1:72 Heinkel He 100 D-2; aircraft "Black 7" of 5. Gruppe, II./JG 53; France; July 1940 during the Battle of Britain (Whif/modified MPM kit)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Following the selection by the RLM of the Bf 109 as its next single-seat fighter over the He 112, Ernst Heinkel became interested in a new fighter that would leap beyond the performance of the Bf 109 as much as the Bf 109 had over the biplanes it replaced.
Other German designers had similar ambitions, including Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf. There was never an official project on the part of the RLM, but Rudolf Lucht felt that new designs were important enough to fund the projects from both companies to provide "super-pursuit" designs for evaluation. This would result in the single-engined Projekt 1035, and eventually the He 100 fighter.
Learning from past mistakes on the 112 project, the design was to be as easy to build as possible yet 700 km/h (380 kn; 430 mph) was a design goal. To ease production, the new design had considerably fewer parts than the 112 and those that remained contained fewer compound curves.
The first prototype He 100 V1 flew on 22 January 1938, only a week after its promised delivery date. The aircraft proved to be outstandingly fast. However, it continued to share a number of problems with the earlier He 112, notably a lack of directional stability. In addition, the Luftwaffe test pilots disliked the high wing loading, which resulted in landing speeds so great that they often had to use brakes right up to the last 100 m (330 ft) of the runway.
The ground crews also disliked the design, complaining about the tight cowling which made servicing the engine difficult. But the big problem turned out to be the cooling system, a somewhat risky and still experimental method of cooling the engine via evaporative cooling. After a series of test flights V1 was sent to Rechlin in March.
The second prototype He 100 V2 addressed the stability problems by changing the vertical stabilizer from a triangular form to a larger and more rectangular form. The oil-cooling system continued to be problematic, so it was removed and replaced with a small, semi retractable radiator below the wing.
In the course of the following months the complex He 100 went through several detail evolutions, culminating in the He 100 D-0. This pre-production model featured a larger vertical tail in order to finally solve the stability issues. Furthermore, the cockpit and canopy were slightly redesigned, with the pilot sitting high in a large canopy with excellent vision in all directions.
Three D-0 aircraft were completed by the summer of 1939, followed by a D-1 production batch that comprised 25 aircraft.
The main change was the eventual abandonment of the surface cooling system, which proved to be too complex and failure-prone for frontline service. Instead, an even larger version of the retractable radiator was installed, and this appeared to completely cure the problems. The radiator was inserted in a "plug" below the cockpit, and as a result the wings were widened slightly. All He 100 D-1 fighters were used to form Heinkel's Marienehe factory defense unit.
When the war opened in 1939 Heinkel was allowed to look for foreign licensees for the design. Japanese and Soviet delegations visited the Marienehe factory on 30 October 1939, and were both impressed with what they saw.
The He 100 D-1 was directly followed by the first true production version for the Luftwaffe, the D-2, of which 98 were built until mid 1940. It was technically even more simplified, now with a fixed radiator tunnel under the fuselage, and featured an armament of three 20 mm (0.79 in) MG FF cannon, one in the engine V firing through the propeller spinner and two in the outer wings, plus two synchronized 7.92 mm (.30-caliber) MG 17s in the wings close to the fuselage.
These machine were just ready for service when the Battle of Britain began. While the D-2 aircraft didn't match the He 100's original design goal of 700 km/h (430 mph) once it was loaded down with weapons, the larger canopy and the radiator, it was still capable of speeds in the 630 km/h (391 mph) range in level flight.
Furthermore, the type's low drag airframe was also good for range: as a result the He 100 had a combat range between 900 to 1,000 km (560 to 620 mi) compared to the Bf 109's 600 km (370 mi). While not in the same league as the later escort fighters, this was at the time a superb range and offset the need for the Bf 110 to some degree.
In November 1940 the D-2 was replaced by the D-3, which basically featured a more powerful engine, the 1,350 PS (1,332 HP) DB 601E.
