Condor 1/72 Heinkel He 178

CONDOR 1:72 HEINKEL HE 178V1

Reviewer: Myself (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Review submitted: 25 October 2001

Aircraft:
The He 178 has the distinction of being the first aircraft to fly purely on turbojet power, a feat that was achieved in 1939. Development began back in 1936 when Heinkel employed jet pioneer Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, whose first hydrogen-fuelled demonstration engine was bench-running by September 1937. A more powerful but still bench-running engine was then running by March 1938 with some 1102-lb of thrust. This engine, the HeW 3, was then flight-trialled under an He 118 before it was decided to produce an all turbojet aircraft in the He 178. The prototype was essentially built around the HeW 3 engine, whose large diameter dictated the high cockpit location and shoulder mounting of the wooden wing to maintain a straight-through air/gas flow. Development flying was undertaken with the more powerful HeS 6, and the He 178 was then placed in a museum where it was destroyed during a 1943 air raid. It remains an important icon in aviation history.

The Kit:
Kit Number C72003, Condor Heinkel He 178 V1 comes in a sturdy box that looks like a cross between an MPM kit as far as boxart and layout is concerned and a Special Hobby kit as far as the colouring and striping on the box is delivered - of course all three come under MPM Ltd company distribution so there is no surprise there. I am not fully up to speed on what sort of kits that Condor make (since this is my first construction), that is whether they are metal molds or limited run kits. The quality of the kit suggests metal molds to me?

The boxart (above) features the V1 prototype flying over an airfield busy with planes etc in the background and looks obviously quite impressive. The bottom of the box is equally as impressive providing three colour sketches of close up of an open cockpit (as if someone was standing on the wing taking a photo), one of the undercarriage up close and the rear of the prototype aircraft with tailwheel, tailplanes, tailfin and rear exhaust shown. There is also a logo suggesting Photo etched detail parts are included plus a painting guide table (probably an inventory of paints you need to make the kit [a-la Airfix]) of paints required, except only one is listed in the table being RLM02 with Humbrol 78 and Molak LG-6 being the equivalent. I'm curious about the Humbrol 78 conversion since this is an Interior Green not the Interior RLM02 Grey, but more on that in the instructions section below.

Everything comes inside a compact plastic bag, including the one light grey sprue of about 25 injection molded parts, brass etched fret and injection molded canopy. But the first thing I noticed is that there is no decal sheet! Fearing it was a case that one had been omitted from this kit I started looking at the markings in reference material and found that the aircraft did not carry any markings. However, there is the appearance of "Heinkel" in black lettering beside the main canopy (see artwork above).

The parts are crisp and do not have the feel of a LRK (Limited Run Kit), which suggests it is a metal mold. The panel lines very finely engraved into the plastic and will disappear under a coat of paint. A very tiny amount of flash is evident on a few parts, namely wing edges, that need nothing more than a run over with the excel/exacto blade to remove. The other thing that suggests this is not the run of the mill LRK is that there are locating pins and holes for the fuselage and wing pieces. The brass etched set is small and features about 9 parts for mainly cockpit and undercarriage accessories, as well as the small finlet that juts out just near the top of the tailfin. An acetate film for the main instrument panel is also provided. The clear piece is an injection molded canopy, a bit cloudy and scratched from being mixed with the parts in the bag.

Instructions:
An A4 sheet folded in half sets out the instruction sheet. The front page provides an overview of the aircraft's history in German, Czech and English, plus span, length and speed specifications. The centrefold provides two construction steps which are adequate enough to follow for anyone who has a few limited run kits under their belt and is accustomed to these sort of quick assembly diagrams. The first step deals with the cockpit and basically the top of the aircraft, while the second shows the aircraft from underneath and thus generally deals with undercarriage assembly. There is also a sideview and topview for painting instructions with areas shaded to show whether they are RLM02 painted panels or natural metal. The back of the page has some general modelling info in the same three languages above, a sprue diagram numbering all the parts (the sprue does have the numbers on them as well) and a table showing the four colours used for painting the model being RLM02 Grau, RLM66 Schwarzgrau, Natural Metal and RLM22 Schwarz/black. Conversions for FS number, Molak, Humbrol, Tamiya and Agama are also provided.

While I cannot speak for the other brands the Humbrol conversions are incorrect. The FS and RLM numbers are correct from what I can ascertain from reference sources. Natural Metal is listed as H56 (Humbrol 56) Aluminium, I will be using polished aluminium here from their Metal Cote range. RLM02 is listed as H78 which is Interior Green, the closest Humbrol match (without mixing) is H92 Iron Grey. RLM66 is listed as H67 which is Tank Grey, while I don't think this is too far off the mark, RLM66 is very close to RLM02 so you could still get away with using H92. So make sure you take note of these and adjust accordingly.

