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Hello All, A few years ago, just after I got back into the hobby, I picked up an Airfix Heinkel 111 for way less than a tenner at a model show. I started accurizing and backdating to an H-1, but it ended up on the Shelf Of Doom when I realised I wasn't really ready for a project that big. I got it back off the shelf for the Obsolete Kit group build here, where I made some progress, and then carried on in the KUTA VI group build here. I'm still working on it in the background, so that I can have it done before the next KUTA comes around! So, so far we have: * Added inserts to bring the fuselage back to profile * Added all the fuselage glazing * Detailed inside and the cockpit * Added wheel wells * Vacformed all the transparencies * Scribed everything * Scratch built new engine cowlings, scoops and radiators * Corrected the tailplanes and fin * Relocated the wings on the fuselage * Started painting Painting is where I started losing the will to live. The new Humbrol "Made in Britain" enamels for the RLM colours are horrible to brush (I've heard they spray quite well) and come out very transparent, and so after trying a couple of coats of them, I tried the White Ensign enamels. These too are hard to brush and I didn't like the gloss finish. So I mixed up my last "old" Hu 116 with a touch of red, and painted two coats of that over the top to get a body coat of more or less the right colour, followed by a thin coats of Humbrol RLM 71 and 70 over the top for the splinter pattern. Undersides were done in drama-free old-school Humbrol 65. I did quite a lot of sanding between coats to get rid of brush marks and smears and dribbles. The upshot is that my panel line scribing is no longer too deep, indeed it's hardly visible in places! I had chosen to do the "Humbie Heinkel", an H-1 which was the first plane to be shot down on British soil in WW2. I was going to make my own decals but I found an AIMS sheet with them on. However, the decals didn't seem to want to play: So I ended up making my own. I used dimensions taken from photos of the actual plane rather than applying the formulae for cross and border widths, and came up with these: I ended up re-doing all the crosses. You can see the atrocious brushed paintwork (and fingerprints on the decals) too. The AIMS decals were a mixed bag for me. The crosses were all a nightmare (out of register, broke up, all replaced in the end), the two-part shield and swastika (separate black and white layers) were great and the code letters needed a lot of work to get rid of silvering even though they were applied in a puddle of Future. After Futuring, light weathering and matt varnishing the whole thing I have turned my attention to the snagging list of tiny parts to finish. I wasn't happy with my radiators, so I re-shaped the opening and sanded them to make them a bit more angular: The propellers in the kit are for the later, smaller diameter wooden propeller introduced on the H-6. The blades and spinner are undernourished, and the blades are too short, so I had to make myself a new blade, making allowances for foreshortening: I was going to use the kit undercarriage doors originally, but in dry fitting the undercarriage to get an idea of the final ride height I decided I needed to make something more realistic. I carved a quick wooden master for the nacelle underside and moulded myself some new ones. You can see the difference! I also cast myself a set of resin blades and some spares: The teeny-tiny fleck of balsa is the bomb sight fairing for under the nose. Now I know why I do so many small single-engine models! Spinners, undercarriage, guns'n'stuff next when I get back from my next work trip. Thanks for looking, Adrian