Airfix Heinkel HE111 P-2 1/72

[BikingLampy]

For me, THE iconic German WWII bomber. The wing shape, the heavily glazed nose and plenty of guns sticking out in random places. I approached the kit with slight trepidation as it felt like it would be really easy to make a hash of the glazing and thereby make a complete gorbals of the whole thing. On the whole, I think I got away with it.

 

The majority of the model fell together quite nicely. The fuselage windows are rather too thick for their frames and needed sanding back (thanks @Heather Kay for the tutorial. Likewise the whole glazed nose is 2 or 3% too wide for the fuselage and leaves a noticeable step all round, but I really didn't feel up to THAT much high-risk sanding to try and correct it. The cockpit and radio bay got gussied up with an Eduard zoom kit to make it look a bit busier in there. It's fortunate Eduard supply spare teenytiny control levers, as there were a good few pingfuggit moments trying to install them.

 

Enjoy!

 

[modelling minion]

Excellent result on your Heinkel, very nicely built and painted and with some great details.

Very well done.

[Dr. Quack]

Agree - excellent. Glazing looks great - would scare the willies out of me. I love the Eduard etch bits too, though I find them fiddly in 1/48 let alone 1/72! 

Fine outcome sir.

Q

[Pete in a shed]

21 minutes ago, BikingLampy said:

THE iconic German WWII bomber.

Totally agree. I built the first Airfix 111 as soon as I was able. This later kit looks the bees knees. That's an awesome model you've produced.

Pete

[SafetyDad]

Great job!

 

Well done

 

SD

[RMCS]

Outstanding 

[Werdna]

Great work - well done..  

[Bigglesof266]

2 hours ago, BikingLampy said:

For me, THE iconic German WWII bomber. The wing shape, the heavily glazed nose and plenty of guns sticking out in random places.

 

Reading this with your accompanying images evoked a memory I wanted to share. But first, congratulations upon the finishing of such a nice model, especial kudos for doing so in 1/72 scale. Yesteryear of childhood loved the scale of course, but today wish as I might it weren't so, such is diminishing eyesight and dexterity accompanying age I find it so challenging as to become tantamount to tedious. 

 

I think we all have models in our mind's eye which hold a je ne sais quoi appeal to us individually, particularly so in childhood. For me it was Airfix's Ju 87B. Sold out every time I went to the suburban hobby shop as was, something else invariably got my three bob, so I never owned a kit of it in all that time either. Moving along to the He 111. Of all the level bombers tactical and strategic, its distinctive predatory aesthetic and symbolism in pretty much ever publication and film of the era representing the Luftwaffe rendered it the aircraft I wanted a kit of most.  Throughout the 1960s, in Australia it was pretty much a choice of Airfix or Airfix. One had to go "into town" for the scarcity of FROG where or when available. 

 

Being a Series 4 Airfix kit, on occasion I amassed sufficient funds to consider a He 111, when I got to the Hobby Shop taking into account what a rare treat/occasion such a Series 4 or greater kit was, impulse driven by a particular dislike of the Airfix model would invariably see me change my mind and spend on an equally iconic alternative, usually a Series 2 to stretch my pocket money. Airfix's Mosquito -"633 Squadron" at the Saturday matinee to blame for that one, and a Mitsubishi Ki-46 "Dinah" courtesy of Roy Cross' irresistible box art come prominently to mind. But even Roy Cross couldn't invoke me to buy that H-20 variant of the He 111. Why on earth did Airfix ever choose to model the H-20 variant?!!!!! That dorsal turret. Ugh!  Any Commando Comic imagery or early war suspension of disbelief destroyed. If it'd been a P-2 or even early H, undoubtedly I'd have bought, but that turret put me off every time. Similarly Airfix's Do 217E. I could never comprehend why Airfix chose at that time to model that and not the ubiquitous and iconic Do 17Z. Consequently, much as I lusted after both through my 1960s childhood, it wasn't until several years after the release of the Ju 88 A-4 at the inception of their 'rivet period' that Airfix finally got my money for the one of the three iconic German tactical bombers. Their Halifax, Wellington and Fortress had been the rare > Series 1 treats during that pocket money to be saved period.

 

In the first year/s of the 1970s, still all in 1/72 I did eventually end up with a Do 17Z (courtesy of Monogram if I recall accurately -times were a changing) along with a Ju 87 but a G-2 (?), along with other variants of iconic types such as the Bf 110G-4 and He 219 all courtesy of FROG as memory serves, but other life interests were to prevail before I got around to buying that Heinkel. It wasn't to be until almost 45 years later I acquired it when Revell released their reboxed Hasegawa H-6 in 1/72. Got there in the end, but too late for it to deliver the same kind of joy delighted in by childhood imagination. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Bigglesof266

[Tcoat]

Beautiful!