General characteristics:
Crew: One (pilot)
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in
Wingspan: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Height: 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 14.6 m2 (157 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,810 kg (3,990 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,500 kg (5,512 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Daimler-Benz DB 601N supercharged V12 piston engine, rated at 1,175 PS (845 kW) at sea-level with 2,700 RPM
Performance:
Maximum speed: 628 km/h (390 mph; 339 kn)
Cruising speed: 510 km/h (316 mph; 275 kn)
Range: 1,010 km (628 mi; 545 nmi)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,089 ft)
Time to altitude: 2.2 minutes to 2,000 meters (6,600 ft),
7.9 minutes to 6,000 meters (20,000 ft)
Armament:
3x20mm MG/FF cannon, one engine-mounted firing through the propeller hub, plus a cannon per wing outside of the propeller disc;
2x 7.92 mm (.30-caliber) MG 17s in the wing roots
The kit and its assembly:
Another contribution to the 'Battle of Britain' Group Build at whatifmodelers.com that ran in late 2015. The sleek and tiny He 100 made a great submission for the German side - and in this case the build was supposed to become an early service variant, differing only marginally from the (real) D-0 pre-production types.
This time I used the MPM kit, and I was curious how different it is from the Special Hobby kit that I had already built/converted twice. Well, I would not call the MPM kit a disappointment, but this is clearly an early short-run IP kit, the Special Hobby offering appears light years ahead.
You get LOTS of flash, rather clumsy parts, massive ejection pin markers and mediocre fit. The added PE parts do only help to a certain degree – e. g. for the landing gear covers or some cockpit interior details.
Furthermore, the resin parts that were indicated in the building instructions (for the whole interior) were missing - not certain if they were not packed at all, or got lost in another fashion? I was rather underwhelmed, even though the kit’s surface details are fine, featuring very fine engravings.
Anyway, still I tried to make something from it, and I built it mostly OOB with some of the PE parts integrated. The propeller was replaced by an Italeri La-5 part and received a completely new internal construction (OOB it is to be glued directly to the flat fuselage nose, there's even not a pin to center it properly.
I used my standard styrene tube and metal axis solution) and the retractable radiator was replaced by a fixed tunnel construction - making the modified He 100 look very much like a Ki-61?
The main landing gear was also replaced with parts from a Hobby Boss Bf 109E, since the OOB parts were rather blunt. Another small mod are the machine guns and cannons in the wings.
Painting and markings:
Rather conservative, with typical Luftwaffe colors and markings from the BoB era, but I wanted something colorful. The scheme is a mix of several German Bf 109E designs. Basic colors are RLM 02/71/65 with a high waterline.
Modelmaster enamels from their Authentic line were used. All interior surfaces were painted with RLM 02.
On the flanks, camouflage in large clouds of thinned RLM 02 and 71 were added. The engine cowling became white while the rudder and the nose tip section became yellow (RLM 04). The spinner was painted 2/3 RLM 70 and 1/3 yellow.
The red band on the cowling is a typical feature of JG53 aircraft from the BoB era. It’s purpose is unclear - some sources assume that it was simply used for re-formation, others claim that it had a deeper meaning: it was applied because the squadron/wing commander (Major Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel)'s wife was Jewish - following a personal order from Göring, the whole squadron had to remove the original emblem and carry the red band like a stigma instead. Later when the squadron's wing commander changed the crews were allowed to carry JG 53's ace of spades badge again. Hence, my livery is a bit contradictive, because the machine should either carry the red band OR the Pik As emblem.
Anyway, the band was realized with simple, red decal strips. The rest of the markings were puzzled together from various Luftwaffe aircraft sheets, too, and the kit received a final coat of matt acrylic varnish.
So, nothing truly fancy or exotic – but the He 100 looks pretty. And it is amazing how small and sleek this aircraft was!
