Aircraft: He-51
Manufacturer: Reviresco (http://www.tin-soldier.com/)
Scale: 1/144
Media: Pewter Kit
This kit requires moderate skill to assemble, as are all bi-plane kits. The Main struts were replaced with flattened floral wire to provide greater strength and a small strip of flattened floral wire was epoxied underneath the landing gear to provide additional support. The cabane struts were used as supplied, but due to a slight mismeasurement of the replacement interplane struts, they were about 1.5 mm short and the gap was filled with super glue. The supplied prop was not used and replaced with an epoxy putty spinner.
The aircraft was assembled in sections with the fuselage and lower wing assembled first. An epoxy putty spinner was added. The landing gear was then attached with epoxy. The reinforcing wire was then epoxied to the underside of the landing gear. A cavity on the underside of the fuselage for the mounting system (1/16" ID aluminum tube) was then bored using a dremel with a reaming bit. The tube was glued in with epoxy then ground flat after the epoxy had set.
The top wing and fuselage were then painted in Italian camouflage pattern from the Spanish Civil War (there is supposedly a picture of one somewhere, but I personally have not seen it) similar to the one pictured on the packaging. Reviresco sells a full aircraft decal set for aircraft #2-9 separately. Main color is Toffee with Olive Drab splotches. Underside is Winter blue. Spinner and markings are white and wheels and tail markings are black. I numbered my aircraft 2-8 so that if I chose to use the Reviresco decals in the future, I would not have to renumber it. It was indeterminate on the number order on the right side, so I placed the aircraft type number (2) forward of the round and the airaft ID# (8) aft of the round, so on the right side, it appears as 8 () 2.
I did not find my Spanish Civil War markings from True North until after the paint job was complete, so I scratch made a mask for the black rounds by using a 1/8" round hole punch and masking tape. The rounds were then expanded by painting an additional edge until they were approximately the right size. Numerals are from True North Productions. White and black crosses are painted on using masking tape to mask the edges. Flap lines are drawn in with 0.5mm mechanical pencil.
After painting, the top wing and fuselage were attached by supergluing the interplane struts. After they had dried, the cabane struts were attached to the fuselage, but since they were short, after the bottom connections had dried, a small amount of superglue was used to fill the gap at the top connections. The struts were then painted winter blue to match the underside.
The whole aircraft was then coated with Future, and after it was dry a light coat of matte coat.
There was no included pilot and I did not have any extra at this time.
Overall this was a moderately difficult kit, mostly in alignment and measurement of the struts. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in bi-planes, especially the interwar years.
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-Binhan
paints up some WWII Soviet aircraft.