Both the model and the pictures. I only dream of getting pictures that good.

[gazza l]

That's mighty impressive for 1/72, could easily pass as 1/48th... nice one.

 

gazza l

[dogsbody]

That's a great looking Heinkel. Well done!

 

 

 

Chris

[kapam]

I'd say you didn't just get away with it - you totally nailed it!

This is definitely an iconic plane (and shame on me for never building one); and you really did it justice.

[kapam]

4 hours ago, Bigglesof266 said:

Got there in the end, but too late for it to deliver the same kind of joy delighted in by childhood imagination. 

Nice reminiscence @Bigglesof266!

Yes, here in Oz it was "Airfix or Airfix", with perhaps an occasional Revell or Frog offering, depending where you lived and shopped.

Things have come a long way since then, eh?

[Bigglesof266]

5 hours ago, kapam said:

Nice reminiscence @Bigglesof266!

Yes, here in Oz it was "Airfix or Airfix", with perhaps an occasional Revell or Frog offering, depending where you lived and shopped.

Things have come a long way since then, eh?

Thanks. IJMP sure has. But I wouldn't swap for those 1960s childhood yesterdays. Up until the very late 1960s, Airfix was it in my suburb (Chermside) where I did my hobby shop hanger browsing. A smattering of all boxed FROG appeared in TC Beirne stores in Fortitude Valley and the City in 1967 before just as promptly disappearing. The brand reappeared in new hanger and bag packaging in late 1970 early 1971.  A couple of years later, Matchbox plastic appeared. How spoilt for choice were we then compared to the 1960s! = ] Not sure when Revell started to retail here, but I don't ever recall seeing the brand until later. Like Monogram, Revell at that time was a product of US origin. Both were comparatively expensive and of very limited (restricted?) distribution until the UK lost interest in trade with Australia after acceptance into/ joining the European common market.  

[VolkerR.]

Excellent job. Great detail and very convincing finish.

[Duncan B]

Very nicely done

 

Duncan B

[Adam Poultney]

looks great! is this the modern tooling?

[BlueNosers352nd]

Nice build!  While I am not a Luftwaffe aircraft fan, they just don't peak my interest, the He-111 is one I could get into a build on.  Was watching BoB the other night and said I need to get me one of those.  Now to find a good 1/48 version.

[Tato]

Nice build! By far my favourite Luftwaffe bomber from WWII. So elegant in desing!

 

Great photos also!

 

Cheers

Tato

[Bigglesof266]

4 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

looks great! is this the modern tooling?

 

Yes. New tool Airfix, released in 2015. 

[BerndM]

Impressive build and well captured.

 

[Homer]

Fantastic looking model ,interior looks excellent, well done 👏

[F-32]

Superb build

[obdl3945]

That's a well-executed kit.  Weathering is excellent and you've got the splinter pattern absolutely perfect in its layout and presentation.

 

I had to fight with the side windows as well on my kit but as you'll perhaps know, the trick is to insert them, sand them flat and 'revive' them before painting.

 

My only slight criticism of Airfix with this kit is the arrangement of the nose transparencies.  I still think the Italeri '111' had by far and away the best looking and easiest to build/modify nose glazing albeit needing some careful re-alignment on the underside; their respresentation of a one-piece, superbly engineered central nose section is the ideal offering for me, as you don't/didn't have to be faffing around at the sides trying to align other transparent sections.  Their upper rear canopy section and separate nose turret was the best for nigh-on forty years prior to Airfix's new kit.  Hasegawa's was decent, but the canopy was too thick for my liking compared to the Italeri one and the fuselage seemed more akin to an expensive cigar, rather than the sleek, elegant lines of the Italeri model, which Airfix have also rendered very nicely.

 

Unlike Bigglesof266 above, I jumped at the chance of an He111 in the late 1960s, drooled over seeing a Revell version built up and on display in a toy shop when I was on holiday, happy as punch with the Matchbox version as it was an early 'H' variant, and absolutely spoilt with the Italeri kit on its arrival... happy memories.  The best '48' scale offering is, for me, undoubtedly ICM's range of '111' kits.

[Mig88]

That is simply OUTSTANDING!!!!

Well done!

 

Miguel