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Heinkel 111P-2, Airfix 1:72, plus some extras


Brandy

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You said you had an itch to do something different and it looks like you are giving that itch a really good scratch! Lovely work!

 

Martian

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On 1/5/2018 at 5:34 PM, hendie said:

interior is looking good Ian.

I know what you mean about the weather - it took me 5 attempts to get up my driveway last night (and three attempts at shoveling). Of course the wife's AWD just sailed up there without any problem.

 

and you are right - those levers look much better than anything PE could produce

Thanks Hendie! My problem is getting out of the drive - it slopes up to the street!

 

On 1/5/2018 at 6:37 PM, CedB said:

Very nice Ian. Those added details are really worth the effort IMHO :)

Cheers Ced, I have to agree they are worth all the effort/cash - I just hope the canopies are clear enough to see them!

 

On 1/5/2018 at 7:26 PM, WildeSau75 said:

Wow - impressive job so far. Looking forward to see you continuing.

 

Thanks Michael!

 

8 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

You said you had an itch to do something different and it looks like you are giving that itch a really good scratch! Lovely work!

 

Martian

Good to see you back up and about Martian, and thanks!

 

6 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

That interior is worth ALL the effort! Stunning

Thanks very much Roger! I do like these Eduard PE sets - it may not all be usable, but what isn't is at least useful as a guide.

 

More slow but steady progress today. I finally got the engine controls painted and fitted.

 

27771422249_ebfb23e7fb_c.jpg

 

 Then I looked at the bombardier's seat, and made some adjustments to the folding seatback by trimming off the mounting points, reducing the thickness, and adding a couple of pieces of .020 x .030 strip for new mounts. The webbing was added using Tamiya masking tape, which was then painted. First with Interior tan, then RLM02, painted on very thinly. 

 

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This is how it will look when it's all in place, plus the seatbelts, which may also be done with tape instead of using the PE.

 

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I also got the MG magazine handles painted and fitted, so we're pretty close to buttoning it up now!

 

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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48 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

 

More slow but steady progress today. I finally got the engine controls painted and fitted.

 

27771422249_ebfb23e7fb_c.jpg

 

close to buttoning it up now!

 

Ian

:o:o:o  like WOW, that is just........... nuts, in the best way possible. :)

Steve.

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Very impressive Steve. To be honest not usually my subject matter, although interesting and something to get your teeth into (right scale though ;)), but let's face it a good builds a good build regardless! Lovely scratch work to augment and improve upon the etch - love the controls.

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9 hours ago, CedB said:

^ Wot he said, with knobs on.

Excellent detailing Ian, they must be tiny!

Yup, they are!

 

18 hours ago, stevehnz said:

:o:o:o  like WOW, that is just........... nuts, in the best way possible. :)

Steve.

Thanks Steve! 

 

5 hours ago, Howlindawg said:

The interior looks fantastic.

Glad there's enough glass that it'll be visible. :)

The huge amount of glass is the main reason I wanted to go for the PE, to be honest. Although having said that, I also used it on the Hurricane and most of that is invisible!

 

1 hour ago, Tomoshenko said:

Very impressive Steve. To be honest not usually my subject matter, although interesting and something to get your teeth into (right scale though ;)), but let's face it a good builds a good build regardless! Lovely scratch work to augment and improve upon the etch - love the controls.

Thanks Tomo! Not mine either, but I fancied a break from rigging!

 

After looking at the pic above of the altered seat back, i decided it wasn't good enough and needed to match the seat itself. So, out with the brass rod and....(drum roll please) the new soldering iron! I have never tried soldering before. Well. OK, I have, once, and it was so awful I gave up and never tried it again. But I had to solder the curved seat mounts to the bottom of the back frame, and I know I'll need to solder stuff on the Muromets, so I might as well get a bit of practice! I got myself a new iron a couple of weeks ago because I looked at my cheepo chinese one and it said 17w, and all the tutorials I'd read said "use at least 30, preferably 40w"  So I bought a 40w!

 

 My biggest problem was getting the parts secured so they wouldn't move. I'd bent the rod for the mounts already, and couldn't get them to stand up straight and stay still! I did manage to get them attached after  while but they weren't exactly straight...

 

38855341754_7b8b268653_c.jpg

 

Pretty horrid, I'm sure you'll agree. Then I realised I was making life difficult for myself. Why not just solder the straight rod on, then bend it? So I did....a few times, each one slightly better than the last......until......

 

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That will work!

So I bent them...needless to say I bent them too close and one broke off, but I was now confident that the method would work, and my soldering was improving quickly, so it was taking less and less time for each new attempt.

 

Finally I got the parts together and aligned properly, and bent them successfully.

 

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:yahoo:

 

a quick trim

 

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some paint and masking tape, and I know which one I prefer!

 

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I think I've sussed the basics to this soldering lark, and that will now feature more prominently in builds requiring brass rod assemblies!

