1/72 Revell Heinkel He 111 H-6 wearing winter white (1 Viewer)

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turbo

Staff Sergeant
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Jan 16, 2016
Melbourne, Australia
Hi folks, this is a model I have already built and was planning to post in a Completed Kits thread. However, as I was pulling it together I realised I took quite a lot of photos during the build and have some commentary on the build stages that might be of some use. Given I also don't have the time or energy to post it all in one go, I thought it would work best as a S2F thread. Wojtek, let me know if this is OK - if not I can switch it back to a Completed Kits thread.

Anyway, the kit is Revell's 1/72 Heinkel He 111 H-6 which is a re-box of a Hasegawa kit. I've always wanted to build a 111 since seeing them way back when as a kid in the Battle of Britain film. There's something about that glasshouse canopy I really like.

box web.jpg


Speaking of the glasshouse canopy, since the cockpit will be so visible I couldn't resist sprucing it up with the Eduard Zoom PE interior, even if it is 1/72 scale. I also bought Montex canopy masks as there was no bloody way I was going to mask that thing myself!

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The aircraft I will be modelling was the personal transport aircraft of Oberstleutnant Kuhlmey, Commander of "Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey", part of Schlachtgeschwader 3, based in Immola, Finland during 1944.

Heinkel-He-111H6-kuhlmey.jpg


This photograph was taken in the summer of 1944 showing the aircraft with disruptive winter paint camo. However, I will be taking a little licence and representing the aircraft as I imagine it in preceding winter months wearing temporary winter whitewash camo over its factory camo scheme...
 
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I would rather see the process than just the completed pictures so thank you for taking the time to do this Kirby! I'm sure it'll be entertaining and educational at the same time.
 
Thanks for your enthusiasm guys, away we go then...

The first task at hand was to paint the cockpit and dorsal turret components and construct the PE elements. This required some minor surgery such as removing the moulded foot pedals before attaching the PE ones and drilling a gap in the pilot's seat to accept the harnesses.

Research showed that H-6's had their cockpit interior painted RLM66 (earlier marks were RLM02), so Gunze's version of this colour was used to spray the kit and bent PE parts. Parts were then dry brushed with light grey and aluminium to add some wear and scratches before a selective black wash to pop out detail on control panels and other areas. Seat cushions and pedal straps were painted red/brown.Tiny control levers were added with the aid of CA and a lot of swearing and the knobs painted with a fine brush. The bomb aimer's cushion was made from Tamiya tape dry-brushed brown. Apologies for the photos, I took them with my phone and the depth of field is rubbish.

cockpit components a web.jpg


This was the first time I had tried detailing a cockpit with PE in 1/72 and it really took some patience (and several bottles of wine) :crazyeyes:. I've included a match stick in the next photo to give a sense of the size of the PE parts. In particular, several control levers flew off into the ether never to be seen again, accompanied by loud fits of swearing. To be honest, I probably wouldn't normally bother in 1/72, but as mentioned above I couldn't resist because everything will be so visible in the glasshouse canopy.

cockpit components b web.jpg


Thanks for following along.
 
That's great interior work for 1/72. If anything, I feel a push to move more toward 1/32 as my close-up vision gets worse.
 
Thanks a lot guys, detailing a 1/72 cockpit is certainly not something I'm sure I'll be doing again any time soon!

Next, the insides of the cockpit and fuse were sprayed RLM66 and RLM02 respectively, a few more PE odds and ends added to the cockpit, and everything given an oil wash. The bomb bay was added with the He 111's unusual arrangement. I did some rudimentary painting of this but it won't really be visible as a close up of the photo Wojtek posted in post #2 shows the 2 forward fuselage windows in this area have been painted over. Only a bit of the front part of the compartment will be visible through the cockpit door.

bomb rack web.jpg


Heinkel-He-111H6-kuhlmey b close up.jpg


The cockpit was then assembled and glued in place and the fuse halves joined. The fit was very good with only some small spots of Mr Surfacer required to tidy the seams up.

cockpit joined a web.jpg


cockpit joined b web.jpg


Some paint has worn off the end of the bomb aimer's platform but I'll touch that up later. Thanks for checking in guys.
 
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