Heinkel 111

I had intended to post the pics I finally found of my Perry's Napoleonic French wagon with cantinierre demurely seated next to the driver. Its a really nice piece that fits well as decoration on the wargaming table BUT I found myself taking on one of my biggest model-making challenges yet. My son gave me his old partially completed HE 111 bomber for my birthday. At first it looked like all the parts were still there mostly in their bags in the box but it was too good to be true.  I discovered the cockpit assembly and bomb rack were put together or rather had been - but the entire cockpit part was actually missing and nowhere to be found. There was nothing for it but to scratch build it out of spare bits of kit etc, following as closely as possible the model diagram in the assembly instructions. My admiration for people who are master modellers grew appreciably as I'm sure tackling such problems leads to madness!

Needless to say just doing this bit alone to ages as I had to shape the flooring to fit and construct the unique HE111 pilot's joystick yoke. It took hours and hours. Of course it also had to fit into the HE's plexiglass nosecone.


The other thing I found to be a huge challenge was the model itself.  It's an expensive Revell and very accurate BUT it doesn't fit together well. I had to make and then finish the model before fitting all the many plexiglass panels. There were annoying gaps everywhere and I ended up using model bog to fill them in. Bugger.

I made it in flight mode to match the rest of my Luftwaffe force - with the bomb bay doors open so its about to deliver its load.
I have to say, model issues aside, its a very impressive plane. At 1/72nd scale its wingspan is slightly smaller than the JU52 and it will look most impressive gliding menacingly over the wargaming table! (If I ever get to use it that is!)

I now have a complete selection for air ops over Greece and the Med. Just one Italian bomber to go but I have to do my Italian army first - so not anytime soon!