With prospects for design work being slim for a German engineer after the war, Ernst Heinkel decided to try for a bit of international recognition
by attempting to enter the Schneider race in 1920. Naturally, there was precious little funding forthcoming from the State, but Heinkel managed to
secure a badly damaged W. 29, and set to work with a small crew in an abandoned fish processing plant in Glückstadt on the Elbe. Using a
modified Basse und Selve BuS IV, the wings were radically shortened, the Tail plane reduced in chord, and the float configuration altered to
a taller, slimmer single in line float with two smaller outriggers.
More backstory when I get a little further along with the build.
This is a project i have had in mind for a few years now - a racer version of the Hansa-Brandenberg W. 29. When I was getting into
WW 1 models around the time of the Centennial, I would up with three kits of the aircraft from three different manufacturers. I had had
the very rough Meikraft kit for ages, and added a Pegasus and Toko to the stash. The first and last became landplanes, and I forgot about
the Pegasus kit until I was looking for something else and stumbled across the remains of it in the stash. The conversion will involve
a bit more reshaping the fuselage to turn it into a single seater, but I managed to get a float into the shape I wanted with a minimum of effort.
Should come together over the next couple of days.
DSCF0568 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
There are probably easier ways to build a thinner float, but this worked...
DSCF0572 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr