He-219 Gets her wings

[beaupower32]

NASM's Heinkel He-219 restoration nears completion.

Looking good, just have to get that upper paint job done. Cant wait till its finished.

 

[Airframes]

That's one big wing, when viewed like that. Looking forward to seeing it all go together - with the team involved, it'll be a Group Build of a different kind !

 

[Lucky13]

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I really need to go back to the NASM. Been years...

 

[GrauGeist]

Excellent!

 

[Capt. Vick]

I'm going next week! Yeah!

 

[A4K]

Great stuff! (Wish I could join you on that visit Jim!)

 

[Erich]

great news indeed, hopeful they will repaint the under wing crosses over.......they are too large.

 

[GrauGeist]

great news indeed, hopeful they will repaint the under wing crosses over.......they are too large.

I just noticed that too, Erich...also, they are too thick, too far outboard and are slightly rotated...

The balkankreuz should be square to the leading edge of the wing.

 

[beaupower32]

Yeah, I also noticed it. But I am glad they are making progress on it.

 

[bobbysocks]

nice!!

 

[beaupower32]

I passed on what you guys said to the NASM, and this is what they wrote. I will post when I hear more.

Thank you for your message. I am not involved with this project, but I am copying Dr. Bob Van der Linden, Chair of the Aeronautics Department, who can more properly respond.

Thank you for your interest in the National Air and Space Museum. We have forwarded your comment regarding the He-219's restoration to the appropriate division for their review.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. Sincerely,

Visitor Services Division

Smithsonian Institution - National Air and Space Museum

 

[GrauGeist]

I passed on what you guys said to the NASM, and this is what they wrote. I will post when I hear more.

Cool!

Looking forward to what they have to say.

The centerline of the balkankreuz on the wings are generally at a right angle to the fuselage. This is typically applied to aircraft that had large enough wings, of course. There were some exceptions to the rule: I have seen photos of the Me163s with the balkenkreuz squared to the leading edge of the wing and ones with the balkankreuz aligned to the fuselage.

 

[mhuxt]

From the NASM's own website:

"Note the position of the Balkenkreuz on the outer wing panels. Although Luftwaffe regulations routinely specified that this insignia be placed parallel to the leading edge of the wing, Heinkel located it in a slightly different position, parallel to the spar, which was exactly reproduced by Museum experts."

AirSpace

 

[Crimea_River]

This is great news and long time coming. Guys, note the caption under the second photo in the article:

"Note the position of the Balkenkreuz on the outer wing panels. Although Luftwaffe regulations routinely specified that this insignia be placed parallel to the leading edge of the wing, Heinkel located it in a slightly different position, parallel to the spar, which was exactly reproduced by NASM experts."

During my build of a model of this aircraft, I relied heavily on pics and info from the NASM restoration. I'd be VERY surprised if they got something like this wrong.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Yes, I agree. The chance that they made a mistake is remote. If they stick with their standard methods and practices, they would have carefully sanded down through each layer of paint and revealed the original in service markings. That being said, much stranger things have happened.

 

[GrauGeist]

There may be a reason the factory decided to rotate the balkankreuz off-axis on the underside, though the ones I have seen aren't off by such a degree.

However, the balkenkreuz is too "thick" and too large.

 

[GregP]

All aircraft over here are painted as the owner wants them painted. If it doesn't exactly duplicate a wartime aircraft, that's ... OK. In my observation of German aircraft, I have seen many "custom" paint jobs. Perhaps they are duplicating the paint that was on it when it was captured. If so, then it is an authentic wartime paint scheme regardless of size differences. It really isn't all that difficult to sand until you see the paint under the paint. I don't believe the NASM would arbitrarily butcher a genuine paint job uncoivered in restoration. At the Planes of Fame, we duplicated the Japanese meatballs EXACTLY since they could be seen in bright sunlight. We used the standard Japanese red color, but duplicated the outlines exactly.

I am MUCH more interested in the authenticity of the bits and pieces that make up the aircraft than the paint, but understand wanting it to be right in the paint department, too.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Jim is exactly correct. They sanded down to the original paint job and duplicated it.

 

[GrauGeist]

Well, then that aircraft is truly one-of-a-kind, because I spent a little while digging through He219 photos and none of the lower balkankreuz markings I found were that large or had such thick bars. I did see two that did have a "off axis" rotation to the overall balkankreuz close to the NASM's, but not quite as as much as the NASM's. Besides, it was enough to get Erich's attention, too

Not trying to be an A-Hole here, I am thrilled to see the quality of work and attention to detail put into the project, especially the perfect matching of the new mottling to the original that was covered by the wings. And it is certainly going to be exciting to have it 100% for the first time in over half a century.

If this were a private aircraft, they could paint pink with blue polkadots all over, but this is a NASM project and attention to every detail is the order of the day.

As far as the balkankreuz is concerned, there were several styles used on the underwing: open outline (white), bordered (white border, black cross) and unbordered (black cross). They were positioned about mid-wing with the inward edge of the cross lining up close to the the division between the flaps and the ailerons; slight gap between wing's leading edge and the cross' forward-most edge with a large gap between the trailing edge of the wing and the rear-most portion of the cross.

Here's another example, this one being a unbordered (black) balkankreuz. (note the slight off-axis rotation)