A He 112 trilogy: the wooden cousin from Hungary

[Dizzyfugu]

Part two of the He 112 trilogy, this time the attempt to re-create a service aircraft of a type that only existed as a prototype and was based on the He 112, the Hungarian Manfred Weiss WM-23:


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr



Some background:
In October 1933, Hermann Göring sent out a letter requesting aircraft companies consider the design of a "high speed courier aircraft" - a thinly veiled request for a new fighter. In May 1934, this was made official and the Technisches Amt sent out a request for a single-seat interceptor for the Rüstungsflugzeug IV role, this time under the guise of a "sports aircraft". The specification was first sent to the most experienced fighter designers, Heinkel, Arado, and Focke-Wulf.

Heinkel's design was created primarily by twin brothers Walter and Siegfried Günter, whose designs would dominate most of Heinkel's work. They started work on Projekt 1015 in late 1933 under the guise of the original courier aircraft, based around the BMW XV radial engine. Work was already under way when the official request went out on 2 May, and on 5 May the design was renamed the He 112.

The He 112 was basically a scaled down version of Heinkel He 70 and shared its all metal construction, inverted gull wings, and retractable landing gear. Like the He 70, the He 112 was constructed entirely of metal, using a two-spar wing and a monocoque fuselage with flush-head rivets. The landing gear retracted outward from the low point of the wing's gull-bend, which resulted in a fairly wide span track, giving the aircraft excellent ground handling.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The He 112 V1 started in the head-to-head contest when it arrived at Travemünde on 8 February 1936. The other three competitors had all arrived by the beginning of March. Right away, the Focke-Wulf Fw 159 and Arado Ar 80 proved to be lacking in performance, and plagued with problems, and were eliminated from serious consideration. At this point, the He 112 was the favorite over the "unknown" Bf 109, but opinions changed when the Bf 109 V2 arrived on 21 March. All the competitor aircraft had initially been equipped with the Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, but the Bf 109 V2 had a Jumo 210. From that point on, it started to outperform the He 112 in almost every way, and even the arrival of the Jumo-engined He 112 V2 on 15 April did little to address this imbalance. Eventually, the Bf 109 became the Luftwaffe's new standard fighter.

However, the aircraft was marketed to potential foreign customers, including Yugoslavia, The Netherlands, Finland, Romania and Japan. Hungary was interested in purchase, but negotiations failed. Alternatively, Hungary tried to procure the rights for license production of the improved He 112 B, but this fell through in December 1939, too. This resulted in the plan to switch the Hungarian production line to build an indigenous fighter. Work on the new fighter was launched in July 1940 by Manfred-Weiss' engineer Bela Samu, and the project was called the WM-23 'Ezust Nyil' (Silver Arrow).


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


This fighter plane was basically a He 112 B, throughly adapted to local construction principles and capabilities. The wings were wooden versions of the He 112s complex planform, the fuselage was made of a plywood over a steel frame. Overall, shapes and dimensions were very similar to the He-112, but under the hood the Hungarian aircraft differed in many details, and the use of wood raised the weight markedly.

The WM-23's engine was to be a domestic product, too, and the choice fell on the 14 cylinder two-row radial WM-K-14B, a license-built version of the 1.020 hp Gnome-Rhone Mistral-Major. Due to the extensive use of wood, it would seem that this 'simplified' plane would be inferior to the highly sophisticated He 112. But in fact, the higher powered engine made, thanks to the airframe's excellent aerodynamics, all the difference and the WM-23 proved to be even faster than the original He-112. Furthermore, the indigenous design did not lack any substantial maneuverability and the simple radial engine would also ease field maintenance and reduce vulnerability, since the complex and touchy radiator system of the original Jumo 210 could be omitted.

The proposed armament comprised two synchronized 8mm Gebaur machine guns in the fuselage and two 20mm MG 151 cannon in the outer wings, even though the first prototype only carried a pair of 12.7mm Danuvia (Gebauer) GEP machine guns.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The prototype WM-23 was flown for the first time in September 1941, and demonstrated good flying characteristics, but suffered intermittent aileron oscillation. It took a while to figure out a solution for this problem, and the development program, in which a second prototype joined, was further hampered in the late spring of 1942 when the starboard aileron detached in a climb of the 1st prototype, forcing the pilot to abandon the aircraft.

Nevertheless, work proceeded slowly with the second aircraft, and in April 1942 the WM-23 was, after some detail changes like a modified cowling and re-contoured stabilizers, cleared for production. This basic fighter variant was officially designated WM-23A.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Anyway, just after 32 WM-23A had been completed and delivered to Hungarian front line units, production was stopped over night because Hungary had finally acquired the rights for German fighter license production, namely the Bf 109 G. All resources were quickly shifted to the more modern and capable fighter, and eventually the Bf 109 became the MKHL's standard fighter type for the rest of the war. The company's plans for an upgraded version, called the WM-123 Ezüst Nyil II, as well as the WM-23B scout/reconnaissance variant and the WM-23G training aircraft remained on the drawing board. None of the few WM-23A airframes survived the hostilities.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr




General characteristics:
    Crew: 1
    Length: 8,54 m (28 ft)
    Wingspan: 9.60 m (31 ft 5 ¼in)
    Height: 3.10 m (10 ft 1½ in)
    Wing area:    23.50 m² (252.12 sq ft)
    Empty weight: 2100  (4,625 lb)
    Max. takeoff weight: 3290 kg (7253 lb)

Powerplant:
    1× WM-K-14B 14 cylinder two-row radial engine rated with 1,020 hp (750 kW)

Performance:
    Maximum speed: 530 km/h (330 mph)
    Cruising speed: 470 km/h (290 mph)
    Range: 1,200 km (745 mi)
    Service ceiling: 9,000 m (29,500 ft)
    Wing loading: 132 kg/m² (27.1 lb/ft²)

Armament:
    2× 8mm Gebaur machine guns with 500 RPG mounted on top of the engine cowling     
    2× 20mm MG 151/20 cannon in the outer wings with 75 RPG
    Provisions for 20 kg (44 lb) of fragmentation bombs in the lower fuselage, but never used



The kit and its assembly:
The Hungarian WM-23 might appear obscure, but it actually existed as described and made it to the hardware stage in the form of a single prototype. I stumbled upon the aircraft in a Squadron Publishing book about the hapless He 112, and found the idea of a radial engine variant interesting. I had a spare Heller kit in my stash, and also found a suitable donor engine – so the decision to build/simulate an in-service WM-23 was made.





