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Heinkel He 111H-4 Night Bomber


Retired Bob

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Having given it some thought I have decided to enter a second build in this GB.  The original boxing of the 1/48th Monogram He 111 from the late 90s.  It's a lot simpler than the ICM kit, lots less parts but here is the box and contents along with a few extras that I have collected over those 20+ years that it has been in the stash.  The 4 grey sprues are in two plastic bags and the two clear sprues are separately bagged.

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I still need to get a canopy masking set for this and I have ordered some CMK resin bombs to replace the kit items.  No wonder the Germans had problems bombing targets over London, that box art work shows three Tower Bridges!  Must have been two decoys. :whistle:

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My CMK bombs arrived today, perfect timing.  I realised I had not included the Aires resin cockpit parts or the Eduard photo-etch in the start line up.  I have a choice of Eduard or True Details resin wheels, I'll paint them both up and see which looks best, in fact I'll do that for the cockpit parts, just in case of the usual fit or not of Aires parts.

IMG_1349

 

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Major parts all cut off the sprues and the wings glued together.  The engine nacelles look as if they are going to take a bit of work, simple compared to the ICM kit, just a left and right half, oil cooler on top and coolant radiator on the bottom and of course the front plate behind the spinner with the ring of holes, they need drilling out and I have P/E radiator inserts to improve their appearance.  Resin needs to have the pour stubs cut off but I hope to get some painting done tomorrow.

IMG_1351

Thanks for looking.

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5 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

Excellent  Bob I will be watching this. I have three of these kits. All bought before ICM appeared.

I also have another couple in the stash, but in Revell boxes.  It's not bad for it's age, the engraved panel lines are not bad, especially when you compare them to modern Airfix. :facepalm:  I have the resin parts to tart it up but to be honest it will not make that much difference in the end, it'll be the paint finish that will make it look good or neh!  It even has some panel lines and vents on the engine nacelles that ICM have missed off.

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On 7/25/2020 at 12:48 PM, Retired Bob said:

Must have been two decoys. 

Do you know where the dummy airfield was for Leeming?

Sorry, just thought I'd waffle on about summat else seeing as I can't see the pics or participate in the building yet.

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3 hours ago, Roger Newsome said:

Do you know where the dummy airfield was for Leeming?

Probably Bedale, did you ever see a film called "The Way to the Stars" one of those post war made, didn't we do well films made in B&W.  It featured A-20 Boston bombers and was filmed in Bedale/Northallerton, the Golden Lion in Northallerton was used as the officers watering hole as I recall, the airfield was supposed to be where the golf club is now and called Halfpenny Green, but the film did not show much about the aircraft or op's it was about the "human side" of war.

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While I'm faffing around with the cockpit painting and p/e parts, I'm still waiting for my canopy mask, package is on it's way.  I was trying to find out the colour of those big 1,000 kg bombs, I recall a pale blue on some weapons and I have also seen them in buff and black green well I found a photo that confirms my first thought:

Unexploded Luftwaffe bomb.

You do not want to find one of these when you are digging in your garden. :whistle:

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5 minutes ago, Mottlemaster said:

Is This the bomb called the Herman ? I would love to have one of these in my collection .

Yes, a less than flattering nick name because of Gorings size.  I'm using CMKs resin 1/48 bombs, or do you mean you want a real one?

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On 7/26/2020 at 8:00 PM, Retired Bob said:

Probably Bedale, did you ever see a film called "The Way to the Stars" one of those post war made, didn't we do well films made in B&W.  It featured A-20 Boston bombers and was filmed in Bedale/Northallerton, the Golden Lion in Northallerton was used as the officers watering hole as I recall, the airfield was supposed to be where the golf club is now and called Halfpenny Green, but the film did not show much about the aircraft or op's it was about the "human side" of war.

Seen that a couple times Bob. The airfield scenes were filmed at RAF Catterick, as it was then. 

The dummy airfield was on the east side of the A1, south of Leeming, almost opposite Burneston and there was a bombing range near Snape.

