Classic Airframes He-51

[Second Air Force]

I was wondering what to undertake for my first build of 2015 and this little biplane kept coming to mind:

Classic Airframes He-51

Out of the box it came and the very simple construction began. Not many parts here, but some test fitting and trial runs are needed since this is a limited run kit. The parts have some trimming required and larger than normal casting stubs but the plastic is pleasantly soft for the cleanup process. Just a couple of cups of coffee got me to this point:

Classic Airframes He-51

[draken35]

Nice!

[No.1]

Yes, this is great kit mate, excellent start!!!

[Second Air Force]

This seems a lot of work after building the Tamiya D.520. From a perfect-fitting kit to short-run makes you lazy!

[Akinator98]

Nice project mate!

[Second Air Force]

Carrying on with this Heinkel has been slow. Finally I was able to attach the radiator fairing to the belly and use putty to make this fit the fuselage smoothly. Next the landing gear struts were trimmed to the exact contour so they fit under the wing and to the fuselage in the right angles and glued in place. More filler to perfect the fairings on the gear and some sanding then occurred. The final step before priming was to fit the lower ailerons to the wing and then install the wheel pants to the gear legs. All these fit pretty nicely with just a little adjusting and trimming. Then, off to the primer spray!!

Classic Airframes He-51

[draken35]

[modellius]

very nice project, looking forward for more pics

[Second Air Force]

I apologize for not posting much progress on this, friends.... We have been working on our home (some plumbing work, etc.) so the bench has been somewhat neglected. The white for the St. Andrews crosses and wingtip white had been sprayed quite a while back as well as the underside blue. Yesterday the green went on the top surfaces and brown over wing as a test of a different masking method. Next, the rest of the brown!

Classic Airframes He-51

[No.1]

Welcome back to models and hope that plumbing work have done good

[draken35]

good progress!

Plumbing work is a thing I hate to have to do at home...

[Second Air Force]

Major part of the airplane is also painted now:

Classic Airframes He-51

Daniel, our plumbing work was caused by a really, really cold day we had a couple of weeks ago. The pipe in our bathroom (on second floor) cracked when it froze and we now are replacing some wall material and flooring. It did really a small amount of damage and we are lucky in that respect, but the house is somewhat "disassembled" now while we do the repair work. All in all, it could have been MUCH worse than it is.

[draken35]

Good work Scott, for the kit and for the plumbery

[Second Air Force]

Thanks, mate.

My secret on the plumbing is that the insurance company is helping us with this one!

[Second Air Force]

A final update is in order on this little Heinkel. I neglected to post any during the final assembly, but I can report that fitting the upper wing went very, very smoothly. The cabane struts were fitted and upper wing adjusted, typical as on any biplane build and then the struts were left to dry overnight. The next day the wing was glued to the cabanes and left to dry another night. The outer struts were perfect in length and snapped right into place on the third day. All that remained was to finish the rigging of wings, empennage and landing gear and adding the radio antenna array. All in all, this was quite a lot of fun to construct for a short-run type of kit!

Classic Airframes He-51

Classic Airframes He-51

Classic Airframes He-51

Classic Airframes He-51

Classic Airframes He-51

I should note that I followed the Aeromaster decal sheet instructions for camo. Looking around on the web, the brown may or may not be correct, but Galland's machine was definitely darker than RLM02/RLM63 and I like the looks of the brown/green scheme. So....if incorrect, it was simply a chance I took!