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Airfix Heinkel 111 - finished! (only a couple of pics)


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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:

IMG_4229_zpsf4afe155.jpg

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:

IMG_4415_zps5fdc7265.jpg


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:

IMG_4414_zps9015df75.jpg

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:

IMG_4418_zps7b7423d8.jpg

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:

IMG_4423_zpsd9114391.jpg

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

Edited by AdrianMF
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Hello All,

Back home and a bit more progress. I cut and opened the radiator flaps and started on the exhausts. One down, three to go:

imagejpg1_zps781c2ad3.jpg

You can see the bomb sight fairing, last seen as a balsa wood fragment, has been added under the cockpit. I should really have done the flaps before weathering but somehow I forgot...

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Hello All,

A full set of exhausts from plastic tube with aluminium tape. And I've started the undercarriage. I thickened the wheels by 1.5 mm, scratched in some tread, added a wire rim to the hub and trimmed down the doughnut above the oleo covers. There will be more structure and more detailing.

imagejpg1_zps2206c8bd.jpg

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Hello All,

The kit propellers are intended to represent a later model than the H-1, so I needed new ones. The blades I moulded from a wooden master, and the spinners remained a problem because the kit spinner is too small. So, out with the 9mm dowel and the trusty Black'n'Decker:

imagejpg1_zps4a3b94dc.jpg

I turned a few, all subtly different, so I belatedly made a template:

imagejpg3_zps4af65b5b.jpg

And started hitting the mark:

imagejpg2_zps21dfa668.jpg

Spinner fits, now for some prop blades!

imagejpg4_zps9fa7077d.jpg

This process has given me quite a lot of sympathy for kit manufacturers whose spinners are pronounced "slightly off"! They are very subtle shapes and hard to get, especially in 1/72.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Superb detailing and improving.

an idea for marking out the positions for the three blades; use a hex nut on the back of the spinner. One point for first position, skip next point round then the next is no.2, skip one then next point is no.3 position.

[i use this way to put three feathers on an arrow when fletching, gets them all 120 degrees apart easily]

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I am glad you have picked up on this one as what you have been doing to this dog of a kit is quite amazing!

Martin

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Just one more update for today. Undercarriage is detailed, painted and ready to plug in - note I've labelled the sides since it's level one way and not the other! The doors have some fairings on the front made from puckered Solartrim (still my favourite new modelling product!), with the pucker filled with a drop of superglue to make it durable. The doors need a top coat and some weathering. The thingey floating above it all is the upper gunner's chair with gun mount, sling chair and seat belts, from plastic rod and strip, wire and wine bottle foil. This is under coated but not painted yet.

imagejpg1_zpsb389a1e6.jpg

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Surely the spinners are birch rather than balsa?

Well, yes, but there's balsa further up the thread! I don't think balsa would survive turning like that...

Just before heading off to work this morning I couldn't resist a couple of jobs. Fixing the now-painted exhausts:

imagejpg1_zps9d929fb0.jpg

And fixing and masking the gondola glazing:

imagejpg2_zps089aa970.jpg

The gondola glazing will get a coat of RLM02 before a bit of filler to blend it in. I will add the round window with its frame and gun at the end to avoid accidents!

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Thanks for the supportive comments! I am trying to wrap it up this week so it will finally be off the workbench after 4 years. Then I can decide where to store it...

... an idea for marking out the positions for the three blades; use a hex nut on the back of the spinner. One point for first position, skip next point round then the next is no.2, skip one then next point is no.3 position.

[i use this way to put three feathers on an arrow when fletching, gets them all 120 degrees apart easily]

Thanks for the tip. I have a board with a hole in it and some lines drawn out at the appropriate angles (I've never used the five-blade angles!), which gives me something to rest the drill on to keep the blade holes true. But your note got me thinking. This wouldn't work for me, but it might for you: my B+D drill chuck has three prongs to hold the drill in place, evenly spaced. When I tighten it up on my dowel, I get three parallel grooves on the wood, machine spaced at 120 degrees apart. I could imagine doing a little saw cut along each groove and dropping a feather ("fletch"?) in quite easily. Of course if you need them twisted for a rifling effect then this wouldn't help.

Regards,

Adrian

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What is balsa ?

(joke, I know it is a very hard metal)

You're doing a great job to a 53 year-old veteran. When you finish her up, don't forget that the Ps and early Hs (with MG 15 capability only in the A turret) had a different, slightly more domed, A turret glazing.

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Thanks for the info. I've yet to vac form the A stand glazing. I keep hoping I will find a suitable piece of packaging at my local supermarket to save me the trouble!

I use balsa quite a lot. It's easy to carve and sand, and it's also quick and easy to finish the surface using superglue as a sealer instead of dope/talc. And hardwood works well for struts and propellers, where you need a little more strength or precision than you can get with balsa.

Regards,

Adrian

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Tiny update:

imagejpg1_zpsda367557.jpg

Undercarriage done, wing tips level, little fairing thingeys on the front of the doors seem to have worked and the under gunner's windows are all done (apart from the gun mount)

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello All,

Finally.

I have finished the Airfix Heinkel 111. This started in 2010, after buying it on impulse for £7 at the Cosford model show. I've substantially changed or scratch-built nearly every part - as usual no photo-etch or resin was harmed (apart from my own castings).

I had an extremely bad experience with brush-painting new Humbrol enamels (specifically the RLM 70 and 71), so much so that I have switched to acrylics after 40-odd years of solvent abuse! Because there is such a mix of materials in there I didn't dare strip it back, so unfortunately it has been pretty much ruined by the final finish.

That said, the RLM 70 and 71 are nice and dark, with low contrast between them, which matches up with many early-war written reports.

So here's a quick couple of pictures taken in the semi-darkness that passed for a British summer this morning, more to come when I get some decent lighting:

Improved_IMG_4479_zpsb543aae4.jpg

Improved_IMG_4470_zps7fcec446.jpg

The scheme represents the "Humbie Heinkel", which was shot down in October 1939, story here.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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