1:72 Heinkel He 100 D-2; aircraft "Black 7" of 5. Gruppe, II./JG 53; France; July 1940 during the Battle of Britain (Whif/modified MPM kit)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Following the selection by the RLM of the Bf 109 as its next single-seat fighter over the He 112, Ernst Heinkel became interested in a new fighter that would leap beyond the performance of the Bf 109 as much as the Bf 109 had over the biplanes it replaced.
Other German designers had similar ambitions, including Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf. There was never an official project on the part of the RLM, but Rudolf Lucht felt that new designs were important enough to fund the projects from both companies to provide "super-pursuit" designs for evaluation. This would result in the single-engined Projekt 1035, and eventually the He 100 fighter.
Learning from past mistakes on the 112 project, the design was to be as easy to build as possible yet 700 km/h (380 kn; 430 mph) was a design goal. To ease production, the new design had considerably fewer parts than the 112 and those that remained contained fewer compound curves.
The first prototype He 100 V1 flew on 22 January 1938, only a week after its promised delivery date. The aircraft proved to be outstandingly fast. However, it continued to share a number of problems with the earlier He 112, notably a lack of directional stability. In addition, the Luftwaffe test pilots disliked the high wing loading, which resulted in landing speeds so great that they often had to use brakes right up to the last 100 m (330 ft) of the runway.
The ground crews also disliked the design, complaining about the tight cowling which made servicing the engine difficult. But the big problem turned out to be the cooling system, a somewhat risky and still experimental method of cooling the engine via evaporative cooling. After a series of test flights V1 was sent to Rechlin in March.
The second prototype He 100 V2 addressed the stability problems by changing the vertical stabilizer from a triangular form to a larger and more rectangular form. The oil-cooling system continued to be problematic, so it was removed and replaced with a small, semi retractable radiator below the wing.
In the course of the following months the complex He 100 went through several detail evolutions, culminating in the He 100 D-0. This pre-production model featured a larger vertical tail in order to finally solve the stability issues. Furthermore, the cockpit and canopy were slightly redesigned, with the pilot sitting high in a large canopy with excellent vision in all directions.
Three D-0 aircraft were completed by the summer of 1939, followed by a D-1 production batch that comprised 25 aircraft.
The main change was the eventual abandonment of the surface cooling system, which proved to be too complex and failure-prone for frontline service. Instead, an even larger version of the retractable radiator was installed, and this appeared to completely cure the problems. The radiator was inserted in a "plug" below the cockpit, and as a result the wings were widened slightly. All He 100 D-1 fighters were used to form Heinkel's Marienehe factory defense unit.
When the war opened in 1939 Heinkel was allowed to look for foreign licensees for the design. Japanese and Soviet delegations visited the Marienehe factory on 30 October 1939, and were both impressed with what they saw.
The He 100 D-1 was directly followed by the first true production version for the Luftwaffe, the D-2, of which 98 were built until mid 1940. It was technically even more simplified, now with a fixed radiator tunnel under the fuselage, and featured an armament of three 20 mm (0.79 in) MG FF cannon, one in the engine V firing through the propeller spinner and two in the outer wings, plus two synchronized 7.92 mm (.30-caliber) MG 17s in the wings close to the fuselage.
These machine were just ready for service when the Battle of Britain began. While the D-2 aircraft didn't match the He 100's original design goal of 700 km/h (430 mph) once it was loaded down with weapons, the larger canopy and the radiator, it was still capable of speeds in the 630 km/h (391 mph) range in level flight.
Furthermore, the type's low drag airframe was also good for range: as a result the He 100 had a combat range between 900 to 1,000 km (560 to 620 mi) compared to the Bf 109's 600 km (370 mi). While not in the same league as the later escort fighters, this was at the time a superb range and offset the need for the Bf 110 to some degree.
In November 1940 the D-2 was replaced by the D-3, which basically featured a more powerful engine, the 1,350 PS (1,332 HP) DB 601E.