 

With that taken care of there was only one thing left for this afternoon, and that was to close her up!

 

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That should do it for today, time for a beer!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

Edited by limeypilot
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6 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

I think I've sussed the basics to this soldering lark, and that will now feature more prominently in builds requiring brass rod assemblies!

 

congratulations Ian.   It's a very useful skill to have around, and not really that difficult once you get the hang of it. 

Don't worry about trying to be neat when you are soldering - a quick dicht with a file and some wire wool will clean things up nicely.  Just make sure you get any flux residue off.  I normally dip mine in a quick bath of acetone and rub with a brush to remove any residue

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21 hours ago, hendie said:

Don't worry about trying to be neat when you are soldering - a quick dicht with a file and some wire wool will clean things up nicely.  Just make sure you get any flux residue off.  I normally dip mine in a quick bath of acetone and rub with a brush to remove any residue

Now there's a word I haven't heard for a while! Care taken with the dichting so it didn't skite off!

 

A couple of points to watch while fitting the underside centre section. 

 

1) Make sure the lower wing section is secured to the spars and clamped so that it's solid.

 

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2) Be careful with the joins right at the front of the cockpit. The fuselage tended to bow inwards slightly and needed to be held out while the joint dried. I found it helped to glue the rest of the part first, leaving this section unglued, then when the rest was dry, I lined it up and zapped it with Plastic Weld.

 

39581785591_af67f88487_c.jpg

 

 After all the faffing about modifying the resin gear bays, I decided, after looking at pics, that the Airfix items were actually more accurate, so I've gone with those. They're a little tricky to assemble, even though they are each made up of 5 straight parts! There are small burs on the edges of the side pieces from the mould edges, make sure those are removed! The sides are not square to the bay roof piece, they are angled slightly to allow for the wing dihedral - align the inner edges of the sides to the outer edges of the front and rear parts, leaving a slight overhang, and they'll fit better.

 

 When fitting the gear bays to the wing, it is easy to get them misaligned as the slight indents in the inner wing are just that - slight! Pay attention to the joints at the front, being careful to get the parts aligned correctly.

 

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 Note the small lip on each side of the front plate, and how the edges of the wing line up with it.

Also make sure that the front part of the forward gear wall lines up with the front of the wing assembly on either side, giving a straight line right across.

 

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 With these joints lined up correctly, the engine nacelles will fit properly!

 

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Ian

 

 

 

 

Edited by limeypilot
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One final update for today. After letting the wheel wells dry, I decided to go ahead and fit the wings. This is where the one small problem so far showed up. When I fitted the underside centre section, there was one area at the rear which needed filler. I had thought that maybe it wasn't fitted flush, but I'd clamped it to the spars so it couldn't be any tighter 

 

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Upon fitting the outer wings though, it was evident what the problem was. There was a step at the upper wing to fuselage joint that corresponded with the step underneath. You can see it here, even through the tape.

 

24715864487_a9967383cb_c.jpg

 

This tells me that the rear of the centre section is indeed too low. Since it was mounted tight against the spars and underside, I would advise that the upper surface of the wing centre section be sanded down a little at the rear to lift it up a little further and reduce or eliminate the steps both on top and underneath, where the wing surfaces are too low. It's not a major issue and can easily be fixed with filler (underneath) and sanding (on top), but at least future builders will have a heads up!

 

There are also slight gaps along the outer wing underside join to the engine nacelle area, which will need filling. Again, not a major issue as the nacelles fit snugly.

 

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So here is where she sits for tonight.

 

39554106722_fd1f4976d9_c.jpg

 

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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Evening all!

 

 I have been working on this over the past week but haven't had much worth taking pics of. 

 

 The first task completed was attaching the nacelles. they fit really well, with just a small area underneath needing filler - the same on both engines.

 

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Easily taken care of, and the seams were filled with a smidgeon of PPP.  The intakes on the left side of each engine were opened out with a round jeweler's file and attached, as were the underslung radiators and the front ends. I'm not worried about having props that turn so I glued the mounting pins to the back of the face plates so I can attach the props later.

 

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 The radiator covers were held in place and the lower part of the covers, which is part of the radiator piece, were filed down to match. They'll be blended in properly later.

Control surfaces were added and then all the seams were filled and tidied up.

 

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That left me with the part I'd least been looking forward to, finishing the cockpit! I decided to use the PE seatbelts, so those were fitted to the seats and the seats installed. I forgot to add the legs to the folding seat, and I can't get them in now, so it'll have to levitate!

After that, the bits that had been knocked off were reattached, and the final pieces, which weren't added previously because i knew I'd knock them off, were added! I also cut some tiny pieces of .020" rod and stuck them to the back of the instrument panels to represent the instruments. Here's how it all looks now.

