The Little World

The Heinkel He 70 has been delivered to the RRAAF. It appears that there has been somewhat of a mixup.

Whether this is due to the purchasing commission spending a good deal of time in the cabarets of Berlin, or whether there has been some interference in the order by the Reichsluftministerium remains to be seen but the fact of the matter is that this bomber has been delivered with no bomb racks, release mechanisms, or bomb sight. The machine gun that was to defend it from attacking fighters is missing and there is no mount for it.

The rest of the plane is fine, and the test pilot reports it is both very fast and hard to see out of. The RRAAF staff are at a bit of a loss to think what use they can make of it, as it only has room for one person in the back seat as well as the pilot.

The best suggestion so far is to assign it to a reconnaissance squadron, if there is such a thing. The observer in the back can slide the rear canopy open and peer out over the side and then write down what he sees in a notebook. If the RRAAF can recruit poets from the taverns of Strackenz they may get some rather nice reports.

At least the paint job came out well. The brown should blend in well with the colours of autumn and if it rusts it will be hard to see the effects.

As an aside, apart from the puzzlement in the RRAAF, I think I got very good value in this Revell/ICM kit. It was under $ 20 AUD and I’ve had at least three weeks building time, off and on. The details are excellent, if a little tiny in some cases, but I managed the break very little. The landing gear looked a nightmare to assemble but after I drilled more footing for the struts, it proved surprisingly easy.

It is no job for a beginner, as the rating on the Revell box indicated, but a slow pace was all that was needed. I am amused in a sardonic way by the excessive cautions and warnings that Revell give regarding plastic model kit building. Has the world of the toy  model really become that hedged with lawyers and precaution?