COMPLETED - Revell 1/32 Heinkel He 111 P-1 WIP

Finally, an update on my progress.  I have spent most of this week addressing seams and masking windows.  Luftwaffe bombers and reconn warbirds typically had a lot of windows, and the one-eleven certainly does not come up short in that department.

For the masking, I really wanted to get the mask set but just could not find room for that in the budget.  So out came the Tamiya tape, an XACTO knife, a self-healing cutting mat and a lot of patience.  I was usually able to lay down a piece of tap over a window to mask, run a flat edge to rub into the tape the outline of the window, then put the tape on the mat and carefully cut with the knife using a straight edge as a guide.  When that didn't work due to curvature, I had to use multiple pieces of tape to approximate the curves. This is a painful exercise that I do not recommend.  

Various photos of the masked canopies.

For the nose turret, I elected to just mask the entire thing except the ring around the base of the part.  The four pieces of framing are far too thin to properly mask but I figure I can paint them free-hand.

I will next mask the interior of these windows then lay down a coat of RLM02 to depict the interior framing color.

I am moderately pleased with the number of seams in this kit.  There are a few but given the size of this beast there are not nearly as many as there could have been.  And some very well may be a result of builder error.

I am happy with the thin seams that I have here.  They should disappear nicely under the coming painting session.  As I noted in an earlier post, there was a major issue with the alignment of the outer to inner wing panels on the underside.  I filled in the gap but the mis-alignment is still clearly visible.  Short of pulling all of that apart and trying to force alignment via installing some kind of wing spar - which I am not really wanting to do as this kit is not going into any kind of model competition - I am just going to leave it as is.

Photos of my seam work.

I went ahead and finished constructing the bombs.

Finally, my one disaster that is related to the size of this beast.  As I was maneuvering the big boy from front to back to start working on the seam on the rear of the fuselage, I brushed one of the trailing ailerons against my chest and snapped it off.  There is damage to the part that holds it in place - there are small rods on the aileron designed to slide into the protruding hinges on the main stabilizer that are broken off.  I have elected to leave these parts off until I have painted that section of the one-eleven, then I will re-install them and glue them into place.  I am also going to glue the rudder into place once I install the actuator pieces.

After church and lunch with my family, I had no other responsibilities or honey-do's so it was off to the work bench.  I was there long enough to watch both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Blade Runner while working on the one-eleven.  I have made such progress that I expect to start painting next time I find myself at the bench.

Gondola.  I only found one photo of the interior of the gondola, featuring a black probably vinyl pad on the floor.  I am certain the photograph was not WWII-era.  The kit features molded in detailing of what looks like it would be floor padding.  Makes sense in that there is a gunner laying down there to man the MG15 machine gun.  I imagine the padding offered a very bare amount of comfort, ie, not really any, for the guy laying there.  I painted the padding leather brown and installed a rack of MG15 ammo cases.  I have elected to not install any of the MG15's until almost the very end of the build to prevent breakage.  (And on that note, I noticed that I had used all the ammo cases throughout the aircraft, leaving none to actually mount on the MG15's.  Argh.  Plus, the MG15's are not this kit's strong point at all - the barrels look awful - so I broke my limited budget and found the Aires resin set on eBay for about $20.  I expect the MG15's to look pretty good based on the level of detail I see in the Aires set).

Instrumentation.  I am impressed with the decal for the IP bezel faces.  The decal matches very well with the references I have found on-line, down to a couple of bezels with a red ring.  I also elected to install some wiring for the instruments.  There are photos showing a bundle of wires coming from the back of the main IP through a slot between the IP and the "roof" of the canopy (metal portion) and routing to the port side of the aircraft into an internal bulkhead, where presumably it snakes back into the aircraft).  There is another minor IP located above and to the right of the pilot's seat.  I added a single wire to this piece and routed it toward the primary wire bundle described above.  I don't have any photos of all of this installed as it is impossible to focus into the cockpit through the one open window.  Peering in, I am moderately happy with that work, but ultimately I don't believe it will even be visible once I get all the window masking removed.  If it is, then I will be pleasantly surprised.

The bomb site.  I painted the knobs and installed as per the instructions, then discovered that its presence made for a tight fit when installing the canopy.  The bomb site fits under the wooden deck that the bombardier lays upon, and of course I had already glued that part into place.  I did some test fitting and verified that I could get the canopy attached but I had to hold it in place for a few minutes to ensure that it stayed attached.

This shot reveals that I need to spray more RLM02 to cover some that lifted under some tape I put on to help keep the canopy in place.

As I said earlier, I expect to start painting next time I get to work on the one-eleven.  I will start that with a pre-shading session.  In preparation for this, I used some tack to put the bomb bay doors and primary gear doors into place temporarily, which will help with painting those parts and serve as a mask for the already-completed portions underneath those parts.

I need some advice regarding paint masking.

My typical approach has been to lay down the lightest color first, usually the underside.  In this case Hellblau RLM65.  I then put down a generous coating of Future floor polish to seal the paint in.  Then I will start masking if necessary, typically when I am trying to get a hard demarcation line.

