After spending
the last months browsing through ARC's galleries and forums, I decided it
was about time to submit an article. First of all, I'd like to thank
Steve Bamford for keeping this wonderful website up and running, and all
the ARC community for sharing their boundless knowledge about scale
modeling.
I've always
had a thing for "the fighter that never was", mostly due to its
sleek, clean lines, which make it definitely look like a race plane in war
camouflage.
This kit is
MPM's He100 D model, which has been recently replaced by a new mold.
The overall quality is very good, with accurately engraved panel lines and
a generally good fit. Maybe the trailing edges are a bit on the
thick side, but this does not affect the look of the finished model.
I believe some previous experience with modeling is required, since the
fuselage and wings have no alignment pins. At first I was a rather
puzzled by the amount of flash on every single part, but it turned out to
be rather easy to clean up, the fuselage requiring only minor touchups
with putty and CA glue in order to obtain a perfect fit.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The photoetched
parts are extremely detailed, even though they provide very little detail
for the cockpit (just the trim wheel and rudder pedals). I had to
improve the detail of the cockpit walls using styrene sheet and stretched
sprue, relying on a couple of He112 photos as a reference, since I was
unable to find any He100 cockpit shots. The control stick was rebuilt from
scratch, the one provided with the kit looked oversized.
The decals are very
good, well detailed and thin, and represent one of the designs used by the
"Propaganda Staffeln" equipped with the He100. They were applied after
the model had been given a light coat of Tamiya X22 gloss clear, wit the help of
Humbrol Decal Cote 1 & 2. Regardless of my efforts to make them set down
perfectly, some still managed to silver along the edges. The model was
eventually sealed with a coat of Tamiya gloss clear with added X21 flat
base. The colors used for this build are Humbrol 91 enamel (RLM 70) for the
upper surfaces, and Tamiya acrylics XF23 + XF2 (RLM 65, light blue) and XF63 +
XF2 (RLM 02, grey) for the lower surfaces and interior.
Davide
Click on
images below to see larger images
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