General characteristics:
Crew: One (pilot)
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in
Wingspan: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Height: 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 14.6 m2 (157 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,810 kg (3,990 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,500 kg (5,512 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Daimler-Benz DB 601N supercharged V12 piston engine, rated at 1,175 PS (845 kW) at sea-level with 2,700 RPM
Performance:
Maximum speed: 628 km/h (390 mph; 339 kn)
Cruising speed: 510 km/h (316 mph; 275 kn)
Range: 1,010 km (628 mi; 545 nmi)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,089 ft)
Time to altitude: 2.2 minutes to 2,000 meters (6,600 ft),
7.9 minutes to 6,000 meters (20,000 ft)
Armament:
3x20mm MG/FF cannon, one engine-mounted firing through the propeller hub, plus a cannon per wing outside of the propeller disc;
2x 7.92 mm (.30-caliber) MG 17s in the wing roots
The kit and its assembly:
Another contribution to the 'Battle of Britain' Group Build at whatifmodelers.com that ran in late 2015. The sleek and tiny He 100 made a great submission for the German side - and in this case the build was supposed to become an early service variant, differing only marginally from the (real) D-0 pre-production types.
This time I used the MPM kit, and I was curious how different it is from the Special Hobby kit that I had already built/converted twice. Well, I would not call the MPM kit a disappointment, but this is clearly an early short-run IP kit, the Special Hobby offering appears light years ahead.
You get LOTS of flash, rather clumsy parts, massive ejection pin markers and mediocre fit. The added PE parts do only help to a certain degree – e. g. for the landing gear covers or some cockpit interior details.
Furthermore, the resin parts that were indicated in the building instructions (for the whole interior) were missing - not certain if they were not packed at all, or got lost in another fashion? I was rather underwhelmed, even though the kit’s surface details are fine, featuring very fine engravings.
Anyway, still I tried to make something from it, and I built it mostly OOB with some of the PE parts integrated. The propeller was replaced by an Italeri La-5 part and received a completely new internal construction (OOB it is to be glued directly to the flat fuselage nose, there's even not a pin to center it properly.
I used my standard styrene tube and metal axis solution) and the retractable radiator was replaced by a fixed tunnel construction - making the modified He 100 look very much like a Ki-61?
The main landing gear was also replaced with parts from a Hobby Boss Bf 109E, since the OOB parts were rather blunt. Another small mod are the machine guns and cannons in the wings.
Painting and markings:
Rather conservative, with typical Luftwaffe colors and markings from the BoB era, but I wanted something colorful. The scheme is a mix of several German Bf 109E designs. Basic colors are RLM 02/71/65 with a high waterline.
Modelmaster enamels from their Authentic line were used. All interior surfaces were painted with RLM 02.
On the flanks, camouflage in large clouds of thinned RLM 02 and 71 were added. The engine cowling became white while the rudder and the nose tip section became yellow (RLM 04). The spinner was painted 2/3 RLM 70 and 1/3 yellow.
The red band on the cowling is a typical feature of JG53 aircraft from the BoB era. It’s purpose is unclear - some sources assume that it was simply used for re-formation, others claim that it had a deeper meaning: it was applied because the squadron/wing commander (Major Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel)'s wife was Jewish - following a personal order from Göring, the whole squadron had to remove the original emblem and carry the red band like a stigma instead. Later when the squadron's wing commander changed the crews were allowed to carry JG 53's ace of spades badge again. Hence, my livery is a bit contradictive, because the machine should either carry the red band OR the Pik As emblem.
Anyway, the band was realized with simple, red decal strips. The rest of the markings were puzzled together from various Luftwaffe aircraft sheets, too, and the kit received a final coat of matt acrylic varnish.
So, nothing truly fancy or exotic – but the He 100 looks pretty. And it is amazing how small and sleek this aircraft was!