So this is the process I followed on this build, with this result:

The paint is Model Master Acryl.  I am using Tamiya tape to do the masking.  I put the coat of Future on more than 24 hours ago, so that should have been sufficient time to properly cure.  The weather is surprisingly not humid here in SE Texas currently.  I did not apply a primer coat.  Perhaps that is the problem?

Should I coat several times with Future and let that cure properly?  I have never had an issue with Tamiya tape; I have also used Scotch painter's tape for delicate surfaces #2080 in the past, and don't recall having any issues with paint lifting.  I just tried a Post-It note and see that it also lifted a sliver of paint as well.

Any ideas on what might be going wrong here?

It is the end of an up-and-down week.  I started by masking everything.  Even after the paint pull-up shown in an above post, I thought I had a solution by simply removing as much of the tack from the Tamiya tape as I could with my shirt.

But that did not work.  I re-discovered the problem with Model Master Acryl paint not playing well with masking tape.  Next time I will remember to PRIME the model before I do anything else!

Today I was able to fix the paint lift issues I encountered last night.  Instead of using any tape, I used a piece of thin cardboard to act as a mask that I positioned by hand while spraying the AB with the other.  Very tedious but I think it turned out well.

Now she is sitting on the workbench with a coat of Future curing.  Next step is to decal this beast - and there are a lot of them.

I feel your pain with the pain't, glad you overcame. I always prime and then airbrush a 1:1 ratio at 10-15PSI, any more or less I get bad results, I try to use blue tac whenever possible and let the paint fully cure. Seems to be a pretty good method for me. Keep up the great work. I'm picturing the scene in Battle Of Britain when the Spitfires intercepted the -111s without fighter escort, my favorite part. 

Looking great! I use MM acrylics and initially I had a lot of problems with paint pull off.  I tried numerous primers with an occasional success. Also tried differerent thinners from water to alcohol to windex. I had a great deal of plugging issues in my airbrush. I finally gave in and use the aztek thinners. Haven't had problems since.  However I found out today that my go to primer, Homeshades is no longer carried at walmart.  I've had good luck with the gray krylon primer but it's so dark that pre-shading doesn't work

Just to add my little 2 cents....De-tacking tape needs to be done on your skin. This imparts the bodily oils to the tape thus de-tacking it.  You're asking for trouble doing this on your shirt as the fuzz from the material sticks to the tape.  Just don't do it on your hairy legs....OUCH !  I use the palm of my hand and have not had any problems with MM paint pulling up.

Today I got started decaling this big bird. There are a lot of them. I did about half of them then called it a day. And thanks to 7474 for the suggestion of watching Battle of Britain. I happen to have that movie in my library, so I popped it into the DVD player and enjoyed that film immensely. Seemed historically accurate, at least regarding the general sequence of how the battle unfolded. Loved seeing all those real Spitfires, Hurricanes, Messerschmitts and Heinkels, even though those latter two were Spanish-built and not technically accurate for 1940.

Has been a good day.  Lots of bad weather in Houston, flooding all around although not directly where I live, schools closed, so I had the daughter home while my wife went to work today.  Took her to see the live-action Jungle Book movie (really good, especially Bill Murray as the bear).  Then I found out that I have been scheduled for a telephone screening interview with a company that I have applied to.  In addition, I have managed to squeeze a lot of time in at the bench.  So yeah, a good day.

I shall catch us up on some photographs.

Here are some of the last-to-install parts drying on the paint "rack".  Included are prop spinners and blades, primary tires and the antenna mast.

Next up are the exhaust stacks.  These had to be installed prior to closing up the nacelles. I had painted the stacks burnt metal before hand, but noticed many photos of completed builds where the stacks are actually a rust color.  Given that I did not have that particular color on hand, I opted to mix my own, a combination of flat black, red and brown red.  I will likely weather these stacks later with a dry brushing of burnt metal.

Next I did the dirt wash across the entire airframe, starting with the underside.  This took a good bit of time considering how much space this thing occupies on my workbench.  I used Flory Dark Dirt for the wash, then cleaned up with a dampened soft rag after giving the wash a bit of time to dry.  I repeated the process once I got home from the movie for the top side.  Even with a couple of coats of Future, the Model Master Schwarzgrun felt pretty rough - probably the paint itself.

Good luck with the job interview.

The 111 is really coming together nicely.

jeaton01

Good luck with the job interview.

The 111 is really coming together nicely.

 

Thanks John

Let me start off by saying that today's interview, from my perspective, went very well.  It was an initial screening with HR, so I still have some bridges to cross, but given I have lots of experience in clinical trial programming, I think I was able to convey confidence and should be able to get to the next round of interviews.

Yesterday and today after the interview, I spent some time at the bench doing some touch-up painting, additional weathering, removing paint masks from the windows, and started work on the landing gear.

For the gear I installed brake lines to replicate photographs I found online.  I also smudged a mixture of Tamiya weathering compounds (sand and dirt, mostly) over the tires.