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15 minutes ago, Roger Newsome said:

The dummy airfield was on the east side of the A1, south of Leeming, almost opposite Burneston and there was a bombing range near Snape.

Strange really to have a dummy airfield, unless it was made quite early in the war.  When the bombing campaign got going there were so many airfields around here, you miss one and hit another.

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Dummy Airfields were very common, especially early in the war.  The use of decoys was continuous, but later in the war the lack of a daylight threat meant that much more attention was given to decoy fire sites to protect the cities.  There is an excellent book on the subject published by English Heritage.  If I get the chance tomorrow I'll dig it out and quote the proper title and author.  There are also other ones on AA Command, the anti-Diver campaign, and the creation of the radar network.

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10 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

 The use of decoys was continuous, but later in the war the lack of a daylight threat meant that much more attention was given to decoy fire sites to protect the cities.

A local historian used to make a weekly talk on radio Tees about historical facts of the area, one week he talked of the Luftwaffe attacks on the chemical plants on Teeside and that there was a large decoy site set up on the Yorkshire Moors to help protect that area.  A lot of the history of decoys has largely faded from memory, as other interesting aspects of the war have been.

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22 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

 A lot of the history of decoys has largely faded from memory, as other interesting aspects of the war have been.

That's precisely why English Heritage commissioned this series of books.  Not just the decoys sites but so much more of the architecture of war has been lost.  The outstanding example is of the guy who went looking at and listing the pillboxes in southern England, and discovered the existence of complete  well-organised lines of defences against the invasion of 1940.  I actually have a spare copy of the decoys book - blame it on old age!

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2 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

 I actually have a spare copy of the decoys book - blame it on old age!

Ha, I've nearly done that, I ordered a book I liked the look of, but something clicked in my mind, so I checked my bookcase and sure enough I already had it, luckily I was quick enough to cancel the order.  I remember seeing something on TV about the anti-invasion defence lines.  When I did my radar training at RAF Bawdsey back in 1972 the old Bawdsey Manor had been used for a lot of the radar development work and still had a wooden RDF tower, sadly that has gone and the underground bunker has been gutted and sealed.  I must revisit the Manor house and see what is in their museum.  I know that we cannot preserve all our past but just in my life time so much as disappeared or been bricked up.

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22 hours ago, Greg Law said:

Any further progress on this one?

There has been some, but it has been a case of one step forward and two steps back.  I cleaned up the wings and had to do some re-scribing, mainly along the wing leading edges. I then fitted the engine nacelles, lets just say the fit was not the best, I had to use some plastic card packing to fill the gaps and modelling chisels and files to remove the excess plastic so that there was a smooth join.  The engine nacelles are just hollow shells, open holes where the supercharger intakes go and after drilling out the ventilation holes at the front, under the spinner, so these needed filling.  I sprayed on a coat of black paint to check how it looked and there were still some things I was not happy with, so back to to filling and re-scribing.  It has not been helpful with the storms we have had this last week, everything but snow, and this weekend the temperature is expected to be well down on normal, just above freezing!  It's August and I have the heating on!  On the plus side, I have assembled the bombs and painted them.

IMG_1364

Thanks for looking.

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16 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

looking good Bob. I main asked is because I thinking of starting my He 111P in this Group build. This uses your kit with resin replacement engines. The fit of the engines aren't to bad.

The fit of the engines has been the the worst part so far but since you're replacing them that will not affect your build.  Since I took the last photo I have improved the fit of the bomb rack and to get the wings fitting better I have enlarged the holes where spars go to get some wiggle room and put some plastic strip to help align the lower wing surface with the fuselage.  Most of the black paint has been sanded away during the clean up and I will be spraying the undersides RLM65 first before adding  the "night" camouflage.

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11 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

Bob , if you have the room and live near Hull you may fancy this  

Thanks for the link, I could just see that in my front garden. :) I showed it to SWIMBO, not impressed  

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