1/48 Heinkel He-111

[SANCER]

I was able to take the afternoon off work.

Tomorrow we left early to Avándaro with two couples of friends (two and a half hours by road from Mexico City), to the weekend house of one of them. In Mexico, next Monday is a hollyday, so we have a long weekend to enjoy all this time, with friends.

For the same reason, before packing, I hurried to work a little, since I'll be out for the next few days.

In some unevenness of the junction of the transparent part to the fuselage, apply a little sandpaper, to make the union level and smooth.

The new holes in the windows and hatch, I covered them with pieces of sponge to start painting ...

During the attempt, the sliding window on the left side of the pilot was detached, ... so I will try to put it back in its place, when I finish with the exterior paint.

The following was to apply the 1st color: RLM 66 for the interior of the greenhouse structure.
Return with the photos ...

 

[SANCER]

De nuevo aquí con Ustedes mis colegas y amigos.

Finally I could use my airbrush again and the RLM 66 was applied ...

... and now that I can expand the photographs, ... some details began to be more noticeable ...

1.- Regarding the two rails of the sliding window of the roof (which I replaced the one on the right side), the separation between the pieces is very noticeable and their alignment does not look good
What I can think of is to remove the two full rails, and after working on point 2, put the two complete rails (covering the transparent part and the fuselage) in only one piece each.
2.- There is a very noticeable "step", what occurs to me is to fill it with a piece of styrene of that thickness and to fade it backwards in the fuselage ...
3.- Another step, smaller, in a smaller space and between the two transparent pieces with very close windows !!
I can not think now how to solve this!

4.- One more hole, below the window. It seems to be not so difficult to fill, despite having the window close by.

5.- Another very noticeable step ...!, Also in this case, as in point 3, if any of you have experienced this, or have an idea of how to solve it, I will be all ears !!

I will have the whole weekend to think about how to solve this, as well as pay attention to what some of you can suggest.

There have to be something that I´ll must be able to do, before resigning myself to live with at least points 3 and 5 without solution (and I'm not going to cut my veins for that).

This is a panoramic of how I leave my workbench, until next Tuesday ...

I'm going to prepare my suitcase ...

Best regards and excellent weekend for all.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

Good work, some interesting challenges to get those alignments right.....

 

[parsifal]

You are doing good work in my opinion

 

[Crimea_River]

There are no fixes that come to my mind that don't involve cit parts already glued. The big step at 3 can be solved by breaking that seam and raising the whole panel, meaning that the seam at 4 needs to be broken and filled. Issue 5 is not too bad. If you can open that joint again and clamp the parts through the open window so they line up then maybe that will do it. Of course, everything runs the risk of getting glue on the glass.

Sorry I can't be of more help. More dry-fit in hind sight would have been good.

 

[SANCER]

Thank you very much Andy for your suggestions.
I also thought about re-separating the transparent pieces and now that they are painted have a better appreciation of the joints.
My fear is to separate the roof of the cockpit, from the fuselage in the part of the upper rectangular window. This part is very thin and could break.
I have to see the best way to achieve separate parts again without damaging both sides of the joints.
Now that I return home, I will be able to better analyze the options.

Muchas gracias amigo

 

[Airframes]

Looks like 1 and 2 will be covered by the open hatch.
The area marked 3 can be built-up with thin plastic card - I had to do that on my ICM Heinkel, and 4 can be filled with PVA.
The side joint at 5 will need a little more attention.
Number 2 on the starboard side could be filled with stretched sprue.

 

[Crimea_River]

Risk of breakage does need to be considered. Using a PE saw would be the best way if you go that route.

 

[SANCER]

I will consider it, ... not having to remove the roof and be able to solve the 1.2 and 4 apparently without major problem.
For 3 and 5 I think I'll have to break the bubble, so the PE saw will be the best option.

Gracias por los tips

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[SANCER]

Hello and good week start for all.

Back, I was reviewing and turning the whole front of the He, analyzing what could be the best repairs, without hurting too much the pieces ...

In the case of the repair # 3, I remembered that the union of the transparent parts with the fuselage I did with Tamiya ETC, but between the transparent parts I did it with MKK. With a thin and wet paintbrush, I passed it over that upper union until it became smooth and with a pair of tweezers, I managed to carefully press the end of that union, I could see that both pieces fit correctly. Then I cleaned all that union very well and applied ETC:

Afterwards, I filed and removed the rails of the roof window (# 1), as well as a rear hatch, then pass sandpaper to soften as much as possible that part.

That gate that I sanded, I can replace it with a square of styrene.
What I could observe is that the "step" (# 2), is likely to be resolved with putty all along that union, from the same union and up to 1 or 1.5 cms., backwards, then with only sanding, make that step disappear as best as possible ...

Then it will be just a matter of replacing the lines of rivets, panels and that hatch.

Having no need to detach the bubble, for the composure of # 5, only with jewelry files was thinning the piece of plastic to reach the level of the transparent piece ...

It seems that these "defects in the joints", were acceptably resolved ... without the risk of having to detach the pieces and lose part of the joints that were clean and without problems.

After the application of putty in all the required parts, I´ll give them the drying time and do the sanding work with due care, you will probably I have to replace some of the masked windows that could have been affected.

But that will be until I see the results.

Saludos

 

[Airframes]

Looks like you're winning Luis - well done.

 

[fubar57]

Agreed

 

[SANCER]

Thanks guys, tomorrow we will see what else can be done.
Les mando un gran abrazo

 

[Crimea_River]

Glad to see you're able to tackle these issues. On the way to a good outcome.

 

[SANCER]

Thanks, bro, we're having fun on this, while we learn a little from everyone.

 

[Wayne Little]

Very good outcome Luis. well done.

 

[Wurger]

 

[SANCER]

Gracias amigos

I already have the whole front sanded and relatively polished. It was much better than it was (later I upload those photos)

Now I can reapply the RLM 66