Heinkel He-111H-3 1H+FT

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This is one I should have photographed from the beginning but somehow just built instead.

 

On the 12th of July 1940, this Arado built He111H-3 of III Gruppe / Kampfgeschwader 26 departed Stavanger Sola and headed south west to bomb targets in the Firth of Forth area (that's the big river estuary near Edinburgh for non-British). Making landfall at Leuchars (which was possibly the actual intended target?) in Fife, it was intercepted by Spitfires from 603Sqn at 12:55hrs at 10,000ft and driven north.

 

 

The Heinkel reached Aberdeen at jettisoned its bomb load over the harbour area. These mostly landed on Hall Russell's ship yard and around the Footdee part of the city, killing several dozen civilians. The Neptune Bar (a grotty hole of a place, truth be told) was also hit!

 

Pursued still by the Spitfires and probably surprised by a barrage of anti-aircraft fire from trawlers in the harbour and, I believe, guns at the Torry Battery site? Either way the aircraft was shot down in flames (there were many eye witnesses) and crashed into the newly completed ice rink building in the Garthdee area of the city - right beside what is now "Anderson Drive".

 

One of the crew had evidently tried to bail out but his body was still half in the aircraft. Several crew members died, and were buried with military honours at the old Kirk cemetery which is about a mile north of Aberdeen's Dyce airport runway.

 

In the Luftwaffe Crash Archive book Volume 1 by Nigel Parker, there are several more photographs included. The aircraft is wrecked, but there is just enough to confirm what seems to be a typical RLM70/71 over 65 scheme, with the fuselage demarkation in the higher position seen on reference photos (i.e. from leading edge of tailplane straight to trailing edge of wing). A photo of the underside of one of the wings loaded on to a wagon to remove from the crash site shows the letter "T" in black beside the cross, thus informing that this particular aircraft had the full 1H FT under the wings, not just a large "F" under each wing as is often seen. Knowing that, and that it was from III Gruppe, I knew it was very likely 70/71 over 65, with full lettering underneath, that the KG.26 emblem would be a black lion on a yellow field and that the propeller spinners and letter "F" on the fuselage sides were RLM04. I did look for a while but never did find a photograph of the whole aircraft intact. Be that as it may, I have gone with what I do know to be true on 12th July 1940. If someone does produce a picture that proves me wrong, I can build it again maybe

 

The model itself is the old Revell 1/48 Heinkel He111H-6 kit which lived in my stash for many years. I understand this was one of the last toolings Monogram made and it has nice detail and nicely recessed panel lines. There were some moulding defects on the wing surfaces which needed some levelling, plus the usual sink marks in places and the fuselage was warped. This kit has a reputation for being a dog to build. Expectations suitably low, I found it better than I had prepared myself for it to be!

 

It has an Eduard PE set inside it dressing up the cockpit a bit. With so much glazing the cockpit on this does matter so I felt it was worth putting in a little bit of effort there. The rest is just OOB though. It's quite well known that the Revell H-6 isn't actually a H-6. I don't pretend to be very interested in German stuff generally but I believe the H-6 should have had broader chord propellers etc. Hence, what's in the box is really a H-4. Having little inclination to go OTT on research which invariably leads to wholesale disappointment with kits like this, I did try to find out what the differences were between a H-3 and a H-4. I can't tell the difference. I have seen photographs captioned as H-3s with and without the foward cabin windows glazed, and with and without the front of the gondola thing glazed. As I've no photographs of the specific subject aircraft intact, I decided I was bored with abortive searches and decided to build a model

 

I forgot to take any photographs along the way which is a pity. The cockpit is painted RLM66, and everything else inside is RLM02. The engine nacelles were a bit of a pain but a combination of trimming the wing fairings on the nacelles, and ramming some packing in between the top of the wheel wells and the bottom of the upper wing skin to spread them apart almost 1mm improved the fit hugely. They still needed a fair bit of time with filler and sanding sticks. Actually, most of the major joins needed filler, sanding and Olfa cutter remedial work!

 

To make things easier, I also bought an Eduard canopy mask set. It must have been a Friday afternoon job there though as a significant percentage of the individual masks were not for this kit and ended up being Tamiya tape cut with a scalpel - exactly what I hoped to avoid (because I hate masking glazings).

 

I enjoy playing with different toning effects. I know there are some I simply do not like, but I am always happy to try different things to see if I like each model better than the last. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. This one went ok I think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, here's where it becomes embarrassing. I *thought* I had this memorised and plowed on with decals and even posted this damned photo online, only for my buddy Stew to contact me quietly and very diplomatically point out that I was an absolute idiot for not having Luftwaffe Crash Archive Volume 1 open when I painted and applied the decals. Remember that demarkation line above and the 1H FT under the wings? Yep, got the BOTH wrong! Argh!

 

 

I could have left it at that point, but I'm me and frankly I'd sooner jump up and down on it that finish it with such a stupid mistake, let alone two such stupid mistakes! That then escalated a bit. Moving the demarkation upwards with carefully de-tacked Tamiya tape still pulled off all the lettering. The big "F" letters under the wings from the same decal sheet however were ab-so-flippin-lutely welded on. Typical!