Construction:
The cockpit has basic but adequate detail to fit it out thanks to the brass etched set. A floor, seat, instrument panel, rudder pedals, rear bulkhead and control column are all provided on the styrene sprue, with additional etched details covering rudder pedal enhancement and instrument panel console, with instrumentation provided on an acetate film sandwiched between the brass parts and affixed on the dashboard with super glue. A front intake plate is also provided to be placed near the opening to act as the front cockpit wall and to blank out the interior.

There are no locating pins or lines on the interior of the fuselage to assist with exact placement of the cockpit and interior parts, and of course the instructions do not assist at all because the interior is shown already inside the fuselage halves in the first step where the fuselage halves are placed together. In fact you need to have your wits about you here and this is where it is a good idea to study instructions first because it is easy to omit Parts 6 (intake interior plate) and 7 (rear bulkhead) because they are hardly able to be seen on the instruction sheet inside the fuselage halves!

This was further compounded by there being no real way to tell how far forward the floor should go, or even how low it should be inside the cockpit! To get around this I added in the intake plate first, which has a little arrow on it (and also you can see this on the instruction sheet) to tell you which way the plate should point as it is not exactly circular. I moved it to a point where it was clearly right in the middle of the fuselage half with dry runs of the other half to get it right. The control column and rudder pedals were attached to the cockpit floor, which was attached to the back of the intake plate and then the rear bulkhead attached to the rear of the floor afterward, with a test placement (with a small bit of masking tape) of where the seat would go to ensure the floor was low enough in the fuselage half (in fact you could glue the top of the seat to the rear of the cockpit top and that way you will know the floor is low enough!). I didn't like the fact that the seat is also attached straight to the floor, so I added a tiny bit of stretched sprue to edge the seat off the floor a touch. RLM 66 is quoted as the cockpit interior colour and this was applied accordingly.

The rear engine was also trapped within the fuselage halves before they were affixed together, and like the cockpit the instructions do not really assist with precise placement. I had a look at the box bottom's rear fuselage close-up shot as a guide and then affixed the engine in position, sliding it into place where I thought it best went - and of course test fitting the fuselage halves around it to ensure they would go together. Once in place the fuselage halves were affixed together with rubber bands and a peg over the tailfin to keep it from prizing apart.

In the meantime the lower wing halves were glued onto the upper wing piece and with the absence of locating pins this had to be lined up carefully. Test fitting the main wing sub-assembly revealed no problems so it was affixed in place and the very small gaps that resulted in the "arm pit" of the wing roots were filled and delicately sanded. The tailplanes and the mating section on the fuselage were given a preparatory sanding to enhance adhesion and these went on well, gripping quickly while I held the plane suspended on its side so the tailplanes would dry at the correct angle. Again some very small gaps required filling.

A small finlet is added to the tailfin leading edge just underneath where the rudder starts and the instructions show where to place this piece - which is only available from the brass etched set. In order to attach the finlet you need to cut out a small niche in the tailfin, so a razor saw would be handy here. The canopy was then placed on which fits well.

If you want a wheels-down model you need to be pretty adept at using the photo-etched parts. I found the main panels quite difficult to attach to the fuselage because it of course had to bend slightly to match the roundness of the fuselage - and working with superglue added to the difficulty. Because some of the parts are from the brass-etched set, it makes the undercarriage both difficult to build and fragile to the touch. The tailwheel has a small locating pin but there is no hole in the fuselage bottom to place it into so you need to snip this off and butt join it. The whole step here is probably best done with super glue.

Version:
Only the prototype is catered for in this kit since it was the only version built. From the reference material I have (which is a bit cloudy) and that supplied with the kit it seems only the word Heinkel (see addendum below) appeared at least below the cockpit on the starboard side, it may also have appeared on the port side but I have no photos to back this up or discount this. There are no decals in the kit to support this. I painted the model in RLM02 and then masked off the Natural Metal panels and painted them accordingly. It actually looks a bit out of whack having matt RLM02 next to metal panels, but if that is the way the aircraft was, then so be it!

Addendum supplied by Richard Stacey:
The boxart featuring the Heinkel name painted on the side of the aircraft is a bit of poetic licence because the name was painted on after it went into the museum, it never flew with Heinkel written on the side. On this basis, therefore, the kit having no decals is correct.

Accuracy:
Because the aircraft was destroyed during an air raid and only a prototype was built you have to rely on a lot of speculative artist work and the few photos that you might be able to dig out from reference libraries. Having regard to these the model looks like it has captured the unique He 178 lines quite well although I am not sure if the shape of the wing, in particular the trailing edge curved wing root, is quite right. Reliable quoted reference material has the dimensions at 7.20m span and 7.48m length. It doesn't need a scale calculator to work out what the span should be scaled down to! It is absolutely spot in span but a millimetre long in length.

Overall:
Well it is certainly a small model that is for sure! Apart from the frustrations with positioning the cockpit and engine, cutting out the tailfin to place the small finlet and working with the brass etched set this is a very quick and easy model to put together. The injection mold parts, whether limited run or not, are quite crisp and clean and most parts fit well. Recommended for those who have some experience with brass etched set and wanting a bit of history in their modelling cabinet.

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