Special Hobby 1/72 Heinkel He 100V-8 By Jim Schubert

History

On March 30, 1939 Ernst Heinkel’s He 100V-8, flown by Hans Dieterle, officially raised the World Air Speed Record to 463.67 MPH at Oranienburg, which is about 150 feet above sea level. On April, 26, 1939 the Me 209V-1, flown by Flugkapitan Fritz Wendel pushed the record up to over 469 MPH at Augsburg, which is about 1,500 feet above sea level. FAI rules stipulate record attempts must be made at 150 feet above ground level. Heinkel was keen to make another record run from the airfield at Lechfield, which was also at 1,500 feet above sea level and with some more tweaking of the engine but was forbidden to do so by the Nazis. It did not serve Germany’s propaganda purposes to have the absolute speed record held by a lane other than the “modified production fighter”, the Me 209V-1; a fiction if there ever was one. Ultimately only 12 He 100D-1s were built. They were photographed many times, always with different unit markings, to imply they were in mass production. The 12 fighters formed a point-defense unit for the factory and its airfield throughout the war.

The Kit

Simply put this is a current state-of-the-art Czech injection molded kit. It is absolutely conventional in its engineering and execution. It includes two sprue-trees of injection-molded parts, a four-part resin cockpit, a small PE fret and a small decal sheet with two sets of markings. For the successful speed record attempt the plane was unpainted. All the panel lines were filled with body putty, sanded smooth and polished. The only marking was the Heinkel name on either side of the engine cowling. For propaganda purposes the plane was painted gray overall and marked as a fighter. The markings provided are for these two applications. I will do mine in the overall gloss, medium gray with the civil registration D-IDGH that the plane wore for photographs after setting the record.

Nitpicks

1. The wingtips are too rounded and need to be squared up a bit by extending the wing trailing edge outboard a little to match the drawing, herewith, from the January 2006 issue of Flugzeug Classic magazine.

2. I think the wheels/tires are weak in detail and will substitute wheels/tires from Hasegawa’s Bf 109E.

3. I think the landing struts are also weak in both detail and strength and will substitute the struts from the Hasegawa Bf 109E.

Conclusion

At last. I’ve been planning a conversion of the old Lindberg He 100D-1 for at least 15 years and now Special Hobby has dropped this pretty good little kit right in my lap. Thank you Messrs. Special Hobby. The finished model will look good parked next to my Huma Me 209V-1.

I bought my kit at Emil Minerich’s Skyway Model Shop in Seattle for $28.00 plus 8.9% Washington State sales tax.

References

• Flugzeug Classic magazine, January 2006.

• Air Enthusiast quarterly No. 38.

• Warplanes of the Second World War – Fighters, Volume One: William Green, Doubleday, UK, 1960.

• Warplanes of the Third Reich: William Green, Doubleday, UK, 1970, Library of Congress No. 88-29673.

• Stormy Life, Memoirs of a Pioneer of the Air Age: Ernst Heinkel, E. P. Dutton, USA, 1956, Library of Congress No. 56-8300. Originally published in German as Sturmisches Leben; published in English in the UK as He100.

• Flying Review International, July 1967.

• Heinkel He 100, World Record and Propaganda Aircraft: Hans-Peter Dabrowski, Schiffer, USA, 1991, ISBN 0-88740-345-X.

• Heinkel He 100, 112: R.S. Hirsch, Uwe Feist & H.J. Nowarra, Aero Pubs, USA, 1967, Library of Congress No. 67-16730.