Chuck,

this is an excellent question... I just had to see for myself... The answer I would give is "Yes" the bomb bay will fit into the older Monogram kit.

I took some photos, so you can judge for yourself...

In this next photo, I inserted the "as built" ICM bomb bay into the fuselage of the older Monogram kit. The bomb bay openings look a little crooked but it's due to the angle of the photography.

Here's how it looks from the side view. Notice that the wing spar location lines up almost perfectly.

The contour from the front fits very well too...

In this last picture, I have shown the open bomb bay area on the Monogram kit. There is plenty of room if you decided to install the bomb bay cells into the Monogram model.

If I was going to do this, I would use the Monogram model bomb bay cover and simply cut open the doors to expose the vertical cells from the ICM kit.
I would glue these parts to the Monogram part...

That’s a great demo Louis. Those bomb bay internal parts don’t look like they would be beyond replicating from scratch using styrene sheet. What do you think?

My thoughts exactly
Guess some evergreen with the correct thickness and some good drilling tool should be a pair of hours fun work to get something resembling that bomb storage structure

David LS !
Hello my friend. I am glad to see that my postings are an enjoyable read... I will pull up another chair beside the work bench to make your "Proxy building" a little more comfortable. I'm glad this helps to keep your motivation going. Hang in there buddy, for you will be back at your work bench soon... Take care.

Paul B.
How are you doing ? I am glad this build log is being well received. Funny you should mention the new Tamiya and Airfix kits... and a comparison build. It just so happened that last night I took a bunch of photos of the new tool Tamiya Bf-109 G6, and I will be doing a review on it hopefully later tonight. It will probably be a two part article due to the large number of photos I took. Here's a little teaser...

I was thinking about building up several similar kits in the future. Things like the new Tamiya Ki-61 compared to the older Hasegawa release, the new Airfix vs. the Tamiya P-51D, this Tamiya Bf-109 compared to the Hasegawa 109. etc.

I posted in error about the side windows on the Monogram He-111.

Luckily Bernard caught this and I learned how the front windows were often painted over. You can see the outline of the windows in the Monogram kit rather well in this picture:

Plus after comparing the bomb bay parts between the ICM and the Monogram kit, I would say that both kits are very accurate. I have found the Monogram does build up a lot quicker, but that is to be expected since ICM has packed a TON of details in the new release.

I have been having fun building both kits...

So please disregard the wrongful statement I made about the side windows on the older Monogram kit. They are there... I hope that I have not led anyone astray. Just check your references when you build your plane to see if the windows have been blanked off or not.

Hello Greg !
I say go for it and give it a try with the comparison builds. Personally, I find it interesting with how different manufacturers go about doing things the way they do. This really comes into play with the kits being designed and manufactured about 20 years apart. New technology vs. old and they both are an accurate representation.

Paul B.
You are correct about possibly scratch building a Bomb Bay. It doesn't look to be to hard to do. It could be made using a punch set (or drill bit of the proper size), a straight edge metal ruler for cutting the sheet plastic, and a nice sharp blade to do the cutting...

Now I am seriously thinking about making a scratch built bomb bay for one or more of my older Monogram He-111's in the stash. Right now would be the perfect time to do this, since everything is out in the open...

Great idea !