Special Hobby 1/72 Heinkel He-59

SPECIAL HOBBY 1:72 HEINKEL HE-59B
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Simon Skinner (rec.models.scale)
A fully built review of this kit now appears on SMAKR, refer to review index

Kit Details: Special Hobby No.72033 1/72 Heinkel He 59B

Aircraft History: The He 59 was a biplane designed in the early 30's as a conventional type, which could be fitted with wheel or float landing gear for use in the landplane and seaplane roles. Initially the He 59b landplane version first flew before the He 59a floatplane prototype, but it was decided that the landplane variant would not be proceeded with, so the He 59A pre-production floatplane version was developed. Heinkel built 16 He 59B-1 production version which were used for service trials in the maritime attack role, and were followed by 126 He 59B-2's and -3's which saw service in the Spanish Civil War.

Kit Parts: There are four sprues inside the box containing the light grey limited run injection moulded parts, which total 64. Given the limited run nature of the parts, they do have some seam lines, ejector pin marks and a small amount of flash which need removing and cleaning prior to assembly. Surface detail is a combination of engraved lines on the metal areas and raised detail on the wooden and fabric areas. Also included is a bag of resin parts, a brass-etched fret and six vacform fuselage windows and windscreen. The resin parts mainly cater for the cockpit as does the brass etched fret, but machine guns are also provided as resin pieces. Some of these parts are duplicated in plastic.

Versions/Decals: Two decal sheets are provided for two separate aircraft, one from the Luftwaffe and the other from the Spanish Civil War in Condor Legion markings. The decals are matt, thin but have very good colour register and should go onto the model well with the aid of some setting solution.

Impressions: For a fairly large kit of an interwar period aircraft, there are not a great deal of parts in this kit, with the wings all one-piece mouldings and the fuselage halves incorporating nose to tail. Being a limited run kit there is also a lack of locating pins and holes to put the wing struts into, so it is best tackled by the more experienced modeller who has a few of these type of kits under their belt. A bit of cleaning up of some parts and a lot of test fitting first will be needed to get a reasonable fit in most areas, again, mainly because of its limited run traits.

Given that you can use a combination of plastic, resin and brass etched details in the cockpit, it is nicely detailed but the gunners stations are bare. The gun mounts are good though, because you get separate rings and ammo mags provided in etched and machine guns in resin. The engine is a fairly straight forward assembly, without any real interior detail provided, although the cowls and exhaust pipes are separate to add a bit more external detail into it. And the surface detail on this kit is very fine, but nicely rendered all the same.

Care will certainly be needed when removing parts from the sprues, as the attachment points are a little on the thick side, and the struts will be very easy to snap. This makes for a fairly fiddly kit to put together, so make sure you have some strong epoxy on hand to help strengthen some of the bonds.

Conclusion: Definitely a nice and interesting subject from a worthy limited run manufacturing firm which should give you a pretty accurate replica of this unusual 30's aircraft. If you want one of these in your collection, and have the skills and patience to tackle a kit of this ilk, then it is certainly recommended.

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