 

Still, it's all done now though and I'm down to daft fiddly bits and some weathering to finish. The KG.26 emblems are on their way from a major US retailer. Occassionally we feel guilty taking a Friday off order processing. It took this outfit (which shall remain nameless - so don't ask) almost two weeks to get round to lifting the decal sheet off the shelf to post it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bbudde]

Very nice one. Great, clean job and an interesting background story on that. Cheers

Edited July 19, 2018 by bbudde

[Stew Dapple]

That's looking extremely nice mate

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Azgaron]

Very nice paint job! Looks great!

 

Håkan

 

[Martian]

Despite the problems you have made a very nice job of this.

 

Martian 👽

[Kev The Modeller]

Very, very nice the weathering is superb 

 

I'm looking for a He111 for my BB collection, how do you rate this kit? 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

18 minutes ago, Kev The Modeller said:

Very, very nice the weathering is superb 

 

I'm looking for a He111 for my BB collection, how do you rate this kit? 

 

I've still a bit to go. I think this kit has been ok and if you have one I'd build it. If you don't have one then I would expect that ICM's very recent H-3 kit is probably the better Heinkel He111 kit overall and very likely the better BoB Heinkel in particular. The Revell kit doesn't have any decals for a BoB era He111 for starters!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I've added most of the fiddly bits now. I need to wait until the KG26 emblems arrive before I finish this off with aerial rigging and weathering, but it's mostly Heinkel shaped now.

 

 

 

[Mattlow]

Very nice.

 

The careful canopy masking has paid off handsomely.

 

Matt

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

10 hours ago, Mattlow said:

Very nice.

 

The careful canopy masking has paid off handsomely.

 

Matt

Thanks Matt!

 

I have a hate/hate relationship with canopy glazings. I hate masking them, and I hate it when they're untidy (and mine always are if you look close enough)!

[Sea]

Looking good. Once you have done the weathering it will look excellent I'm sure. I have three of these kits. I was going to do a torpedo version that attacked the Russian convoys. However, I think I will get the ICM H-6. That way the props will be right. The ICM kits are really good. I have the H-3 which will be built very soon. I might do one of the older kits as a blitz bomber.

Did you know that if you built all the planes that were used on both sides during BOB you would have more than forty models. Also that doesn't include every varient.

[Roger Newsome]

Very nice work on the model Jamie and the background story is very interesting. I must have been passed the Neptune hundreds of times on the way to and from ships and had no idea. 

[fubar57]

Very nice and love the story.

 

 

 

 

George

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

More or less finished. I won't lie, I'm not happy with it. I thought I'd try Windsor & Newton's water based "oil" paint substitutes but didn't really get on with them. If I'm completely honest I checked-out of this one when I realised my marking errors and it's just been a desire to get rid of it. German stuff is always at a disadvantage from the outset in trying to hold my attention - it really isn't my genre. Sadly the shelf of doom is full!!

 

It still needs the antenna added, but I can't find my open reel of Infini rigging line. I've got a feeling I gave it to someone at a trade show with the intention of taking a replacement from the next restock, which I haven't done. Anyway - bored with this one now.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sea]

Sad you are not happy with it. Did the wash loose contrast between the greens on the top scheme or is that just the photo? Other than that it looks a really nice build to me.

 

Greg Law

Edited August 4, 2018 by Sea

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Greg, the low contrast between RLM70 and 71 is intentional - on most models it's grossly overdone.

 

The wash however seemed to have the reverse effect to that which I wanted. It applied fine but seems to dry too fast. Upon wiping off it lifted completely out of all the recessed detail and dried onto the large panel areas in between staining them darker. To darken control surface hinge lines it needed to be applied with an acupuncture needle. I probably wont use them again, or at least not without off-model experimentation.

[Stew Dapple]

I understand that feeling well enough, but notwithstanding: I'd be happy with that build.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Sea]

I understand the feeling when you on the final phase of a model and something like that goes wrong. I'm sure you will sort it. Now days I simply put it aside and then go back to it when I've got past the disappointment. Good luck with it. I still think it is a very good model from the photos.

Greg Law

Edited August 5, 2018 by Sea

[corsaircorp]

2 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Hi Greg, the low contrast between RLM70 and 71 is intentional - on most models it's grossly overdone.

 

The wash however seemed to have the reverse effect to that which I wanted. It applied fine but seems to dry too fast. Upon wiping off it lifted completely out of all the recessed detail and dried onto the large panel areas in between staining them darker. To darken control surface hinge lines it needed to be applied with an acupuncture needle. I probably wont use them again, or at least not without off-model experimentation.

Hello Jamie,

Do not be so rude over yourself, that's a great kit and you've done her justice...

Now, I won't blame you since I do exactly the same thing !!

For the weathering, I became a great fan of Flory washes, very easy to use, and then if you messed up, a moisturized cloth and youpla !! cleaned up thoroughly !

However, I still use these "good" old oil paint and thurpentine for exhaust stains as an example !

I really love your He 111 !

Wilco for the ICM kits, I don't have any He 111 in my attic... Yet....

I also understand that sense of boredom at the time of finishing a kit...

That's also one of the reason for which I start so much kits 

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

 

53 minutes ago, Sea said:

I understand the feeling when you on the final phase of a model and something like that goes wrong. I'm sure you will sort it. Now days I simply put it aside and then go back to it when I've got past the disappointment. Good luck with it. I still think it is a very good model from the photos.

Greg Law

Seconded !!

CC