 

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 The final job for today was to paint the insides of the canopy panels. There are quite a few bits that attach to the inside and I thought it would look odd to paint the interior colour only on the outside leaving a visual gap between the paint and the added parts. I therefore decided to paint just the large panels on the inside, making sure that I stopped the paint before the actual edge of the window to ensure that it wouldn't be seen through the adjacent windows (I hope that makes sense). When I paint the outside framework, I will first use the interior colour RLM66, then paint over with the exterior colours. That should give the full interior colour framework without any "steps".  I also added the large rib which runs across the upper canopy, just forward of the pilot's escape hatch, that is missing in the kit.

 

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Unfortunately, the side piece of the canopy is cracked, so I may get held up waiting for a replacement part from Airfix.......

 

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So that's where we stand as of this evening. Time for  beer!

'night all!

 

Ian

 

Edited by limeypilot
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17 minutes ago, hendie said:

agreed.

Do you need to wait for Airifx ?  couldn't you make that part from some clear packaging ?

Probably could, I've sent them an email anyway and I'll see what comes up. The issue I can see with making it would just be that it would be so much thinner than the rest and may not look right.

 

Ian

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On 1/14/2018 at 5:10 AM, Ed Russell said:

This is really good work. I think you will be able to see more than in most aircraft through that big clear nose.

This is worth bookmarking as a reference thread so I'll do it!

Thanks Ed, nice to know you think it's up reference standard - of course that could be "how not to"....

 

On 1/14/2018 at 6:52 AM, CedB said:

Excellent cockpit Ian, lovely work. :)

Thanks Ced, almost done with that part now...

 

On 1/14/2018 at 10:30 AM, Hamden said:

 

That cockpit look fantastic and the rest of the airframe is coming together nicely too 

 

  Roger

Cheers Roger. It's been a lot of work but as mentioned above, there's a lot of canopy to see through, so I think it's worth the effort.

 

So, what have I been up to since my last update?

 More cockpit work! 

 

I started on the upper canopy. The first thing I noticed was that the ridge moulded onto it for the instrument panel was too far forward, so that was removed. I then put the PE panel together, leaving out the kit part completely, and added very small pieces of rod to the back to represent the instruments. I didn't attempt to add all of them, just a few to busy it up a bit. The central wire trunking was also added.

 

39771748632_f05e648d75_k.jpg

 

Since I'd added the instruments, I couldn't exactly leave it bare behind the panel, so I stripped some wire out of an old something-or-other, painted it white, and CA'd it in place to represent the wiring harnesses running to the IP and down to the engine instruments by the pilot's left hand. The spare magazines could then be added just ahead of the panel, after first adding a small wedge of plastic strip to the PE part so that it sat at more of an angle.

 

39093415734_ab6e02ed32_k.jpg

 

PE added to the lower cockpit panels....

 

39093413934_852beb07ba_k.jpg

 

You'll notice I have used the part with the small crack. Airfix didn't have any replacements, and I think the cracked part will be less obtrusive than a much thinner replacement from packing material.

 

With that all done, I could attach the upper canopy!

 

39771747492_8a90b3f5c2_k.jpg

 

Unfortunately, it seems to be a little too wide!

 

39093418394_4c7da364fb_k.jpg

 

It's not the fuselage being wrong, as it fits fine at the front end! I managed to correct it to some extent by squeezing it and applying Plastic Weld very carefully along the seams, one at a time. It's a lot better now, especially on the left side, but I may still have to sand and micromesh it...we'll see......and I'm still not sure how I'm going to attach the ends of the wiring harness to the engine instruments either

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More great stuff Ian :)

That canopy fit is a pain but not uncommon in my experience (sadly). Micro-mesh might help but how about removing some plastic from the inner join if it's not too late? Not very helpful, sorry :)

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5 hours ago, CedB said:

More great stuff Ian :)

That canopy fit is a pain but not uncommon in my experience (sadly). Micro-mesh might help but how about removing some plastic from the inner join if it's not too late? Not very helpful, sorry :)

I checked on it before I went to bed last night and it was loose, so I got the Plastic Weld out again. A slight squeeze on each side and it's now almost perfect. Not quite sure what was going on, but the fit is fine now!

 

25943019958_3f32191757_k.jpg

 

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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coming together very nicely.  Re: the cracked transparency... legend has it that a few aircraft of the time were involved in a bit of a tiff so I'm sure at least one aircraft around that time flew with a cracked window - I'd count it as 'weathering'

Edited by hendie
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For some reason the forum software isn't letting me give any likes  to this thread but consider those last few updates well and truly liked Ian.

 

The whole cockpit region is a lesson in precision and detail.

 

Great to see you cracking on with soldering too!

 

Highly likeable. :thumbsup:

Tony

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Just caught up while cooking Sunday lunch. Wonderful work on this, the office is looking splendid, all the extra work you’re putting in paying off in spades. I must really try and pop in more often. Nice one Ian.

 

B) John.

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