As already mentioned, this is the He 112 B kit from Heller, a simple but very nice offering from the late Seventies. You get decent interior detail, but raised panel lines, and the kit was originally built more or less OOB, with adaptations to the real WM-23's outlines.

First of all, the original inline engine was replaced by the complete nose section from a vintage LS Model Ki-100, which was in itself modified with an opened front end, an engine dummy inside, and new cowling ring and an improvised three blade propeller.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Further mods to come closer to the WM-23 and away from its He 112 ancestor, the canopy was cut into three pieces and the originally fixed, rear part was replaced with a spine (actually a part from an Academy MiG-21F drop tank) and merged with the fuselage through PSR work.
The flaps were cut out and mounted in a lowered position, and, finally, the He 112 B's relatively huge stabilizers were replaced by much smaller, more rounded-off parts (IIRC from an AZ Models Spitfire V).


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Once the basic build was done I was a bit puzzled, though. Something was not right, the proportions did not look good. At first I blamed it on the hunchback look of the added spine – but there was something else... I had some schematic drawings of the WM-23 at hand and realized that their printouts were almost exactly 1:72. So I matched the model with the aircraft's supposed outlines and found that the real aircraft had a much shorter rear fuselage section! On the positive side, anything else, esp. the implanted new radial engine, was a very good match.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Anyway, in order to mend the issue the only option at this stage was to cut away a ~7mm plug from the fuselage and blend it over with more PSR, sacrificing much from the fine but risen panel lines on the kit's surface. Hrmpf...!


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

It worked well, though, more or less, and now the aircraft looked much more balanced! Further detail work concerned the characteristic exhaust arrangement on the flanks. Hollow steel needles were used for the MG 151/20 barrels in the wings. Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, I just added a pair of outer covers and some details inside of the landing gear wells, everything scratched with styrene strips and sheet.


Painting and markings:
The WM-23 would probably have entered service in mid-1942, when new Hungarian national markings (white cross on a black square) were introduced, but I used the former wedge-style markings, since the real world prototype carried these, too, and I'd assume that deliveries still carried the old style insignia.

The paint scheme is also a guesstimate. Foreign aircraft in Hungarian service mostly kept their original livery, and the scheme I used is a free interpretation of several MKHL aircraft profiles in 1942 and the artists' wild interpretations of the applied colors.

I settled for a three-tone scheme with terra cotta (Humbrol 63, it appears almost like a dull orange!), a greyish dark brown (Humbrol 98) and a dull dark green (RLM 71 from Modelmaster), with pale grey undersides (RLM 63 from ModelMaster). The kit was, after basic painting, weathered with a light black ink wash and dry-brushed for post-shading.


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


According to contemporary MKHL tactical markings around 1942, the machine received yellow wing tips and a yellow band around the cowling and the rear fuselage. National markings come from a (vast) Sky Models decal sheet for 67(!) different Fiat CR.42 fighters, including some specimen in Hungarian service. The tactical code is a guesstimate, since the WM-23 prototype was titled "V-501".

After some soot and exhaust stains with graphite the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).




1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Manfred Weiss WM-23A 'Ezust Nyil'; 'V-519' of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő (MKHL; Royal Hungarian Air Force), 2/3. Vadasz Szadad 'Ricsi'; Mátjásföld/Budapest, late 1942 (Whif/modified Heller kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


This conversion turned out to be more complicated than expected - almost a fight with the elements, and the finish is unfortunately relatively rough. Anyway, the WM-23 is not an unelegant machine, and it's amazing how much the look of an aircraft can be changed through relatively simple modifications. Not much of the sleek He 112 B is visually left and from certain angles, the WM-23 rather reminds of an early Vought F4U? However, an interesting aircraft, even though, honestly, this modified He 112 kit shares only superficial commonality with the real WM-23. The general outlines look similar, but the differences are fundamental – probably only the wings' outlines are more or less correct... ;-)

And a final chapter for the He 112 trilogy is also (already) in the pipeline. More to come soon. 

[comrade harps]

Another fascinating effort!   

I'm inspired to do my own (less complicated) take on the HW-23...

[NARSES2]

Tremendous 

Looks absolutely natural with the radial and from some angles almost like a baby Corsair ? Glad you went with the early Hungarian markings as well.

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you, glad you (all) like it - it ended up pretty rough, because the work on the fuselage became more thorough and complicated than expected!
I was sceptical about the paint scheme first, but I think it suits the aircraft well? Reminds a lot of Yugoslavian colors/schemes, too?

Also, many thanks for the Whiffies consideration! Highly appreciated (and unexpected)! 

[NARSES2]

I was sceptical about the paint scheme first, but I think it suits the aircraft well? Reminds a lot of Yugoslavian colors/schemes, too?

It does suit it. I like these 3 colour upper camouflage schemes. As for Yugoslav ? having looked at the painting instructions for my IK-3 it does look similar 

[Gondor]

Very nice indeed 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Super job Thomas, it looks very realistic, but then I suppose it would do as it actually existed, almost.