Airfix Heinkel He 111 H 20 1/72 rebuild

[BlobMan]

Hi all

 

This is actually something I started a few weeks back but shushhhhhhhh

 

When I was but a young lad (actually I'm still pretty young but I was younger then) I made an Airfix He 111. It was actually a project I did with my dad, we both somehow had one and we both made them at the same time. His was obviously better, mostly because I was like 11. One day a few weeks back I was fed up with aftermarket stuff on a 1/35 sherman I'm doing and the Heinkel caught my eye, looking at it now it's a really bad kit so I thought to myself "I can do better than this." So here we are, I'm taking it apart and redoing it.

 

These are just some pictures of what it looked like before I started. 

TERRIBLE MODEL AHEAD!!!! VIEW AT OWN RISK!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the immediate obvious problems are the spinners sticking way to far out (i guess i wanted to make sure they would spin), the seam lines, the joins at the wing roots and the clear pieces. Luckily I have spares.

Enter my dad's model.

 

 

Luckily for me, his one has the lower turret clear piece and the his canopies are in decent condition. Don't tell him I took them

 

 

This is the extent of deconstruction including the bits I stole from me dad's one, and I may as well talk about what I want to achieve for this kit. As I was talking about before, I'm a bit fed up with aftermarket stuff so I'm just gonna do everything myself. I'm also not to concerned about accuracy so rivet counters might want to give this one a miss. As a final goal, I want to practise and improve my airbrush painting skills. So let's get going, first up cleaning up the outside.

 

 

The paint on the outside surfaces is awful and there are brush strokes everywhere. They aren't super visible because of the brush strokes but there are also raised panel lines. So sanding time.

 

 

I marked where I plan on cutting panel lines in red pen based on what was previously there.

 

 

Then I cut the lines and primed the pieces to get rid of the excess red and make mistakes easier to see and fix. I'm still yet to cut the lines on one half of the fuselage and sand/cut the tail planes.

 

 

I also glued the wings together with the ailerons and the cowling in place and made sure to hollow out the air intakes with my dremel.

 

Next up, interiors.

 

 

The kits interior is, well, terrible. It's a seat, a yoke, a wall and two figures. The mid section of the fuselage is literally empty. 

 

 

I started by doing the vertical struts in the back of the fuselage and then the mid section, I also did a door between the bomb bay and mid section, It's a two piece assembly so it was easier to make and then glue onto each side. I also started on a rudimentary floor for above the bathtub section but I scraped that to make a better one. It's important to note that one you can't see much through the openings and two the clear pieces are really foggy so you can't see much, because of this I don't need or want to do much past the general shape of the interior. 

 

 

I ripped out the first floor in favour of a better one and started re doing the struts in the mid section. The next step is to add the horizontal struts and the other wall pieces then paint and assembly.

 

That's just about all I've done so far, I'll try to post stuff as often as possible.

 

Thanks for reading. 

All comments, feedback and criticism welcome. 

[Brandy]

Always nice to see an old build given some TLC. It also helps us to see how much our skills have (hopefully) improved over the years!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

Good old-fashioned modelling! Pulling up a chair...

 

(Mind you, in those days, if a kit had a floor, chair, stick AND a  bulkhead, me and my chums would be going "oooh, fancy!")

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Timmas]

That looks like a lot of fun, and brings back many memories. I haven't kept any of the kits I built as a lad but your's looks just like I remember mine; all brush painted and with no canopy detailing. It looks like it fitted together reasonably well though...either that or you were / are a much better modeller than me!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's done 🙂

[BlobMan]

10 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

(Mind you, in those days, if a kit had a floor, chair, stick AND a  bulkhead, me and my chums would be going "oooh, fancy!")

How far we've come.

[BlobMan]

Hi lads

 

I'll start off with stuff I forgot to put in the OP.

 

I masked the canopy and other clear piece freehand with some masking tape and references. (im not sure how im gonna do the round bit at the front but i think ill just use masking fluid)

 

 

And I made the cylinder for the dorsal turret hollow, previously it had a floor which I decided I didn't like.

 

 

That's it for corrections, on with the stuff I did today.

 

I finished the interior walls and glued the floors in properly. I think that's all I'm gonna do for the fuselage.

 

 

 

 

I also started work on the cockpit, it's pretty simple so far but I think I can make something nice out of it.

 

 

I was digging around in my spares draw and found a few interesting things. First a better pilot figure than the kit has and second some decals.

 

(i think he might be a spitfire pilot but don't tell the jerries that)

I know they're RAF markings but the 1/72 bits of text should be useful for adding detail.

 

While I was talking to my mum about this she mentioned she might have saved some from the bin a few years ago and low and behold they're german!

 

 

They're a Bf 110 but I should still be able to use the balkenkreuz. 

Speaking of markings I was thinking about what scheme I should paint it. I like this one but it's only one side, while I could have a decent guess at what the top, bottom and other side look like it would be nice to know for sure. If any of you chaps know some better shots of this scheme it would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

That's all for today,

tune in next time to see my lack luster modeling skills!

 

(many thanks for the nice comments)