Heinkel He-280A-1

By Tom Choy

Eduard, DML/Dragon, 1/48

Contrary to popular belief, the Me-262 was not the world's first jet fighter, but actually Heinkel's He-280, which had its first successful flight on April 2, 1941, powered by Heinkel's proprietary HeS 8a engines.  However the HeS 8a was troublesome and prone to catching fire, and eventually a Jumo 004 was used, giving the aircraft slightly better performance, but still lost to the Me-262 in competition due to the fact that the Me-262's shark-like nose fuselage profile allowed the it to carry up to four cannons in the nose, and the capacity for a higher fuel load.  The He-280 never made it past the prototype stage, and thus faded into obscurity while the Me-262 lept forward and changed the world of aviation forever.

The kit I used was the Eduard He-280 Profipack, which includes resin parts such as wheels and an ejection seat.  Also included in the Profipack version is a sheet of photoetched parts, and sprues for both the HeS 8 and Jumo 004 engines.  A lead nose weight is also included, which fits perfectly in the nose.  Eduard also packs in one of its little Express Masks for the canopy and wheels.

I started off by deciding which version I wanted.  In the wonderful world of What-If, nothing is dogma so I figured that Heinkel managed to improve the 8a engine and finally produced the HeS 8c engine, which was highly efficient and providing performance superior to the incomplete Jumo 004s.  I also figured that the 280 would carry two MG-151 20mm cannon and two MG-17 7.9mm machine guns in the nose (the actual projected loadout for the 280 was three MG-151 in the nose.  Of course, it never occured to me that the nose would be too small to carry four MG-151 in the nose until I had drilled it all in.).  I also thought it would be neat to sling two bombs underneath, so I swiped a bomb set and two bomb pylons from a Dragon Me-262 set.

The first thing you put together in this kit is the cockpit.  I started off by removing the resin seat from its very large casting block (the resin Eduard casts their stuff in is unusually hard, by the way) and painting the cockpit RLM 66 (the actual aircraft is RLM 02 all over).  I also added in the fiddly PE knobs and levers, control stick, rudder pedals (which are also PE by the way) and instrument panel (also PE).  There isn't very much documentation on the He-280 as it was destroyed sometime during the war, so the cockpit is a little bare. 

I inserted the nose weight in the slot designed to fit the weight in, and then proceeded to close up the fuselage.  Bear in mind that this is a limited run kit, and so there are no locator pins!  The fit is great on top but I ended up with a slight step at the bottom.  The wings were next, which had a large locator tab that needs to be sanded down a little (it's a little oversized) and a good dose of Tenax sealed it up.  The engines went next.  The "HeS 8c" engines consisted of 6 pieces, and look just great when it's done. 

The tailplane went next - this fits kinda funny, so you'll want to put this together very carefully.  The first time I did it I mounted it skewed to the left a little - it wasn't until I set it on a hard surface, ripped it out and took 30 minutes before I got it back into a satisfactory position.  Other than that, the tail's fine.

As soon as the glue was dry I closed up the cockpit and applied the vinyl masks on the canopy that were provided.  The masks do not cover the entire canopy, and I had to use liquid masking for the rest of it.  It was a little annoying, but considering the fact that the canopy was a little bulbous I couldn't really fault Eduard for it.  Well, masking was done, so I fired up the airbrush and preshaded the panel lines (and there are a lot of panel lines.)

I opted for an "existing" paint scheme, and went through my decals for Me-262 markings.  I decided that the plane would be something colorful, so I swiped a decal sheet from a Dragon Me-262 kit with markings belonging to III Gruppe of JG 7, marked as aircraft 7 of the 11th Staffel.  Incidentally these are the exact same markings as the restored Me-262 at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM).  The colors are RLM 76 undersides, with RLM 81 and 82 uppers and splotches.  I then sealed it with a gloss coat and added the decals.  The only problem I had with the decals was with the red and blue band, which would not fit the tail as it was originall curved for the Me-262's tail.  I had to make some cuts in order to make it conform to the tail.  Finally brushed decal solvent on all of the decals, waited for it to settle down and sealed it with another gloss coat.

