Heinkel He 51B-2

[pourquoi61]

Well I am going for it, this model is limited edition low part count and with what might be maximum effort. But I just love this aircraft's style, grace and it's rather different. I have never built a model made by this company before and may never again. I have a few other models to finish first but I had to get this one one the board.






That's it done, just need to finish my other kits first, I can not wait.

[Lysus]

I'll wait with you, it looks cool

[pourquoi61]

I'll wait with you, it looks cool

Thank you, are you looking for a subject to do?

[Lysus]

I've got one, just have a full bench right now

[pourquoi61]

First job was to wash all the parts.



Rinse with cold water and leave to drain dry.

I think it was at this point that I first saw how much flash there was and how soft the plastic was.
Anyway on with the build, starting with the interior frame work and flight controls and throttle quadrants (I think that's what they are?)
The location instructions are not too good and I think this will repeat all the way through the build.

I added some stretched sprue to replicate wiring.
The resin seat was removed with a small saw and sanded flat.(Care must be taken when cutting resin as it is carcinogenic. Cut with mask on or alternatively cut under water.)


The cockpit door was now glued closed as it may be a bigger problem later.

Again a poor fit and the plastic is soft.

I then built and added stretched sprue to the framework on the other side.

Then I sprayed the interior RLM 02 Grey.



So far so good...

[pourquoi61]

The trouble starts soon.
Seat and instrument panels painted.


I tried to fit the seat and floor-pan to the inside of the aircraft halves, but it would not close. I made three notches to assist in the fitting.

When putting the other half together I found that I had to remove some more!


So now the cockpit is in place, the fuselage together and the lower wing on, it is time to do some FILLING and SANDING.




To add too that the top engine cowl does not fit well!

More filling and sanding.
The rudder has rather large injection pin stubs to remove, once glued the trailing edge is very thick and needed sanding down some.
One the filler had been sanded I sprayed matte black on to check for imperfections, as you get older your eyes need all the help they can get.



Out with the filler again, never mind.

[pourquoi61]

So, on with the build. This part of the build was done at my good lady's home hence the different backdrop. It is in fact an old sewing machine table.
I glued both halves of the floats together, no problems here.

The float front legs were just tacked into location and what looked like on the instructions the two holes for the rear legs drilled a little deeper.
It turns out that the holes are to far forward, so had to be filled and new holes drilled according to photos.


Once I was happy with the sit of the floats on the aircraft I glued it together.
The plane was sprayed with Tamiya primer.

In this next photo you can see the original locating pin holes and the gap between the front legs and fuselage.

The holes were filled in with superglue then sanded. Next job, cut off the ailerons and fix to the top wing, here again the fit is not very good. I was starting to get more than a little fed up with the kit by now.

The floats having being glued felt a little flimsy, so I set about making supports from stretched sprue.


I then found some Tamiya grey primer and as the plane was going to be grey I sprayed the plane grey and used the base coat for highlights.

The top wing struts were glued and sprayed with grey primer.
Fixing will be another story for another day.

[pourquoi61]

As you can see I glued all the struts of the aircraft in position with ordinary plastic glue, I use this because of the slower drying time giving me a chance to move the struts into location. WHAT A NIGHTMARE THIS WAS. Nothing seemed to fit correctly, it looked as if some of the struts were too long. I checked I had them on the right way round in the right location, after what seemed like hours drastic action was called for. I got out the super glue and just flooded the locating holes with glue to hide the gaps.
AT THIS POINT I JUST WANTED TO BIN THE KIT!
I did not, of course and just carried on in the British way, keep calm and carry on to the end of the road.


To add a little interest and to drag your eye away from the volcano of glue at the base of the wing struts I decided to use a technique I had seen in a modelling magazine, which is to run tape across the ridges of the fabric covered wings and spray the wing with the base colour.( Mr Hobby acrylic colour RLM 02)


After removing the tape I then mixed the original colour with some white and then sprayed the unmasked areas.
Sorry for poor photos.

Time to add the decals which I must say is the highlight of the kit, easy to use, perfect fit and no softening or setting solution used.
More poor photos.




On the next post it will be bits and bobs and a little bit of rigging, maybe some weathering.

[pourquoi61]

Sorry fellow builders but I HAVE LOST MY MOJO ON THIS ONE.
I would normally put the kit away and come back to it at some other time, but this is a build log and as QUEEN ONCE SANG "THE SHOW MUST GO ON."
The engine covers were given a black wash by the F word.

The floats were masked and brushed black.

Then chips and scratches were added using silver paint on a cocktail stick.


Sorry poor pics, but I am old and in my dotage and incontinent.

[pourquoi61]

On with what feels like a never ending build.
This for me is the tricky part, (another one)the exhausts are moulded very poorly and of different sizes.
So I did as the instruction sheet said and stretched some sprue and cut it to the right length, I then placed the length of sprue against the aircraft's exhaust outlet and marked each port with a marker. Then I transferred the positions onto my cardboard work-mat like so.


So it looked like this.
I use Revell Professional glue for this type of work as it grabs straight away but still allows you time to adjust the parts to fit better.

I then did some token rigging, added small parts and gave the model a matte clear coat.


The exhausts were painted Tamiya Nato Brown XF-68 and once glued on given a wash of Nuln Oil Citadel paint.(black to you and me)
THE MODEL IS NOW DONE.