He 111Z WiP (Completed pics page 6)

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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This is the Hasegawa 1/72nd He 111Z. I am building this for the Twin Boom GB but thought I would do a WiP thread as well. I started this 2 weeks ago and its been slow going as I am doing quite a bit of scratch building on the insides. I have only done little bits of scratch building in the past, so I am hoping for the best. I am also adding an Eduard Big Ed set and CMK resin wheels and two engines.

I originally built the Italeri kit many years ago, but that got badly damaged with many of my completed builds. When it came time to replace it, I opted for the then newly released Hasegawa kit.

This is the kit in question.

I started out on the rear compartment. The Eduard set includes the radios. According to their instructions, a set should be fitted to each fuselage. But only the left fuselage had a radio operator and antenna, so I am only fitting radio’s to that side. The spare parts have come in handy for some of the bits that Eduard have missed. I have added a compartment floor and the fuselage detail is where the plastic curves away to form the wing join. The ribbing is a bit thicker than the kit detail, but its what I had to hand. Here you can see one fuselage done with the other before I touched it.

Then last Tues I got this area painted RLM 02. I wanted to do everything that was 02 at the same time, so I had to get the undercarriage wheel wells and everything else sorted. It then got weathered and I added rails that I think are for the gunners feet.

Another area where I am deviating from the instructions is the beam guns. According to the instructions, that are fitted to each side of each fuselage. And most kits of this aircraft also show this. The Eduard set also has MG ammo holders for both positions. But from what I have read and seen, only the outboard windows carried MG’s. This makes sense as inboard guns would run the risk of putting a burst into the other fuselage. So I am positioning the holders in the appropriate place. This is more guesswork, like the radio’s, but it makes sense to me.

Then last night I got the cockpit painted RLM 66. I had already added the none coloured PE.

I also have the wings together with wheel bays fitted and the two resin engine mounts.

I had originally intended to put the resin engines in the outer right and centre engine. But the engines are designed for the angled leading edge of a standard He 111, not the straight edge of the Z’s centre wing. So I had to change my plans a bit.

Next up will be to weather the pit and add all of the rest of the PE as well as the radio kit for the back.

All comments, suggestions and questions welcome.

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Cool build Bish, that thing looks like a beast!!

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I’ll look at pics when I get home but I can only imagine what I’m gonna find! Hats off to you 72nd scale builders!!

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Fascinating aircraft. Well done so far Bish; looking forward to watching your progress. [Y]

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Like I was saying at work where I cannot view pictures I could only imagine. This is going to be fun to watch!

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Mighty fine work! [Y]

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Bish…again, you make those 1/72 kits look awesome! Great work!

Eagle90

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Oh Man Bish, What an awesome subject for you to undertake. You’ve already done some excellent work there and I am certainly going to be a staunch fan of your WIP.

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[dto:]

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Thanks all. The comments are much appreciated. This is indeed an unusual aircraft, but then I like builds that are a bit different.

Should have some more pics at the weekend.

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I’ll be watching this Bish. I built a 48th scale one years ago. (Cat knocked it off shelf). It had a 26" wingspan

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48th scale, now that would be impressive. I believe there’s a 32nd scale conversion for the Revell kit. Now that would be something.

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You’d need a dang garage for that!!!

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Great work! Covering up that wing joint is hard stuff, but you managed to pull it off.

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Joe, and then some. Just imagine it towing a 32nd Me 321.

allan, thanks. I must admit, it wasn’t my idea. I saw someone do similar on another forum a while ago and thought this would be a good kit to practice my scratch building on. But after seeing your Typhoon, I think I have a way to.

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Is there a 1/48 He111Z kit, or do you have to use a conversion? I know someone who used to make a resin conversion fort he Monogram He111, but I believe he is out of business. Something about spending too much time pouring resin and not enough time building models.

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There was a cutting Edge conversion, but I don’t know if you can still get it. In fact, I am not even sure if Cutting Edge is still around. Here’s a build review from Aero Scale.

www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php

I am almost finished on the interior, I will get some pics before I close it up.

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I was hoping to get my next update in last week. But there was always one more thing to add. But finally I am ready to close the fuselage’s up.

Firstly, the rear compartment. This is both the left side’s of each fuselage. As I mentioned before, Eduard has you fit all the radio kit in both, but I made the choice of only doing it in the left one

And a close up of the left side of the left fuselage. The 5 Radio’s and the ammo holders are all Eduard, the rest is scratched from spare PE and sheet styrene.

And the two right sides.

And here the cockpits. Theres still a bit more to do, but this can be done after I have closed it up.

Last week I realised I had made an error. I noticed in my reference pics that the box for holding the parachute, circled below,

are to far back. They should be under the forward window not the rear. This meant that the foot rail extends to far. This was all caused by the compartment floor being to long. The bit that the parachute box’s are on was originally Eduard, I changed it for styrene as it wasn’t wide enough. I took the compartment floor to that.

There should also be a seat on the right side, about here.

But again, there’s no room due to the gunners foot rail.

I am not changing this now, but I have noted it for next time. I have a few more 111’s in the stash, and I won’t be making the same mistake next time. And I also don’t want someone to use my pics as a guide and make the same error.

I would very much recommend the Squadron walk around if you plan on doing this. There is more to add than I have if you want to go full out, which I may do next time. But for my first scratch building at this level, I am pretty pleased with this much.

Just don’t make the mistake I did, and make sure you checked the photo’s properly.

Thanks for looking, hopefully i’ll have more by the weekend.

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JEEZ!!! That’s a lot of work for a 72nd scale build. Looks great Bish. Cant wait to see this thing built!! Really on the edge of my seat here buddy, Joe

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Tell me about it. Its taken a month to get this far. This scratch building is slow going. But I am actually enjoying it. Things should pick up now, just about to get the fuselage halves together.