My longtime project for Operation Corporate is stalled a bit so I decided to do something simple in between while waiting.
The He -112 had lost out in the competition for Germany’s new fighter against the BF 109 due to being more expensive to produce. However it is a quite attractive design, and the predecesser of the equally attractive He-100 which was equally unsuccessful.
I looked for some time for the Classic Airframes kit of the He-112 but could not find a reasonably priced one before I recently on the net saw a new kit in 1/48 from LF-Models from the Chech Republic.
I chose the Axis version for the colorful Hungarian and Romanian Camouflage.
The kit is short run from a quite soft plastic and has no location pins. The parts are quite well detailed, not on Tamiya or Eduard Level, but nice for a short run kit.There are even improvement parts and masks available which I will not use here.
I added some PE seatbeltss and instrument decals as well as some wires which will probably not be seen after the fuselage is closed
The He-112 has some hatches in the fuselage for easier access to the cockpit, a bit lite the Spitfire. I cut them out to show a bit more of the cockpit.
The fings have some main spars and guns, so this is definitely an improvement over the Classic Airframes kit.
Up to now everything fits together without any putty, just a bit Mr Surfacer 500. Not bad.
To be continued soon.
Cheers
Tom
4 Likes
The bubble canopy fits well. There are actually several versions including an open one, so no need for cutting. Priming and painting were not remarkable.
I just discovered a mistake 
Forgot to install the exhausts from the inside. So I had to thin them and very carefully glue them from the outside. If you do not have problems you can create some for yourself 
.
Up to the decaling everything went very smooth. The decals were actually the only thing which could be improved in the kit.
They have no separate film, so have to be cut out very closely. They folded easily on themselves and reacted not well to the decal softener and the number code came off after I applied the future. I was able to repair the damage with more future finally, but not a good experience after everything went so well.
Finished pictures will follow tomorrow. No good light today
Cheers
Tom
2 Likes
And finally some pictures of the finished plane:
I kept her clean, she was a trainer and most probably well maintained.
I really like the He-112. It is a very elegant and modern looking plane with the elliptic wings, the slim fuselage, the bent wings and the early bubble canopy. For such a small number of planes there are quite some colorful versions possible, not only the hungarian and romanian, but spanish, too.
I am quite happy with the model and that LF-Models produces finally a new kit.
Cheers
Tom
5 Likes
Not something you see every day. That’s turned out really nice. I like the colour scheme you chose.
You’re welcome.
What was performance like compared to the 109? It’s definitely a better looking design, but of course it’s not all about looks!
There are so many design similarities with the Spitfire, no doubt there doubt there would have been more than a few friendly fire accidents on both sides had it entered wide spread service.
As far as I remember the performance of the He-112 and BF-109 with the early engines was not so much different, but the Heinkel was more expensive to produce. Heinkel tried it again with the He-100 with higher performance (better than the Bf-109) but at the end for political reasons and due to limited availability of engines (DB 601) the Ministry decided to use only one fighter with an inline engine. Heinkel got the order for the bombers instead.
Cheers
Tom
1 Like
