Looks like it will be a fun build, Walt. You've got to love the He 111 to build two side by side! Looking forward to this one.

What a great choice, Walt!
Looking forward to it!

Holy cow! Guess the award for the biggest model in this GB is yours Walt 😉
Terrific choice , all you need now is a 1/48 glider to go along

That sounds pretty good Paul, @paulh, I would love to build one or two of those, also, but man would that be a very big diorama! I would really love it if there was a 1/48 Me-321/323 Glider. That offers great potential with all the Tamiya 1/48 vehicles they have.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Hey Walt,
Thanks for starting this build. It looks spectacular in the box ! Years ago I had the Italeri He-111Zwilling and the matching Me-321 Gigant to go with it. My eyes are not what they used to be, so I sold off all of my 1/72 scale kits. Since then I have always wanted to get another Zwilling, but this time it would be in 1/48... I'm currently not in a position to afford one of these ICM kits. Someday, hopefully I will get one.

I have started building the first kit that ICM made of this 111 type and I think it is a Heinkel 111-H3 going from memory.

I placed this build on hold when I accidentally knocked over a bottle of glue on it... I have started a detailed build journal here on Imodeler. Here's a link if you're interested.

https://imodeler.com/groups/battle-of-kasserine-passtunisia-campaign-build-group/forum/topic/1-48-scale-monogram-he-111-h-stab-stg-3-north-africa-1942-43/

The parts fit together perfectly on the ICM kit. I made a mistake with mine (besides the glue incident), and I had to use a little bit of filler around the bomb bay and the gondola. It is very likely induced by my sloppy building and not a fault of the kit. So please make sure that you have all of the little plastic sprue attachment nibs removed from the parts, the fit is that precise.

Somehow I managed to get the bomb bay installed a little bit off center, and this cascaded as the build continues.

It has been a long time since I have touched the ICM Heinkel. It's the perfect candidate to start back up again now this Luftwaffe group has been started.

Nice start, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman!

I remember about 20 years ago that soft plastic was praised of being more workable, so it was kind of preferable by a respectable number of modelers, especially in kits with less than perfect fit. Indeed it was better at some cases, especially in limited run kits (ill fitting main fuselage or wing parts and the like).

On the other hand, when the same soft plastic was used to replicate scale thickness items, resulted in those parts being hopelessly weak, barely able to support any weight, like NLG main legs, for example. I also believe that soft plastic molds is easier to manufacture than "hard " ones...

Anyway, as much as I love the at cases easiness of working with soft plastic, I generally prefer the hard (or harder) one...being better safe than sorry...

Looking forward to your super build!

Tonight I decided to finish one engine it took me about an hour between cutting from the sprue and cleaning the parts before installing. I have to say if the rest of the kit fits as well as these pieces did I will really enjoy this build. Everything fit excellently. With paint and a wash they should look pretty impressive. I really only plan on leaving one nacelle open, with the best engine displayed. Seems a shame to spend so much time on these engines only to close them up, but damn they are fun.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.