Global Scale Modeller

Finally getting round to starting this - I wanted to finish my Stuka build first, which is now done

I will be building ICM's recent 1/48 He 111H-3, I wanted this kit from the moment is was announced so very exciting to be building it Unfortunately in terms of my connection to the plane that is all I've got - and the fact of love the look of it!



Here is a brief summary of information I found on Wikipedia and historyofwar.org:

• The early development of the He 111 was done in secret and was disguised as a civilian transport aircraft, as German re-armament was banned under the Treat of Versailles<
• The design was based on the He 70 Blitz, an interesting plane in itself which set 8 world speed records in the early 1930s
• When it was introduced it was considered a heavy bomber, but was soon to be considered a medium bomber
• The first He 111A flew in 1935
• The early variants were rejected by the Luftwaffe due to poor performance
• The He 111 first saw combat in the Spanish Civil war; it then played an important role in the early stage of World War II
• Despite becoming obsolete as technology developed, He 111 continued to be used in combat role for the remainder of the war as the projects to replace it were unsuccessful
• The H variants were the second (after the P) to use the distinctive glass nose
• The H and P variants differed in the choice of engines. Whereas the P used the DB 601, which was also in high demand for fighters, the H use Jumo 211
• The H variant were the most produced He 111 variant
• A major feature of the H variants was the increase in defensive armament as bombers could no longer rely on speed to get through
• The H-3 specifically had more powerful engines installed with Jumo D-1s and had more guns added. The H-3 also had more armour added to protect crews
• A total of 504 H-3s were produced

First up some shots of the sprues. They all come packed in a single bag (I know some people hate this, but I really don't mind, and it all uses up a little less plastic afterall , although saying that I have already nearly lost a piece which fell off in the bag!)










Here are some closeup of the surface detail, not mind blowing but seems okay:




The decals; which I must admit seem a little thick to me, we will see how they work though



And finally this will be the version I build, I was tempted by the box art one intially, butI really want to build a plane using RLM04



I have also got the Eduard PE. I always wanted the nose set as so much of that part of the interior will be seen and I also wanted the undercarriage set. I was trying to decide whether the bomb bay and radio sets were worth it. Still not convinced they will be but I decided to go for it anyway



I have also bought some Eduard resin machine guns but don't think I will use them because they seem to have been discontinued so it may be better to use the on a build with the guns will be more prominent; we'll see



So first things first, I gently washed all of the sprues in warm soapy water (I know its not really necessary but I like to do it anyway). They are all drying overnight ready for the glueing suff to start

Ya, this is going to be nice with all those goodies to add on
Welcome to the sig, no problem for a later start we are just barely at a week in
Hope you have some fun and good luck

Ps I posted this cool pic of the manufacturing plant earlier
Scott

That looks like a fabulous kit and with all those aftermarket goodies will look gorgeous, good luck mate and look forward to seeing this develop

Yet another ICM kit, Yet another He 111, I am on the H-6 straight OOB for me though. If your one goes together as well as mine then it should practically put itself together.

Good luck with the build

Les.

Thank you guys

I think the H-6 and H-3 are the same basic kits so will hopefully go together without any issues , there seems to be differing experiences though so we’ll see

I was hoping to get a bit on this done this evening, but our new born had her first set of vaccines today; since our first a new one for Meningitis B has been added; I'm not sure if it was that specific injection but she has really struggled today, crying uncontrollably for hours. She did eventually settle down but but it did lay waste to my plans, but there are obviously far bigger priorities

In the time I did have I first went through the instructions and made a note of all of the stages where PE will be used and which set to refer to. There are six sets of instructions so I wanted to get a bit organised



And some actual build work too - I stuck one big piece of PE to a plastic part and then stuck a smaller PE part on top of that, and that just about sums of the extent of my work today . I did try for the first time using PVA glue (in the form of Kristal Klear) to stick the PE parts down though. I previously always used CA glue as I wanted a stronger bond, but I think the ease of cleaning PVA glue up may make it the better option (it was certainly much easier for these parts anyway )

Oh that looks great, nice internal details there

WOW ! Really nice detail with the PE. I'm struggling with mine on my build ! Should try the same glue. I hate CA glue. But Kristal Klear is hard to get where I live. PVA glue is like ordinary white glue for kids I think ? Is it not ?

It has the makings of a great piece.
Glad to hear your young one got through it ok.

I've always thought that PE stands for Pain (in the rear) End, but you can't deny the superior look it gives.

Great work, I'm settling in for this one!

Garion77 wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 11:46 pm WOW ! Really nice detail with the PE. I'm struggling with mine on my build ! Should try the same glue. I hate CA glue. But Kristal Klear is hard to get where I live. PVA glue is like ordinary white glue for kids I think ? Is it not ?

I try to always use pva when I use PE, the main difference to the workflow I find is that you have to stick a bit then move on to something else because of the drying time; its also not quite the same bond as CA but for clumsy people like me its brilliant!

apologies for the hijack

Paul

We all love our modelling but as you say priorities and I'm afraid the young ones have to come first, glad she is thru that and on the way back to happier times.

