Hello again everyone.

This model has been languishing on my shelves for years...way too long. The construction was started by a good friend of mine, who mainly built WW2 German Armor. He started it, and then had to move due to his job relocating him to a different city. He gave it to me with the understanding that I would someday finish it up... Well here we go.

Once David opened up the Kasserine Pass to include all of the North African Campaign, I knew I would have to dust this one off, and finally keep my word about finishing up the plane. It's the perfect opportunity to do so.

Fast forward about 20 years or so, give or take a few years. This is how it looks at the moment.

Since I obtained the model, I stripped off the paint using oven cleaner. If you look close, you will probably see remnants of the paint here and there. I started sanding down the seams, but sadly lost interest in the plane. This is still going to be a major undertaking to complete, and I will have to putty a lot of the airframe.

The cockpit was painted and detailed very nicely. This is a good thing since it is highly visible in this type...

The clear parts were not installed by me, but it looks like they were at some point. The landing gear look as if they may not have been installed however. To this day, these parts still remain in the plastic zip lock bag they were given to me in.

My plans included replacing the nose glass with a Squadron vacuum formed canopy. But I am still on the fence about this. The canopy only replaces the upper half and relies on the lower kit parts to make it whole.

I may end up doing something totally different, like trying to form my own one piece nose using clear thermoform plastic. That is still undecided however.

Several years ago, I went on a Heinkel 111 spree... I picked up these decals, which will work great for this build since they include a RLM 79 Sandgelb over RLM 78 Himmelblau desert color scheme.

So after talking with David about starting up another build, I decided to give it a go. This one will be good to use as a comparison to the new ICM He-111 that I have been itching to get started on... You just never know what may happen at the "Iron Werks" ...

Please follow along with me as I attempt to salvage this one...

Thanks in advance.

Thanks Paul... I have my tube of putty ready to go... I may even need to get another one just to be sure I have enough on hand for this one... 🙂 I hope it will look good once completed. I'm hoping the monotone finish of Sandgelb will hide some defects if any are present.

Believe it or not, I don't have a built up He-111 in the display case anymore. Years ago I had the ancient "Lindberg" kit which was an odd scale, but that is the only "111" that I have ever built. This will soon change however.

I have quite a few Heinkel's in the stash, and the new 1/48 scale ICM kit is tempting me ... a lot !

Hello again everyone. I spent quite a lot of time today with the seams on this particular He-111.

I'm sad to report that this one is going to be a whole lot more work than I originally thought it would. It's almost as if each and every one of the joins on this plane will require some serious sanding and filling in with putty.

I'm thinking about starting a new He-111 build up with one of the Monogram kits in my stash. I honestly believe that this is going to be less work in the long run.
I have four of the Monogram He-111's ( one is a Pro Modeller H-22), in the stash and the new tool ICM Heinkel as well.

Now this gives me a few options.

Build the new tool ICM kit and a Monogram kit at the same time ?

They're both currently in the build pile ...

Sort of a comparison build ?

I have been chomping at the bit to build the ICM kit. But I really wanted to build the ICM kit up as a Battle of Britain plane, and build the Monogram kit as a North Africa plane.

What would you do ?

Not only multiple Heinkels, but TWO JU-52s! And they said it wouldn't sell! Ha! I've got one, so that's 3 right there. Guess we showed them, huh? Whilst a side by side, old vs the new HE-111 would be interesting, I'd rather you don't suffer Heinkel overload. If you start humming "Bomben auf England", I'd stop for a bit. Or "Wir Fahren gegen England". apologies for the South Baltimore plat deutsch.

David LS,
I'm with you on this one... I want to build these two as a comparison build.
Now I have a written recommendation from a Doctor, so it's justified 🙂 Thank you kind Sir !

Bernard, yes I have two Ju-52's in the stash. So I guess we really did show them the kit would sell huh ? Now I need to build at least one of them... 🙂 Your German is much better than mine.

Hello there David T. ! I totally understand your unbiased opinion ! 🙂 🙂

I still have to finish up the two P-36's and the 4 Wurgers, a Panzer III, and the Defiant, but I think I can do this... Hopefully.

Time will tell my friend.

Louis you are truly unbelievable. How long have you had this excessive-compulsive behavior? Do the 111 builds as I'll be watching to see what not to do with my Monogram kit.

The 111 is a project, also that is quite labor intensive, it is one of those kits that you need to approach as a long term build. I don't mind taking over someone else project. some abandoned the kit, bought a couple on Ebay at very good price, for example picked up a Monogram Hind that the seller started, not a very good start, wrong colors. So have to fix the mistakes and finished it. The one thing is that I have the HE-111 H-22 kit. And a project I will look forward to start. But the plate if full this year. so hopefully plan for 2019.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

OK , you guys have talked me into this...I hope I don't get in over my head with Heinkels.

I will do a comparison build of sorts, between the Monogram and the ICM kits, both are 1/48 scale.

Tonight I started with the ICM kit. It is very detailed, and has a lot more internal details than the Monogram kit does. I'm not knocking the Monogram kit by any means, as the ICM kit is a new tool kit and has a 20 year jump start on it's older Monogram cousin.

So, having said this, I'll get busy...

Here's the results after building the first 10 steps of the ICM kit.

ICM has you building the main landing gear wheel wells and the main wing spars as the first few steps.

This is something the Monogram kit lacks. The Monogram kit has wheel wells, but no main spars or bomb bay details.

The details provided in the ICM kit are rather nice.

The next steps are for building the cockpit. It looks as if all of the internal details get built up first, then they are sandwiched between the two fuselage halves.

The ICM plastic is just a little softer than what I am used to, but this is an advantage when it comes to sanding or filing off the little sprue attachment points.

So far I'm really liking this ICM kit. The fit has been spot on...

Please stay tuned for updates,

and as usual,
"comments are encouraged"...