Italeri 1/72 Heinkel He111

[Eric Mc]

 

 

Yes - I know I've got loads of unfinished projects on the go but....what the hell!

Having got a bit tired of concentrating on airliners over the past few months (I did manage to finish one - so I'm not feeling too guilty), I thought a World War 2 subject might be in order.

Ever since I saw the film "Battle of Britain" in the cinema way back in 1969 I have always wanted to build a model of the He111. I've had the Italeri kit in the stash since the mid 1990s and I've taken the contents out of the box a number of times. I'd even made a tentative start on painting the interior - the wrong colour as it turned out. So, I pulled the kit from the stash - again - determined this time to get a good run at it.

The kit is not bad for the time it was first issued (mid 1970s) but, as was normal back then, it has raised rather than recessed panel lines. By modern standards, the cockpit interior is basic but reasonable. There is no other interior detail e.g - no bomb bay or gunner positions. In more recent times we have had two modern moulds of the He 111 from Hasegawa/Revell and Airfix and they are no doubt better kits but this one is still worth looking at.

First task was to correct the interior colour and then start on the actual construction. I've put the fairly simple cockpit interior together and added the small windows to the fuselage and gunners ventral gondola. Next up will be poking the waist guns through their apertures before joining the two halves together. I am a bit apprehensive about this because it means that the machine gun barrels will be poking out of those side windows for the rest of the build. Not an ideal situation as it is almost guaranteed that they will snap off at some point during proceedings.

Here's some pictures to show the basics of what's in the kit. I have a set of decals from the old FROG kit of the He111 which I attempted to use rather than what came with the kit. Considering they must be almost 50 years old, they are in surprisingly good shape, with no obvious yellowing. I haven't got a clue as to how I acquired these as I never bought the FROG kit.

What I need to find are some colour painting guides for the FROG kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've had this book for quite a few years in anticipation of building an He111.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

10 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

 

 

Yes - I know I've got loads of unfinished projects on the go but....what the hell!

Having got a bit tired of concentrating on airliners over the past few months (I did manage to finish one - so I'm not feeling too guilty), I thought a World War 2 subject might be in order.

Ever since I saw the film "Battle of Britain" in the cinema way back in 1969 I have always wanted to build a model of the He111. I've had the Italeri kit in the stash since the mid 1990s and I've taken the contents out of the box a number of times. I'd even made a tentative start on painting the interior - the wrong colour as it turned out. So, I pulled the kit from the stash - again - determined this time to get a good run at it.

The kit is not bad for the time it was first issued (mid 1970s) but, as was normal back then, it has raised rather than recessed panel lines. By modern standards, the cockpit interior is basic but reasonable. There is no other interior detail e.g - no bomb bay or gunner positions. In more recent times we have had two modern moulds of the He 111 from Hasegawa/Revell and Airfix and they are no doubt better kits but this one is still worth looking at.

First task was to correct the interior colour and then start on the actual construction. I've put the fairly simple cockpit interior together and added the small windows to the fuselage and gunners ventral gondola. Next up will be poking the waist guns through their apertures before joining the two halves together. I am a bit apprehensive about this because it means that the machine gun barrels will be poking out of those side windows for the rest of the build. Not an ideal situation as it is almost guaranteed that they will snap off at some point during proceedings.

Here's some pictures to show the basics of what's in the kit. I have a set of decals from the old FROG kit of the He111 which I attempted to use rather than what came with the kit. Considering they must be almost 50 years old, they are in surprisingly good shape, with no obvious yellowing. I haven't got a clue as to how I acquired these as I never bought the FROG kit.

What I need to find are some colour painting guides for the FROG kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've had this book for quite a few years in anticipation of building an He111.

 

Looking forward to this!

[Eric Mc]

And I eventually found a picture of the painting guide for the FROG He111 which I have now downloaded and saved to my build file.

[wombat]

Built this with my dad 30+ years ago though I seem to recall green plastic

[Planebuilder62]

Dear Eric

Take a peek into last year’s He 111 GB for some tips. The wing to fueslage join needs some work and buy an Eduard masking set for all of the windows.

 

regards Toby

[John]

Absolutely one of my all time favourite kits. I bought my first one with money I got for passing all my Ordinary Grade exams in the Summer of 1977, when it was pretty much brand new and by far the best He111 out there. 

I've built it several times since, both Italeri and Revell Italeri boxings and I have exactly the same one as you're building here in the stash. 

The guns in particular are very nicely moulded, and have armed quite a few other Luftwafffe models over the years. 

The only construction issue I've ever found is that the wings are a bit shallower than the corresponding roots on the fuselage. They need a bit of filling on the bottom. 

John 

[Eric Mc]

Thanks above for highlighting some of the pitfalls. I'll keep an eye out for these issues during the build.

 

I've had the Eduard mask set for quite a while as the thoughts of trying to make my own masks for the nose transparency was just too daunting. 

[Eric Mc]

Been making some progress. I've got the fuselage and wings assembled plus the cockpit interior - which has not yet been inserted. I've also masked up most of the transparencies. I used the Eduard masking set which is specific for this kit and it was worth every penny. The main nose transparency on its own has over 22 clear panels that need to be masked.

Having to insert the fuselage waist guns before adding the fuselage windows is fraught with danger - I've already snapped one of the guns. I fully expect that the other may suffer the same fate as a fair amount of handling of the model will be needed as the construction and painting continues.
As previously warned, the most serious problem encountered was the fuselage to wing joints - which are distinctly stepped on the underside. These needed a lot of filler and sending to ensure the lower part of the wings blended smoothly to the fuselage.

 

 

 

 

[Planebuilder62]

Hi Eric

120 grade sand paper works wonders for removing the steps where the wings join the fuselage undernath.

 

regards Toby

[Eric Mc]

All the sanding has been done for now. I used various grades and sizes of Flory sanding sticks. I'm sure when I get to the priming stages I'll find that some more sanding will be required.