Author Topic: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'  (Read 7261 times)

Offline Logan Hartke

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Here's my second finished entry for this GB, Hans-Joachim Marseille's Heinkel He 100D-4/Z Trop, WNr 10137 'Yellow 14' as it appeared in June of 1942.  Notice the radiator fairing under the aircraft that Talos made for this profile.  Click on the image to view it at 100%.



Hans-Joachim Marseille was a Luftwaffe fighter pilot and flying ace during World War II. He is noted for his aerial battles during the North African Campaign and his Bohemian lifestyle. One of the most successful fighter pilots, he was nicknamed the "Star of Africa". Marseille claimed all but seven of his "official" 158 victories against the British Commonwealth's Desert Air Force over North Africa, flying the Heinkel He 100 fighter for his entire combat career in North Africa. No other pilot claimed as many Western Allied aircraft as Marseille.

The D-4/Z Trop variant featured more changes tailored to combat in the desert than the earlier D-2 Trop. In addition to the tropical intake filters found on the D-2, it had fittings for a cockpit umbrella on the side of the fuselage and a fairing that went around the radiator. The retractable radiator, although unnecessarily complex, functioned just fine in Northern Europe, but would oftentimes overheat if not fixed down at all times in North Africa. Additionally, the sand and grit in the desert interfered with the sliding retraction mechanism. The /Z variant indicated that the aircraft was fitted with a DB 601 that used nitrous oxide. GM-1 (Göring Mischung 1), colloquially known as Haha-Gerät (Ha-Ha Device) was a system for injecting nitrous oxide (laughing gas) into aircraft engines that was used by the Luftwaffe in World War II. This increased the amount of oxygen in the fuel mixture, and thereby improved high-altitude performance.

Cheers,

Logan

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2013, 08:38:55 AM »
Simply stunning, Logan! It looks even better than I imagined it!

Love the backstory too!

Brian da Basher

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2013, 08:42:05 AM »
 :)
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Logan Hartke

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2013, 09:30:31 AM »
Simply stunning, Logan! It looks even better than I imagined it!

Love the backstory too!

Thanks, though the backstory is just a copy-paste of Wikipedia articles on Marseille and the GM-1 plus a few of my own sentences.

Cheers,

Logan

Offline Logan Hartke

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2013, 10:38:59 AM »
Here's the "build thread" for the Marseille Heinkel He 100D-4/Z Trop entry for the Desert Warfare GB.

My last He 100 Trop was for a German fighter pilot that survived the entire war.  The current one represents a far better-known pilot, but one that died tragically at a very young age.  Encountering the "Star of Africa" in his 109 would prove fatal for many a British pilot, and I can't imagine that putting him behind the stick of a Heinkel He 100 would have made things any easier for the majority of his victims.

This is a profile that Talos and I had planned since the start of the He 100 project, but it did take some custom work.  Fair warning, this is going to be a very boring "build thread" since I did 90% of the visual work on the first day and I didn't do any WIPs while working on it that night.

This is how far I'd gotten on it the first night.  Most of the markings and the paint scheme was in place by the end of day on January 30th.



You can see that the retractable radiator is still in place.  None of the airframe modifications specific to this profile were done at this point.



At this stage, I fixed some of the aircraft colors, the Hakenkreuz, and the Yellow 14.  I also eliminated the radiator in preparation for the new one I'd be getting from Talos.



The main thing here was the addition of the umbrella mounts.  They were straightforward, but took more work than you might expect just looking at them.  If you can't find them, they're the two teardrop shapes under the cockpit.  This was where the profile stood on January 31st.  I was blocked at this point by the Trop radiator fairing I needed from Talos.  At this point, I started work on the Israeli Hind.



The next update wouldn't come until February 8th.  Not long after getting the new line art, I got them separated into the layers necessary to shade, paint, and weather them.



And here it is, having finished it late last night.  It took a while, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I hope you all like it!  Let me know if there are any questions about any stage of the process.

Cheers,

Logan

Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2013, 11:34:54 AM »
I always wanted to try that scheme on a model. Really like this profile  :)
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Offline Doom!

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2013, 12:29:46 PM »
Logan, I'm diggin' it! Looks great in desert scheme  :-*
Doom!
Jeff G.

Offline ysi_maniac

  • I will die understanding not this world
Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2013, 03:30:44 AM »
So beatiful ... :-*

Offline Logan Hartke

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Re: Hans-Joachim Marseille's He 100D-4/Z Trop Build Thread - JG 27 'Afrika'
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2013, 03:34:42 AM »
Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

Cheers,

Logan