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John vd Biggelaar
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Helicopters GB: Doblhoff WNF-342 v4, AMP 48008, 2019

December 12, 2021 · in Aviation · · 32 · 1.7K

After receiving the invitation to participate in this great group build from our friend Colin @coling, I felt fotunate to participate in it.

Since my building preference is the WWII, I thought it would be difficult to find a helicopter from this era. Surprisingly it seemed that the Germans were already developing some prototypes and had some impressive results already.
The Doblhoff WNF342 was one of them.
The fourth prototype was very innovative for that time. The blades had little jets and was used for lift-off, hovering and landing only because of the high fuel consumption. The foreward movement was created by a 140hp Siemens-Halske engine.

Buidling this helicopter was a real pleasure and the outcome is, even in , a nice little kit. Not that easy to construct because there are no alignment pins. Following the instructions is not the easiest way forward. It is important to look ahead a few steps to make life easier for this build, ask me how I know. Inside the kit masks and PE are added, both are a nice addition to this kit. The PE is really nice and good to work with, this however cannot be said about the sprues, most of the parts contain a lot of flash and because of the tiny pieces difficult to clean. Positive parts are the horizontal and vertical stabalizer, they are nicely thinned and therefore realistic, but need to treated gently. The rigging on this kit is done with Uschi wire. Aligning the main blades was tricky but CA glue did eventually the trick and seems to be strong enough.

I would like to thank all who contributed during the building process and special thanks to Colin @coling who started this wonderful group build and made me build my first ever helicopter.

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome

23 additional images. Click to enlarge.


32 responses

  1. Wow! This is a real rarity and an excellent build.

  2. Wow, John@johnb - what a surprised to see this wacky looking whirlybird. Never seen a Doblhoff before or heard of AMP. That instrument panel looks really cool. Terrific work.

  3. Great job John @johnb, this turned out to be a great looking build. And a very interesting and unique subject to boot. The extra little details, fine cables and the undercarriage on how it was assembled makes these areas look sharp and realistic.

    The jet tips are pretty unique, the fuel was burned from here combined with the air from the compressor.

  4. A wonderful result out of the challenging AMP kit, John!
    This is a unique looking bird, a real rarity! Really amazing to see it as a finished model, let alone an excellently built one.
    Your build thread was equally wonderful, a joy to follow!
    Congratulations!

  5. Nicely built odd looking machine , @johnb ! Very unique looking.
    Good job !

  6. @johnb, Wow, what an unusual and intriguing machine! ? That is a very cool lil' chopper John, and it's great to see such a rarity here! ?

  7. Excellent result, John! Be careful handling it.

  8. John, you did a fine job on what looks like a fiddley kit to build.

  9. Great little build there John, @johnb, I almost missed the post because of the frenzy of posts that just occurred. It really turned out nice...looks extremely delicate and fragile.

  10. A real pleasure to see, John, and, I too was lucky to spot it, excellent modeling and definitely liked.

  11. Really beautiful this build @johnb early VTOL aircraft are very interesting! Well done my friend!

  12. That looks like a very nice model build John.
    Germany sure did innovate in helicopter design. I had never heard of this one.
    None Of any preserved unfortunately.

  13. That is very cool! Great build of a very rare subject.

  14. Wow, what a unique aircraft! You did excellent work in capturing the finer details. Great job!

  15. Beautiful work, John@johnb. Apologies for not having commented sooner as I have been busy with life and employment responsibilities for the last month or so. Your intricate little model was a great addition to the Helicopter GB and the results are outstanding. Fine job on the cockpit and IP, in particular.

  16. Yesterday I ordered this kit from Ivan at ModelsUA, and boy am I glad I found this today! John, yours is a great build, with lots of helpful info and clear photos. The kit looks like a lot of work, but if I do get around to it, you've shown the way to make it an interesting little gem. Thanks, and congratulations!

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