I have encountered very few problems not of my own making in building the one-eleven. But I will say again that the instructions are awful, particularly with regard to construction of the landing gear.  The gear are already pretty flimsy, but wow, the instructions use arrows to point to where some of the parts are to go.  The arrows are crossing other arrows, causing mis-direction and confusion unless one looks closely.  And the biggest gripe is the installation of the tires to the struts.  Following the directions as given results in breakage on part of the primary struts!  Are you kidding me!?  

You are to slide one end of the axle, mounted to the wheel, into one strut and then spread the struts to be able to squeeze the other end of the axle into place.  While doing this, I felt like I was likely to break something, and sure enough, when I got the tire into position, one of the support rods molded as part of the primary strut had snapped.  Even being aware of this potential did not prevent a similar breakage from occurring on the other strut.

I cannot say how Revell could have suggested to construct these parts.  Perhaps the problem is really in the mold.

I was able to get the struts into place - another struggle entirely.  Plus one of the major pieces of the landing gear was broken in two while still on the sprue.  Not sure if that was my doing or not. Still, I worked around that and next time I am at the bench I will be able to secure everything for yet another several hours of curing time.

Almost done.

Youre doing great work on this bird! Im impressed by how well the decals conformed to the kit.

Wow, great work on it and I can't wait to see it finished. I'm sure you got the job. I've been out of work since the end of February but next week I'm off to fly 737s. And yes, Battle of Britain is a great movie. 

allan

Youre doing great work on this bird! Im impressed by how well the decals conformed to the kit.

 

 

7474

Wow, great work on it and I can't wait to see it finished. I'm sure you got the job. I've been out of work since the end of February but next week I'm off to fly 737s. And yes, Battle of Britain is a great movie. 

 

Ok, one final complaint about this kit.  The kit's MG 15 machine guns are garbage.  The first couple of photographs below should demonstrate why.  They appear to be incorrectly scaled!  I had purchased the Aires resin set as I had inadvertently placed all of the ammo cartridges into the storage racks strewn throughout the interior of the aircraft, not realizing (because I did not look ahead in the instruction manual) that I would need three of these guys for the machine guns.

That mistake is actually a blessing in disguise.  I doubt I would ever have guessed that the kit guns were so clearly out of scale.  Plus I didn't think they were convincing replicas.  The Aires set is a good one.

These last two shots are of completed gun parts prior to installation into the nose or ventral gondola positions.

Here are a couple of shots of the completed open turret located along the upper rear portion of the fuselage.

The one-eleven is done.  

It is a huge kit.  It also feels fragile with all the guns and antennas sticking off it, not to mention the landing gear issues that I described earlier.  As a result, this thing proved really difficult to photograph to my satisfaction.  I typically set up a background of light beige poster board on my workbench, turn on some halogen lights, set up the tripod and set to photographing.  I have a nice sized custom-built workbench but this one proved too large to be able to position in such a way that I could get my normal clutter-free photos.

So I apologize for distracting stuff that appears in the background of some shots.  I was forced into my breakfast room, where I took over the breakfast table.  I set up some light blue poster board but I needed about six more sheets to be able to block out anything in the background.  Oh well.  So I have some full-plane shots but I think most of these are actually more close-in of specific areas of the Heinkel.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and enjoyed following my build.  This kit is a good one despite its warts (mostly instructions and MG 15 machine guns).  If you like Luftwaffe bombers and have some space to display this monster, I recommend this kit.

Full body shots:

Close-in shots:

This photograph actually reveals that I did not glue the MG 15 in the nose into place; it is moveable.  Of course, jostling this bird around can cause the gun to twist almost upside down....

And remember when I said this was going on display in my Paris-themed bathroom?  Well, here she is...

Next up?  I am sticking with WWII bombers, but this time I will be going over to the Royal Air Force and tackling Trumpeter's 1/48 Vickers Wellington Mk. III.

Aggie,

This was a very informative build. Especially showing how to mask all those windows. I liked how you showed doing the panel line washes as well.  Great work and I look forward to seeing the Wellington come together.  

Also, It was a blessing that you missed the flooding, I have good friends in NW Houston that didn't fare so well.  

Good luck with the job prospect.  

Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it.

Regarding the great flood, we live west of Houston in Katy and west of a couple of huge reservoirs. Apparently those have not overflowed their banks, but even so we are not technically in the flood plain. I say technically because it does flood where we live, but we have been fortunate. On the first day of the rain, my street flooded but the water was draining before it got to my house and barely reached onto my driveway. 

What a gorgeous build. You did such a great job on building and painting that monster. Thanks again for sharing your work. 

I do wish you well in your job search, although a selfish part of me wishes you would win a jackpot so you could continue to intertain us with builds.   gk

knox

What a gorgeous build. You did such a great job on building and painting that monster. Thanks again for sharing your work. 

I do wish you well in your job search, although a selfish part of me wishes you would win a jackpot so you could continue to intertain us with builds.   gk

 

What a resplendent beast, absolutely marvelous, I say!

Fantastic build. Your cockpit framing looks outstanding and I don't know how you painted the interior details but they all look like you airbrushed each individual detail