1/48 Eduard Heinkel 280

by Raphael L Marbella, MD

--------------------

 

Good Morning! This is my second article here in ARC and as it happens, it also involves another Eduard kit. This time it’s Eduard’s own Heinkel 280 done in a “what if” scenario. Don’t get me wrong, the Heinkel 280 is indeed a sleek and sexy looking aircraft, but for me doing it in monochromatic grey seems a bit boring. So to put a little spice, I dressed her up as a jabo doing night sorties.

Building the kit itself is fairly straightforward; I didn’t encounter any major fit issues and used very minimal amount of filler putty. Since this wasn’t the profipack version, the interior was somewhat spartan and I addressed this by adding a couple of stretched sprues and copper wires. I also utilized a spare Revi gunsight from Tamiya as well as strips of masking tape as seat harness. Externally, the kit was accessorized with a couple of Hasegawa and Tamiya Stabo 250 & 50’s plus their corresponding bomb racks.

Painting was done using Gunze acrylics and later weathered with artist’s oils and pastel chalk. The decals came from the kit itself as well as leftovers from my Tally Ho stocks. As a personal touch, some wet editing was done to spell out “Elle”, the nickname of my first daughter Maria Isabella (this one’s for you kid!).

The diorama base came from a pile of wood beside our house which was under renovation at that time. The groundwork is actually a mixture of sawdust and basil leaves, spraycanned with various shades of green. An occasional oil stain was also simulated and placed strategically underneath the kit. The figures and accessories came from ICM and Hasegawa and painted in oils.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Well, I guess that’s about it. Before I go, some acknowledgements… thank yous go out to Mr Aaron “4 eyes” Ronquillo and other fellow members of IPMS Philippines for their kind words/ critique/ suggestion on my latest kit, to Mr Dennis “Archangel” Yap of grandhobbies@yahoo.com for providing the kit and figures, and finally to the staff of ARC for allowing me again the chance to feature another work.

Raphael 

Photos and text © by Raphael L Marbella, MD