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Heinkel 51 floatplane


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This is going to be my first of, hopefully, three builds for this GB. The ICM HE51.

I bought this kit as a result of narrowly missing out on a Hasegawa kit of the same subject on e bay. A friend of mine suggested that the ICM kit was in fact far better, so I bought that one instead.

Here's the box and the parts.

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I've put the interior together, it's very basic but you can't really see inside anyway so it suffices. I joined tha halves and then had to use a reasonable amount of putty persuasion. It's not a bad fit as such, but the parts are quite softly moulded and lack crisp corners. This means you get a gap, even when the fit is otherwise good.

It basically looks, feels and builds like a limited run kit.

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The parts have now been primed and I will fit the lower wings and tailplanes when I've rubbed that down.

Jen.

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Small update.

I sanded the primer and all looks ok, so I have now fitted the lower wings and the tailplanes.

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I deviated from the instructions with the exhausts. I have added the two parts to the fuselage, but not the actual exhaust tubes. This has allowed me to sand the exhaust panel to shape to blend with the fuselage, which would have been impossible had I built it as suggested. I can now add the exhaust pipes after painting.

I will now be working on getting the floats made up and then fitting them. I think this might be a bit tricky as there are almost no mounting holes for them! :rofl:

Jen.

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Thanks Doc! :D

I've had a right song and dance with the floats since last time. This is one of those kits that looks good in the box, and then you try to build it....................... :thumbsup:

The floats are an obvious later addition to the kit, and are very bluntly moulded. They didn't fit together all that well in the first place but when I came to fit them, the struts supplied were all wrong.

The front strut was too long or the rear too short, one of the two! I decided to keep the front struts and make new rear ones, since that looked the easier option.

I glued the front struts to the floats and then used superglue to attach the float with just the front strut. It was easy to then make a strut to the required length out of a bit of plastic card.

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I had a bit of a mystery solving session with paint colours, but I think I'm on top of that now and have ordered paint for it. I want to paint and decal most of it before I fit the top wing, so that's all for now folks!

Jen.

Edited by desmojen
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  • 3 weeks later...

Quick update, I finally got the paint the other day so off we went painting the wee beastie!

I used Gunze acrylic 308 as a substitute for RLM63. I bought some Xtracrylix RLM63 at Telford but it was a dark greeny grey, not what I wanted for this build at all. A bit of internet research later and it turns out that there were at least two distinctly different colours that were both called RLM63. The one I had is the late one, the one I needed was the early one. The IPMS colour charts gave me an FS number approximation, which is what I used to choose Gunze 308. (deep breath!)

I sprayed the model without the top wing on, and then added the decals. ICM decals are notoriously dodgy, but I had to use some of them. The ones I neede to use, I coated with liquid decal film first to stop them breaking up. In the end they went on with little drama.

Here it is as of several minutes ago, with a very impromptu jig holding the top wing in alignment! :D

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Nearly there, just have to get the hang of this rigging lark <_<

Jen.

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  • 3 weeks later...

:nanner:

The party banana might give the game away, but we're finished!

I had to wait quite a while to get some swastikas for the tail as these were not included in the kit. I was also having a motivation drought because of the centre struts (cabane), guess what, they didn't fit. They were too long in both length and width, to be honest they may as well have been from a Sopwith Camel kit. :thumbsup:

This morning I finally drummed up the enthusiasm to have another look at it. I cut the struts up, shortened them and custom fitted each one to the wing with superglue. They are supposed to be 'N' shaped but I really couldn't be bothered messing around trying to fit the third section each side, so my Heinkel has no 'N's' Shame on me!

The wing was at least much more solid feeling with the centre struts in, so I set about rigging it up. :wacko:

I used Aeroclub rigging thread and I'm pleased with how it looks - from a distance. I've never rigged a biplane before and wasn't really sure how to do it. I read a few articles and it came out ok, with lots of big blobs of superglue everywhere! I can see now that lots of forward planning is required to make a proper job of it, maybe next time....

Here's the pics.

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Jen.

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Fantastic build there Jen. :nanner:

Rigging looks superb, you sure thats your first time..... :wub: Immaculate paintwork and hard to believe its on a 1/72.

I've updated the website gallery using these pics, hope thats ok. Still looking forward to seeing that S6 :cheers:

Cheers

Doc

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Thanks everyone! :wub:

I'm just pleased it's finished to be honest.

Ranger, I'm not sure how this kit compares to the Hasegawa kit. It's probably cheaper, at least here in the UK. It's probably better detailed too, but it is not an easy build at all, where I expect the Hasegawa probably is.

Doc, I'm doing the Norseman next. I've done several annoying, tricky models one after the other and I need a break! A Matchbox kit is ideal for that! :cheers:

Jen.

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That really is very nice - very neat and tidy! I think you might have said you are doing three models for this GB - would you be very kind and explain how you manage it because I am retired and should have all the time in the world, but my entry - Mavis - has not progressed at all. I don't watch TV so where does the time go???? How much time to you spend modelling - and I take it you have to work???

David.

Edited by miduppergunner
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so where does the time go????

and that right there is the million dollar question! Like last night. All I did was rig the two bracing wires between the struts for each float and installed the support struts for the horizontal stabilizers, yet somehow when I was done it was 1:30AM! and no, I didn't start at !:00. :huh:

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That really is very nice - very neat and tidy! I think you might have said you are doing three models for this GB - would you be very kind and explain how you manage it because I am retired and should have all the time in the world, but my entry - Mavis - has not progressed at all. I don't watch TV so where does the time go???? How much time to you spend modelling - and I take it you have to work???

David.

Thankyou David, it's very nice of you to say so. :)

I did indeed put in for three models but do bear in mind that they're all simple models. Well I say that but the Heinkel didn't turn out to be as simple as it should have been, lol.

Yes, I do work, currently 8-5 monday-friday. I would say in the week that I average about an hour a night in the model room, and I usually get a bit of time in at the weekends as well. If I have a day off, or an early stack I usually use it up on modelling. Mainly though, when I'm in the right sort of mood, I do seem to be able to work quite fast.

As an example of this, last weekend I participated in a GB for the other forum I frequent, the unnoficial airfix forum ( http://gregers.7.forumer.com/index.php?sid...43f04851cd1b159 ) We called it 'Blitzbau', the idea being to build a kit of your own choice in a single 24hr period.

I ran a poll to choose a kit and ended up doing a 1/72 Revell MTB. I was able to complete the kit within the alloted time and here's what it came out like,

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There's a full article with hourly posts and photos on the above link if you're interested to see what we came up with!

Jen.

Edited by desmojen
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Looks great. Any idea how theICM kit compares to the Hasegawa kits?

I've never seen the ICM kit but I built the landplane version of the He51 in about 1972. I'm guessing the floatplane would be the same basic kit, so, good for late '60s early '70s plastic.

By the way, really nice job on the ICM kit!!!

Edited by Grey Ghost 531
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Gosh another nice rendition Jen - in 24 hours I reckon I would just about have opened the box and be considering cutting bits off sprue. Hmmm..... must activate myself - remember in my well spent youth I built a flying model aircraft (rubber powered) in just under 24 hours for a contest - really keen in those days!!!

I suppose you have just about finished the Norseman???

David.

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