The He-70 was a ground breaking machine, when designed in early Thirties.
This is the more obvious, when compared with it's contemporary corrugated
sheet metal peers from Junkers or Ford.
Originally planned as a fast mail plane for Lufthansa, it was not hugely successful
as a military plane, as it became outdated by the beginning of the WW II.
Yet in it's time, the plane set eight world speed records, and it's elliptical wing
was the inspiration for the design of the equally elegant Supermarine Spitfire.
The model is a 1/72nd, built out-of-the-box, Revell / re-boxed Matchbox kit.
As the beautiful lines of the golden age captured me, I tried to get the
general form right, rather than to concentrate on extra details. I selected
the Lufthansa painting scheme, because I think that natural metal brings out
the gracious curves most favorably.
The kit is made from an old mold, which is rather worn by now, with lots of flash,
and, what's worse, up to a milimeter offset between the mold halves, so get ready
for plenty of sanding. The clear parts are chunky, same as landing gear. If possible,
replace or scratch-build new. On the upside, the kit is cheap, so if something goes
wrong, you can get another one (like I did ;-). Also the decals are decent quality,
which is important, as they have to wrap around complicated curvature.
Also, since it's the only kit of this beautiful plane out there, it has a justification
There was some work to recess the panel lines. It was somewhat difficult on the conical
fuselage, so I improvised a lathe ;-) And, obiously, there was a ton of putty necessary
to close the gap when attaching the wing. A small hint: using several layers of
Mr. Surfacer instead of regular putty was quite helpful. A final overall coat really
produced a marvellous surface.
If I did it again, I'd scratch-build the landing gear. It was a pain to align so the model
would stand straight, and the landing gear covers are simply chunky.
I used Alclad 2 for the natural metal, and I was really impressed by the outcome. As this is
my first model after some 10 years of pause, I was amazed by the jump in technology ;-)
One thing aside - the notorious Alclad primer: I hate and love it. It's tough to handle,
because it seems not to dry properly. On trials nothing could produce the shine as it did, though...
re-scribing the panel lines
first coat of Mr. Surfacer
Alclad black gloss base
Alclad 2 natural metal finish
Well, my other hobby is photography. As the modell was initially meant as a diorama,somewhere
in front of a 1930th airport, and I just didn't manage to build one yet, I played with my
camera and a projector. I hope you like the effects - it's good old-school special effects:
plane in front of the image, rather than pasting it in Photoshop...
