox kits ... all my youth! Very good job, this kit is still a good one!

Thanks mate - yep they were simple but effective for their time and still good fun to dig out for a quick build