**** DONE: GB-37 1/48th He-111H-4 - Helicopters/Military Aircraft of the BoB 1940

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy.
I woke up after around four hours sleep, and got up for a drink of milk, and checked the decals. The black 'S' and 'F' decals from 'Fantasy Print Shop' don't seem to have fully settled. They were fine when first applied, but after six or seven hours, a couple of 'bubbles' have appeared, rather like the 'Third Group Decals' swastikas (which have now settled after a touch of Micro Sol).
Some Micro Sol has been lightly applied, and I'll let this do its stuff, then seal them with a coat of gloss clear, which should take care of things, and add some extra red strips to the 'F' letters, before continuing with the remaining decals.
Pics (much !) later today ..............

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Terry!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Hugh.

Still working my way through the mass of stencil decals, and the red 'F' letters have had further strips applied over the top, improving appearance. The swastikas and under-wing code letters have also settled, at least better than they were, and have had a gloss clear coat applied to seal them.
However, I've dropped a medium - sized gooly - I've missed two small areas of RLM 70 on the nose !
There should be relatively small triangular 'patches' beneath the forward section of the cockpit, and I hope to be able to correct this omission without too much trouble - fingers crossed !
I'll post another up-date when the decals are finished.

 

[fubar57]

Looking good

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Geo.

All the decals are now in place, and sealed with a clear gloss coat. For some strange reason, not all of the stencils and other smaller decals included on the sheet had placement instructions shown on the decal drawings, but after viewing a few hundred photos, I managed to find where they were supposed to go.
I didn't photograph the underside, which only has a few stencils, but the pics below show what the model looks like so far.
Next step, once the clear coat has had time to fully harden, is to clean the model, do the first stage of weathering and staining, and then spray the semi-matt clear coat, which I might get done tonight, but more likely some time tomorrow.

 

[Wurger]

Wow..

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking the part Terry.

 

[Donivanp]

Looks great Terry just incredible!

 

[mikewint]

She's a Beaut Terry, very nice

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much chaps, glad it's up to scratch.

The kit decals behaved wonderfully, even the gust lock markers - red, dashed - line rectangles on a clear background - which settled across the joints of the control surfaces without any trace of 'silvering', as did the circular fuel filler cap outlines.
Being a smart Rs, I cut the first gust lock marker in half, and tried to apply it either side of the port aileron joint, at the tip. Of course, one side folded on me, so I need to hand paint that part. The others were applied 'whole', across the joints, and settled without problem. Once fully set and dry, the joint line was cut with the tip of the scalpel blade.
The 'missing' areas of RLM 70 on the nose were brush painted, masking the edges with thin strips of tape and, once fully set, a couple of coats of clear gloss were applied. Part of the yellow Lion shield on the starboard side lifted when the tape was removed, which I half expected, but I had a spare decal and this was applied once the clear gloss had fully hardened.
I'm now preparing to do a light panel line wash on parts of the underside, along with some light 'grime' and staining, and then decide which way to do the first stage of the exhaust staining, which was often quite heavy.
I'm leaning towards a light application of Tamiya clear 'Smoke', and then, after the matt clear coat, use my usual technique of smudging black eye-liner pencil over the top of this, but I won't get to that stage until tomorrow at the earliest.

Back with another up-date soon.............................

 

[Crimea_River]

Glad the decals are working out. I have settled on using the airbrush for heavy exhaust staining, using highly thinned brown and black from Tamiya. I start with the brown, apply close to the surface near the exhausts then gradually pull away as I move back. Repeat with black until satisfied.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy. I'll be using a similar technique, using the Tamiya 'Smoke' as a thin background, and then building this up, before the the matt clear coat, and then finishing, over the clear coat, with the eye-liner pencil.
The staining was really quite heavy, especially with the 'saxophone' tubular exhausts of the earlier 'H' series, as seen in the two example pics below, but I don't want to overdo it and make it look false, even if it is applied in such a way that it would actually be authentic.
Talking of the exhausts, the kit parts are fine, although the outlets are moulded as shallow 'hollows', so I may use the similar exhausts from the Monogram H-22 kit, which are fully hollow - the H-22 with the V1 should have flame-damper exhausts, which I'll get as resin parts when I come to do that model.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

First stage of weathering / dirt, and exhaust staining has been done.
Upper wings have received a few stains and light paint wear, and the heavy exhaust staining done to the underside of the wings, with lighter staining on the tail-planes. Oil and dirt staining also added around cowling joints, with some light panel line work too.
The exhaust staining was done using Tamiya clear 'Smoke', built up thinly, as I didn't want to make it look unrealistic, even though contemporary photos do show heavy staining.
Next stage is to spray the semi-matt clear coat, and then add a little more dirt around the 'service' areas on top of the wings, and add a touch of darker exhaust staining, using an eye-liner pencil, smudged back along the flow lines.
I hope to get this done some time tomorrow, and I'll be back then with further progress pics.

 

[fubar57]

Looking good Terry

 

[turbo]

Looking good Terry. Bet you can't wait to get the masking off the glasshouse canopy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Very nice.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks chaps.
Yes Kirby, I'm looking forward to getting the masking off the canopy sections, and just hope that they're OK.

 

[Wayne Little]

looking good Terry.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Wayne.

Got the semi-matt clear coat done, and removed the masking from the main canopy, side windows and gondola. There's a tiny bit of silvering around the edges of the black 'S' on each side, but it can only be seen close-up, and at certain angles. Strange, as there was no sign of it before the semi-matt coat, but it'll have to do, as I don't want to mess up things by attempting re-touching.
The clear parts have yet to have the adhesive residue removed, and the remains of some beads of PVA used to temporarily fit the spare nose bola and the spare front transparency of the gondola. Some minor re-touching may be required on parts of the frames, where the joints are, which will be done, if needed, after cleaning and polishing the clear areas.
Due to the open hatch in the gondola, part of this area had to be completely masked, and this will now be carefully brush-painted. The rear glazing was masked and push-fitted, and this has been removed, and the masks removed, ready to install the MG15, before attaching it to the gondola properly, and the correct front glazing will also be attached, with its MG 15, after masking and painting the frames, as will the 'Ikaria' nose 'bola'.
The replacement clear sprue arrived today from ICM, so the roof hatch can be masked, painted and fitted in the open position.
When all that is done, a little more surface grime and wear will be done on the upper wings, and probably a little more exhaust staining, this time using the eye-liner pencil over the sprayed stains.
Then it's on to the rest of the construction, which I hope to start in the next day or so.