I weathered the aircraft with black pastels for gun stains, and a soapy "sludge" mix of brown and black for the panel lines.  I also added a lot of paint chips (this aircraft had seen a lot of action in the two years since rolling out of the factory).  Maintenance in the field wasn't too great either, and spares were hard to come by, so areas like the engine exhausts were worn out a little and slightly rusty.  A quick swish of rust-colored paint mixe with liberal amounts of thinner made for a fine rust mixture which was lightly drybrushed around the engine exhausts.  Once it was dry, I sealed the aircraft again with a flat coat.

One really neat feature of this kit is the clear part provided that represents the landing lights - it is molded very clearly and has two little sinkholes in them, spaced perfectly, simulating light bulbs when viewed externally.  I painted the insides with chrome paint and glued it into the wing.  The light actually fit very tightly, so tightly that I had to sand the sides down a little in order to get it to fit.  I could also have sanded the wing instead, but I noticed that the sides of the clear part were a little convex, probably causing the tight fit.  Once it was sanded down it snuggled into its space without any problems.

I also thought that the aircraft would look more interesting if it was armed with some ordnance, so I swiped two bombs and their pylons from my Dragon Me-262 kit again (heck, I was going to put rockets on my 262 anyway), drilled the appropriate holes (in hindsight I should have drilled the holes before I assembled the wings, painted the bombs black and added paint chips.  The only problem I had with the bombs was that they would not seat properly and kept falling off, even with CA glue..  That's the fault of Trimaster though.   Eventually I got them on and decided not to touch them again.  Looks pretty good, I think.

I then added the landing gear, which was reinforced at their joining pins with thin CA glue.  Finally, I added the antenna (I love antenna) by fashioning an antenna mast out of some plastic card and shaping it with an #11 blade and a sanding stick (it's really hard since it's so tiny).  After dropping it several times and also sanding the skin on my finger off, I finally got a good, aerodynamic shape out of it.  Then I realized that I had no place to plug it in.  Taking a deep breath, I drilled a hole into the spine, which was a mistake as my hands were already starting to shake then.  Well needless to say, I slipped, causing the drill to run down the side of the fuselage, making a big mark.  After some cursing and swearing I sanded it down and repainted the side.  I was more successful the second time, fortunately.  Then it was time to add the antenna wire.  I drilled a tiny hole on each of the tail planes, and another hole on the top of the mast.  I threaded 2-pound fishing line through the hole, and connected both ends of the line to the tails.  I then squeezed the converging ends of the line together with a pair of tweezers until it was tight, and added a few drops of thin CA to the newly-joined lines, and squeezed a bit of accelerator to hurry it up.  Finally I painted the wires dark anodized gray.

Somewhere in the process of gluing the antenna together I had managed to spill some of that pesky thin CA on my fist, which glued up instantly.  Sitting helplessly in my girlfriend's basement, I called upstairs for help:

So I figured that I wasn't going to try to go upstairs since I figured that I'd probably end up gluing myself to the basement door, so I poured nail polish remover (useful for dissolving putty, but the way) on my hand, waited for a minute or two, and tried to pry my hands open.  After a while I managed to free all my fingers and not rip any skin off in the process.  I ran upstairs and showed my glue-crusted hand to my girlfriend, which she promptly grabbed me by my fingers and dipped them in one of this nail-polish-remover tubs for an hour.  Moral of the story: don't get your fingers glued together.  If you do, (1) don't scratch yourself (it happened to someone once - no, not me!) (2) relax and grab some nail polish remover.

So anyway here it is - my completed "production" He-280A1, ready for battle.  It was two weeks of work, and was a little more involved that I had thought it to be, but I had a lot of fun.  It certainly catches the eye, and every now and then I managed to surprise someone who thought he knew all the Luftwaffe's aircraft.  I'd say it's a 9 out of 10 on the Super Tom Fun-O-Meter and another 9 out of 10 for the Cool-O-Meter.  Go out and get this kit - I highly recommend it.  I think I'll build up a Jumo-engined one next with a 50mm cannon......

Text and photos Copyright © 2002 Tom Choy

Page created August 31 2002.