Your build to is starting to look good, Watching with interest

Les

Nice to see you make a start on all that PE mate - the detail on that is really great (and pva for PE has been filed away for future misuse!)

Hope the little one is fully over the jabs and settles back down.

Very nice kit and lots of extras.
Looking great.

Got in a few hours today, of which it felt half was spent looking at the Eduard instructions and realising that they have mislabelled the plastic and PE parts on there, which meant I needed to go back and correct what I did yesterday (which was easy as I just soaked it in water for a few minutes to melt the PVA). More annoyingly for the rest of the build I will not be confident what I’m reading is correct, at least for the undercarriage

Oh well, I got one of the well bays built up anyway and am happy with the result, PE can be annoying but I do think its worth the effort and really improves a model . I am also getting more and more converted to use PVA rather than Super glue. Not one of the little extra pieces flung off into the ether this evening, and it was quite fiddly. I even dropped the side walls a couple of times while trying to glue them together and they all stayed in place - I know for a fact with CA at least one, and more likely all, of them would have snapped off, never to be seen again

The only slight complaint is that the PE didn't line up properly with the plastic on one side (the PE is 1mm shorter), I have check the instructions and am fairly sure I have the right piece, but I will come back to it tomorrow with a fresh pair of eyes

There are still a couple more pieces to add, and then onto the other side

Nice choice and a good start there mate

A little more progress - it turns out the poor fitting piece of PE on the previous update was on the wrong side! I am not sure what is happening with the instructions but in the end I was glancing at them with a huge pinch of salt!

So the first job was to remove the PE from the plastic and put the correct one on, again a simple job because of the PVA. I then built up the other undercarriage, which was much quicker as all the issues with the instructions had been resolved already. I then added all the extra tiny details. I did use CA glue on some of these just because I needed a quicker drying time.

Below are pictures of the completed bays. Although there have been minor frustrations, the PE does take the detail to another level. The kit looked quite sparse in comparison IMO






I then moved onto the front and rear undercarriage walls. Again, I was really impressed with the detail on the PE. The only complaint I had here was that there are two very thin strips of PE that need to be stuck onto the main piece, and although it wasn't too bad in the end I think Eduard should have put a put a grove in the main piece and then make the strips slightly deeper to make thing easier to place and more stable



And the other side - apologies for the poor photo quality on this one, I was struggling to get the camera to focus



And finally, getting the TET out to put everything in place on the main frame





Next up was filling some ejector pin marks in what will eventually become the cockpit - I tried sanding them out but they were quite deep so I put some sprue goo in there



And finally I made a start on the radio compartment area - there is more PE to go in here too but I wanted to do other things yesterday so will make a start on that this weekend

Looks like a great start, I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Great looking PE work mate.

Hope the little one is on the mend too.

Nice work so far!

Never thought to use Kristal Klear for gluing PE. I will have to give it a go.

Good job so far. I have run into the same problem with Eduards instructions as well. They make great PE sets, but you have to pay close attention.

That is some awesome work on the wheel bays, way to complicated for an old fella like me.

Les

Looking great so far.

Fantastic PE work, love it
Keep up the good work
Door prize draw coming up this weekend

One month left in the sig
viewtopic.php?f=660&t=25285

After a number of months away from this build, and having all but finished the P-40 (just awaiting the replacement canopy from Airfix), I finally got back to this yesterday

First up I put a few bits and pieces in place in the radio compartment. There is a lot of PE to go in here too but I am going to do this in tandem with putting the PE on the inside of the fuselage halves to make sure everything lines up



Next I filled the ejector pin marks on the inside of the fuselage using sprue goo



I sanded that back and then put two pieces completing the inside fuselage walls in place. This seemed a strange way of doing it, I think getting them in place without a huge ugly seem line will be tough. Doing the whole inside wall as one piece strikes me as a better idea. Anyway, I tried to deal with the seam with sprue goo. Waiting 24 hours now for that to fully dry before sanding. In hindsight Perfect Plastic Putty may have been the better option




Tonight I will be sanding back the sprue goo and will then hopefully start work on the cockpit area and getting all the unpainted PE in place

Great to see you back on the case with this one mate - looking forward to seeing it progress again

Tomcat64 wrote: Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:50 am Great to see you back on the case with this one mate - looking forward to seeing it progress again

Thanks a lot

Unfortunately some sanders I was waiting for didn't arrive today, and my focus was also on completing the P-40 build so I didn't get too much done.

I did make a start on the on the cockpit though. Quite a bit of clean up required and also removing detail ready to add PE. There are a number of pipes etc running out in front of the seat that still need cleaning up but I am waiting for the TET to fully set before tackling that (doing it before gluing just seem destined to end in it snapping as it was so thin)

I also wasn't sure whether it was solid between the chair handle and the main chair, but reference photo seem to suggest it was (not that I couldn't find a clear one!)

The seat isn't yet glued in place, I will attach it at the last stage of the cockpit as their is a lot of PE to add behind it